The conjuration school of arcane magic calls materials, creatures or energy to the caster and can also be reversed to send creatures to other places, either over long distances or even to a whole different plane.
Subschools[]
- Calling: Spells of this type take creatures from their natural plane and bring them to the caster. They have one chance to return to their home plane but the spell usually restricts the circumstances that would allow it to do so. Creatures who are called actually die when they are killed; they do not disappear and reform, as do those brought by a summoning spell (see below). The duration of a calling spell is instantaneous, which means that the called creature can’t be dispelled. A called creature cannot use any innate summoning abilities it may have, and it is incapable of casting any spells that would cost it XP, or using any spell-like abilities that would cost XP if they were spells.
- Creation: These spells manipulate matter itself to create an object or creature. Most, but not all of these spells require more magic to hold the creation together after it has been made and when the magic of the spell wears off, the creation simply disappears and the matter returns to its original form, whatever that may have been. Those that don't rely on magic to hold it together last indefinitely. If the spell has an instantaneous duration, the created object or creature is merely assembled through magic. It lasts indefinitely and does not depend on magic for its existence. It is however magical in nature, and is effected by Dispel Magic as if it were a Disintegrate spell.
- Summoning: Summoning spells bring a creature or object from wherever it currently is to the caster of the spell. When the spell expires, creatures are instantly sent back to wherever they came from, although objects do not unless the spell used to summon them was designed to. If a creature is killed while under the effects of a summoning spell, they instantly disappear and reform at the point that they were summoned from. It takes 24 hours for the creature to reform, during which time it can’t be summoned again. When the spell that summoned a creature ends and the creature disappears, all the spells it has cast expire. A summoned creature cannot use any innate summoning abilities it may have, and it refuses to cast any spells that would cost it XP, or to use any spell-like abilities that would cost XP if they were spells.
- Teleportation: These spells transport the subjects of the spell over great distances, usually via the Astral Plane. The most powerful of these spells can teleport the subject to a destination in another plane entirely. Teleportation spells are often one-way and require another teleportation spell to return.
Creation[]
By default, all creation type magic creates things that are slightly less then average in quality. Divine magic often allows creation of superior things in accordance with the deities ethos. Anything created has a slight feeling of wrongness to it such as the wrong weight(often lighter then the real thing), the reflectivity or shine(often much duller then the real thing), and the texture(often soft and sponge-like). A DC check of 10 for Spellcraft, or any appropriate craft or profession skill can tell the artificial nature of a magically created item.
- By default, magic that summons or creates objects have as an additional material component a piece of material that was once part of a creature or object of the type to be summoned/polymorphed. Pieces of certain exotic monsters will have a high market value. (So Eschew Materials will be ineffective). Only some divine magic can ignore this.
Teleportation[]
- You can only teleport a number of miles equal to your caster level. (When teleporting through the use of a racial ability, the distance is limited to a number of miles equal to your total HD.)
- Teleporting characters or objects disappear instantly, but teleportation takes a number of rounds equal to the number of miles traveled (minimum of 1 round). During this time, characters at the destination of the teleport can make a Spot check (DC 20). If the check succeeds, they are aware of the incoming teleport. If the distance of the teleport is a mile or less, characters at the receiving end of the teleport will only have a surprise round in which to take actions before the teleport is completed.
- Teleport Destination: The caster must have a clear mental picture of the teleport destination. For the best results the caster must physically be in the target location for a full hour and make careful notes of the sight, sound, smell and feel of the area. The caster must pick a mostly static location, one that does not change with the passage of time. A destination only remains valid if less then 50% of area remains the same to match the mental picture in the casters mind. Small changes, such as a tree blowing in the wind have no effect, however cutting down the tree makes the destination invalid for a caster that has the tree as part of their mental destination picture.
If the caster does not have a full hour of study on a location, the chance of the teleportation success is only 20%, plus one percent per caster level.
