So, in my next campaign, I'm going to be doing something a bit strange. I'll be whisking my players away from their normal adventuring, into the middle of crazy fights through a Summon Adventurer spell. A mage, who the players will meet very briefly in the first game, is going to be constantly summoning them every time he gets into a fight he and his adventuring party can't handle.
Basicly the PC's will get put into tough spots like the middle of a royal court, and be ordered to "Kill the king and cover my escape!" Or, they could be dropped into a swamp, right under the heads of a huge hydra, and be told "Kill it!". Strange and crazy things like that.
I just need a few ideas.
What kind of crazy situations would you drop a group of the PC's into?
What kind of strange NPC's would be on the side of the wizard? I'm thinking of having a Paladain be his most constant compainion, and need repeated saving.
And what kind of wizard should it be?
Let me know what you think!
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The wizard should be a coward of the highest order, adventuring out of greed for magicks and money. I think it would be hilarious if the wizard's party changed each time the PCs got zapped in, as if they are constantly dying while the wizard leaves at the earliest convenience. Also, his wardrobe and equipment keeps getting obviously embellished by his "dearly departed friends" gear. Stuff that would be completely out of place like the elf's headband of bird feathers, the dwarf's over-sized horned helm or the halfling's frying pan.
As for adventuring ideas, maybe have them come in to break the wizard out of a heavily guard prison cell with traps and guards all over. Maybe one on another plane?
Another scenario is where the party appears into the back of a wagon being wildly driven by the lone wizard on some narrow ledge or in a gorge, etc. The wagon is full of ill-gotten loot and there are numerous angry monsters like centaurs or wargriders chasing the wagon down. Staying on the madly bouncing and careening wagon is just as hard as fighting off the chasers!
Will it be like the Summon Monster spell where the Adventurers are compelled to obay the caster?
If so you can do fun stuff like summon the PCs to make them walk down hallways to see if they set off traps (a popular use of the Summon Monster Spell). :)
What if the PCs die while summoned? Will they really die or just dissapear and return to the point they were called from? If there is no threat of death you can really punish the PCs with rediculus stuff.
It would no longer be lethal in this case but no less fun. Im sure the PCs will try to hunt down the caster and put a stop to the embarrassing things he puts the PCs through.
I doubt PCs (who are usually full of themselves) will stand for being all made into Nodwiks. :)
Will it be like the Summon Monster spell where the Adventurers are compelled to obay the caster?
If so you can do fun stuff like summon the PCs to make them walk down hallways to see if they set off traps (a popular use of the Summon Monster Spell). :)
It will indeed work just like the Summon Monster spell. The wizard is going to be ordering them to do all sorts of crazy things. The traps idea is a great one!
What if the PCs die while summoned? Will they really die or just dissapear and return to the point they were called from? If there is no threat of death you can really punish the PCs with rediculus stuff.
Death will not be perminant, just as in the Summon Mosnter spell. But if the party gets the heck beat out of them, they will keep the damage they take. If the PC dies, they just wake up with 1 hit point where ever they were summoned from when the spell ends.
That way I can keep the party on it's toes, because if they get summoned out of one fight, into another, they will have to deal with whatever they were fighting with when they get back.
I think only total destruction, like leaping into a lake full of lava or being burned to dust will be perminant death in these summoned encounters.
The good news is that you won't have any trouble motivating the PCs. The bad news is that they'll be motivated to track down the wizard, beat the stuffing out of him, and thus end the campaign.
In Dungeon #49, there was a Side Trek, Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow by J. Bradley Schell (thanks, Google!). The adventure featured a conjurer who posed as a barber to get locks of adventurers' hair. The PC would be summoned not only for last-ditch defense of the wizard, but for chores such as house-cleaning and chopping and stacking firewood.
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So, in my next campaign, I'm going to be doing something a bit strange. I'll be whisking my players away from their normal adventuring, into the middle of crazy fights through a Summon Adventurer spell. A mage, who the players will meet very briefly in the first game, is going to be constantly summoning them every time he gets into a fight he and his adventuring party can't handle.
Well, there was an old side trek in Dungeon starting like this. The wizard was using hair taken from the PCs after a haircut as the component to summoning them.
I don't remember much of the rest,but the idea is fun
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So, in my next campaign, I'm going to be doing something a bit strange. I'll be whisking my players away from their normal adventuring, into the middle of crazy fights through a Summon Adventurer spell. A mage, who the players will meet very briefly in the first game, is going to be constantly summoning them every time he gets into a fight he and his adventuring party can't handle.
Basicly the PC's will get put into tough spots like the middle of a royal court, and be ordered to "Kill the king and cover my escape!" Or, they could be dropped into a swamp, right under the heads of a huge hydra, and be told "Kill it!". Strange and crazy things like that.
I just need a few ideas.
What kind of crazy situations would you drop a group of the PC's into?
What kind of strange NPC's would be on the side of the wizard? I'm thinking of having a Paladain be his most constant compainion, and need repeated saving.
And what kind of wizard should it be?
Let me know what you think!
There is an old 2nd Dungeon adventure that does just that. The villian in question was a conjuration specialist, and he would pose as a barber to take hair clippings so he could conjure specific adventurers.
Mostly the adventurers were summoned much like players summon creatures. He was in danger and needed help and they were compeled to defend him from goblins, bandits whatever.
And when the spell expired.....they reappeared from whence they came. The adventure was trying to find him!
