Dnd Final Fantasy Summoner

[Morithias]

As we all know the dnd summoner mostly revolves around make a ton of mooks to do your dirty work with no pay. I'm more curious if there exists an actual class or ability that is more like the final fantasy summoner, i.e summon a huge creature to coat the battlefield with a major attack then vanish.

Or would that just be an evoker with a ton of fluff added on?

As usual avoid the silly builds like pun-pun, but any direction you can point besides that should be usable.

Basically try to avoid builds that require plot devices to work (eating brains, calling a demon for wish, divine rank given by a deity, etc).

[JeminiZero]

The fire and disappear nature of FF summon spells strike me as better emulated by a blaster (although some of the best blasting spells are incidentally conjurations). Look up the Spell Thematics feat (PGtF) lets you modify the visual manifestation of 1 spell per spell level to whatever you desire. So you could make your Magic Missle look like a Chocobo running out of nowhere and pecking your enemy.

[Echoes]

Not a perfect fit, but the closest thing I can think of is the Binder from Tome of Magic. He spends a minute drawing an intricate seal on the ground, then summons a "vestige" (an incredibly powerful, usually imprisoned spirit) into the seal, taking on the abilities of whatever creature he summoned for a day.

It doesn't have the instant gratification of massive burst damage or party-wide buffing, but the entities he works with are definitely on par in terms of strength with the FF summons. And, they have the added bonus of manifesting in a flash of medieval fantasy-CGI for a few seconds, then vanishing as they grant their abilities to the binder.


But otherwise, yeah, your best bet would be to make an arcane caster and apply liberally the feats scattered across supplemental books which allow you to change the appearance of your spells.

[Callista]

The fire and disappear nature of FF summon spells strike me as better emulated by a blaster (although some of the best blasting spells are incidentally conjurations). Look up the Spell Thematics feat (PGtF) lets you modify the visual manifestation of 1 spell per spell level to whatever you desire. So you could make your Magic Missle look like a Chocobo running out of nowhere and pecking your enemy.

Yep, that's what I was going to say. Spell Thematics, definitely. I'd go for Conjuration as a specialty, if you were going to specialize, but generally I prefer to keep my flexibility.

[Kobold-Bard]

Not a perfect fit, but the closest thing I can think of is the Binder from Tome of Magic. He spends a minute drawing an intricate seal on the ground, then summons a "vestige" (an incredibly powerful, usually imprisoned spirit) into the seal, taking on the abilities of whatever creature he summoned for a day.

It doesn't have the instant gratification of massive burst damage or party-wide buffing, but the entities he works with are definitely on par in terms of strength with the FF summons. And, they have the added bonus of manifesting in a flash of medieval fantasy-CGI for a few seconds, then vanishing as they grant their abilities to the binder.


But otherwise, yeah, your best bet would be to make an arcane caster and apply liberally the feats scattered across supplemental books which allow you to change the appearance of your spells.

If you go the Binder route maybe look at zagan's Vestige Summoner PrC.

[Silus]

As we all know the dnd summoner mostly revolves around make a ton of mooks to do your dirty work with no pay. I'm more curious if there exists an actual class or ability that is more like the final fantasy summoner, i.e summon a huge creature to coat the battlefield with a major attack then vanish.

Or would that just be an evoker with a ton of fluff added on?

As usual avoid the silly builds like pun-pun, but any direction you can point besides that should be usable.

Basically try to avoid builds that require plot devices to work (eating brains, calling a demon for wish, divine rank given by a deity, etc).

Here ya go, this link's got what you're looking for.

Edit: And when I say that, I mean it's got an actual Final Fantasy Summoner class with stats for the summons.

[Susano-wo]

depends on what type of FF summoner. The standard AoE summon could be simulated by a blasting spell pretty easily, though you might have some hickups wth things like contingency, sice its a physical being that is summoned to your location, albeit only for a moment of two(or readied actions)

The other thing to keep in mind is typically, your characters are immune to the suimmons negative effects.

if you want FFX stle summons, use PF Summoner, if its allowed. YOu can't switch up like in FFX, but you get a true big beastie summon (hell, they even call it an Eidolon!)

[Achernar]

There's always the "ask your DM" option, making a setting-specific set of creatures that provide different spell effects. So what if it is still Fireball or Mass Cure Moderate, it certainly looks like Ifrit or Kirin to me...

[Callista]

You'd run into the problem of combining arcane and divine spells in the same character--that could be overpowered. But I suppose with a limited spell selection, it mightn't be too bad.

What about creating a custom spell list for a PrC? Have a prerequisite of "Must be able to cast nth level spells" and some ranks in spellcraft, and then give them the same general spell progression as a sorcerer, starting at whatever level n is, choosing from the spell list for the prestige class for their spells known. I'd make it Charisma-based, like the sorcerer, since the caster has to control powerful creatures and that's a social-skills and strength-of-personality thing.

One caution--don't just consider which spells are most like the summons when you think about spell lists, because if you do that you might end up with a gimped list or one that's too powerful.

'Course, you could just make the PrC with "+1 level to existing spellcasting class", and then Spell Thematics as a bonus feat, and possibly similar feats as well every few levels. That'd be very simple to do and probably wouldn't be a balance issue, but you would of course still have to rename and theme your new "summoning"-style spells.

[Zeta Kai]

Well, my Final Fantasy X D20 has a Summoner class, complete with stats & mechanics for unlocking & using all of the Aeons (read Espers/Guardian Forces/Eidolons/Summon) from that game. It's basically a white mage that can call an Aeon to fight for her for a limited time a few times a day. The Aeon can have HD up to your Summoner level + 10, & they have various powerful attacks, including Overdrives (read Limit Breaks). I may be biased, but it's worth a look. Here's the PDF of the entire project (warning: 400+ pages long, & entirely about FFX).

[Crow]

Look up the Spell Thematics feat (PGtF) lets you modify the visual manifestation of 1 spell per spell level to whatever you desire. So you could make your Magic Missle look like a Chocobo running out of nowhere and pecking your enemy.

Wait, you need feats to change the display of your spells!???

I always assumed you could do that anyways, so long as you were consistent (No running chocobos for magic missile one day, and then glowing arrows for it another day).

[Susano-wo]

Wait, you need feats to change the display of your spells!???

I always assumed you could do that anyways, so long as you were consistent (No running chocobos for magic missile one day, and then glowing arrows for it another day).

Definitely sounds like a silly feat. They do say you can change the flavor of your spells, but perhaps they were thinking only of htings like my cleric buffs give me effervescent angel wings and a halo, my scorching ray is black, etc.

Perhaps spell thematics gives you more complex...(and i hope actually useful) displays that you can do)

[Callista]

They're harder to identify and counterspell.

[Susano-wo]

ah, that makes sense then
thanks ^ ^