AMIA ARCHIVE • View topic - Summons: Animal Companions, Planar Spells and Something Nice

Whilst these changes aren't in the module right at the moment, barring some final testing, they soon will be.

After 150+ hours of toolsetting, a month and a bit of work, and a whole truck load of irritation the Motivator Dawg Squad is proud to unveil the new and improved Animal Companions, Revitalised Planar Summons and the the cherry on the top of the cake, the Scroll of Alternative Summoning.

Some of the designs, but I'm not giving away which is which.

Just a little Detailing:

ANIMAL COMPANIONS

The Badger

Capable of absorbing punishment that would kill most sentients dead, the Badger is hard to hit and even harder to hurt. Possesing increased damage reduction and a Rage exceeded only by a Barbarian the Badger is the perfect companion for those Rangers and Druids that strike from afar or with spells.

Note: Achieves Dire Skin at Level 21

The Bear

The Mighty Grizzly is a feared apex predator, combining brute force with its large bulk to provide both for defense and attack. It bulk is so great that a single attack can disorient a foe with ease.

Note: Achieves Grizzly Skin at Level 21

The Boar

The Boar is one of the most common and most feared creatures in the forest, its small frame possesses a startling amount of Strength, its tusks can tear through flesh and steel with ease. Compact and powerful the Boar is amongst the most dangerous of the companions a Ranger or Druid may choose

Notes: Is no longer considered Dire until it achieves epic levels, skin changed to reflect this.

The Dire Wolf

Stronger and Faster than its common counterpart the Dire wolf moves through combat with a fluid like ease. Its keen sense of sight and smell make for a ferocious predator. None can match the Direwolf for balance in the purest combat sense.

The Hawk

As with most birds of prey the Hawk is light and not excessively strong, it makes up for this however with its agility and sharp sight able to spot small prey creatures from hundreds of yards in the air. And whilst weak, a trained hawk is a cunning foe able to remove the weapon from an enemies hand before they know whats hit them

The Panther

Feline grace and resourcefulness amongst other skills allow the panther to annihilate opponents from the flanks, whilst holding its own in normal combat. The panther makes the perfect companion for the Ranger who likes to do his own knife work, or the druid who has other summons to prevail upon

The Dire Rat

Ignored by many the Dire rat attacks the legs and feet of its enemies, retaining its ability to be almost impossible to hit. This Vermin heals quickly in combat and can reduce an opponents ability to move, thus making them easier to hit.

The Giant Funnelweb

With great Arachnid Strength and vicious poisons the Giant Funnelweb is a valued companion for both the ranger and the druid. Its venom is powerful enough to slay, and as it matures the Giant Funnelweb only becomes more dangerous, hurling its web across vast distances.

The Wolf

The classic companion of both Rangers and Druids the common wolf brings an aura of noble menace to its adopted pack. Its very presence is enough to unnerve most creatures, and it excels at hunting foe within the wilds

Revitalising Planar Spells

GOOD
Gate now Summons an Astral Deva

NEUTRAL
Summon Planar Binding: Now summons a Blue Slaad
Summon Greater Planar Binding: Now Summons a Green Slaad
Gate First Iteration: Now Summons a Grey Slaad
Gate Second Iteration: Now Summons a Death Slaad

LAWFUL EVIL
Summon Planar Binding: Improved Appearance (Credit Gabe)
Gate now Summons a Cornugon

NEUTRAL/CHAOTIC EVIL
Summon Planar Binding: Improved Appearance (Credit Gabe)
Gate now Summons a Glaberezu

BLACKGUARD EPIC BOOK
The outright corruption involved in the creation of these summons has been removed and the summons themselves have been rebalanced to fit better with the Amian setting. Some changes to looks done by Dwagin.