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I just need a few ideas.What kind of crazy situations would you drop a group of the PC's into?
What kind of strange NPC's would be on the side of the wizard? I'm thinking of having a Paladain be his most constant compainion, and need repeated saving.
Have them dive down to get a treasure from the floor of a pond with the wizard and his friends watching. And giant fish with big fangs attack them. Once they load it onto a caravan wagon, they are dismissed.
They are summoned back as the caravan is attacked, one of the wizard's friends lies dies at their feet as a group of 'bandits' burst from the trees. but they are on flying carpets, and only attack the people near the wagon with the treasure the PCs gathered in the first summon.
rinse and repeat from different parts of the campaign world, so it is evident that the wizard is collecting dangerous objects together, and is either racing someone or the protectors of those objects are coming after him.
The wizard's patron turns on him, and he knows he is going to die, so he has a change of heart, summoning the PCS one last time to take the objects they had collected for him, and as they do, he dies and they fade back to their adventure with these items of power. Have one or more of these items be something that they were seraching their current location for
Nice going, Cpt_Kirstov, I like all these ideas.
Let me know what you think!
The only thing I would add is to watch out for a hellish pitfall.
And that is that the PCs might get a hold of the spell and/or decipher how to research it themselves. It could throw your game out of whack, unless this isn't meant to be a long term game.
The only thing I would add is to watch out for a hellish pitfall.
And that is that the PCs might get a hold of the spell and/or decipher how to research it themselves. It could throw your game out of whack, unless this isn't meant to be a long term game.
Good point. I would rule that if you know any Summon Monster spells that you can't ever comprehend Summon Adventurer I-XX.
How about they get called up for a near-epic level battle (since the summoner would be a lot higher level) and told to go flank some ancient huge red dragons while a couple of the high-level PCs on the field make cracks about "Hey, they might last a round." and "Ah, ablative hit points at last."
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Let me know what you think!The only thing I would add is to watch out for a hellish pitfall.
And that is that the PCs might get a hold of the spell and/or decipher how to research it themselves. It could throw your game out of whack, unless this isn't meant to be a long term game.
thats when it's written in an ancient language and somehow unable to be read with comprehend languages....
also as long as you call it just summon or something and then use concentration checks (high check so a normal magic user can't do it in combat) it could be used as a easy way to explain why there is a new party member this week.
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I used this device in a campaign once. An elven conjurer summoned the PC's to help him defend his keep from invading frost giants. They were summoned at a few key fights in the war, so they could participate in all of the important points. The war ended up being connected to the plot the PC's were working on back in their side of the world- the frost giants were controlled by illithids who were trying to sew chaos and strife all over the surface world.
The reason the elf wizard was able to summon the PC's was that he was the grandfather of the orphan half-elf PC who never knew anything about her elven heritage. Later they met up naturally and she learned about her family and all. Also the PC's (most of whom were annoyed by the elf's actions) were awarded with magical items for their heroics in defence of the elven lands, which made them less annoyed.
"Yep. It's a pool of acid, all right."
What a great idea. I have a suggestion, if it’s not too late.
What if you give the spell TO THE PCs? Let them use it to their hearts content calling up NPCs, but keep good records of the encounters and uses, and be as vague as possible in your description of the PCs.
Then, later, when you are all playing different characters, have them be jaunted off to the exact encounters you’ve recorded! Now THEY are the summoned adventurers, and the party they are called to assist is their own characters.
This way, if they are abused by their summoners – IT'S THEIR OWN FAULT!
For a different wrinkle on this idea, I once had an alienist repeatedly summon the PCs to fight horrible monsters on an insane landscape. The alienist was an ALIEN alienist, so of course he summoned "regular" creatures to freak out his tentacled foes. The PCs were often summoned alongside normal bears, boars, etc.
The PCs were just mad at first, but they eventually realized that the summoner had valuable information concerning the PCs' far realm enemies. Their attempts at communicating with the alien alienist were classic.
Acouple of things. To keep the PC's from learning the spell like one person said might happen. Make it a spell that the caster himself created and all research is in his head. Just for fun I would make him a very old and senile old fool that believes himself to be just another young adventurer, so natuarly he has a realy bad habit of getting himself into more trouble than he can handle, and that is when he summons the PC's.
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What a great idea. I have a suggestion, if it’s not too late.
What if you give the spell TO THE PCs? Let them use it to their hearts content calling up NPCs, but keep good records of the encounters and uses, and be as vague as possible in your description of the PCs.
Then, later, when you are all playing different characters, have them be jaunted off to the exact encounters you’ve recorded! Now THEY are the summoned adventurers, and the party they are called to assist is their own characters.
This way, if they are abused by their summoners – IT'S THEIR OWN FAULT!
That is awesome!
What a great idea. I have a suggestion, if it’s not too late.
What if you give the spell TO THE PCs? Let them use it to their hearts content calling up NPCs, but keep good records of the encounters and uses, and be as vague as possible in your description of the PCs.
Then, later, when you are all playing different characters, have them be jaunted off to the exact encounters you’ve recorded! Now THEY are the summoned adventurers, and the party they are called to assist is their own characters.
This way, if they are abused by their summoners – IT'S THEIR OWN FAULT!
That’s just devious. I LOVE it! If this were pulled off well, it could be phenomenal. It might be year’s worth of set up, but the pay off would be worth it.