Confirmed: Magic items and summoned monster stats in PHB

[TerraDave]

From Slashdot:

Players won't need the Dungeon Master's Guide to equip their higher-level characters, because the PH will have plenty of magic items for all levels. Players won't need the Monster Manual to adjudicate shapechanging or summoning effects, because those effects will be self-contained within the classes or powers that grant them.​

 

[Wormwood]

PHBII "X-Form" spells for the win!

 

[HeinorNY]

Players won't need the Monster Manual to adjudicate shapechanging or summoning effects, because those effects will be self-contained within the classes or powers that grant them.

Which means more space in MM for monsters and less space wasted with cats and dogs, although I think there will be animals in MM, but maybe a page or two.

It was discussed in this thread. I'm glad this information was confirmed!

 

[drothgery]

There were some rumors to that effect early on, and I'm glad they were right. Players shouldn't need a DMG or an MM at the tabletop, even when they're shopping at high levels.

 

[rkanodia]

If the PHB entry for a summoned Celestial Dire Aardvark doesn't tell me how many ranks it has in Craft (Basket Weaving), it will be a SLAP IN THE FACE to everyone in this community.

 

[Raduin711]

So this makes me think a Summon Monster I, Summon Monster II, etc. setup is going to be gone, replaced with narrower spells, like Summon Fire Elemental, for instance. Maybe?
It would seem more practical to do it that way rather than one hodgepodge spell followed by fie pages of monsters for one spell... This also makes it easier to expand the repetoire of summoning spells, instead of paragraphs that say "in this campaign setting you may add the following monsters th the summon monster lists...."

 

[Wormwood]

So this makes me think a Summon Monster I, Summon Monster II, etc. setup is going to be gone, replaced with narrower spells, like Summon Fire Elemental, for instance. Maybe?

I'd rather have a couple of stat blocks with a small a-la-carte menu of powers to choose from.

Call the resulting creature an elemental or astral construct or pikachu for all I care.

 

[Greg K]

So this makes me think a Summon Monster I, Summon Monster II, etc. setup is going to be gone, replaced with narrower spells, like Summon Fire Elemental, for instance. Maybe?
It would seem more practical to do it that way rather than one hodgepodge spell followed by fie pages of monsters for one spell... This also makes it easier to expand the repetoire of summoning spells, instead of paragraphs that say "in this campaign setting you may add the following monsters th the summon monster lists...."

If I were going to play 4e, that would be a change that I would go for. I have been going through phb spells and that is pretty close to what I have planned for the summon monster spells. I hadn't considered narrowing it as far as Fire Type, water type, but it's definitely better than how monster summoning currently works.

 

[Rechan]

I'd rather have a couple of stat blocks with a small a-la-carte menu of powers to choose from.

This.

I actually liked the Astral Construct method.

 

[Set]

I'd rather have a couple of stat blocks with a small a-la-carte menu of powers to choose from.

Call the resulting creature an elemental or astral construct or pikachu for all I care.

That makes more sense. The Astral Construct format allows the designers (or GM) to invent new monsters willy-nilly without worrying about what happens if a PC Summoner conjurers up such a critter.

The two-tier system they are espousing, with monsters / NPCs having one set of rules and PCs having a second set of rules makes it seem like standard 3.X Summoning (and Polymorphing) spells, where the PCs gain access to NPC abilities, would be a logicistical nightmare, and quite likely unbalancing as all heck, since 'monster powers' aren't supposed to be used by PCs, since they use different rules.

Now they can make beasties with all sorts of abilities that would never be balanced for PC use, and not worry about a PC summoning or turning into such a critter and messing up the game.