What Is There To Summon?

[scc]

So you've saved up your points and brought a level of Planar Summons, so what can you actually summon?

Demons are the classic answer, but they've got their own spell for some reason.

Angels (or other celestial servitors) then! Well they're not always available (some setting allow demons but not angels) and if demons require a separate spell angel should as well, or at least use the same one as demons.

There are again separate spells for elementals, but the way the spell is written it's not a proper inter-denominational summoning, rather calling something somewhere near to you, coupled with the fact that there are spells to create these elementals it's likely that they aren't proper elementals but rather servitors created by humans, it's quite possible that 'real' elementals can be summoned by Gate magic.

There's a Summon Spirit spell, but that just allows you to talk to the dead, and I'd make the recent dead, so Gate-ing in things like Valkyries and Einherjar from a death-realm are possible.

Djinn are a possibility, assuming your GM is that free with wishes and you feel confident enough to take the chance summoning something that tricky.

Any suggestions? Could the monsters out of Greek and the like myth be summonable? And where from?

[Anaraxes]

It's pretty setting-specific, which is probably why the (brief) description doesn't go into details.

The other text example is Lovecraftian horrors. Valkyrie work. So would fey and their relatives from other cultures. Evil (or good) twins from the mirror universe and other alternate universes. Your Patronus. Sufficiently advanced / ascended beings (likely "energy beings"). If you can ascend to a "higher plane of existence", then perhaps you can descend to a "lower" one as well -- though that's less likely to produce for you an awesome minion, unless you take "lower" to mean "evil", where we're back to demons.

In short, anything that doesn't already have some other spell, and isn't an inhabitant of some other place in your home "plane" (whatever that means). "Summoning" from within your plane is teleport magic.

Define "planes" for your setting, and you'll have some idea of what can come from other planes.

[ericthered]

djinn don't have to grant wishes. Even the original Aladdin tale didn't feature that: they just did whatever he asked them to, and they didn't have the power that wish-granting genies are often portrayed with. So summoning them isn't a huge idea if you stick with the older source material.

But as Anaraxes states, its very setting dependent.

In narnia you occasionally have humans from earth as the people summoned.

I think Deities fit surprisingly well. This fits into the Lovecraft theme, but can be extended to many different supernatural entities. One could summon a spirit of vengeance against those who commit familicide and turn them loose on a suitable target.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by scc

So you've saved up your points and brought a level of Planar Summons, so what can you actually summon?

Things that are not covered by other summoning spells. Details are setting specific. Really, there should be a separate planar summons for each source.

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by ericthered

djinn don't have to grant wishes. Even the original Aladdin tale didn't feature that: they just did whatever he asked them to, and they didn't have the power that wish-granting genies are often portrayed with. So summoning them isn't a huge idea if you stick with the older source material.

Heh, bottles of djinn are older than Aladdin ... and in the original traditions, they tend to be in there for a good reason. Typically they are said to be bottled up by someone like Solomon for various crimes or tricked into the bottle by a sahir because they were being a nuisance. Letting them out could be extremely dangerous. The "wish granting genie" is several levels of bowdlerisation downstream of the original source.

[AlexanderHowl]

Planar Summons is specific to each plane, so it really depends on the game setting. In some settings, you will have just one version and, in others, you will have hundreds of versions. In any case, the spell is dangerous because the FP cost is 1 FP per 10 CP, which means that even a 1000 CP minor god will cost you 100 FP and a 10,000 CP major god will cost you 1,000 FP. In addition, minor gods will likely have a minimum Will 20 while major gods will likely have a minimum Will 200, meaning that they will be free to do horrible things to you, like taking you and all of your friends home with them for snacks (or worse). In addition, they will likely cause every Fright Checks at a severe penalty even if they do nothing but huff before going away.

[Anthony]

Just checking: summon demon is planar summons; the text specifically notes that it's a version of planar summons and uses the same rules (and it has the same prerequisites and everything). Planar summons exists for completeness.

[Culture20]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Heh, bottles of djinn are older than Aladdin ... and in the original traditions, they tend to be in there for a good reason. Typically they are said to be bottled up by someone like Solomon for various crimes or tricked into the bottle by a sahir because they were being a nuisance. Letting them out could be extremely dangerous. The "wish granting genie" is several levels of bowdlerisation downstream of the original source.

Even if they did gratefully grant wishes for being released from bottle traps, they doubtlessly would be less pleased about being unceremoniously ripped from their true home.

[Not]

http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.p...64&postcount=2

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by scc

So you've saved up your points and brought a level of Planar Summons, so what can you actually summon?

Demons are the classic answer, but they've got their own spell for some reason.

They've got their own spell so that when you cast it you have a pretty clear idea what you are getting and how to contain it and defend yourself against it.
I mean if you cast a spell that could summon a spirit bear, a byakhee or a Japanese teenager you may find yourself a bit unprepared for the results. Thus specialized Planar Summons make a lot of sense.