THE SCROLL OF ALTERNATIVE EPIC SUMMONS

Be forewarned this item only drops when a character takes the spell Epic Mummy Dust and is a one use item.
What it does is gives you an option to change the type of summon the spell Epic Mummy Dust will bring forth.
This option may only be used once per character and characters for better or worse are stuck with their choice barring extenuating circumstances involving reskin requests.

Summon Statistics will not be posted in this thread. You take the summon because it fits your characters RP.

The purpose of this scroll and the options given are to make it easier for DM's to handle reskin requests. If a player wishes to reskin an epic summon to a Construct they take Epic Mummy Dust, choose the Construct Option and reskin from there. This scroll effectively eliminates Epic Dragon Knight reskinning to anything other than a Dragon barring again extenuating circumstances.

Base Duration remains at 1 Turn/Level and extends to 1 Hour/Level if a character has the correct Epic Spell Foci.

The options you have:
Outsider (Epic Conjuration Extends, Alignment Based Summon)
Construct (Epic Transmutation Extends)
Elemental (Epic Evocation Extends)
Magical Beast (Epic Conjuration Extends)
Undead (Epic Necromancy Extends)

The Summons

Good Outsider: Arcadian Avenger
Neutral Outsider: Githzerai Savant
Evil Outsider: Corruptor of Fate (Appearance Credit Dwagin)

Construct: Marut Inevitable
Elemental: Ancient Air Elemental
Magical Beast: Sirrush

Undead: Pharoah Sentinel

Main Credits:
MoshingChris (Ideas, balance, design, descriptions, motivator)
Jehran (scripting, ideas, motivator)
TormakSaber (Lore, being a sounding board on MSN, motivator)

Other Credits:
Dwagin (design, lore, motivator)
Phearnun (design, motivator)
Koragi (Descriptions, motivator)
Opustus (testing, companions, motivator)
Maglorine (testing, companions, motivator)
hendrack (kevin spacey, testing, companions, motivator)

I like these ideas! Pretty epic ^^ Too bad you guys didn't come up with some things for the pale master summons.. Mainly the winter wight! I strongly believe if your a lv 20 pm you should get a dragon litch!

But I love the changes so all spell schools add a little something

It's über and you'd better like it! And CHRIS HAD BETTER FIX THOSE TYPOS.

Basically, we can choose any of those summons? If we fit the alignment?

You can choose one option, which is logged to your PC and unchangeable bar a request through the DM team. The options for outsider are alignment based.

OK, example then - My druid finds the scroll, So he can choose between

magical Mummy dust change
Elemental Mummy dust change
neutral Mummy dust change

correct?

You don't "Find" the scroll as it stands its dropped into your inventory if you take Epic Mummy Dust.

You use it once.

An option menu comes up.

Outsider
Magical Beast
Construct etc

You choose an option

Mummy Dust summons the option you choose.

The option you choose is logged to your PC and is unchangeable unless a request is made (and from what i gather from the DM team it needs to be a quality request)

as a druid you would probably choose:

elemental
magical beast
or
outsider (btw; you can be NG/TN/NE; so you can have any outsider that way)

since they dont really like constructs and hate undead.

If the Scroll of Alternative Summoning is dropped into your inventory when you take Epic Mummy Dust, then is that to say that it won't be retroactive?

Ooooh!! Now I have a reason to take Epic Mummy Dust with Tuomas! *dancedance*

The Great Equalizer wrote:

If the Scroll of Alternative Summoning is dropped into your inventory when you take Epic Mummy Dust, then is that to say that it won't be retroactive?

DM can put it in your inventory.

The Great Equalizer wrote:

If the Scroll of Alternative Summoning is dropped into your inventory when you take Epic Mummy Dust, then is that to say that it won't be retroactive?

Also if you just get dropped to one XP below level (or just level up normally) and take the level it will be given to you (even if its not the level you took Epic Mummy Dust)

DM's will probably need to discuss and make a decision on what to do with existing EDK reskins in terms of rebuilds for those who want their summons to make sense (eg If you have a Ruby Golem thats crittable and Dragonfears and want to switch stuff around to Transmutation and Construct Dust).

