|
If a wizard PC summons a creature with a low intelligence (such as a Lemure), gives it a command ("kill everything in that room") and then leaves to explore another part of the dungeon, how much control over its actions does he have?
Last week, a PC did all the above... and then the party charged into the room. Would the lemure have attacked them too?
If a wizard PC summons a creature with a low intelligence (such as a Lemure), gives it a command ("kill everything in that room") and then leaves to explore another part of the dungeon, how much control over its actions does he have?
Last week, a PC did all the above... and then the party charged into the room. Would the lemure have attacked them too?
I don't know of anything official in the Pathfinder rules regarding this, but here's how I look at it.
Summoning spells are a tool, just like evocation spells. When a spellcaster decides to prepare (or cast) Magic Missile, it does what he wants it to. Likewise with all spells.
So when he chooses to cast a Summoning spell, it does what he wants it to.
The summoned creature never argues, never refuses, never objects. It always works as hard as it can to carry out its orders.
If it's not handled this way, then nobody would ever pepare these slow-casting, uncontrollable, unpredictable spells.
So complete obedience is implicit in the spell's very description.
However, that is within the limits of the spell provided.
Clearly, the description of Summon Monter doesn't require a shared language for the creature to attack the summoner's enemies. That means that even without language, the summoner can direct it to attack his enemies and also to not attack his allies.
The spell also says that more complicated tasks can be assigned if the summoner can communicate with the creature summoned, and it doesn't specify the intelligence of the creature within this rule framework, so arguably, a creature with normal animal intelligence can be ordered to back off or to "perform other actions" as long as the caster can communicate with it.
Now that is all per the spell's description.
That said, the spell doesn't specifically convey instant magical knowledge of everyone on the summoner's ally list (it certainly doesn't say the spell imparts magical understanding of any kind). So clearly the assumption is that the summoner is giving spoken or gestured signals to direct his summoned creature.
Which totally breaks down if the summoned creature is out of sight/hearing of the summoner. It breaks down even farther if the summoned creature has been given orders to "perform other actions" such as to attack everything in the room.
In the scenario you present, you left out a couple details that can change the situation.
Assuming the worst case, that the summoned lemure was given his instructions without ever seeing the summoner's allies, then the summoner leaves and therefore cannot control his lemure, and then the party rushes in without the summoner, then I would say the lemure absolutely includes them on the list of "everything in the room" and will attack them.
If, however, the summoner is with the party when they rush in, then he will be able to retain control over his lemure and the party is safe.
Now, an odd case occurs when the lemure has seen the party, then gets his insructions, then the summoner goes away and the rest of the party enters the room without the summoner present. Even a lemure is smart enough to know that these guys are the summoner's allies. It is smart enough to make its own decision whether to leave them alone or not. Some deciding factors might be:
1. How much fun will it be to attack the allies?
2. How likely will I die if I attack the allies? (yes, I know it's not real death)
3. Would it be more fun to bathe in the blood of the enemies and save the allies for last?
4. Will I lawfully assume my master had intended his allies to be excluded, or will I lawfully carry out my orders as specifically stated?
5. Will I prevaricate with the possibility that my master is using me to rid himself of allies he no longer wants, which is the only decent explanation of why he gave those orders and then let them walk in here?
6. Does the party include a cleric or paladin of some hateful good deity, and can the lemure resist his impulse to destroy that PC? Would it even want to resist that impulse?
You can take this as far as you want to, and I don't believe you'd be wrong with either outcome. Let the party be, or let the party be food...
Me, I would probably have the lemure figure the party is fair game, but that they are more dangerous than whatever else he's fighting (unless it's obviously not true), so he will enjoy maximum carnage by slaughtering the weaker foes until they're all dead, then he will turn on the weakest-seeming PC to continue the carnage.
I would certainly allow the lemure a few shots on the party, if only to reinforce the idea that what they did was rather stupid (either they heard the summoner give his instructions, in which case it was really stupid, or they probably didn't even know the lemure was summoned by their ally, but he's clearly removing an obstacle in their way, so stand back and let him work rather than run in there and get on his bad side).
|
If a wizard PC summons a creature with a low intelligence (such as a Lemure), gives it a command ("kill everything in that room") and then leaves to explore another part of the dungeon, how much control over its actions does he have?
