[PnP] Elemental Arts...

[Scott Adams]

At 02:48 AM 9/28/09, Thomas O. Magann Jr. wrote:

Noted.  I agree that casting for practice in terms of summoning isn't wise from the gods POV.  Why I warn folks beforehand.  One system of about 30 I run does use summoning and doesn't treat the pact this way.  I just hope to hear from other GMs.  Thanks. 



>>I don't know.   I just don't see the logic in the pact being forever.  I could see if one mage stayed on one lake for his entire life.  But if he moved to diff ocean or went to upper world and came back ..etc.  So I just always figured need to cast EP to reform a current pact.  Why I was hoping other GMs and maybe Richard would comment on this.
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>>Hopefully more comments will come.
>>Thanks.
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>For the record, I am a GM. many games, including P&P.  Also, other sorts of pacts are usually permanent (after all, how many souls does one have?)  noparticular  reason for this one to be temporary.
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>The spell description defines the Pacts as alliances. Those generally last longer than the first time one of the allies needs a favor. If not, you've not got a real alliance.
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>It's an elemental summoning spell, not a spell to talk to the local water spirit/vily. You don't get local beings, you get beings from the lower  or upper worlds (or the air above the upper world, if you're after an air elemental). That's the core of a summoning: contact level creatures only. It's why you can get a water serpent at sea but not a lake (well, with the spell, you could always try a shout at a lake) .
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>Besides, why would a pact end as long as you kept to it? Pay the elementals you summon for their inconvenience, don't bother them too often, send them home when you're done (after paying, of course) and they'll be better disposed to you, not worse. Why would they break the pact for good treatment?
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>Sit on a ship with  a chest of earth constantly summoning earth elemental over the ocean sending them home immediately with no payment, day in and day out for weeks just to get better when you really need it, well, THAT would be cause to break a pact. Might make it hard to reform, too.
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>Again, 'permanent' doesn't mean 'forever', like any alliance, it means 'until violated'. How many spell casters actually think of paying the elementals they summon, after all? For that matter, how many human wizards summon elementals that dont' like humans? Most elemental entries will tell you what the opinion of the sub race of elemental is towards humans, and in many cases a clue as to potential payment.
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>The players that summons neutral and friendly elementals, rather than enemy ones, that offers payment, and that can actually cast a strong enough dispel to send it home, and only summons in need, not just for practice, has kept to the pact/alliance. No reason to lose it. that's the kind of mage/wizard an elemental would prefer to deal with. Well, those that like to deal with them at all.
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>The 'practice makes perfect' mage, the human that summons elementals that hate humanity, so the elemental can serve a human, the mage that never even thinks to offer payment... well, that's the mage that needs to keep recasting the Pact. Of course, he's also the mage that will have the most expertise, simply because he casts the spell so much more often.
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>Thank you for your time,
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>Thomas O. Magann Jr.