A 4E Request for minions!

[Shnezz]

I'm desperately, desperately wanting something that fits with 4E that will give me some sort of creation/summoning of minions/puppets/other!

I would deeply appreciate it if anyone could point me in the direction of anything, homebrewed or otherwise, that would allow this.

In essence, I want someone who can personally hide, sneak, etc, while their minions/mechanical creations/other fight. I'd prefer something with a variety. (Meaning, while a build that revolved around summoning multiple skeletons at a time would be nice and cool, something that could bring out a few things for various situations would be awesome!)

Thanks in advance for any and all help. :smallbiggrin:
Though if someone wanted to build a class from scratch for me that'd be nice too... >.>

[Yakk]

Most summons and long-term conjurations are daily powers.

Wizards, Artificers, Druids and (to a lesser extent) Clerics/Invokers have selections of such powers.

Shamans have a spirit companion, from which they can attack. Ranger (beastmaster) have an animal companion, who can be used similarly.

[Anasazi]

What you're looking for in whole doesnt quite exist. player classes at most offer one companion, summoners can only offer one summon at a time, rangers only get one pet, shamans only get one pet, and you can only have one familiar (these ignore paragon benefits as some can by pass these rules) but there is no tinkerer class as a whole.
If you'd like to mix with this, an easy way of changing things without breaking anyones mind is by writing up a ritural that allows you to build such things, assuming you can provide the materials, in theory most gm's willing to allow bending of various rules will allow such a thing, but anything more will end up being over powered as your character offers no risk to themselves, which in and of itself is broken.

[Shnezz]

I was thinking along the lines of the Shaman's spirit animal in terms of "Ow, damn. The thing I was controlling just went poof, and that hurt me." But I wanted someone who has at least a fair chance of not being taken out by one uber-powered potshot spell. Still character risk, and yet not DIRECT risk.

And I was thinking that a ritual might work, but most rituals take too long to be used in combat, (I mean, 1 minute= 10 rounds)... But... Having it be a poof-spell effect is almost cheap. So, I guess if I was ever ambushed, whatever I had on hand would have to be enough, which is enough of a negative side to make up for no direct risk, because I would take damage as each one fell.

...Right? :smallconfused:

[Anasazi]

its not exactly the same thing, you're not out there to get hit, you're using minions to absorb your damage, but that all comes down to how you would want to write the class.
Ritual wise, they're able to create objects that last, such as armor and weapons, why wouldnt your minions last? I was thinking you'd have the minions made up before you went into combat.
But for 'overpowered' sake lets consider you did have a poof spell to summon minions. Each time you summoned one all you would be doing is hurting yourself, because that one hit minion dies, and poof a chunk of your life would disapear. You would actually be one of the quickest dying classes. Assuming you left the death penality of summons attached.

It seems to me that you're trying to slide in a summoner/necromancer class into the 4e system by using minions, and in all reality, minions where specifically created for the purpose of giving numbers to the enemy side and offering a more visually appealing team to defeat without breaking it. As a player who is apart of a team on their end, I can't see how this would help you as most enemies at your level usually dont have an issue hitting you save one, maybe two defenses.
I'm not saying its undoable, far be it for me to shoot down your idea of the perfect class, but as it stands, 4e is rather unfriendly to the idea.

[Shnezz]

That is exactly my complaint! There is nothing in 4E that is this style, and in general it is too difficult for me, as a novice player, to come up with something. Basicly, I'm interested in seeing what ideas other have, rather than my idle thoughts being critiqued.

So, to put it short, does anyone know of a homebrew that is built for 4E, and has creation/summoning as a main or semi-main focus.

[Anasazi]

Fair enough, I know of none for 4e, but as a novice player, you would first want to talk to your GM about your options in that field, they may or maynot allow for custom classes, and if they do then I'm sure they'd be able to come up with something that would work in the campaign they're running.

I'd be somewhat willing to walk through the process of creating the custom class you're looking for but we would first need to know the limits that are in place, so first things first, talk to your GM.

[Yakk]

As mentioned, this exists: shaman spirit companion, ranger animal companion, familiars and summoning spells all produce a limited resource ally that uses your action budget and reasonably often punishes you when they are taken out.

Summoning spells, for example, have HP equal to 1/2 your HP, and if they die you lose a healing surge. Spirit companions have a damage threshold of 10+L/2, and do 5+L/2 damage if they are dissipated.

Animal Companion and Familiars don't damage you, but are gone for at least that fight.

As an example, a half-elven Druid|Ranger (Hybrid Talent: Animal Companion) MC Shaman is a reasonably viable character who has an animal companion and a spirit companion from which they can emit most of their attacks, and druid daily powers that summon additional animals.

[mikeejimbo]

If they allow custom content, I have what I consider to be a decently playable Necromancer article here: http://rpghomebrew.wordpress.com. It's actually a set of powers available for the Wizard (by default) or Invoker (if the DM would prefer it). The formatting is messy, but it's readable. I should probably post it here sometime for PEACHing.

[Shnezz]

@ Yakk: I want MORE than a single "minion"... A typical minion-esque person has more than one.

@Mikee: Cool, I'll check that out.

[DSCrankshaw]

You can have more than one summon at a time, though you'll probably need some work to manage both.

Off-hand, I can think of two possibilities:

Beastmaster Ranger/MC shaman -- Simply MCing shaman gives you a lot of his abilities. This puts two beasts on the field at once.

Druid/MC shaman -- And here you combine the druid's summons with the shaman's companion.

If you want to go whole hog:

Beastmaster ranger|Druid hybrid/MC shaman - You go dex/wis (so elf), use the beastmaster for his animal companion, the druid for his summons, and the shaman for his spirit companion. You can even use all in one turn--the spirit companion has an OA (which is at-will under the latest rules update), the animal companion you control using an at-will, and the druid summon has instinctive actions.

[Yakk]

Who said anything about one minion?

MC shaman gets a companion. There is a hybrid ranger option for a animal companion. Summons are limited by your daily powers used in nearly every case. Familiars are limited to 1, and need an arcane class.

So a Ranger|Druid hybrid MC Shaman|Wizard could have an animal companion, spirit companion and a familiar all deployed.

As daily powers, either Wizard or Druid dailies can summon creatures to help for the length of an encounter.

It isn't perfect, but it isn't just one minion.

[Shnezz]

@ Yakk: Okay, sorry. I misunderstood. I thought you were suggesting I take only one of those choices, not all of them. :smallsmile:

[mikeejimbo]

Though if someone wanted to build a class from scratch for me that'd be nice too... >.>

Done. Well, more in progress than it was before. I posted it here to get some feedback: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148230

[Shnezz]

Mikee, you are amazing. :smallbiggrin:

[mikeejimbo]

Hehe, I don't know about that. The class doesn't have a lot of playtesting, only a few encounters, but that's why it's up here, to get worked on. If you decide to try it out definitely let me know how the whole summoning mechanic goes.