New approach to summonering limits

ChaosLacky · Post by **ChaosLacky** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 2:15 am

I was thinking. Do you think it would make more sense for summoners to have a maximum amount of CR of monsters they control at a time that would increase with the summoners level? That way, the time limit on summons could be removed (I sometimes find it annoying) or at least lengthened.

The same could be done with necromancers raising corpses as zombies too.

Figured I'd just see what other people thought of this.

MGuy · Post by **MGuy** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 2:31 am

I don't think releasing the time limits is a good idea. Nor is basing it off of CR because a number of monsters aren't set at the right CR. I personally like summoning as a player but as a DM it can be a major pain in the ass. Allowing people to keep certain monsters all day would inevitably lead to trouble.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 2:47 am

Basing the numbers off of CR works better than basing it off of hit dice or whatever. That's how I did the Pokemaster, seemed to work OK.

-Username17

Red_Rob · Post by **Red_Rob** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 2:05 pm

MGuy, what creatures do you think will cause a problem at the level they can be summoned at if they are available all day?

MGuy · Post by **MGuy** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:16 pm

Angels and Demons. They have various annoying abilities. I don't have my books on hand (won't have them for the day at all) but that's off the top of my head. It also depends if we're talking about restricting creatures to the summon monster lists or if the CR thing allows for monsters from anywhere.

Red_Rob · Post by **Red_Rob** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 6:02 pm

Well allowing any creature from any book caused some of the problems with Polymorph, and makes balancing into a herculean task, so I'd say keeping some kind of table would be the only sane suggestion.

ChaosLacky, I'd say check the existing list for potential problems as all the creatures on it were expected to be around for a maximum of around 20 rounds. Some of the creatures might have abilities that could be abused if they were around 24/7. Or better yet, make your own tables. This would allow you to ensure all the creatures are suited to the adjustments you are making.