Hi all, my younger sister has never played a table top RPG before and asked to come in on a game "just to see how it goes" - she likes WoW and Skyrim but this is a first for her.
She kind of likes the Wizrad/Arcane types and since Sumoners are not allowed in our game table other players turned her onto the traditional Conjurer and she likes the idea, especially the versatility of what she can summon later on and the Dimensional steps power at a higher level.
I think she will use a Harrow Deck as an in game focus, drawing cards and "summoning creatures" that closely match the cards, our GM cleared that as long as it's legal, certain Summoned creatures can be called forth and they look like (with no in game change) as certain cards.
We as a party are at 4th level and I am not familiar with the possible summoned creatures but what are you suggestions for Summon Monster I to say VII?
Thanks for your time and help gang!
The biggest challenge with summoning monsters is that you have to look up the stats every time. It can greatly drag down game time and it makes it an annoyance for everyone at the table. This is going to be exacerbated by the fact that your sister is not familiar with the rules.
I would strongly recommend not starting the game with such a complex character, but if she absolutely must, there here is my primary recommendation: have the stats ready for the monsters you want to summon before the game starts.
With that, for low levels, I typically summon a spider (can shoot a web at flying foes) or a wolf (gets an auto trip attack with every successful hit).
Also, this Guide to the Summoner Class has some good recommendations for all the summon monster spells.
Does the player have access to any electronic aides for their gaming, such as a laptop, tablet, etc? These types of things make playing a summoning character MUCH easier, as they allow you to quickly bring up the Summon Monster lists and creature stats on the SRD whenever they're needed.
If your friend doesn't have these things, that's fine too, but you guys will want to print off or copy down the creature stats ahead of time so that you can still have them handy.
Thank you bookrat.
Does the player have access to any electronic aides for their gaming, such as a laptop, tablet, etc?
Yes she has an iPad and we have the rulebooks available at the ready.
: )
I don't know what the offerings for iOS are like, but I know there's a great Android app, aptly named Summoner, which has stats for all the Summon Monsters and Summon Nature's Ally. It even has support for Augment summoning.
You can use it to do the rolls as well, but I generally don't as I prefer dice. It would streamline things a lot though. There might be a similar app available, but I'm not sure.
Thank you bookrat.
Does the player have access to any electronic aides for their gaming, such as a laptop, tablet, etc?Yes she has an iPad and we have the rulebooks available at the ready.
: )
Good. This page will be extremely helpful for quickly accessing information about monster stats. link
Simply having the rulebooks won't be enough, because every time she summons a monster, you have to pause the game to look up the stats in the bestiary, and then you have to state not only what your own character is doing, but each of your summons (which may all be different monsters). And when you have multiple summons out, you have to keep flipping through the pages of the bestiary to get the stats - and then hand the book back to the GM so s/he can access the monsters you're fighting.
Using the SRD website will make things much easier, as Anetra said.
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Definitely print out the stats of commonly summoned things beforehand. Makes life a million times easier, ipad or no. Make sure that all you have to do for the monsters during your turn is move and roll - the calculations and planning should be done before the game and during other people's turns.
If you're starting at 1st level, she'll have some time to get the hang of things; she should be fine. If you're starting at 5th or higher, though, I'd recommend staying away from Wizard for a first-time player. The thing is, Skyrim and Pathfinder are almost complete opposites when it comes to certain things. Skyrim gives you a beautiful environment filled with dumb-as-bricks npcs, with fights in real-time based on reflexes and refilling mana and stamina bars. Pathfinder gives you practically no visuals of the environment, has npcs and enemies as bright as your GM, and has turn-based fights using (for a wizard) carefully pre-selected spells.
Long story short: a Skyrim mage translates better to Sorcerer than a Wizard, and she may be unprepared for the amount of bookkeeping wizards (ESPECIALLY conjuration wizards) have to deal with. That being said, wizard is my favorite class, and for those with the patience, cunning, and creativity to use them, arguably the most powerful class of them all.