- Teleport Trace: Outgoing teleport spells leave a teleport trace during the duration of the teleport. Characters at the source of a teleport can make a Spot check (DC 20) to spot the teleport trace. Teleport spells and similar effects can be used to automatically follow the original teleport, although the caster will not know where the teleport spell goes until they arrive. Scrying sensors can be sent through a teleport trace.
- Dispelling Teleports: Spellcasters who are aware of the incoming teleport can attempt to counterspell the teleport (even though they are unable to see the caster).
- Blocked Teleports: If a teleport is counterspelled, blocked, or otherwise disrupted the character or object being teleported returns to its original location.
- Creatures adjacent to a caster activating a teleportation spell would would not normally be included in the spell's effect may make a Reflex save (DC as normal for a teleportation spell of the level) to “hitch a ride” and be carried along by the magic, ending up adjacent to the caster. For every 20 feet a creature's movement speed exceeds 20ft per round, he may be an additional 5 feet away and still "hitch a ride." (Thus, a wizard could grab his friend's hand and cast teleport to move them both away, but the adjacent orc could make a reflex save to follow him. Alternately, a wizard could cast dimension hop, and his adjacent rogue ally could make a reflex save to follow him, even though the spell normally only affects one creature.)
- Extradimensional spaces are hazardous to teleport. There is a flat 50% chance that anything teleorted in an extradimensional space is lost. There is a further 50% chance that the contents are simply utterly destroyed or teleported to a random location(often, but not always, the Astral Plane).
- Gate: The gate spell can be used to circumvent the distance limitation on teleportation. The casting time for the spell is equal to 1 round per mile traveled or 1d10 minutes for interplanar travel. During the casting time, the gate is clearly visible from both ends and events at the other end of the gate can be seen murkily through it (Spot checks suffer a -10 penalty). Once the gate is established, travel through the gate is instantaneous.
Summoning[]
- The strain of binding and controlling a summoned creature imposes a cumulative -1 penalty to caster level for each creature currently summoned.
- When casting a summoning spell, there is a 1% chance per spell level that the spell goes horribly awry and summons something else entirely. The exact nature of the mistake is left up to the DM, depending on the power of the spell and what the desired result was. Occasionally, this results in something insignificantly weak, such as a celestial chipmunk. Other times, your summon monster II delivers a hezrou. The new creature is not bound by any sort of magic, and may break the summon at any time it wishes and return to its home plane. It cannot be dismissed by dismissing the spell.
- A creature summoned into a situation it doesn’t like may attempt to break the magical contract and escape the plane with a successful Will save (DC as normal for a spell of the summon’s level). Making this check is a swift action. A particularly upset summoned creature may remain on the plane for the remainder of the spell’s duration to attack the caster, who may not dismiss it.
- The chance of a Conjuration [Calling] spell such as planar ally going horribly wrong is 5% per spell level. If the new target has too many hit die to be affected by the spell normally, it may burst through summoning circles and constraints with ease, typically with horrible consequences for the summoner.
- Conjuration [Calling] spells do not have experience costs to cast; however, the creatures almost always demand that the summoner sacrifice part of his own life force as part of their payment for the services, typically to the quantity of 1/10th the gold piece cost (see the spell lesser planar ally for details.
- Outsiders summoning other outsiders from their own plane, such as a demon's summon ability, are not subject to the restrictions noted above.
- Magic that summons have as an additional material component a piece of material that was once part of a creature or object of the type to be summoned/polymorphed. Pieces of certain exotic monsters will have a high market value. (So Eschew Materials will be ineffective).
