Summoner: Giving the People What They Want

[pawsplay]

It occurs to me from a GM perspective that the Summoner's eidolon grants a tremendous amount of world-building power to the player. Build-your-own-monster is really only the beginning. The Part-Time Sorceress could play a summoner and give her the fez-wearing bear companion she wants. The player of a 9th level Summoner could create a Small Quadruped that can deliver a line of lightning, turning your game into a drunken Pokemon parody.

But the real power of the eidolon is to make anything possible. Did you refuse to let your player choose a cat person as a playable race? Guess that? Now your player can play a Summoner with a cat person eidolon. Don't like warforged? Too bad. Warforged eidolon. Something that looks like a US Marine wielding a flamethrower? Sure, why not? Breath weapon (fire) it is. No proper devils in your setting? Now there are!

I'm not saying that to diss the summoner, but to point out that the class truly brings something new to the table: a limited form of freeform magic. Handle with care.

 

[Psion]

Interesting thought. Sort of like a poor cousin to Fantasy Craft's Persoanal Lieutenant.

 

[Kaiyanwang]

This is actually one of the reasons I love the summoner so much. One could even set-up a "minigame" campaign summoner only, refluffing the eidolon as a shamanistic spirit guide, a Golden Compass style daemon, or a sort of pokemon lol, basing on the flavour, fluff and purpose of the campaing.

The more I reread that book, the more I find amazing little things.

 

[Maidhc O Casain]

This is actually one of the reasons I love the summoner so much. One could even set-up a "minigame" campaign summoner only, refluffing the eidolon as a shamanistic spirit guide, a Golden Compass style daemon, or a sort of pokemon lol, basing on the flavour, fluff and purpose of the campaing.

The more I reread that book, the more I find amazing little things.

+1. Just have to make sure players and GM are talking about campaign 'flavor' so everyone's on the same page regarding expectations. But then, that's the case for everything else about the game as well . . .

 

[Philosopher]

It is for this very reason that I've considered using the summoner as a type of sha'ir - having the eidolon look like a genie.

 

[Psion]

It is for this very reason that I've considered using the summoner as a type of sha'ir - having the eidolon look like a genie.

I'm starting as a player in a Legacy of Fire campaign next week, and I was just thinking of that exact same angle for the idea of a summoner in a pseudo-arabian setting.

 

[pawsplay]

Just for fun...

101 Summoner concepts:

1. Sha'ir whose eidolon is a genie
2. Angel summoning magician seeking to unlock the secrets of the heavens
3. Insane magician whose barely controlled magic potential have given form to something from outside ordinary reality
4. A member of a magical tradition that focuses on summoning a totemic magical beast, such as a mist dragon or a phoenix
5. A diabolist or demonologist
6. As astral scholar who can harness his own mind to shape matter and magic and give form to his "second soul."
7. A spell-slinging adventurer with a special bond with a magical dragon from the world of Dreams, who transforms in response to the wishes of its keeper
8. A shaper of the unformed, granting life to spirit
9. A incarnated spirit, whose soul retains a link to its servitor in its previous existence

...

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

2. Angel summoning magician seeking to unlock the secrets of the heavens

Or maybe he's part of [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFuMpYTyRjw"]a crime fighting[/ame] duo!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

[pawsplay]

I barely resisted, myself.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Continuing the list:

10: A researcher of shadow, able to draw upon the stuff of shadows and form it into shape and give it motion. (related to #8)
11: A hedge mage friendly with the forest spirits who can call upon their aid.
12: A mentalist able to project the form of his psychic will as an ectoplasmic entity.
13: A barbarian witch from a tribe of ancestor worshippers able to call upon the spirit world of their dead. Summoned creatures are aid from the tribes ancestors.
. . .