Talent/Spell of the Week: Summon Scout
 

This IQ 9 Creation spell evokes the trope of the witch's familiar by allowing the caster to summon a small mammal appropriate to the surrounding to follow the their commands, at the cost of 1ST/minute. Strangely, the spell description specifically rules out summoning birds as scouts. Partly because of this, I have seen experienced players eschew Summon Scout in favor of Image or Illusion, since the latter spells are far more versatile. Summon Scout has its advantages, though, such as the fact that a summoned critter--being real--can actuate triggers for traps, chew ropes, deliver keys, and knock over candles or lanterns (players do seem to love setting fires), all of which Illusions and Images are incapable of doing.

Summon Scout offers a lot of potential, but it seems a bit underpowered to me, even at IQ 9. An hourly maintenance cost strikes me as more reasonable for what the spell provides as benefit. And I would allow any small mundane animal to act as a scout--even a bird. After all, even if the intention of limiting the spell to mammals might have been to make aerial reconnaissance harder, the players have the easy exploit of using Image or Illusion instead to get that a bird.

That said, I have replaced Summon Scout in my games I GM with the entry level Familiar spell. This, I think, does a better job of filling the niche, and it provides some real benefits that can't be encroached on by Illusion or Image.

Conversation starters:

• How often do you see Summon Scout being used in your games?
• If you don't use the RAW version of the spell, how have you changed it?
• What other spells or talents can combine usefully with Summon Scout?
• Have you ever had a character for whom Summon Scout was their defining spell?
• Do you allow the spell to summon a slinker?

Re: Talent/Spell of the Week: Summon Scout
 

Nope, never used it or had any of my players use it.

We just abuse the heck out of the illusion spell.

However, your intro to this topic has given me some ideas about how a BBEG would use one...a bad guy could really make life miserable for a group of unsuspecting PC's....stealing small "trinkets", chewing through backpack straps, etc.

Re: Talent/Spell of the Week: Summon Scout
 

Yup--send a slinker (or even a few!) in to relieve them of those fancy magic amulets, rings, and potions.

Re: Talent/Spell of the Week: Summon Scout
 

Summon Scout has been used quite a bit by PCs in my game -- and at least once by NPCs, not to harass the party, but to recon for an attack on the party's domicile.

As is common, the NPC wizard sent a bat. It helped that at the time, I'd been learning about bats (because one kept finding a way into my house from the basement) and I was amazed that they can crawl through holes as small as a nickel, quarter, whatever it was. That made gaining entry into an old, large house was child's play.

I stick to the mammals-only rule because I like the fact that it's just an oddity for the spell. No real explanation, but if you want a scout, it's gotta be a mammal. Since bats are quite common in most areas, this really doesn't prevent flying scouts. The ability of bats to use sonar makes them more useful than a songbird, too.

The fact that the wizard somehow interprets the sonar makes one wonder, once again, what it is like to be a bat[1].

[1] Okay, I guess few folks will recognize the reference, so I'll commit the faux pas and explain it myself. There's a quite famous philosophy article titled "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?". And, in fact, it's kind of relevant to Summon Scout with bats. If you squint just right.

Re: Talent/Spell of the Week: Summon Scout
 

That shouldn’t be hard, since humans’ stereo auditory sense already contributes to the 3d models our minds make from our combined senses.

Re: Talent/Spell of the Week: Summon Scout
 

Staff to Snake has more ST, bites harder, and is almost as hard to hit as the bat, at the price of tying up the staff and being much slower.

Re: Talent/Spell of the Week: Summon Scout
 

Summon scout is usually on my short list for a wizard but is usually overtaken by image or illusion because they can act as scouts as well as other functions.

Can an Image of a bat or mouse/rat used as a scout squeeze through small openings?

Re: Talent/Spell of the Week: Summon Scout
 

I would think that they could. It isn't as though the floor under an image causes it to disappear, so why should the walls of a crevice?

Re: Talent/Spell of the Week: Summon Scout
 

Nagel certainly disagrees, but as he's a philosopher, we can safely ignore what he has to say.

Re: Talent/Spell of the Week: Summon Scout
 

The article* describes echolocation as "similar to the human sense of vision." That might be true if one accepts Plato's conception of vision, with the eye sending out rays, but that model has long since been abandoned by all by the most devoted of his followers. Oh, well, I guess that's what you get when philosophers delve into neuroscience.

*To be fair, that's the Wikipdia article on the paper, not the paper itself.