One of the most contentious parts of the D&D ruleset involves the summoning and binding of Extraplanar beings. We all agree that we want demon summoning, but we can’t agree on what we want it to do. Should they be mindless slaves, or should they be tricksy tricksters who will eat your face if given the slightest chance? How exactly do planar ally and planar binding work? Can you just intimidate an outsider, or do you need to bargain with them with fair trade? Below are some additional rules to flesh out the experience: The Deal Making a deal with a fiend is usually a DM’s call. He decides just how much interference he wants a summoning spell to do with his adventure, then he lets the party offer trade or threats until they get what they want up to the limits he has set. For DMs who don’t want to stop-rule this each time, here is a list of tasks you can ask of a creature called by summoning spells: Part 1: Differences between Summoning and Calling First, we must reiterate the difference between summoning and calling. Summoning brings a creature to your location that follows both the intent and letter of your orders, has no free will, and will not act willingly act against your interests. When this creature dies, it and any effect it created vanishes (unless that effect was an instant effect). This creature has knowledge, but no personality or history. In effect, it only exists while the spell lasts.
Calling spells bring an actual creature to your location, ripped from whatever place in the universe it existed. If you know a creature’s name (not its True Name, which we will discuss later, but a use-name that it answers to), you can call that individual, along with any equipment or treasure it is carrying, but otherwise you get a random individual of that race. It has a personality and feelings, and when the spell ends it is returned to its original location. In effect, this creature has a life, and if treated badly enough, it may seek out its summoner for revenge. Part 2: Choosing a Pawn D&D rules are silent on the issue of the limits of calling magic. While spells with the [summoning] subtype have specific lists of creatures that they call, [calling] spells usually have no such limits (except for the planar ally spells that force the DM to choose a creature). A simple way to limit creatures called is to only allow a summoner to call creatures that he could reasonably know about, and this means a Knowledge check. Force the player to make a Knowledge check each time he wants to summon a particular race of creature for the first time (in effect, the base creature in the Monster Manual or other source). If he fails that check, he may not attempt another check for that base creature until he gains at least one rank in the relevant skill. Once he can summon a base creature, he may summon a templated version of that creature with an additional Knowledge check (and if he fails that check, he may not attempt another check for that templated creature until he gains at least one rank in the relevant skill). This check uses the same Knowledge skill that would be required to identify that creature. The following modifiers also apply to the DC of the check. +15 A normal creature, but with the extraplanar subtype +5 Per CR of racial templates applied to base creature -5 Spent one day studying the dead body a creature of the same race and racial templates. -10 Spent one week studying a living member of that race and racial templates +10 Never seen an example of the creature. -10 Detailed written description of appearance and powers (must be 100% complete)
- Creatures with class levels or versions of monsters advanced by HD count as unique creatures, and they
cannot be called without their use-name. A player is responsible for recording each monster that he can call, and the ones he has failed to call. Once he has made a check for a particular combination of race and templates, he does not need to do so again. Here is an example: Morgothazan the Dark casts lesser planar binding, and he would like to call a Small Fire Elemental. To identify such a creature, he would need a Knowledge (the planes) check of 10 + the HD of a Small Fire Elemental creature, which is 2, meaning he needs a 12 to identify and call a Small Fire Elemental. As a 9th level wizard with a +14 modifier in Knowledge(the Planes), he automatically succeeds. The next day, he decides that he wants to call a Half Fiend Small Fire Elemental. He has never seen such a creature, but he knows that it must exist somewhere in the planes. His base DC is 12, plus another +10 for never having seen this oddity, and another +5 for the additional CR added to it, bringing his DC to 27. His modifier is +14, and he rolls a 12, meaning his gets a 26. Until he