Tales of Phantasia

[CrypticOcean]

It was a pretty good game. It hit a lot of the RPG tropes, but its core concepts were interesting enough. However, I am not here to discuss the game's flaws and merits.

Similar to the topic in which someone is asking what classes you would attribute to the three infamous Chrono Trigger antagonists, I would like to enquire if anyone would have any insight as to what class Klarth/Claus/whatever his bloody name was would be from Tales of Phantasia.

I find his general concept to be very interesting. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the game, essentially, only elves and half-elves are capable of using magick of any sort. Klarth, being a human, finds a way to sort of circumvent his inability to call upon magick by making pacts with powerful Spirits who personify the elements of that world.

Logically, the first thing that comes to mind is Binder, but unlike a Binder, he does not take on the qualities of the Spirits he has made pacts with. He gains the ability to call upon these Spirits to attack his enemy. They are essentially "summons", in a way. They appear, do their flashy element-based attack, and then go away, until he calls upon them again from his tome.

I also considered a Conjurer, but other than the fact that it contradicts the fact that he must rely on his pacts to make use of magick, you have to be decently high-level to even begin to bargain with Outsiders of any real power.

I would like to employ this concept of bargaining with Spirits and what have you in a future character at some point. So, any insight that you astute colleagues of mine can bring would be appreciated.

[ryzouken]

bargaining with spirits practically screams binder to me.

[Knaight]

In D&D the easiest method is sorcerer, and refluff various evocation or conjuration (orbs) spells.

[Caphi]

You aren't going to get the Elemental Spirits feel in D&D3. Summoning is animals at low levels and angels and demons at high levels, elementals are probably generic, and while binding has the pact-making feel, the effect is very different from Pact Ring summoning. Although I wonder if there's a way to pull off elemental summoning as a druid...

[CrypticOcean]

I figured that it would probably take a lot of manuevering on my part, most likely a homebrew based off of the Binder would have to be made to get the appropriate feel from it.

And I do feel that the Elementals in 3.5 are vastly underplayed. You have several Elemental-based prestige classes, but the concept of the elements themselves are never really explored at all.

An Elemental Druid would be interesting, if you could find a way to pull it off. That would certainly delve more into an aspect of the Druid that is a far cry from being a Beastmaster or a Shapeshifter. And one that I consider far more interesting.

[Knaight]

Skip the summoning entirely, use the kind of spells that were actually mechanically represented in the game, that is to say attack spells, and refluff, and you are completely set.

[mcl01]

I would say Archivist, focusing on Summon Monster/Planar ally spells. Add Summon Nature's Ally spells to your prayerbook, and find a way to scribe planar bindings as well.

[TurtleKing]

What about the Shugenja base class from Complete Divine. The summons they do only bring forth elementals. The summons scale as you level.

[Fizban]

Like others have said, your best bet is to just refluff the spells that do what you want. DnD characters know far more spells than you get for summons in the Tales games, so you're gonna have to have some give somewhere.

For the big flashy ones, there are a few summon spells that have a duration of concentration. if you cast it, let the monster use it's breath weapon or somesuch, then stop concentrating, it's pretty much exactly what you're looking for.

You could also homebrew a series of summon spells that each summon a creature with a nifty breath weapon or spell like ability, but only for 1 round, so that you get a level-appropriate effect through a monster proxy. That'll take some work but all you have to do is look at what a spell can do at that level and compare it to a monster to see.