In truth you can thank 12 year old Glennfidicht because I was amazingly drunk when I thought this up.

Would it still be possible if you got the Alt-summon to request a DC reskin to something more appropriate?

(IE: Instead of the Marut, a Golemist would make an Iron or Mithral Golem)

Thats the point Grymia. The summons are all reskinnable.

Quote:

The purpose of this scroll and the options given are to make it easier for DM's to handle reskin requests. If a player wishes to reskin an epic summon to a Construct they take Epic Mummy Dust, choose the Construct Option and reskin from there. This scroll effectively eliminates Epic Dragon Knight reskinning to anything other than a Dragon barring again extenuating circumstances

Ah sorry, missed that part. *facepalms*

I love you <3

These changes look to be awesome! The giant funnelweb ... I can't wait to see that, the normal funnelwebs are bad enough!

On that not, any chance of us seeing screenies of these monsters?

Do note, however, that these are not implemented yet to the public. We're still testing a few final things to ensure everything's fine; though rest assured, this is what the result will be.

We're just ensuring we've done it right.

Preeeetty bad aaaaass, I must say! Now I want a mummy dust... >.>

belgianbonzai wrote:

as a druid you would probably choose:

elemental
magical beast
or
outsider (btw; you can be NG/TN/NE; so you can have any outsider that way)

since they dont really like constructs and hate undead.

P.S. Although I can't see Druids taking construct really, it's not totally off the table. Outsiders are probably hated as much as constructs by most Druids, if you think about it. Outsiders are basically alien beings on the prime, after all. Druids don't like that, a lot of times:

Typical examples of the hated or frowned upon: Celestials, Demons and Devils.

Examples of typical exceptions: Elementals and fey; faeries, pixies, dryads, treants, etc.

Druids are pretty much the sole reasn the Magic Beast and Elemental versions exist, yeah. Though Sirrushes are sweet. And Air is the best Elemental. Duh.

cool as hell. oh wait so now my bg duergar can chose some earth type devil from hammergrim? is that right?

oshizo2 wrote:

cool as hell. oh wait so now my bg duergar can chose some earth type devil from hammergrim? is that right?

As long as you can find a suitable model for it.

Jehran wrote:

oshizo2 wrote:

cool as hell. oh wait so now my bg duergar can chose some earth type devil from hammergrim? is that right?

As long as you can find a suitable model for it.

And are willing to pay the Ten DC's. Since your talking about a Blackguard who doesn't get the spell Epic Mummy Dust.

So is this for any epic summon?

Dd you read the topic?

Just mummy dust it seems.

Does this mean that attention to EDK is comming as well?

As far as I'm aware it's not on Mosh's list.

Really? Tweaking the easier to qualify for Epic summons but not the less useful, sorter duration, and more difficult to qualify for summon? Granted, it's only 7 ranks, but it is a higher qualification. And... Given all the really cool reworking of nearly all the maps to make a summon that hardly lasts long enough to be buffed, get stuck and limit it's movement....

No cool stuff for EDK? OK, just asking....

Bravo21 wrote:

Really? Tweaking the easier to qualify for Epic summons but not the less useful, sorter duration, and more difficult to qualify for summon? Granted, it's only 7 ranks, but it is a higher qualification. And... Given all the really cool reworking of nearly all the maps to make a summon that hardly lasts long enough to be buffed, get stuck and limit it's movement....

No cool stuff for EDK? OK, just asking....

EDK lasts for ages.

Actually the number one reason for not changing EDK at all (or ever) is because I couldn't find enough huge/gargantuan sized models to get stuck in the areas that EDK gets stuck in.

The only reason to change EDK would be to provide mirror options for all 5 metallics and all 5 chromatics. No planars.

That can be done however.

Ages? Really??? That's a joke right?