raises his Knowledge planes skill, he can’t call a Small Fire Elemental modified by the Half-Fiend template. Several weeks later, Morgothazan the Dark wants to conjure a Half-fiendish Earth elemental. He already knows how to conjure a Small Earth Elemental, and he has actually fought and defeated a dead Half-fiendish Small Earth elemental. His base DC is 12, plus another +5 for the template, bringing his DC to 17. He rolls a 5, and he can call this monster. Emboldened by his success, he wants to be able to call a Half-Celestial Half-fiend Small Fire Elemental, but he remembers that he cannot (he can’t conjure a Half-Fiendish Small Fire Elemental, so a Half-Celestial Half-fiend Small Fire Elemental is not possible). Instead, he tries the same templates on a Small Earth Elemental, as he has a detailed description of such a creature and he has had success with Half-fiend Small Earth Elementals. His base DC is 12, and his detailed description (-10) offsets the fact that he has never seen this creature(+10). Then an additional +10 is added for the CR increase from the two templates, making his final DC 22. He rolls a 10 and succeeds! Part 3: Services! When you cast a calling spell, you are bargaining for a single service. While normal bargaining could get you more complex arrangements, conjuring magic that calls real creatures can only force compliance to single services. For example, while a greater planar binding spell can bring a Pit Fiend to the Prime, the spell can only force to creature to obey the agreement set for a single service. Any additional services would not be guaranteed by the magic of the spell, and the Pit Fiend would keep or break any agreements as normal for that creature. Within the limits of the single service, a called creature can do whatever it wants. A genie ordered to guard a room is under no compulsion to use its create food and water ability for allowed occupants of that room, and it may choose whether to converse, sit or stand, eat, or do any other act that does not interfere with its task. Clever conjurers often set tasks with exceptions in them like “kill my enemies in Redstone Castle”, knowing that if they didn’t define “enemies” and instead said “kill everyone in the Redstone Castle,” the called creature would be free to attack the conjurer if he entered Redstone Castle. Called creatures will not agree to any services that are suicidal, self-destructive (like submitting to mindcontrol magic), or involve permanent self-sacrifice (like expending XP). They will also not agree to tasks that are impossible, or tasks that are so open-ended that could easily result in the creature’s destruction. Things you can ask a creature to do: Participate in a single battle Use a single use of one of its own abilities. Seek out an individual and either kill them or bring them to the summoner. Guard a spot for as long as the summoning spell lasts.Use a magic item Provide the results of one skill check Perform one task that does not involve any danger (like delivering a message by a safe route, survey a safe land, or dig a hole in an uncontested piece of land, etc) Offer their use-name Surrender personal treasure Requires a successful Intimidate check. Things that creatures will do for free (not services): Wait in a safe place in order to perform a service. Discuss the services they are willing to perform, and payment for those services. Exclude individuals from services (“kill anyone who enters except me”, “tell me about everyone you saw in the tunnel except the sorceress”) Some things demons won’t do, even under pain of death or destruction: Surrender their true name Voluntarily fail a save vs. an effect that would enslave or kill the demon Agree to unlimited service for a time period (for example, “Do my bidding for a week.”) Guard an individual for a time period. Agree to not act in a situation (for example, they will not agree to not act while someone builds a prison around them)Wait in an obviously dangerous place (“just wait in front of that army of archons, and shoot the first one”). Perform an act that would violate its alignment or code of conduct. Part 4: Closing the Deal Once you have agreed on services to be performed, it is necessary to convince a creature so serve. Many spells simply bring a creature and enforce any agreement, they do not actually create an agreement. To make an agreement, there are some things that must happen first: 1. The Conjurer must be able to communicate with the creature. This means that the creature must be capable of communication (Int 3 or better) and they must have a form of communication (shared language, telepathy, tongues, etc). 2. The Conjurer must successfully convince the creature. 3. The Conjurer must pay for services (if necessary).
