So our friendly PC Druid has achieved 3rd level, and her randomly gained spell is Summon Monster... And its a doozy. We looked it over and there's some very subtle wording in there that we agreed together on how to handle it...
First it says you can summon a 'monster' native to this plane of existance. So what qualifies as a monster? 3rd Edition D&D defined all sorts of creature types like Animal, Beast, Monstrosity, Abberation, etc... Which does not exist as a rule or definition in DCC. So what to do? We decided on what *not* to allow to start -- golems, demons, elementals, undead, as they are not native to this plane. I'd allow summoning a Primeval Slime or Troll for sure. What about animals? Well the spell Animal Summoning clearly only allows 'mundane animals' so I would allow giant spiders or snakes, blackvoles, anything with a hint of mutation or the supernatural... So pretty open.
Next the spell states the caster must have some 'material remnant expeded in casting the spell'. Whoo boy, whats a simple way to deal with this? Obviously you need a critter tooth or ear or renal gland to limit the caster to creatures they have encountered or know, but how do they get the remnant? I decided a DC15 Int check (or for a druid for something beast like a class Wildcraft check) will get you 1d6 bits that wont rot or go bad -- not getting into further detail than that. I'd probably allow 1 bit for a DC10 check. So our Druid currently has 4 Hunter Spider and 1 Owlbear bits... Tough luck, no 1HD or 2HD critters in her repetoire. And as she casts and summons things, the bits are used up. Feels right and motivates the player with a minimum of bookkeeping.
So if the caster has to choose depending on casting what creatures of what HD level to summon -- so that means, in the interests of keeping the game flowing, and letting the player get full use of their spells, I have to share stat blocks of summonable monsters in advance. Now, I would far rather keep monsters secret, even after encountered, but that will slow down play in later sessions, so I've decided if bits are harvested, I'll hand over the stat block to the player.
Lastly, the spell talks about creating a summoning pentacle. I suppose it could be a ring of salt, lines drawn in the dirt, a ring of candles, chalk runes, whatever... On a spell result between 14 and 19 the summoned creature can't leave the circle, but higher results they can, but the spell ends if the pentacle is broken. So, if cast in the wizard's home, no big deal, but what if it's cast in the dungeon? I suppose I'll make two recurring wandering monster checks, one for the party, and one for the pentacle....
That's what we've hashed out so far, got any other ideas? Drop me a note at archadethered@gmail.com.
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