Summoner style?

[Shadowbane13]

I want to pick at the brains of the advanced players here and see if anyone had an idea of how to create a character that would closely resemble summoners from final fantasy. I know it's tough because you cant exactly summon the gods in dnd but still would be dope. At most I would assume a basic caster with a summon monster or elemental spell of sorts.

[sithlordnergal]

Sooo, there are two ways to do this...the Druid method and the Wizard method. I'm gonna be honest, with Circle of the Shepard, Druids are the best summoners in the game. Wizards do get a few cool summoning spells, but their spells are, in my humble opinion, inferior. The issue with a Wizard Summoner is that:

- Most of their summoning spells take a minute to cast, making it impossible to use them during combat. Meaning you need to set it up before hand

- A lot of their summoning spells only last an 10 minutes to an hour at most. Meaning that Fire Elemental you took a minute to summon is on a very short timer. If you don't have an encounter during that hour, your spell was wasted. Also, this may be an AL problem, but I've never really seen a chance to pre-cast a spell like that before any sort of encounter outside of two. One was right before we fought a Dragon in Storm Kings, the other was because the DM was nice.

- The wizard either has no control over what they summoned, what they summoned can break free from their control, or they lose concentration and the summoned creature is free to go berserk. Downside here is that, sure, you can summon 5 to 6 CR 1/4 demons, but they're as likely to attack your friends as they are your enemies. And that fire elemental or demon you lost control of? They're gunning for your side now with a vengeance.


Compare that to the Druid. Conjure Animals is probably the best conjuration spell in the game. It lasts an hour, gives you 8 friendly CR 1/4 beasts, they are always under your control, and will never turn on you. On top of that, the Druid gets more conjuration spells of a similar nature. Outside of Conjure Elemental, the Druid's summons are friendly and will not try to murder you the moment you let your guard down.

To top it off, the Circle of the Shepard gives Conjure Animals a boost by making their attacks magical, boosting their HP, and allowing them to heal when they're nearby you. At higher levels, you just summon things when you're K.O.ed, and they protect you.

[Rukelnikov]

Full summoner style like Yuna? The game has nothing like that before lvl 5 spells (so character level 9), and as sithlordnergal said those that have exactly the feel (Conjure Elemental and Conjure Fey) take 1 min to cast.

You have various summoning spells but they bring many creatures.

There's also some summoning spells that are "permanent" like Find Familiar which you can dismiss and bring as an action, but it cannot attack, and Find (Greater) Steed which do can attack, but aren't very powerful by the time you get them (weaker than other summons you can have at the time).

You do can get the summoner "feel" but not the mechanics of controlling a different creature. For instance I played a cleric of Bahamut that did the passing rites for his holy order, and "summoned" the spirits of the fallen during his fights, using Spirit Guardians and Guardian of Faith. I "named" the guardians and so I summoned them to battle, those are 3rd and 4th lvl spells, which I had cause we started at 9, but from lvl 3 you can already have Spirit Weapon (which also fitted my cleric summoner).

My recommendation would be to check with your DM to see if you can have Conjure Elemental as a lvl 1 spell that allows CR 1/4 and that grows to be on par with the actual lvl 5th spell, maybe lvl2 CR1, lvl 3 CR2, lvl4 CR3, and then you use the one as written.

[Segev]

If you just want to mimic pre-FFX summons, it's as easy as reflavoring the look of your various spells. Most summons either showed up and directly did damage (elemental or otherwise), or showed up and cast a spell, and in both cases, left right afterwards. So your magic missile might involve calling forth Sylph, who shows up and hurls force balls that look like magic-infused wind at your targets. Your burning hands might cause Ifrit to rise up from the ground behind you and spread his hands in front of you, blasting with flame. Your sleep spell might conjure forth the Great Sage Dorovan, who monotonously drones at your foes in such a way that they nod off.

[LibraryOgre]

If you just want to mimic pre-FFX summons, it's as easy as reflavoring the look of your various spells. Most summons either showed up and directly did damage (elemental or otherwise), or showed up and cast a spell, and in both cases, left right afterwards. So your magic missile might involve calling forth Sylph, who shows up and hurls force balls that look like magic-infused wind at your targets. Your burning hands might cause Ifrit to rise up from the ground behind you and spread his hands in front of you, blasting with flame. Your sleep spell might conjure forth the Great Sage Dorovan, who monotonously drones at your foes in such a way that they nod off.

I also like the idea that you Magic Missile doesn't summon Sylph, but instead summons kamakazi atomies who punch people, irradiate them, and leave.

[clash]

I posted this a while back which is based directly off of ffx summoners if hombrew is on the table. http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?492148-DND-5e-Final-Fantasy-style-summoner. It has been playtested with no real issues presenting themselves

[Asmotherion]

what you're looking for was much more fun to play in 3.5 D&D. in 5e Summoning has become a random effect that is up to DM interpretation and the RAW suggests that the DM choses the creature that appears when you summon.

i honestly don't know what they were thinking when they made it function this way but it's as disapointing as it can get.

What you'll probably get is "i want to summon an earth elemental... oh damn i summoned a fire elemental... the exact thing my opponent has a resistance against." with the lower level spell. The higher level one is more controlable but by the level you get it one elemental using a 5th level spell slot is average action/spell slot resource economy. i mean you can create Wall Spells with those same spell slots.

Planar Bindind can be a great help at higher levels.

Also as already suggested on an RP perspective you can Role play your Conjuration and Necromancy Spells as "summoning minor elementals/negative energy spirits" who perform the spell for you and then disapear. That can probably help a bit.