The Summoner and Her Guardians
The first time I played Final
Fantasy X was the first time I fell in love with a video game character. I know
it may sound weird, but if you think long and hard about it, there’s probably
been at least one character that you've been enamored with. Whether it was the
way they dressed, or the way they acted over the course of the game, or some
other factor, you ended up falling in love with them. You became attached and
never wanted to see them go.
My
first video game love was the High Summoner Braska’s daughter, Yuna. The first
time I saw her I went through the same emotion’s poop did (poop was my go-to video game name, so, thankfully, Tidus’s name became poop). I thought she was a
gorgeous specimen of video game physiology. Then she brought down the bird.
“My
god! Is that a giant monster? And it’s listening to her? Oh, no way!” That was
my freaking dream, I swear. She was this weak, frail little girl that there was
no way she could ever be any help in combat. But damn did she have friends in
high places. Strong friends. Giant, destructive friends. And they could throw
meteors!
That’s what I
always wanted! When my friends and I would run around after school and play
pretend, that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to look weak, make people think
they could defeat me, but then…wait, what’s that? Oh yeah, that’s right! It’s a
giant freaking monster that thinks I’m pretty awesome. What’s that? You
surrender? I thought as much.
Final Fantasy X
let me do that, it let me be that. And it let me do that with a gorgeous girl.
Wait…maybe that’s not the best way to phrase that. But you catch my drift. It
was legitimately the first time I fell in love with something and damn it if I didn't find myself using the Summons every chance I got.
Let’s go forward a
bit to the day I started playing DnD. I loved it because it let me be a wizard
and damn it if I don’t love being a wizard. But what do I love more than being
a wizard? Being like my love, Yuna, summoning large beasts to help me
accomplish my goal of saving the world.
My DM hated
summoning.
I was crushed.
But that didn't stop me from trying to develop a way that I could be like Yuna, because even
the summoning present in 3.5 wasn't what I had in mind. It was a step in the
right direction, but summoning was all I wanted to do and I wanted to summon
beasts! Not some peasant creature. Forget that.
So I went to work.
But for some reason or another I could not find a way to make it work. Not in
3.5. So I put the project away for a long time. Way too long. Before I knew it, 4e was oreleased and I was a little weirded out by the huge change from 3.5, but it
made me think a Summoner was possible again. With daily and encounter powers, maybe my dream of being my love was closer than it ever was.
I was wrong and it
was impossible. At least the way I wanted it done was impossible. So again, I
tabled it for a very long time. Almost forgot about it. Then I heard about DnD
Next and the play-tests that were being held. I downloaded the nice little
packet and started running my own campaign.
The first thing I
noticed was the versatility in all aspects. My home-brew rules seemed to work
more effectively, characters became more fleshed out and my players actually
started getting into the role-playing aspect of DnD. I was exuberant and once
again began thinking about my Yuna. While my love for her has faded over the
years for a newer, more mature love (Dr. Liara T'soni) I still hold a fond place
for her in my heart.
And I still really
want to be a summoner.
So here it is, my
version 1.0 of the summoner build. It may be unbalanced as of yet, but that’s
why I am posting this for all to see. I want it to be play-tested and developed
alongside DnD Next because I believe it is the next wave of DnD and will last
for decades (or until they start losing money).
The first thing
you will notice when you download the package is that I added quite of lot of
extra material besides just the Summoner class. I've developed a new form of
magic (Aeonic magic) and added more spells for both the Cleric and Wizard, I've wrote up a few backgrounds that are inspired by the characters in Final Fantasy
X, I've created a few new specialties and feats to go with them, and I’ve taken
a few of the legendary weapons from Final Fantasy X and made them magic items.
Now, just because
I created these things along with the Summoner does not mean that you must use
them. I created them spice up the package and to add flavor to an otherwise
boring DnD download. I did this solely so that the Summoner class would get
tested in real-game settings and in combat. So by all means, download the
packet, take the class and leave the rest. Whatever gets it out there.
To answer your
question, no I did not use the original Aeons from FFX. I know that it may seem
like a stupid idea, but for one, converting Final Fantasy stats to DnD stats is
not that easy to do correctly. I’m working on it as an addition to the Summoner
class, like a Deity for a Cleric. Whatever Summoner Deity you choose gives you
five specific summons.
Secondly, the DnD
world isn’t Spira. I created summons that I thought fit in with the DnD
setting. If you were looking to run a Spira campaign where you fought Sin and
summoned the final Aeon, that will take a lot more time. Not that I don’t plan
on doing it, but I’m a one man team. Cut me some slack.
If you have any
questions, concerns or have results of your play-test, let me know.
Download link: http://www.mediafire.com/?97kb9gm7cawtbcb
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