Last week, a PC did all the above... and then the party charged into the room. Would the lemure have attacked them too?
Until the caster takes a speaking action (generally free) to tell it to stop, probably. It's not a brain surgeon, it can't mystically divine his intent, and it had specific orders (presumably delivered in Infernal, since Lemures don't speak or understand any other languages, and, normally, don't communicate at all, but merely receive their instructions from other devils telepathically). Had he not given it specific orders, any summoned creature will attack his enemies to the best of it's ability, but nothing else.
Generally speaking, unless the PC wizard is higher level, or the spell is extended, the lemure isn't going to be around for a heck of a lot more than 3 rounds anyway, so it's not like the party could have explored much of of the dungeon while it was killing stuff, and it's not like there would be any encounter in a CR-appropriate adventure that a Lemure would do more than inconvenience. It's a 9 hp, AC 14 creature with 2 claws at +2 for 1d4 damage. The DR 5 and resistances and immunities are nice, but not much of a problem for many CR 3 creatures. Since it's SMII, the party should be facing stuff like ankhegs, ogres or giant praying mantids, which would rip the CR 1 Lemure apart in short order (and be highly unlikely to be killed by the creature in it's ~3 round lifespan).
I think Blake pretty much covered it. The lemure is an evil creature and it is going to enjoy killing. But it is also 100% obedient to it's summoner. If the summoner left the lemur in the room with the rest of his party there is a decent chance the lemure will try and figure out a way to twist the summoners words.
That said... the spells are not meant to be booby traps. Give your player the benefit of the doubt and in particular don't punish the rest of the party (too much) for the summoners mistake. I'm all for dishing out a little punishment for players mistakes but I try and make it land on the players head who screwed up.
|
|
I think Blake pretty much covered it. The lemure is an evil creature and it is going to enjoy killing. But it is also 100% obedient to it's summoner. If the summoner left the lemur in the room with the rest of his party there is a decent chance the lemure will try and figure out a way to twist the summoners words.
Any other devil, yeah. But Lemure's are mindless. It's just gonna run that last program it was given, which was 'kill everything in this room'...
Any other devil, yeah. But Lemure's are mindless. It's just gonna run that last program it was given, which was 'kill everything in this room'...
Yeah... that's true.
Summoned creatures from SM I-IX) should generally never be an issue unless the caster does something really silly... kind of sounds like this guy did something pretty silly (basically leaving a summoned evil creature with the rest of the group).
A side note of a little import since someone mentioned planar binding:
There is a difference between a summoning spell and a calling spell. It may not seem it on the surface but these two types of spells do not act the same in any regards beyond bringing something to the caster, generally from another plane of existence.
Summoning gives control of the target, and protects the target from permanent death. It's almost a pre-arraigned contract that the caster and summonee sign when the spell is cast.
Calling brings the creature, but with no control, or protection. The creature is fully where it was called and will die if killed. The summoner has no immediate means of controlling the called creature and must establish control through other means that the use of the spell that brought it there. Unless the creature brought over is of significant enough power to have a type of planar phylactery (much like a lich in several respects, most of these that have appeared in past products and past editions have this stated in their description and generally still suffer for a while when they get destroyed while being called somewhere. ) it will know that death is death in this case. This alone can be a powerful tool to use on a called creature if you are of significant power to actually kill whatever it is, however using such leverage can be construed as an evil act.
For anyone who is discussing that Lemures are "intelligent enough", I don't understand. Lemures are not "intelligente enough". In fact, they specifically have no intelligence whatsoever. They are mindless. A command, in Infernal or any other language, would be carried out as though by a skeleton or a golem. It is not interpretable. If there can be an interpretation, the most literal interpretation is all that can be followed. Why? Because it is not intelligent enough to figure out a different interpretation.
That's how I rule mindless, anyway.