Ever considered playing a Summoner?

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    • Ever considered playing a Summoner?

      Summoning is one of the specialty classes available in the new MAGIC AND MARTIAL ARTS GUIDE. While it may seem pretty cut and dry there are many things which should be considered if you intend to be successful with this choice of magic. The first and most important thing is to always have respect for the creatures which you choose to summon. Since most entities resent being reduced to servants of another's will, learning the Disciplines needed to calm and control the summoned being is of utmost importance. These Disciplines may need to be learned in an order which is quite different from the way other Magic using characters learn the magic associated with their class. In most cases other Mages learn Disciplines in order of difficulty going from least difficult to highest difficulty level. This is not so with the Summoner. Wise Summoners may be required to gain a working knowledge of Disciplines which are more difficult such as Subjugation and Dismissal ,even though they may be unable to successfully cast these Disciplines, before attempting easier to learn Disciplines which involve Calling a Demon or a Spirit. The reason is that once you successfully call an entity to your location there is no way to coerce it to perform according to your will, and many entities are dangerous, malicious or unpredictable to say the least.
      I recommend this class for the player who is interested in the more nuanced approach to Magic, because it requires the player to think as if the characters lives depend upon them making wise choices.... which in many cases it does and in no case more so than for the careless Summoner.
      If anyone has any questions about this wonderful class please feel free to join in this conversation and I will be happy to share more of the secrets to making this class a success in your game! :evil:
    • Keep in mind that even when you are in Ritual there are ways a wise magic user can protect themselves from unwanted intrusions.... Things such as hired body guards, or summoned entities which guard your physical body, other party members, trained Suthra pets such as guard Kellendu ( similar to guard dogs on earth) or finally the power of your own magic which could include anything from powerful illusions, nasty curses, magically controlled weather, and an infinite list of other possible things to deter those foolish enough to dare to disturb you...
    • I understand... I do think that the new MAGIC AND MARTIAL ARTS GUIDE will change your mind because it has a few martial styles which are Essence based and as such usable most effectively by Sirhibasi... The styles are quite dramatic and powerful in the hands of a mage... They more than even the playing field with respect to magic users entering into combat...
    • I have a summoner in my current campaign. Actually I have two -- but one is complicated, so I won't get into that one. :) You can definitely do some very interesting stuff, but the summoner has to plan ahead a bit if they want to be useful in combat. Dispelling entities, for example -- they have to have some saved successes from a previous Dream experience to do that in real time.
    • I agree that for spell casters thinking ahead is the key.... as for summoners of any type it just makes good sense to always have a certain number of saved successes on hand to dispel entities you may encounter whether they be your own or those controlled by another summoner... which brings me to the subject of combat.... in the game of SHARD, spell casters have similar Stamina to other characters... and may have Agility and Dexterity which is comparable as well.... what that means is that they will likely have a similar number of actions to take during a combat round... this can put them on equal footing with other characters... even if they lack the character points to devote to martial arts styles, which provide a benefit for called shots on the location table and special effects, they are still able to use their natural weapons which in many cases can be just as effective to use to dispatch possible threats.... The most important thing to remember in combat for all characters is to play to the characters strengths and take advantage of carefully constructed tactics. I do hope you will use the Essence based martial styles available in the Magic and Martial Arts guide to enrich the summoners in your game, as they were created specifically with spell casters in mind. Let me know what you think of them....
    • Remembering this conversation after the conversation in Tail Thread, watching this Let's Play of 'Where in Time is Carmen Sandieago'
      youtube.com/watch?v=lKtEVH29qC…E567E396E23&index=14&t=0s
      In this video a character you run into is named 'Song-hi' and I thought 'That sounds like a good simple name' (Seriously a lot of the names of characters I don't think I can spell or pronounce unless I hear it audibly) and thinking about playing a Healer Managi I created a character Song-hi a Red Earred Slider
    • Yeah as much as I love Si'Ni as me imaging who I would be if I was a Zoic, and she works very well in the story she appears in on Fanfiction.Net I did think maybe my first character should not be so personal and maybe a bit more of the typical kind of character who does dangerous adventures rather than a Trade Caste Cook who would normally only be on a dangerous adventure if they had no choice
    • I have played many cooks in our games, One of which can be found in the back of the Basic Compendium. His name is Yetsirah and he was a poison arrow frog who happened to be both the ships doctor as well as the cook. You would be surprised how much fun it is to feed the other player characters and to encourage them to think about some of the more mundane activities such as eating with a new sense of appreciation. It was one of my most beloved characters due to the extra care he had to take in order to avoid poisoning any of the crew and over coming the initial aversion they had to eating anything he prepared due to the fact that poison was a very real possibility. In the end I was able to overcome all of that trepidation by buying up my cooking skills up to a legendary level so that even with the poison thing most simply were willing to take the risk in order to say they had in fact tasted the cooking of so skilled a chef.