Get rid of Druid summoning?

[haakon1]

The DM of the game I play in (as opposed to the one I run) has just banned druids. His reason is that he hates Summon Nature's Ally -- it's just too annoying to create a new monster and deal with it, when you're already running the bad guys.

I actually feel precisely the same way, and in my campaign, I've told the druid to cool it on the summoning.

So, I'm thinking this is not an isolated thing.

What do you do with druids? Did you learn to live with summoning, or change the rules?

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

I use DMGenie, so it takes me all of about 5 seconds to put a SNA creature, or any other summon, into play. When I'm not using DMGenie, I have the player keep miniature character sheets for anything he's going to summon ... and THEY play the creature. It's his spell effect, after all. He can deal with it.

--fje

 

[Mouseferatu]

Why is the DM doing any work? I have the same rule for all summoners, whether I'm running or playing:

You summon it, you play it. And you can't summon anything you don't have ready stats for.

Simple, succinct, and done.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I have to agree with Ari, here. I played a sorcerer/alienist who summoned all the time, and it was never a problem.

 

[Kunimatyu]

I'll go ahead and echo what's already been said -- if you summon it, you have the stats for it ready to go. Otherwise, no summon.

 

[Graf]

The druid's being a pokemon type class is definitely a tough one for me, both as a player and as a DM.
But they needed a combat boost and it is a good way to do that without mucking with things (hitpoints, bab, armor-usage, etc) in a way that would harm the character.

Its the only thing I wish Unearthed Arcana had addressed that didn't.
(sorry, not much constructive to add)

 

[Pinotage]

The DM of the game I play in (as opposed to the one I run) has just banned druids. His reason is that he hates Summon Nature's Ally -- it's just too annoying to create a new monster and deal with it, when you're already running the bad guys.

I actually feel precisely the same way, and in my campaign, I've told the druid to cool it on the summoning.

So, I'm thinking this is not an isolated thing.

What do you do with druids? Did you learn to live with summoning, or change the rules?

How is a druid summoning any different to say a specialist conjurer or alienist? If you're banning the one, ban all the others as well. But seriously, like others have said, it's the player's responsibility to run their own summons, not the DMs. And even then, it's just a case of looking in the MM - stats all there. It's not like you need to apply a template or anything.

Pinotage

 

[wedgeski]

So your DM makes the decisions as to what the summoned creatures are going to do? If not, why does he have any part to play in running them?

Absolutely the player should have all the stats at their disposal when summoning creatures. This puts quite a workload on the player and can turn their character sheet into a sheaf of paper, but it's worth it. One of my D&D group is playing a druid and is clearly having a better time with that PC than any character he's ever run, but our DM has insisted that he has all mechanical responsibility for those critters. It's the only way the class works.

If there's a problem with druids, it's a different one. With a lot of summoned critters, they can dominate combat time at the table. The player has to be on the ball and ready to go with his decisions, and well versed in the abilities of all of his summoned creatures. YMMV.

 

[Thanee]

The stats of the summoned creatures are in the Monster Manual.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Psychic Warrior]

The DM of the game I play in (as opposed to the one I run) has just banned druids. His reason is that he hates Summon Nature's Ally -- it's just too annoying to create a new monster and deal with it, when you're already running the bad guys.

Why is he creating new monsters? All of the summon nature's ally creatures are in the Monster Manual. If this is his reason he should be banning the arcane spell summon monster - a lot of those need templates to stat up.

I actually feel precisely the same way, and in my campaign, I've told the druid to cool it on the summoning.

Taking away one of the most powerful tools a Druid has. Did you tell the player you were going to hamstring his/her character before it was made?

So, I'm thinking this is not an isolated thing.

If you and your DM have this much problem with sna don't ever let the PCs get past 9th level.

What do you do with druids? Did you learn to live with summoning, or change the rules?

I actively encourage summoning. I love the concept (both for arcane and divine spellcasters) and actually write out summoned creatures on 3X5 inch index cards. So easy just to hand a player an index card when a summoned creature hits the table.