GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 9: Summoners

[demonsbane]

Great, I was expecting this release. It seems, in various ways, an essential addition to the Dungeon Fantasy line. Now, I need to actually read it ^_^

Originally Posted by Greg 1

Absolutely superb. Bravo!

My only concern is that so much of this material is useful outside of a DF campaign. In particular, most fantasy campaigns are liable to benefit from the material in this book.

You know, the blurriness between Fantasy and Dungeon Fantasy . . .

I would bet some people actually sees & uses the various DF installments as companions to 4e GURPS Fantasy, in some way like the Spaceships releases are companions to 4e GURPS Space.

Originally Posted by Kromm

(...) Rounding things out are notes on how to use spirits – especially insubstantial spirits – in hack-and-slash campaigns, and on taking things to the next level . . . specifically, into spirit realms and other dimensions. And gamers who prefer a more thoughtful approach to the genre will be happy to learn that while there's plenty of munchkin potential here, this supplement lends itself to serious game play more readily than do most of the previous DF volumes.

Having in mind the "spirits" material present in 4e GURPS Fantasy along with the alternate magic systems contained in GURPS Thaumatology, DF: 9 Summoners can be another "glimpse" of GURPS Spirits for the current fourth edition.

[PK]

Originally Posted by RyanW

18, if you count Mystic Knight (from Pyramid #13).

19, if you count the Justiciar from the "Crime and Grime" issue, as well. Heck, 20 if you count . . . oh, wait, that hasn't been announced yet. Nevermind. Yeah, 19 it is.

[Kuroshima]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

19, if you count the Justiciar from the "Crime and Grime" issue, as well. Heck, 20 if you count . . . oh, wait, that hasn't been announced yet. Nevermind. Yeah, 19 it is.

You're evil, Rev...

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by umbros

I thought Paut only restored fatigue points lost to magic? Implying that it can't raise it above your max "full" score?

Wait, don't spells easily go into -FP when casting?

[PK]

Attn: I've posted updates for the four new DF9 templates on the "Splitting IQ from Per/Will in Dungeon Fantasy" page of MyGURPS. So if you use my Per/Will house rule, this has all of the changes you'll want to make to the DF templates to accommodate it.

http://www.mygurps.com/d_iqperwill.html

[ericbsmith]

Originally Posted by Molokh

Wait, don't spells easily go into -FP when casting?

Easily? See p. B426. For every FP you lose below 0 you take 1 HP of injury as well. Casting healing spells with negative FP is rather counter productive. I'd also assess a skill penalty for Shock to the spell casting roll (which is less severe than the skill penalty for burning HP to cast spells, since it's capped at -4). I wouldn't call that easy.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

Easily? See p. B426. For every FP you lose below 0 you take 1 HP of injury as well. I wouldn't call that easy. Casting healing spells with negative FP is rather counter productive.

Not a big deal if HP and/or FP >10 and you're casting a spell which heals MUCH more HP than that (so the off-healer can patch you up later).

[Captain-Captain]

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

Easily? See p. B426. For every FP you lose below 0 you take 1 HP of injury as well. Casting healing spells with negative FP is rather counter productive. I'd also assess a skill penalty for Shock to the spell casting roll (which is less severe than the skill penalty for burning HP to cast spells, since it's capped at -4). I wouldn't call that easy.

It turns 2 pts of major healing into one point of healing. Minor healing doesn't really get helped by this however.

[Rasputin]

Is it just I, or do the templates in this supplement seem best suited to boss baddies?

[PK]

Originally Posted by Rasputin

Is it just I, or do the templates in this supplement seem best suited to boss baddies?

Demonologist and necromancer are both class "bad guy occupations", so I see where you're coming from there. But it's possible for both to be decent folk -- I once played a very good necromancer who focused mainly on spirit spells. Anyway, even if they're kind of nasty in conception, there's nothing stopping one from having an evil party; heck, DF3 even went out of its way to create the Evil Cleric and Unholy Warrior.

As for the elementalist and shaman, I don't see it at all. The former is just a specialized wizard (with access to a few minor powers) while the latter is about as neutral as concept as one can get.

But anyway, most of the book is already devoted to serving double duty as both "useful summonable Allies" and "monsters you can fight", so there's no reason the templates can't do the same as potential PCs or great bad guys. I'm sure that a 400-point elementalist would be scary as all hell to fight, especially if he spent the extra 150 points on Allies.....