Buy a watch... With a level 30 caster that's a whopping 180 seconds. Mummy Dust is 480 times longer. Even with NWN's time dilation, making hours take mere minutes, mummy Dust still last thousands of seconds in game. Even including Burning three feats for epic conjuration, that bumps it by a factor of 10... Still much shorter than Mummy dust. Meh.

180 seconds is 18 rounds and more than enough time to make mincemeat of the opposition.

MoshingChris wrote:

Actually the number one reason for not changing EDK at all (or ever) is because I couldn't find enough huge/gargantuan sized models to get stuck in the areas that EDK gets stuck in.

That's cool, and actually the answer I was looking for. Thanks.

On a side note though, what I'm seeing in game is that EDK, with the exception of ridding yourself of annoying SD's and RP coolness, is realitively inferior to Mummy Dust. Shorter duration, having to chase down spawns running away, and having it simply stand still in most battles because of a well placed rock... Plus being able to free up three feats by choosing a summon that lasts and lasts and lasts...

Bravo21 wrote:

Ages? Really??? That's a joke right?

Buy a watch... With a level 30 caster that's a whopping 180 seconds. Mummy Dust is 480 times longer. Even with NWN's time dilation, making hours take mere minutes, mummy Dust still last thousands of seconds in game. Even including Burning three feats for epic conjuration, that bumps it by a factor of 10... Still much shorter than Mummy dust. Meh.

It lasts half as long as mummy dust, turns / level = minutes / level IRL. So it easily outlasts a rest period, which is as long as you need it to last for it to continually sow utter devastation.

With ESF Conj, of course.

Edit:

TormakSaber wrote:

The only reason to change EDK would be to provide mirror options for all 5 metallics and all 5 chromatics. No planars.

That would be nice, perhaps making sure that evil can't grab a metallic / good a chromatic, though.

TormakSaber wrote:

180 seconds is 18 rounds and more than enough time to make mincemeat of the opposition.

30 rounds actually....

But let's see... 30 rounds of epic dragon pwnage. Oops, forgot to buff it so it doesn't get pwned itself, -3 to -8 rounds. Average spawn will take a minimum of three rounds to defeat, plus the time taken chasing down all the ones that were feared and ran in all directions. Picking up loot takes at least 1 or 2 rounds, unless you have my group that needs to have an OOC check to see who's up for loot. 3 to 5 rounds to get to the next spawn... Oh, yeah there's the getting the dragon stuck everywhere too, who knows how many rounds that'll take off.... My math is a little fuzzy this late in the evening, but the EDK will be good for at best 2 spawns, maybe 3 if your really fast. ....Compared to Mummy Dust that will still be there long after you've run out of spells and die from exhaustion the next game day. . . Just saying.

That's why you grab ESF Conj.

Either way. EDK isn't currently being touched. Drop the subject and return to the actual thread header, would we?

Yes heap your accolades on me and the Crew!

Just to make sure ... There's no real difference between the summons, right? So if i, as a neutral druid, take either
Outsider
Magical Beast
Construct etc

and these will be JUST As good?

Any chance of screenies, Chris? I'd love to see these things.
I still keep to my original opinion of marvellous work, though

Very_Svensk wrote:

Just to make sure ... There's no real difference between the summons, right? So if i, as a neutral druid, take either
Outsider
Magical Beast
Construct etc

and these will be JUST As good?

In an ideal world, it shouldn't matter. If your character would have a summon, and it makes more sense for it to be a Construct than an Undead or Dragon; we'dhope you grab the Construct. Irrespective of statistics.

I'm all in for this. When will it be implemented?

To Paraphrase Tormak.

It'll be done when its done.

However I don't see this taking anymore than a week before implimentation.

Posted some visual candy in the first post. Mjeh, not telling anyone which is which.

Can we post theories of who's who?

The Gith looks awesome, now I want to play one!

DO whatever you want.

Edit: Directed at Svensk that.

Summons: Animal Companions, Planar Spells and Something Nice

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