Help with custom summon spells

[Alpha Polaris]

One of my players wants to play a dedicated summoner, with a custom list focused around Ooze and Slime. So I'd like a quick estimate of the level at which each of those creatures (or non-creatures, as I understand) could be summoned, to stay in tune with other summon monster spells. I attach our respective evaluation of the summoning level as (his-guess|my-guess).

• Brown Mold (1|2)
• Green slime (2|4)
• Gelatinous Cube (3|3)
• Grey Ooze (4|5)
• Ochre Jelly (5|6)
• Black pudding (7|7)

Keep in mind he'll have to summon those beasties as a cleric (so no wizardly rapid summoning), and I don't want to punish the player for being creative. But neither do I want to let him make cheap Slime Waves at level 4. What do you think the appropriate levels would be. Could you find interesting creatures to fit the remaining slots ?

 

[Nifft]

Those first two aren't slime monsters -- they're hazards. As you point out, slime wave is the right level for summoning green slime.

Easy way to do it: don't allow him to summon real slimes. First of all, real slimes aren't intelligent enough to command! They don't have a language, they can't learn tricks like an animal.

Instead, allow him to build his own summons using something like the astral construct tables. (Those seem reasonably appropriate because oozes and constructs are similar in their immunities, though the Con score is an issue.)

Cheers, -- N

 

[Alpha Polaris]

Those first two aren't slime monsters -- they're hazards. As you point out, slime wave is the right level for summoning green slime.

I'm not too concerned about that, really. If I allow it at level 4, he can summon 1d4+1 of them at level 6, or a slime wave at level 7. Slime wave brings a lot more than 1d4+1 patches of green slime, brings them right onto the opponent (summons cannot appear into an occupied square) at a good range in one standard action, so it looks like a pretty nice power jump between Summon Monster VI (summoning a handful of slime patches) and Slime Wave (although summons have a longer duration and can be used to setup nifty traps).

Regarding the "they're not even creatures", I agree, they're just poorly worded hazards, and it's not impossible I will modify them just enough to keep things from going south (so, no summoning a brown mold right next to a fire and instantly freeze the entire multiverse).

Thank you for suggesting astral constructs, I will definitely look into it, as some of the options seem to fit the "amorphous poisonous thingie" theme. If you have other ideas about an appropriate level for those of the above that actually are creatures, and what to put in the empty slots (including the ones for non-creatures), I'm still interested.

 

[Nifft]

Thank you for suggesting astral constructs, I will definitely look into it, as some of the options seem to fit the "amorphous poisonous thingie" theme. If you have other ideas about an appropriate level for those of the above that actually are creatures, and what to put in the empty slots (including the ones for non-creatures), I'm still interested.

Here's something I did a few years back, based on the Psionic Constructs but for various elementals instead (including "Ooze Elementals", which is the plane of acidic oozy things in my campaign) -- search for "Ooze":

http://fishnet.cx/~josh/DnD/DHE/summon-tables-3.5.shtml

They're of type Elemental instead of Ooze (thus not Mindless), but the effects should be close to what Oozes can do. And since it's a build-your-own-Ooze thing, you can either let your player design some oozes (for your approval) or you can design a few yourself.

Cheers, -- N

CAVEAT: The ooze section really hasn't seen much play in my group, so there may be some poorly worded or imbalanced upgrades in there. Please view harshly!

 

[Alpha Polaris]

Wow, that's great... Thank you.