New alt core class: Summoner

[Axelos]

Just finished the design of this meaty class tonight. Please have a look at http://www.geocities.com/mcadams_peak/summoner.htm and let me know what you think!

One question to get the ball rolling: should I trim the standard spell list, to make the summoner focused a little more on the summoning spells? If so, what would you recommend trimming? Maybe the directly offensive spells, such as fireball and the like? Or maybe a spell or two from each school at each level? Already the summoner has almost no necromancy spells.

Also, you can see all the PrC's I have designed so far at
http://www.geocities.com/mcadams_peak/prestige.html. I would love to have your comments on them as well.

 

[Dr.Dan]

This Summoner looks a lot like a wizard or sorcerer who took the Improved Familiar feet and learned a lot of Summon Monster spells. It seems well written and well balanced, but isn't it trying to fill a niche that's already full?

 

[Macbeth]

I would think about making summoners use the altenate summoning rules from the DMG, specifically the alternate rule for summoning the same monster every time.

 

[Axelos]

This Summoner looks a lot like a wizard or sorcerer who took the Improved Familiar feet and learned a lot of Summon Monster spells. It seems well written and well balanced, but isn't it trying to fill a niche that's already full?

Well, there are some important differences. The summoner's spell list has fewer spells, a few are of different level (the summoner has more difficulty casting certain types of spells than a wizard or sorcerer does), and the summoner gets more spells a day than even a sorcerer, but he's required to use many of those on summoning spells.

Oh, and the summoner never gets wish, which is probably the supreme sorcerer/wizard spell.

The planar companion really becomes more powerful at higher levels than an improved familiar, which is why I restricted the summoner's spell selection more at higher levels than at lower levels and gave him fewer summoning spells at higher levels. I still feel that between the improved number of spells/day and the planar companion's advantage over an improved familiar, as well as the summoner's bonus feats, the summoner may be a bit overpowered, which is why I am contemplating cutting out his potent attack spells like chain lightning.

Aside from whether this particular niche is filled or not, the summoner has a setting-specific role in a campaign I am designing, and a sorcerer or wizard simply won't work.

I've almost talked myself into eliminating those attack spells.

 

[Axelos]

I would think about making summoners use the altenate summoning rules from the DMG, specifically the alternate rule for summoning the same monster every time.

That's a very good idea. I actually had forgotten about that variant rule (been a while since I was looking at that part of the DMG--seems I spend most of my time at the rewards and magic items chapters).

So far, two good responses. Keep 'em coming!

 

[Kerrick]

Not bad. I did the Summoner as a PrC - it'll be appearing in one of our upcoming books, along with expanded rules for summoning and binding creatures.

Do you have the expanded Summon Monster lists from Dragon magazine? Someone posted them here a couple months back; I don't recall what issue they were from, but they just about triple the size of the lists in the PHB.

 

[Iron_Chef]

Issue #302, but it's a bit broken, IMO. The Malebranche devil is summoned with summon monster VII yet is so far and away superior to every other creature on the VII list as to be laughable. It's more like Summon Monster VIII or IX.

 

[Axelos]

Not bad. I did the Summoner as a PrC - it'll be appearing in one of our upcoming books, along with expanded rules for summoning and binding creatures.

Can you say what book it will be? I'm interested. Actually, there's a summoner PrC in Relics & Rituals but I wanted a full 20-level class for a campaign I'm working on. The R&R summoner is alright, I guess, but I've never used it. I'd like to see your work, though, because this is an idea I keep coming back to. Summoning is going to be one of the most important aspects of the campaign I'm working on.

Do you have the expanded Summon Monster lists from Dragon magazine? Someone posted them here a couple months back; I don't recall what issue they were from, but they just about triple the size of the lists in the PHB.

Yeah, I had a look at that. It was still not as flexible as I wanted my summoners to be, which is why the summoner is capable of learning to summon virtually any outsider or elemental, providing it is of an appropriate level of power.