Guidelines for Called Creatures?

[Niko77]

I was wondering how DM's handle spells like gate - do you allow PC's to call forth any creature they wish, or do you limit their selection based on alignment, deity, or on which creatures they've made deals with for aid when gated?

I was thinking about instituting such guidelines for my next campaign (as well as the idea of summoning spells bringing forth specific creatures) and I was wondering if anyone else has tried this and how it works in their campaign.

Your thoughts are appreciated.

[ericthecleric]

Thoroughly study the gate spell description (PH 234). The note at the end explains about the alignment aspect, as does the note at the end of summon monster I. Clerics can’t cast spells of an alignment opposite to them, so a lawful good cleric can’t summon a chaotic evil demon, for instance. As far as I’m aware, only clerics have this restriction, so there’s nothing stopping a lawful good wizard summoning a demon. However, I think the cleric’s restriction should also be applied to those who call or summon creatures.
The spell lets you summon a group of creatures (whose total HD equals your caster level), but that seems to be less effective than summoning a single creature. Interesting observation (1): You can gate a single creature of ANY AMOUNT OF HD!! However, “…you can control it if its HD do not exceed twice your caster level. A single creature with more HD than twice your caster level can’t be controlled.” Meaning that you could summon a 500-HD whatever, if you don’t care about controlling it! Most likely, such creature would attempt to destroy the one who summoned it first. Note also that you can’t summon deities or unique creatures.
Interesting observation (2): It makes no reference to Challenge Rating, only HD, so theoretically, you could gate in a non-unique creature with any number of templates (for which it meets the prerequisites)! For example, a 19th-level caster could gate a paragon half-dragon, half-fiend 11-headed (38-HD) tyrannosaurus (CR 25), a paragon half-dragon, half-fiend storm giant 19th-level cleric (CR 40), or even a celestial, paragon human 38th-level wizard (CR 52) and still control it! Ultimately, if you allow PCs to gate in whatever they wish, then they will abuse this rule, so if they ask to gate in something unreasonable, don’t allow it. (And don’t have your NPCs gate in the example monstrosities above, either, or your players will lynch you!) Rather than attach absolute limits, require the player in question to submit the stats for what they wish to gate in sometime before they actually cast the spell; that way, you can say yes or no in advance, and not have your game come to a shuddering halt.
On the issue of bargaining with gate creatures, if someone gates in a creature whose only purpose is to fight or perform an action that can be done within one round per caster level, the caster doesn’t need to bargain- see top right of page 234; any other services requires bargaining- see the paragraph below that.
As a final note, the “Wormfood” article in Dragon 343 has suggestions for some creatures that might be gated in by high-level PCs (or to serve as inspiration for similar creatures, or for your villain’s creatures).

Regarding summoning, the alignment note applies. Three resources may also help:
* Unearthed Arcana pages136-138 has options for themed and individualized summoning lists. This information is also available on the d20 SRD document (just enter “d20 SRD” on Google if you don’t have the link).
* DMG page 37 has guidelines for summoning individual monsters.
* There was an article in Dragon a few years ago about alternative summoning lists, but I can’t remember which issue or what the article was called.

Hope the above helps!

[Niko77]

Thanks for the info, I was familiar with those guides. I'm looking for something a little outside the RAW, as I find being able to gate in a monster to fight for you out of the blue to be a little silly. Like they have nothing better to do, you know what I mean.
It makes a lot more sense to me that one would have to forge a "working relationship" so to speak, with a monster to gain its service via a gate spell (especially for the more powerful creatures - I can see being able to gate in a horde of minor demons or something without any deal).

I'm looking to add a little flavor to this spell by having the PC's have relationships with specific creatures (much like the alternative summoning rules). I think from a game perspective it would be more satisfying to gate in "Frank the angel/wizard who I found that lost book for, and who helped us defeat the lich" than just having some random angel appear, fight, and then disappear a few rounds later.

Sorry that I wasn't more specific as to what I was looking for, hope that clears things up a bit.