Gate causes me some issues. The full text of the spell is here.
"f you choose to call a kind of creature instead of a known individual, you may call either a single creature or several creatures. In either case, their total HD cannot exceed twice your caster level. In the case of a single creature, you can control it if its HD does not exceed your caster level. A creature with more HD than your caster level can't be controlled."
So...can you ever control several creatures? Or are they always uncontrolled? Does this mean one could call a balor (20HD) and control it at 20th level, but not 10 dretches? Or does it mean that as long as creatures don't have more HD than your caster level, you can control them? Could I pull 20 dretches through and control them? Could I pull 2 balors through and control them? Or no, only a single creature?
"If you choose to exact a longer or more involved form of service from a called creature, you must offer some fair trade in return for that service."
Longer or more involved than what? Than crushing my immediate foes? Than saying hi when they step out of the portal? At what point do I need to pay more than the 10K that summoning cost me? And does this override my 'control'? Or does this represent my control? In the case of the 40HD balor, for instance, can I strike a fair bargain with him? Or can I only bargain with creatures I 'control'?
Thank you for any clarification you are able to provide on this. I get the feeling a lot of the spell was written by someone mentally referencing something else, and assuming all readers would as well.
Anyone?
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You can only control a single creature, anything else will do whatever it wants once arriving.
The problem with the longer task, is the task to which it was comparing itself was a part not taken from the original 3.5 gate.
A controlled creature can be commanded to perform a service for you. Such services fall into two categories: immediate tasks and contractual service. Fighting for you in a single battle or taking any other actions that can be accomplished within 1 round per caster level counts as an immediate task; you need not make any agreement or pay any reward for the creature’s help. The creature departs at the end of the spell.
Given that the 3.5 version has the only guidelines for this, I'd go with that.
You can get 1 round per level of fighting. Anything more and you're gonna havta negotiate a price.
Thank you.
I read this particular line of Gate completely differently from Alorha. My interpretation is as follows.
You can call creatures with hit dice that total up to twice your caster level. This can be one creature, or multiple creatures.
You can control creatures so long as they have fewer hit dice individually than your caster level.
As an example, you could call two Mariliths at 17th level, and control them both, because each individual creature has fewer hit dice than your caster level. Or you could call one Balor and one Hezrou, in which case you could not control the balor.
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I read this particular line of Gate completely differently from Alorha. My interpretation is as follows.
You can call creatures with hit dice that total up to twice your caster level. This can be one creature, or multiple creatures.
You can control creatures so long as they have fewer hit dice individually than your caster level.
As an example, you could call two Mariliths at 17th level, and control them both, because each individual creature has fewer hit dice than your caster level. Or you could call one Balor and one Hezrou, in which case you could not control the balor.
Nope. The spell gives you two choices: Single creature and multiple creatures. In breaking those choices down it says "in the case of a single creature" and then talks about controlling. Nowhere in the multiple creatures breakdown is control mention.
Single can be controlled. Multiple cannot.
you may call either a single creature or several creatures. In either case, their total HD cannot exceed twice your caster level. In the case of a single creature, you can control it if its HD does not exceed your caster level. A creature with more HD than your caster level can't be controlled. [/gate]
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Nope. The spell gives you two choices: Single creature and multiple creatures. In breaking those choices down it says "in the case of a single creature" and then talks about controlling. Nowhere in the multiple creatures breakdown is control mention.Single can be controlled. Multiple cannot.
With all do respect, I believe there is room for alternative interpretation based on the wording.
You are absolutely correct that it is explicit in its description of your controlling if you summon a single creature. It is not as explicit in its description of multiple creatures, but various lines lead me to believe that you do control them so long as their individual hit dice do not exceed your caster level. Mostly because I don't see a point in the last line of the description "A creature with more HD than your caster level can't be controlled" if you cannot control creatures when you summon multiple beings. The line before explicitly says the same thing in relation to single creature summoning.
I think your interpretation basically sets up gate to never be used for anything other than the most powerful creature you could possibly summon for a given task, while the alternative allows it to serve in a more flexible context, which I think is more in keeping with the idea of the spell.
Its possible I'm wrong and the language is just sloppy as a result of changes from 3.5 to PF. I seem to recall that 3.5 was pretty explicit in stating that you could control multiple beings you called multiples. Of course 3.5 was also pretty absurd in letting you call and control beings up to twice your caster level in hit dice too, so it saw significant revision.
I'd be interested in a more explicit ruling by someone on the Design team to the question.