Reuben Hood's page

Many of Ed Greenwood's articles about the Forgotten Realms were written as if Elminster himself had visited Ed at his home and relayed the information directly to him. So suggesting a connection between our modern world, or one like it, to a fantasy realm is not out of the question. I believe the exact spell he used was called World Walk, maybe?

Personally, as a character, I would see if I couldn't sell it to some wealthy collector as a gnomish boomerang.

I believe the item had some sort of curse on it and he never intended to use it.

I know Ravingdork is unpopular, and maybe I've missed something, but from what I gathered, it went something like this:

RD: I pull the axe out of my bag.
GM: It takes a standard action.
RD: Can I have my action back and do something else?
GM: No.

From what I read Ravingdork needed the axe or the encounter was going to head south. Without the axe he would not have been able to attack the ghost and harm it, it was a matter of drawing and attacking in the same round versus drawing and then attacking in the next round. Unless I missed something too.

Did not expect a James Jacobs reply, but it's greatly appreciated. However, I would just like to point out that the comparison was made regarding table-time spent per turn and not the potential difference between companions. I do agree with you, as a matter of personal preference I'd prefer an eidolon that looked like something that already existed rather then something spawned from the Weird (that place under the fridge that sometimes hisses, growls, or makes bubbling sounds when you stand too close).

But seriously, you'd let me play a Broodmaster who's eidolons all looked like Fraggles, yes?

@DM Wellard, It looks like James is saying that he doesn't think they are too powerful, not that they are over powered. You're not going to convince me I'm crazy. I know your tricks!

Your DM is always correct so long as he's DMing. Doesn't matter what's actually in the AP books. If he says that Summoners are KOS in Ustalav, then they are.

To be clear: that's material he's added, it's not in the printed material but that doesn't matter. Summoners are KOS in Ustalav as far as you need be concerned.

Personally, I also ban Summoners in my game, but that's because they hog too much table-time. I know a lot of people are touchy about banning things. People always seem to go up in arms when GMs try to ban things. I ban Summoners for crunch reasons and Monks for fluff reasons in all my games. Yea, my PCs grumble. Yea, they'd grumble less if I made up a reason like "they are KOS", because then Paizo is the bad-guy instead of me. I'm going to guess your GM is doing something similar. *shrug*

If this was the case I would have just accepted it and moved on, but his position is that he doesn't want to tell anyone what to play but his hands are tied; the Player's Guide says Summoners are pretty much killed on sight and that they are the only class with this warning. Like Fraust above suggested, I even asked if he just didn't want summoners in the game. He claims he's just going by the Player's Guide, and after reading it I'm just not coming to same conclusion he has. I withdrew from the campaign, I'm not trying to force a class on the group (we're all old friends) and the debate was causing division, I just think he's badly misinterpreted the guide.

As an aside, do you also ban Druids? And if not, how does a druid with an animal companion and spontaneous Summon Nature's Ally spells take up less table-time than a summoner?

We also use MapTool, between the macros and fully stat-ed (stat'd? does that look right?) monster tokens a few button clicks and the turn is over.

Thanks for replying, Luther. I've only read the Player's Guide and wasn't sure if there was specific information in the modules themselves that would account for the summoner hate. The DM insight is very welcome.

I guess I should also mention that, following the advice in the Player’s Guide, the eidolon was biped and would appear as a human woman.

Oh, and believe me, I took that warning to heart!

The Question:
Are Summoners killed on sight in Ustalav?

The Details:
The group I'm in is about to start the Carrion Crown AP, the PC's so far are a Dwarven Cleric, Human(might play Dhampir) Witch, Dhampir Inquisitor, Human Paladin, and maybe a Human Summoner. However, the DM insists that summoners are killed on sight in Ustalav. To quote him:

“The module/players guide specifically says summoners are going to have a really hard time. The town you will be spending a lot of time in is very insular. They are libel to burn you at the stake for having an eidolon. Like I said you can play what you want. But when the villagers burn you at the stake you'll get no sympathy from me. The fact that the summoner is the only class with such a strong warning in the first paragraph should tell you something.”

I don’t get that at all from the Player’s Guide. The points I tried to make were that the Player’s Guide wouldn’t recommend skills and offer suggestions on how to incorporate them into the story if playing one was instant death. Also I can't see Paizo writing an AP that excluded a single base class while still making recommendations for the players who choose that class. He argued that the moment I cast a summoning spell the villagers would kill me. Also, he told one of the other players that if I played a summoner the whole party could be killed by the villagers.

Am I on crazy pills? Are Summoners kill on sight in Ustalav?