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DFRPG / Re: What's the most munchkin character you can build?
« on: May 17, 2010, 04:57:00 AM »Are you serious?
A) Is an Char unrealistic who only works 8 hours per month? Because of too much work? Then any normal mortal who didnt won in the lottery is unrealistic?
B) Do you think he can use the "Army" only for fighting, because I wrote Army there? He can have the right tool for the right job every time he wants it. Scouting, no Problem. Fighting, no Problem. Information gathering, no Problem. Fast talkin, no Problem. Going to jail for you (Go to the Police and make an "I did it" statement), no Problem. And so on...
C) The Chars in you game dont have 8 uninterupted hours in an month?
And even then, he coud divide those 8 hours in sixteen half hours and summon and bind creatures before he goes to bed.
"A" and "C" have nothing to do with the time investment being too much, and everything to do with a character whose response to a threat is to summon an army. As has been pointed out other places, there are game (not necessarily system, mind you, although their could be) ramifications to summoning and binding large numbers of creatures routinely. And you missed my point on the time investment, because what I was saying was that I don't routinely give my players 8 uninterrupted hours during an adventure with which to do whatever they want. Time constraints are king. If there's an evil warlock trying to complete a magic ritual, he's likely got a time-frame. And the player may not HAVE 8 hours to spend before they need to stop him.
In your other example, if he's summoning creatures before bed what is he doing with them in the meantime? Do they just sit around his apartment? Watch some TV? Do the neighbors notice something weird? Landlady? What if aforementioned Warlock can tell something weird is going on, and calls in a tip to the police who show up with a warrant? Do his summoned beasts need to eat? Honestly, the comic potential for having a dozen unruly summoned creatures in your apartment... well, it boggles the mind. As a GM I'd salivate over the chance to mess with a character that way. It would just be too funny.
I think his point is that they won’t have time to do it in an adventure. And personally, I’d say this kind of constant mass binding is probably about as likely to get you dead as a single big-thing binding. Every non-bound critter in the city will constantly be trying to kill you, just so you don’t enslave them someday.
^-This. I actually think exploring the story ramifications could be cool, though, so I have no problem with a character summoning a ton of creatures. I'm just pointing out that it could cause massive problems for the character.
As for being able to tailor the army to whatever you want, that's true to a point. But I hold that it makes things too simplistic. Again, if you're not putting a character under any sort of time constraint, the problem is simpler than it would be. Or if you put them in situations where there is a clear foe to defeat. Even scouting won't help if you don't know what you're actually looking for and have to deal with surly bound creatures who aren't inclined to exercise initiative on your behalf. Remember how Grimalkin hates being bound by Harry in SK? Think about that times 100. And god help you if you summon a creature and force it to divulge information without payment. It may then decide to come back later to collect, or sell your "debt" to something a lot stronger.
I mean, c'mon, does anything LIKE being called out of wherever they were and told to do stuff? Without payment? Or, if it DID want to be summoned, would it go back nicely afterwards? And if you're playing them, then the GM has an in to limit your summoning to something... manageable. If not, you may have just summoned a new villain for your character. Or army of villains.
But this is all really about GMing style. My bottom line is I think summoning an army is totally awesome, and I'm glad you can do it within the rules. I just think that it provides so many story-based hooks and downsides that it's impractical to use regularly.