The Ultimate Conjurer

[OrlockDelesian]

Greetings!
I am running a campaign for 5 years now, and I have a question.
One of my players is the Ultimate Conjurer (no really he is).
He is a 10 lvl master specialist in conjuration, and he is using a Rapid SUmmoning Variant from unearthed arcana that allows him to cast summoning spells as standart actions.
Using his Meta Magic mastery feat to cast a twinned 5th lvl spell as an 8th lvl one and his residual metamagic feat to cast a free twined 7th lvl spell, he summoned a score of fire mephits, who procedded to scorching ray the poor NpC into oblivion.
Now, we play an AWFULLY high powered campaign and I do not Complaign because they are actually trying to save the multiverse from a Primordial Evil.
(for those familiar with Stephen Kings the Dark Tower, Imagine the Crimson King)

My question is this.
He is a very reasonable player, and I was thinking of telling him, that no matter what, he can always control up to his lvl x4 creatures on the battlefield, and every time summon up to his lvl x2 (as with animate dead)
We use all the books, even relics and rituals.

I do not care for answers like "these are broken" because I know that, and I allow it because it is the only way for them to survive.
The problem is that too many creatures slow down play- even if he has them pre written, and other players tend to get bored.

I cannot tell him not to summon, because that is his job. How do you find my suggestion?

Do you have anything to propose that could work this out without Nerfing him completly?

Thanks ;)

Ps : I bet my Dice, that Kelb_Panthera will come up with a preety awesome answer. :P

[Kelb_Panthera]

Put me on the spot, why don't'cha? :smallamused: :smalltongue:

Off the top of my head mind, have you considered clustering the creatures into a mob, per DMG2? turning a pile of identical creatures into a single object on the battle-mat seems like it could help speed things up a bit, especially if he's using this to summon such a massive number of relatively simple creatures.

You'd probably have to tweak the mob template a bit to account for the fact that all of the creatures have similar spell-likes.

Alternatively, you could calculate the averages for their actions instead of rolling dice for everything. This too could help to speed things up.

On the discussion side of things, you could suggest to him that it would be easier to run the game from both sides of the screen if he used his conjurations to summon a few big monsters instead of a horde of little ones.

You could also suggest he delegate control of some of the summons to his allies. It wouldn't really speed things up in the overall, but having the entire group commanding a sqaud could make the slog a bit more fun for everyone.

Your houserule seems like a reasonable last-resort, but I'd hope you guys can find something a bit less intrusive.

Good luck.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Residual Magic will only work if he casts the exact same spell, it doesn't work if he casts Twinned Summon Monster V and then Summon Monster VII, because those aren't the same spell.

A Wizard 10 (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/sorcererWizard.htm#wizard) only has up to 5th level spell slots. He shouldn't be able to cast anything that would require a 6th level or higher spell slot, whether by regular spell level (Summon Monster VII) or by metamagic (Twinned Summon Monster V from an 8th level slot). Bonus spell slots from high ability scores, specialization, Master Specialist, etc. aren't gained any earlier than his highest level base spell slots, which are 5th level at Wizard 10.

Give significant opponents SR of about Party Level +5, which in this case would be around SR 15. His fire mephits would have to roll 12+ on 1d20 to do any damage with their Scorching Ray, which should eliminate over 50% of their combined effect. The PCs shouldn't even notice any difference, as they should only have to roll a 5+ on 1d20 for any spells they cast on that opponent. Numerous opponents all casting a low-level damage spell is a fairly cheesy tactic, but this is a fairly elegant way of mitigating such effects.

[Snowbluff]

If you twin cast summoning spell, you have to concentrate on both of them to maintain them.

[Kelb_Panthera]

If you twin cast summoning spell, you have to concentrate on both of them to maintain them.

Summon monster <X> spells have their durations measured in rounds/level, not by concentration.

[OrlockDelesian]

You misread my post.
He is a lvl 10 master specialist in conjuration not a lvl 10 wizard.
6 lvls of conjurer/10 lvl master specialist.
That puts him on the 16 th lvl.
And actually yes I mispoke. He casts a swift (due to master specialist 10) twinned summon moster V using an 8th lvl slot, augmented with sudden maximize for a tottal of 6 creatures, and then uses a 5th summon moster (twinned because of the residual magic) with a rod of maximize for another 6.
This means a tottal of 12 scorching rays for 4x12 = 48d6 damage (:P)

As I said, we are more into the story, so I do not mind even if they can kill the non important NPCs in the round.
The heavily Important story ones, are also very powerfull with optimized abilities.

The main problem is the HUGE number of creatures that do slow down play, and make the other player wait.

[Snowbluff]

Summon monster <X> spells have their durations measured in rounds/level, not by concentration.

Then which line of spells is it I am thinking of?

[mattie_p]

If you twin cast summoning spell, you have to concentrate on both of them to maintain them.

Wait, what? I don't see concentration in the duration of any summon monster spell. I see dispel-able, but nothing about concentration (unlike, for example, detect magic).

[Daftendirekt]

You misread my post.
He is a lvl 10 master specialist in conjuration not a lvl 10 wizard.
6 lvls of conjurer/10 lvl master specialist.
That puts him on the 16 th lvl.


No, we didn't misread it. You didn't say that. Also, odd that he took 6 levels of wizard before Master Specialist. You only need 3.

[OrlockDelesian]

My bad sorry :)
Who am I to question his Lvl Up? :P
I told him that but he wanted to go up to lvl 5 so he could talk with his familiar- though he never uses it- and then decided to go to 6 lvl to get the base attack.
Players are a strange breed my friend :)



Off the top of my head mind, have you considered clustering the creatures into a mob, per DMG2? turning a pile of identical creatures into a single object on the battle-mat seems like it could help speed things up a bit, especially if he's using this to summon such a massive number of relatively simple creatures.

That is a pretty good sugestion. Thank you.

[bobthe6th]

or just start tossing around low level aoe blasts as free actions...

[Spuddles]

You could have the conjurer let other players control his summoned monsters.

You could also make it so summoned creatures aren't very effective. Resistances, SR, higher AC and attacks on your monsters makes it so the summoned ones are less effective. This should encourage him to summon big ones, not a bunch of mephits.


Then which line of spells is it I am thinking of?

Maybe a summon swarm spell, like summon elementite swarm?

[Keld Denar]

Then which line of spells is it I am thinking of?

Summon Elemental Monolith?

Just have enemies who have AoE support. Fire Mephits only have what, 20ish HP? A single Cold based AoE like a cold sub Fireball or a Dragonfire Adept with cold breath should be able to wipe them out quick.

[Edenbeast]

I always liked to rule that a character can have only one summon spell active at a time.