After putting aside the Summoner/Caller section of my RM2 conversion project for over a year+, I figured it was time to revisit it. Admittedly, I'm bouncing around between professions a bit (my most recent foray into the Healer/Lay Healer merge only combined the 6 healing lists into 3), but I've found that walking away and coming back later allows me look at lists and other concepts with a fresh perspective. So let's get into it!
Many of the concepts of the Summoner stem from the conversation here:
https://ironcrown.co.uk/ICEforums/index.php?topic=20200.0Based on these discussions, and some great mechanics brainstorming by BHanson and others, I've decided to run with the notion that the Summoner effectively "gates" creatures from another location through his summoning spells. For all intents and purposes, these are random creatures from the wild, but I actually like the implication: the Summoner can build relationships (or enmity) with his summoned creatures. Summoning a wolf has little impact on a global scale, but summoning a dragon or major demon can have lasting effects: Do these intelligent creatures resent being summoned? Do they feel like they are being abused? Will they seek revenge for this offense by some puny human?
As a result, I've settled on the notion that two lists in the Summoner's initial Base lists will be dedicated to summoning exclusively. Other lists will either augment that skill, address some other implications of summoning (such as "gating"), or perhaps be tied to the concept of a Summoner who has a connection to or understanding of beasts and other entities, albeit not in a natural way, such as the Druid/Animist concept.
Here's a summary of the basic list concepts for the starting 6 Base lists:
- Natural Summons - Allows summoning of animals and more fantastical beasts
- Planar Summons - Allows summoning of divine/infernal creatures, elementals, etc
- Circles of Summoning - Allows the creation of circles that can strengthen summons spells at the cost of time-consuming static magic circles / Also has some warding circles in there
- Circles of Travel - Allows the creation of static gates between locations, for humanoids and entities alike
- Empowerment - Sets of spells meant to augment creatures and their skills once summoned
This leaves me with at least one list to fill, and question as to what other concepts fit this brand of Summoner.
- Communing - Spell for communication with creatures, summoned of otherwise (think extracting info from demons, appealing to angelic entities, etc). This is the one I'm leaning toward.
- Research - Lore-based spells centered on understanding and/or altering creatures... not sure about this one.
- And other suggestions?
As of now, I only have
Natural Summons and
Circles of Summoning complete (link here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hsRXkw_7U75NKA1TFvBrLJYAyKQWBtXM/view?usp=sharing).
Planar Summons is almost done since it essentially uses the same mechanics as
Natural Summons. For the
Empowerment list, I've been mixing/matching some of the concepts from the
Summoning Bond list in Channeling Companion, but still have lots of gaps. I'm open to thoughts form the brain trust on both the completed lists, as well as any direction you think would be logical in terms of where this profession should go.
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Note: Status of professions in my
Conversion to RMU Project:
- Healer: Under development (3 main healing Base lists compressed)
- Astrologer: Complete / under revision
- Mystic: Complete / under revision
- Shaman: Complete / under revision
- Shapechanger (Arms version): Complete / under revision