I love reskinning. I love to take monster X, and call it monster Y. In my last game, I reskinned an Orc Raider into a Blade Devil (similar in appearance to a spined devil), and some Iron Defenders became fireless hell-hounds. Tonight, it clicked that you could do this with spells, too - many of the Illusion spells seem to be regular spells that do psychic damage.
Which brings me to summoning.
You know, I realize that a lot of the "Woe, there be no illusionists/summoners/necromancers" is generated a lot by players. Players who want those options.
Initially I had thought it was coming from DMs. DMs who wanted necromancer badguys (because I've not met many DMs who let players play undead-makin' evil guys).
For Players, re-skin your spells as the effects/damage coming from summoning. I did this in 3e; that chill touch isn't a held spell, it's an scorpion-like fiend I summoned that's sitting on my hand, stinging the person I touch. The Ice Storm is opening a portal to the Plane of Water, and the ice is just falling out. Invisibility is a pacifist air spirit I wrap myself in, and so on.
Yes, it lacks the Bag of Hit Points that summoning has, but it's got the flavor of summoning right there. I like it because everything the spellcaster does is related to his specialty (and also, I never did appreciate the summoning spells in 3e until I realized the real boon of summoning was the monster's SLAs).
But for DMs, here's the nice thing: you need so little flavor to simulate summoning it's ridiculous. There are two assumptions that make this fit. 1) 4e fights occur with multiple opponents, and 2) NPCs are different, with Exception Based Design.
With that in mind, you can get away with saying "NPCs can summon". Those two extra monsters can easily come from saying "He summoned them". The spellcaster may have done 9-10ths of the summoning before the fight, and just finished the rest as the PCs walk in. They could release a bound demon, or have it stored in a throwable object (3e's wondrous item "Elemental Gem", for instance).
This has the additional benefit of letting you use those monsters otherwise that might be difficult to use on their own. Tonight I had an enemy witch, anticipating a fight, summoned a Magma Beast, and held it with a circle of binding. She was going to break the circle, releasing the Magma beast, but the PCs decided to parlay instead.
Anyways, this all just occurred to me in rapid succession, and I thought I'd share. I'm sure that a lot of this is "Well Duh" to many, but hopefully there's a few out there who hadn't thought of this.
Which brings me to summoning.
You know, I realize that a lot of the "Woe, there be no illusionists/summoners/necromancers" is generated a lot by players. Players who want those options.
Initially I had thought it was coming from DMs. DMs who wanted necromancer badguys (because I've not met many DMs who let players play undead-makin' evil guys).
For Players, re-skin your spells as the effects/damage coming from summoning. I did this in 3e; that chill touch isn't a held spell, it's an scorpion-like fiend I summoned that's sitting on my hand, stinging the person I touch. The Ice Storm is opening a portal to the Plane of Water, and the ice is just falling out. Invisibility is a pacifist air spirit I wrap myself in, and so on.
Yes, it lacks the Bag of Hit Points that summoning has, but it's got the flavor of summoning right there. I like it because everything the spellcaster does is related to his specialty (and also, I never did appreciate the summoning spells in 3e until I realized the real boon of summoning was the monster's SLAs).
But for DMs, here's the nice thing: you need so little flavor to simulate summoning it's ridiculous. There are two assumptions that make this fit. 1) 4e fights occur with multiple opponents, and 2) NPCs are different, with Exception Based Design.
With that in mind, you can get away with saying "NPCs can summon". Those two extra monsters can easily come from saying "He summoned them". The spellcaster may have done 9-10ths of the summoning before the fight, and just finished the rest as the PCs walk in. They could release a bound demon, or have it stored in a throwable object (3e's wondrous item "Elemental Gem", for instance).
This has the additional benefit of letting you use those monsters otherwise that might be difficult to use on their own. Tonight I had an enemy witch, anticipating a fight, summoned a Magma Beast, and held it with a circle of binding. She was going to break the circle, releasing the Magma beast, but the PCs decided to parlay instead.
Anyways, this all just occurred to me in rapid succession, and I thought I'd share. I'm sure that a lot of this is "Well Duh" to many, but hopefully there's a few out there who hadn't thought of this.
