4E Summoner PEACH

[Tegu8788]

This idea came to me as I was driving to work, and I've fleshed it out a bit. I'm very systems proficient, but not a system master, nor am I a DM, so it's entirely possible that I'm missing some key things. But I think I have a way to make a minion master work. It's essentials style for simplicity, filling the role of Controller minoring in Striker and Leader.

Summoner Class
Int/Con
Middle tier HP
Armor up to chainmail, light shield
Simple melee, simple ranged, short bow, short sword
Wand, staff, orb, totem, tome

Standard action, all monsters do d20+int/+3/+5 vs defense, int/*2/*3 mod damage instead of dice for their basic attack, but targets and effects stay the same.
Standard action, one monster uses its attack with intelligence as the attack/damage stat, scaling as appropriate.
Move action, all move, up to individual speed or shift 1.
Minor action, 1 monster per tier can take a minor action.
Minor action, summon a minion at-will UEoNT, sustain minor.
All sustained powers require your actions.
You get 1/2/3 reactions per tier.
Every time a summon is killed you lose a surge, if you have no surges, you lose that many hit points.

Daily, summon 3 monsters, minor action.
Daily, all summons use a BA attack.
Encounter, summon 1 monster, free action but only used once per round, can summon a second as a minor in the same round.
Encounter, two summons use a BA attack.
Utility powers focused on leader powers to buff summons.

Features: shaman style multiheal, harvest spirit of the dead minor action that takes an extended rest to write it into spellbook, minor action to roll recharge dice for monster powers or for regaining summoning encounter power but you roll a d10/8/6 per tier, cantrip free action to make a knowledge check against monsters, if no summons are on the board you can add Con mod to all defenses and damage rolls, use intelligence for BAs.
Implement/weapon bonus are given to monster attacks.

Defenses are yours when summoned, HP is bloodied plus one surge, they use your surges for healing.


You have plenty of ways to get summons out, and they are hearty enough to last a while, but they have some expense. You can flood the board with minions but they hurt you when they fall. And if you have no summons on the board, you're not completely useless. As they get more powerful their summons do more, and they have a better chance of doing things with them.

I'm still trying to figure out a conversion chart for summoning more minions in luie of a normal monster, or summoning an elite instead of several normal ones.

So, thoughts? It would not be hard to convert this into a Wis based character for Divine/Primal summoners. I think this does a fairly good way of allowing a player to have lots of pieces on the board without becoming too powerful, while still using all the different pieces each turn.

[Damon_Tor]

Years ago, before Essentials and Heroes of Shadow, I pondered the creation of a "necromancer" class for 4e, with the chief challenge being coming up with a way to have a guy who can summon many creatures on a regular basis, still be effective, but not mess with action economy.

The result was the creation of the "underling" a new kind of summon. The necromancer can summon these at will (the type depends on his choice of class feature) as a minor action and he can have a number of them in play equal to his INT mod. These underlings block enemy movement, but otherwise do nothing on their own, but the vast majority of the necromancer's powers target the underlings, and make them attack, often many at a time.

The underlings also don't have hitpoints: instead they have a "threshold" like the shamans' spirits. This is to reduce having to track the hitpoints of all of them.

The class is here (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/25076021/4e_Necromancer_levels_1-3?sdb=1&post_num=1#452562093) if you're interested. I only did up to level 10, and it's been years since I looked at it.

[Yakk]

For a necromancer, I'd be tempted by having damage to the underlings reflect back on the necromancer. But the necromancer can destroy the underling before the necromancer's HP are harmed by expending a healing surge, gaining temporary HP equal to their healing surge value, and reabsorbing the underling's essence into his own.

Basically, make a class that gains and expends temporary HP as currency and channels powers through their underlings.

[Tegu8788]

This isn't a necromancer, but that could certainly be a subclass. This idea works for a beastmaster, divine summoner, golem master, necromancer, or Pokemon trainer.