[Class] Summoner, a take on the Summoner from the Final Fantasy series

[sluggerbaloney]

A class based on the Summoner from the Final Fantasy Series of video games.

[Yakk]

The design is quadratic, not linear. 5e design should be linear with at most a very low order quadratic term.

You get a linear number of summon points. Each of these points has a linear effect.

For example, Shiva; each point deals (level)*3.5 damage.

The top end summons are 220 damage over a huge AOE, or 180 in a huge line.

The 180 damage one is equivalent of a L 7 spell.

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I'd nix the "per summoner level" bit. Give them a certain amount of damage. Possibly include spending extra points.

Also, Essence Mastery is mechanically indistinguishable from having extra Summon points?

Min summoner level / summon points / level of summon don't line up very well. Typos maybe?

There is no "1 round" casting time in 5e.

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While it would be less FF-esque, I'd be tempted to make summoning a multi-step process.

Like you summon on round 1, then next round you execute.

Power budget wise, PCs in 5e have both a per-round power budget (for rogues, that is most of their budget), and then per-rest (short and long) budgets, and peak output limits.

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Conduit Quickening is either weak or overly strong. If you can double-summon it is crazy strong. If not, it doesn't do all that much.

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Suppose Summons required an action to do. This creates the magical circle, whose glyphs describe the creature, and the creature starts forming.

At the start of your next turn, the summon finishes appearing; then you use an action to activate it.

This puts 2 rounds of "baseline action power" into each summon.

Also, the idea of holding the summon in reserve can exist. The summon can have a passive effect; a fire summon might make your firebolt and fire spells do more damage, for example.

[sluggerbaloney]

Thanks for the feedback, interesting ideas! Just a note you cannot "Double summon", each time you call a summon, you need to complete a short rest before you call that specific summon again. This mimics the FF7 "You can only summon each thing once per fight" mechanic and prevents summon spamming.

Min summoner level / summon points / level of summon don't line up very well. Typos maybe?

I believe they should, the goal was for each odd level (when you get a new Summoning Bond), you have 2 choices to pcik from for that Min level (besides the last 2 most powerful summons). Each of the summons in a "Level" cost an amount of SP that the summoner will have at that level. The "Levels" of summons are pretty much just arbitrary divisions, mechanically they don't actually mean anything

[noob]

The amount of aoe damage a summoner can deal in a single turn is just absurd but I think it is intended.
What I think is unintended is freezing the game completely for 30 seconds as you roll 60 dice for 60 saves due to hitting 10 monsters with hades.
Neo bahamut's damage scales with level up to level 12 but is unlocked only at level 13 meaning that the number of damage dice will never be anything else than 24(you could remove the text about level scaling and write 24, it would simplify the ability while having the exact same effect).

[sluggerbaloney]

The amount of aoe damage a summoner can deal in a single turn is just absurd but I think it is intended.
What I think is unintended is freezing the game completely for 30 seconds as you roll 60 dice for 60 saves due to hitting 10 monsters with hades.
Neo bahamut's damage scales with level up to level 12 but is unlocked only at level 13 meaning that the number of damage dice will never be anything else than 24(you could remove the text about level scaling and write 24, it would simplify the ability while having the exact same effect).

Yeah they point of the class is that you give up utility and flexability, but you gain select super spells to make up for it. As for hades I think a GM could just roll in groups, if I hit 10 things with e a fireball I rarely see 10 saving throws being rolled.

Good catch on Bahamut!


If anyone rolls one of these up and plays it I'd love to hear how it went

[Yakk]

No, you shouldn't get to trade "utility and flexibility" for 10x the damage output.

[JNAProductions]

Wizard level hit dice, okay.
Very limited weapons.
Saving throws should include a strong and weak save, not just two weak saves.
Skills look fine.
Wizard gear, okay.

Artificer half-casting, okay. With three spells at one and one spell on level up, so half a Wizard.

The features are in the wrong order-Soultap comes after Summoning Bond, despite being available at 2nd level as compared to 3rd.

Summoning Bond really doesn't need to be a feature-just have a column on the table for "Summons Bonded".

Soultap should maybe be based on hit dice, not raw HP.

Essence, not Essense.

Features are pretty bland, so I'm guessing the meat and potatoes are in the summon list itself.

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Shiva is insane. A 60' AoE is the same as Cone of Cold, a 5th level spell. Admittedly, it does less damage (well, until you hit level 10, when it does 35 average as compared to 36 average) but the area is BONKERS.

Ifrit is Fireball, a 3rd level spell. It does the same damage as a base Fireball by level 6.

Ramuth is Lightning Bolt, again, a 3rd level spell. Only this matches the damage by level 5.

I'm not going to look at the rest, because your 1st Level Summons are spells that aren't available until the next tier. Yes, the damage starts lesser, but they're more than just numbers.

[sluggerbaloney]

Shiva is insane. A 60' AoE is the same as Cone of Cold, a 5th level spell. Admittedly, it does less damage (well, until you hit level 10, when it does 35 average as compared to 36 average) but the area is BONKERS.

It was copied from cone of cold, but at low levels it is very low damage.

Ifrit is Fireball, a 3rd level spell. It does the same damage as a base Fireball by level 6.

Wizards get Fireball at level 5. So at the same level Wizards get Fireball, Ifrit is worse.

Ramuth is Lightning Bolt, again, a 3rd level spell. Only this matches the damage by level 5.

Wizards get Lightnign Bolt at level 5. Ramuh is the same at level 5.

I'm not going to look at the rest, because your 1st Level Summons are spells that aren't available until the next tier. Yes, the damage starts lesser, but they're more than just numbers.

Ramuh is a level 3 summons, not a level 1. At Level 1 doing 1d4+1 or 1d6+1 doesn't seem overboard to me.

[JNAProductions]

And what about Seraph?

Minimum Summoner Level: 9
Effect: Heal, a 6th level spell (not available till two levels later). Except Heal can target someone up to 60' away, this only works up to 50' (30' radius and 20' range), but oh yeah, it affects anyone of your choice in range.

A 20th level Cleric has two 6th, two 7th, one 8th, and one 9th level slot. That's enough to cast Heal six times... Which you can replicate with one action, if there's six wounded folk about. Two levels before the Cleric even gets Heal.