Summoning feat

[RobbyPants]

How ridiculous is this feat? I created it for some house rules and it saw use in the game for a bit, but because the character multiclassed, his druid was two levels behind, which made his summon one level weaker than it should have been. So, it hasn't really been tested in play.


Master Summoner [General]
  Prerequisite: Charisma 13+.
  Benefit: When you summon a creature with a Summon Monster, Summon Nature’s Ally, or Summon Undead spell, you may opt to make the duration permanent. If the creature is killed, the creature disappears as normal and this effect immediately ends. As long as this ability is in effect, you do not regain the spell slot used to cast this spell each day; you must keep it in reserve to maintain the effect. You may dismiss the creature and this effect at any time as a standard action. You may only have one such creature permanently summoned with this ability at any given time.


So, am I missing anything? Any obvious abuses? Is it broken, lame, or somewhere in the middle? If it's just a smidge on the powerful side, could it be toned down with adding Augment Summoning as a prereq (which has it's own prereq)?

[phaedrusxy]

I think it's OK, due to the limitation of only having one at a time. It's basically Persistent spell for a single summons. I am not a fan of feat chains in general, but if you're looking to balance it vs. "standard" D&D, Augment Summoning is a logical prereq.

[linklord231]

Well it's strictly better than the Summon Elemental reserve feat.

But I think I remember aeeing something similar elsewhere, maybe in Pathfinder or Dragon.

How does it interact with the option to summon multiple lower level creatures?

[RobbyPants]

I think it's OK, due to the limitation of only having one at a time. It's basically Persistent spell for a single summons. I am not a fan of feat chains in general, but if you're looking to balance it vs. "standard" D&D, Augment Summoning is a logical prereq.

Not so bad, then. It's balanced against feats half-way between "normal" 3.5 feats and Tome.

Well it's strictly better than the Summon Elemental reserve feat.

But I think I remember aeeing something similar elsewhere, maybe in Pathfinder or Dragon.

How does it interact with the option to summon multiple lower level creatures?

Yeah, I hadn't thought about the reserve feat. Most of those are a bit weaker than I'd like to see from a reserve feat. You reminded me: I may want to re-write those too...

As for summoning multiple creatures, I should probably make sure it's clear that you may only have one creature summoned at a time, so if you use it to summon multiple low level creatures, you would pick one of them at the time of summoning to have be persistent.

[phaedrusxy]

Uhh... the reserve feat is better in one way: if the elemental gets killed, you don't lose the spell slot. You can just summon another one "for free". I think with this, you need to recast the spell. So you can get unlimited summons (albeit one at a time) with the reserve feat. With this, you only get as many as you have spell slots available (and/or prepared).

[RobbyPants]

Uhh... the reserve feat is better in one way: if the elemental gets killed, you don't lose the spell slot. You can just summon another one "for free". I think with this, you need to recast the spell. So you can get unlimited summons (albeit one at a time) with the reserve feat. With this, you only get as many as you have spell slots available (and/or prepared).

This is true. It's different than a reserve feat in that you have to cast the spell to get the effect, and you have to keep that slot tied each day up to maintain the effect.

[RobbyPants]

Now that I think about it, how much would it matter if I allowed the feat to make multiple summons permanent from a single casting (when you use a spell to summon multiple monsters off of a lower level list)? Theoretically, 1d3 monsters from Summon Monster II are "as good as" one from Summon Monster III. If you spend a 3rd level spell slot, does it matter?

[DavidWL]

Now that I think about it, how much would it matter if I allowed the feat to make multiple summons permanent from a single casting (when you use a spell to summon multiple monsters off of a lower level list)? Theoretically, 1d3 monsters from Summon Monster II are "as good as" one from Summon Monster III. If you spend a 3rd level spell slot, does it matter?

I think it's fine.  Same ~CR.

Best,
David

[linklord231]

Uhh... the reserve feat is better in one way: if the elemental gets killed, you don't lose the spell slot. You can just summon another one "for free". I think with this, you need to recast the spell. So you can get unlimited summons (albeit one at a time) with the reserve feat. With this, you only get as many as you have spell slots available (and/or prepared).

Didn't think of that.  Good point.