Just a thought... A summoner that is chess themed (less magic (ie less spellcasting available to summoner), more martial (ie martial based summons)): King (Summoner him/herself), Queen (Eidolon with special evolutions/template or custom summon) and the rest of the pieces - Pawn, Knight, Bishop, and Rook (Represented by monster summoning and possibly custom summons).
Just throwing around ideas though... I'm not really good at making balanced custom monsters or archetypes... not to mention summoner hate/balance issues.
What are your guys thoughts on this? Did someone already make something similar? If not, is there a way to make something like this "balanced"/feasible?
(Also, ways to emulate via non-3rd party pathfinder.)
You can't summon minions at the same time as the eidolon. Apart from that, very interesting. Could make an interesting boss.
You can't summon minions at the same time as the eidolon. Apart from that, very interesting. Could make an interesting boss.
Thought that over...: Could act like Master Summoner (but would be limited to one summon, one eidolon), could have an altered archetype rule set (not sure how to make that balanced), the "queen" could be a custom summon (and screw the eidolon via archetype), or this isn't a summoner (in which case... use a wizard archetype/new spells/summons, some other existing class added with archeype/new spells/summons, or make a new class altogether/new spells/summons).
(Also, ways to emulate via non-3rd party pathfinder.)
Quickly, I just want to say that this part is optional.
A better place to start than the master summoner, might be to start with the broodmaster and tweak it from there. That one already has a system to deal with multiple permanent eidolons. I know its not exactly what you were looking for, but it might be a good start. I would say for your specific scenario, you drop 1 spell per level (similar to crossblooded sorceror), and likewise gain additional skillpoints/stat points/feats/armor bonus/evolution points/etc at certain levels.
i would do it something like
bonus skill/evolution points = highest cast-able spell level.
bonus feats/stat points (dex or str) at 5/10/15/20
bonus armor bonus at 4/8/12/16/20.
This would result in a broodmaster summoner with slightly better eidolons, and less casting. whether the trade-off as described is fair, weak, or overpowered i would not know.
also you might want to alter the capstone ability (doesn't seem to mesh with a chess master feel)
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Staying in the line with a rook or a bishop is going to be bad news, and God help them if the queen gets involved. Fast movement, good strength and a fairly dangerous set of blasts, the party might need to consider positions for least risk. A pawn might protect against a beam/spell related onslaught, but if they ever get to the end of the board... Hold onto your butts.
I don't know nearly enough about the mechanics to throw numbers around... But when I hear this, my mind automatically goes to clockwork constructs. A Tinker or Engineer type class could make this work. Throw in "gadgets" that mock magical spells like a flame thrower or lightning rod on the bishop or little steam powered thrusters on the Knight to make him charge... Oh... This will be a boss fight in my next campaign.
I think I'll even draw the board and move the pieces as if they were stuck to the movement rules of the game, and stagger moves with the party.
Well, that's defiantly one way to go about it. I think that's something I might want to try set up later....
Anyway, I recently found something in Dragon magazine #358 after an extensive search on the internet. In 3.5 dnd (I think... could have been 3.0) there are extra-planar constructs called the Chaturani. There are two groups of them, Light and Dark, and each individual Chaturani represents a chess piece. The article goes on to describe a magical artifact (a giant chess board) and spells that were capable of summoning them (basically altered summon monster spells... that for some reason don't list the King or Queen Chaturani even though they exist). Though interesting and something that might supply a frame work for the summoned creatures... I found them ridiculously powerful... The pawn, rook, and knight may be martial based (though each one has ridiculous supportive/"martial" abilities), but the bishop, king, and queen were arcane based with ridiculous magical abilities.... defiantly not for balanced pathfinder "character" use...
Scribd document Dragon #358
Perhaps there is no spell to summon the King because in order to control the pieces, the player has to don the crown? I mean... The game is lost when you are put in a position where the king would be killed in the next turn... Checkmate.
Perhaps there is no spell to summon the King because in order to control the pieces, the player has to don the crown? I mean... The game is lost when you are put in a position where the king would be killed in the next turn... Checkmate.
That's an interesting point... but that doesn't explain why you can't at least bring the queen in...
Just found a "Chess Master" archetype... not what I was looking for... but its interesting at least. I found it in the Ultimate Truenaming book by Interjection Games. The Archetype is for their custom Truenamer class and is a "chess master" because of how they use truenaming: Making a purely mental construct, a chess board and all of its pieces, and assigning their powers to each piece to have special effects. Kinda does the more tactical, strategy part of chess than it does the "army" part...
Self Pity Bump!