Summon Aberration I - III Creature List

[FreeXenon]

Excellent. Thank you for that confirmation.
I may have to use that PC for my campaign. I am thinking that it will fit quite well.

I will have more time to look at all of this tonight when I get home.

Does the Manual of the Planes have Farspawn or half Farplanar like template in there?

 

[Nifft]

Pseudonatural already kinda has its niche; unless summoned aberrations are going to come from the same kind of place? (What are Aberrations in your setting? Are they the harbingers of chaos, born from the outer darkness beyond the rim of sanity, elder evils come to reclaim the earth as their throne? Or are they just the byproducts of some Wizard's experimentation?)

If Aberrations are "from beyond", then summoning pseudonatural whatevers is totally cool and appropriate. Only change to the template would be to make the type Aberration (Extraplanar) instead of Outsider (Extraplanar).

The Shadow Creature template in Lords of Madness is also fun. That adds (Extraplanar) I believe. Make it change type to Aberration and you're golden; it's better in some ways than Psuedonatural, so I'd allow it on summoned critters from one spell-level below.

Cheers, -- N

 

[FreeXenon]

Yup, Aberrations follows in the Eberron like theme - from another place and hell bent on destroying and corrupting the prime.

If Aberrations are "from beyond", then summoning pseudonatural whatevers is totally cool and appropriate. Only change to the template would be to make the type Aberration (Extraplanar) instead of Outsider (Extraplanar).

The Shadow Creature template in Lords of Madness is also fun. That adds (Extraplanar) I believe. Make it change type to Aberration and you're golden; it's better in some ways than Psuedonatural, so I'd allow it on summoned critters from one spell-level below.

I am looking for a slightly darker feel so, both may work .

That sounds like a great start.

 

[javcs]

Shadow creature goes magical beast. I could see aberration.

Possesses several useful abilities based off of HD.

 

[FreeXenon]

A little of Template-Fu and voila. Excellent. Great Ideas!

I am also thinking about having Elan from the XPH as a race that is from that Aberrant plane or is dedicated to stopping them, much in the same vein as kalashtar are to the inspired.

This is all for the PbP game I am running called 'Sundered Skies.

 

[Nifft]

I think you'd want to add in all the regular Aberrations too, though -- just like there are regular Outsiders & Elementals in the regular Summon Monster lists.

Cheers, -- N

 

[FreeXenon]

You are right! I was thinking about creating two different spell types.

One that has the Templated creatures and one that calls standard Aberrations.
I am afraid that a straight up Aberration may be more powerful than a one that becomes one via a template.

Perhaps Summon and a Call Aberration? I have not decided yet. Perhaps just mixing the two together as you suggested will work fine.

I suppose if I balance each spell list that should not be a problem.

 

[Kafkonia]

Pseudonatural appears in both Complete Arcane and Lords of Madness.

Half-farspawn is Lords of Madness.

Book of Templates, Deluxe Edition has the Aberrant template.

It also has the plant template, while Advanced Bestiary has the "flesh plant" template that turns a plant into a flesh-based aberration. The two combined can turn pretty much anything into an aberration.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

And not sure which storefront I purchased from, but I have an Aberrant Template.pdf in my HR folder...

Its interesting because the abilities are random...


<-- edit: Hm.. must of been from before they put it in the Book of Templates

 

[Arkhandus]

Let's see, CRs appropriate for each spell level..... I'm going off the 3.0 versions here, as I don't have a 3.5 MM and PH to reference. I know that the CRs don't match up to spell level, though. Also, keep in mind that the creature type and special abilities may affect whether or not a creature should be summonable, and at what level.

Summon Monster I has critters of CR 1/3 to CR 1/2, plus templates added which probably make them almost CR each (but not quite). Something of CR 1 might just barely be fair for the SA 1 list.

SM 2 has critters of CR 1/2 to CR 1. Many have a minor template, so each is around CR 1 but not quite CR 2. So anything not quite worthy of CR 2 could go on the SA 2 list.

SM 3 has critters of CR 1/2 to CR 4 (the triton really doesn't seem worthy to be CR 4 though, so that's probably a fluke). The vast majority are CR 2 with a minor template. The CR 1/2 fiendish small viper is probably here because it has poison that deals Constitution damage. CR 2 creatures and those of up to CR 2 with a minor template should be fine. Most likely, anything of CR 3 that has no significant special abilities (no regeneration, spells, teleportation, etc.) might be fine in the SA 3 list.

SM 4 has critters of CR 1 to CR 3. The only CR 1 is the fiendish medium viper, for the same reasons as its smaller cousin being on the SM 3 list. The majority of these critters are CR 2 with significant special abilities that may be useful to PCs, or just CR 2 with a template added, and a few are CR 3 with minor or moderate special abilities. The giant eagle and giant owl are probably here because they can serve as short-lived flying mounts to PCs, being such large flying critters.

SM 5 has critters from CR 2 to CR 5. The fiendish large viper and fiendish large shark are the only CR 2s here. Most creatures here are CR 4 with a minor template. There are also a decent number of CR 5 creatures here. Mephits and medium elementals are here at CR 3 with their various kinds of special abilities. As are the CR 3 quasit and yeth hound, which have some potentially useful special abilities. I dunno why the CR 3 formian warrior is here, or the pegasus (probably more appropriate for SM 4).

SM 6 has critters of CR 3 to CR 7, averaging CR 6. Most are CR 6 or 7 it seems, with a few CR 5s, I think one CR 4 and two CR 3.

SM 7 has critters of CR 5 to 9, mostly around CR 8 and 9. Just a few are below CR 7, and there are some three or four of CR 7.

SM 8 has critters of CR 4 to CR 10. Most are CR 9 or 10. The janni is here at CR 4 for some reason; it has the same ability to plane shift itself and other creatures that a djinni has (which is on the SM 7 list). I guess the barghest is here for the same reason; somehow the designers thought its special abilities weren't appropriate for a lower list.

SM 9 has critters from CR 5 to 14. Dunno why the greater barghest and the nightmare are here at CR 5, and the xill at CR 6. The rest are CR 8 to 14, mostly CR 9 to 11.