>Summoners are some asshole with a cell phone What did

File: pokemon_trainer.jpg (96KB, 479x319px) Image search: [Google]

96KB, 479x319px

>>49946086
>assholes
Classes with "pets" are a dick to play with in most RPG systems. Nobody likes fighting the guy who just hides behind 10,000 skeletons or keeps summoning a new mook every time you kill their old one.

>with cell phones
Summoning classes in most tabletop systems can't do anything on their own. Their entire character is "I sit back and play Pokemon trainer while my pets do things for me! Then I take all the credit!"

File: Contact Other Plane.jpg (202KB, 869x1237px) Image search: [Google]

202KB, 869x1237px

>>49946086

>>49946086
if you threaten someone and they call their shifty friend on their cellphone and the shifty friend fucks you up then you know what its like to meet a summoner.

File: Smt2comp.jpg (497KB, 1880x1880px)

497KB, 1880x1880px

>>49946086
It's called a COMP you dumbass.

>>49946303
There's a summoner in my setting whose summons explode for a fuckton of damage if he gets attacked. Go for the summoner first? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA THAT'S THE OLDEST TACTIC IN THE BOOK.

"Heeeeeeeey emrakul, how's it going, girlfriend? Not much? Just screwing over some plane that no one really cares about? That's sweet, that's sweet.

"Oh hey, do you mind doing me a favor? Yeah, so this guy that I know put me in this silver thing, and now I'm really mad at him, would you mind coming over and wrecking this stupid plane? Wait, you can't find it? Oh, wait, hold up, I need to deal with this stupid angel.

"Alright, got it. You can get in now? Sweet! Alright, thanks Emmy, really appreciate it."

-Nahri, probably.

>>49946438
>be summoner
>standing reasonable distance from summons
>get attacked
>suicide-summons blow up
>now alone with someone who thinks he can take me

OR

>standing next to summons
>get stabbed, it hurts a lot
>summons blow up right next to me, just as planned
>even more pain
>probably dead if not very seriously wounded
>if alive, then alone without my precious minions
>probably next to a still-living hero intent on using my face as a scabbard

Masterful tactics

>>49946546
>All summoners are frail bookworms
Don some armor, motherfucker.

>>49946572
Cool, so now you're a damage sponge who just sits there summoning weaker mooks over and over. Yeah... really fun and interesting to play with or against... not tedious or annoying at all.

>>49946572
Either way, I'd rather have the summons around to protect me.

I'd probably just go with a different trigger for their suicide attacks, allowing for a little more nuance and discretion. Like me commanding them to explode perhaps. Something that would let a few of them suicide-bomb my opponent, while the others can clean him up the normal way, giving me some room for error.

>>49946303
>>49946395
>>49946446
>>49946709

This. Summoning classes are a cancer on roleplaying games, both thematically and mechanically. At their very best, they're anti-climatic to fight and slow the entire game down by requiring separate action economy and stat blocks. At their very worst they're an excuse for That Guys to sit back and handle situations without actually taking any risk themselves, or a way for That GM to keep his super special campaign villain from ever actually being defeated by the players.

>>49946814
>That GM to keep his super special campaign villain from ever actually being defeated by the players.

I guess it depends on how it's handled, but I would be pretty pleased to spend part of a campaign working against the summoned lieutenants of a master conjurer.

It's a believable way to have some recurring villain characters that the PCs get to fight more than once. You could even set up a boss-rush: as the summoner holes up and the PCs get close, all his strongest servants re-emerge in a last bid to stop the PCs.

I won't lie. Once I hit about 6th level as summoner, I use a higher level summon monster to spam shitloads of lower monsters and directly surround people with them. I'll summon five wolves surrounding the boss so that he cannot move, and any action he takes short of attack or total defense provokes AoO.

I understand the reason behind people not liking it. My turns were never more than 10-14 seconds tops, but it was repetitive, and took all the fun out of it.

>>49946423
Nope, it's called a smartphone these days.
It even has a Demon Summoning App.