The initial attitude of a creature is Indifferent, unless the conjurer has an opposed alignment (good and evil, law vs. chaos) in which case they are Hostile. To make an agreement, a successful Diplomacy check is required, and the attitude of the creature must be raised to at least Friendly. Once raised to Friendly, the creature performs its task as agreed and leaves when the task is completed, or when the spell’s duration ends. A bribe of treasure equal to the amount of treasure an encounter equal to the creature’s CR would earn is necessary to pay for these services. A Helpful check halfs this amount of treasure. A failed check means that the creature is not convinced, and a new check can be made the next day. A treasure of four time normal value automatically secures the creatures trust (Friendly result with no check). Note: planar ally spells call a Friendly creature, and only the treasure need be paid. Intimidate can be used as well, and this use of the skill can negate the need to pay for services, but earns the enmity of the creature. When the task is ended, but while the spell’s duration lasts, the creature may return home, ending the spell, but also has the option of seeking out the conjurer and attempting to harm him or foil his plans. When the duration of the spell ends, the creature is not returned home. This creature may choose at some later date to seek revenge on the conjurer. Bluff can also be used in place of Diplomacy in order to make the creature believe that items being offered are real treasure (when they might be worth less, or actually worthless). A successful result means that the creature accepts the offering and performs as if Diplomacy had made the creature Friendly. If the creature discovers during the course of the service that the treasure is not real, the binding magic fails and the creature is no longer forced to perform the service, and its attitude becomes Hostile. While the spell lasts, the creature may return home once as a free action, ending the spell. Part 5: The Business of Serving: One bound and a deal is made, the creature obeys according to pact made. Should the spell be ended, the creature is under no compulsion to obey the agreement (though some will out of fear or duty). Also, should the creature be put into a situation where the service cannot be competed (the person to be captured is killed by someone else, or the creature is forced to return to its home plane, for example), the service ends, and the creatures stays or returns as normal. If the summoner betrays the creature by attacking it, stealing its treasure, or doing some other harm, the spell ends and the creature may return home or stay to seek its revenge. Part 6: Appendix: True Names and Use-names True Names are names of special power, and most creatures don’t even know their True Name, or even how to get it. Special skills and some spells and effects can unravel a True Name, but the most common way to learn a True Name is for a powerful spellcaster to trade that knowledge to another creature for some treasure, favor, or True Name of equal power. Merely knowing a True Name is enough to grant power, since speaking the extraordinarily difficult word is a magical process that is unnecessary for most summonings (True Naming magic is a separate art from divine and arcane spellcasting, and is frankly not powerful enough for most would-be summoners). The feat Broker of the Infernal is one way of using True Names without learning the True Name skill or brand of magic.) Use-Names, on the other hand, are far simpler. If you have seen a creature’s true form and you know a name that it answers to, you can use calling magic to summon it.
Conjuration Arcane School[]
The conjurer focuses on the study of summoning monsters and magic alike to bend to his will.
Summoner's Charm (Su)[]
Whenever you cast a conjuration (summoning) spell, increase the duration by a number of rounds equal to 1/2 your wizard level (minimum 1). This increase is not doubled by Extend Spell. At 20th level, you can change the duration of all summon monster spells to permanent. You can have no more than one summon monster spell made permanent in this way at one time. If you designate another summon monster spell as permanent, the previous spell immediately ends.
Acid Dart (Sp)[]
As a standard action you can unleash an acid dart targeting any foe within 30 feet as a ranged touch attack. The acid dart deals 1d6 points of acid damage + 1 for every two wizard levels you possess. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence modifier. This attack ignores spell resistance.
Dimensional Steps (Sp)[]
At 8th level, you can use this ability to teleport up to 30 feet per wizard level per day as a standard action. This teleportation must be used in 5-foot increments and such movement does not provoke an attack of opportunity. You can bring other willing creatures with you, but you must expend an equal amount of distance for each additional creature brought with you.
Teleportation[]
Associated School: Conjuration.
Replacement Power: The following school power replaces the acid dart power of the conjuration school.
Shift (Su): At 1st level, you can teleport to a nearby space as a swift action as if using dimension door. This movement does not provoke an attack of opportunity. You must be able to see the space that you are moving into. You cannot take other creatures with you when you use this ability (except for familiars). You can move 5 feet for every two wizard levels you possess (minimum 5 feet). You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence modifier.