[Ammendment] Conjuration Tweaks

[ClassyDryad 2368]

OOC: Most of this is either clarification or attempting to bring back some flavor stuff missing after the rewrite but also includes some balancing things. I have a more ambitious one in mind but I am going to not overwhelm the magic with changes.

The formatting is a bit off because this page got attacked by a demon sorry.

As always, changes are Bolded and removed content has been struck through.

 

 Original

General Redlines

Spoiler

-Conjured creatures, parts, meldings, and flora have an extreme vulnerability to antimagic which affects spells, and one strike from any such source will be sufficient to demanifest them.

-Effects which prevent a caster from casting do not have any effect upon conjurations unless the caster themselves is struck.

-All spells, except for Jing Binding, require line of sight to cast and maintain.

-In order for summons to demanifest, their entire form must be out of sight for a full emote. This is to prevent weird line of sight cheese.

-Summons follow LOTC movement rules, and may take one action per emote if moving only [4] meters, and can sprint for [8] meters otherwise.

-Summons should be represented mechanically ingame with a sign, boat, NPC, or something similar for clarity and accountability.

 

 New

General Redlines

 

Spoiler

-Conjured creatures, parts, meldings, and flora have an extreme vulnerability to antimagic which affects spells, and one strike from any such source will be sufficient to demanifest them.

-Effects which prevent a caster from casting do not have any effect upon conjurations unless the caster themselves is struck.

-All spells, except for Jing Binding, require line of sight to cast and maintain.

-In order for summons to demanifest, their entire form must be out of sight for a full emote. This is to prevent weird line of sight cheese.

-Summons follow LOTC movement rules, and may take one action per emote if moving only [4] meters, and can sprint for [8] meters otherwise.

-Summons should be represented mechanically ingame with a sign, boat, NPC, or something similar for clarity and accountability.
- Conjurations cannot make recognizable copies of specific descendants, beastfolk, or other played CAs. 

 

 

Reasons: I am willing to bet the intention is that this is already not something you can do, but the explicit redline against it was removed in the rewrite. Given the sheer number of times creating accurate depictions or clones of people has been abused I don't really need to explain why keeping this out of the redlines is a bad idea.


Original
 

[T4] Chimeric Alteration [C] - At a certain stage of mastery, the Life Evocationist has gained an implicit understand of the material they study, and can transpose the aspects of certain species onto others.

 

Mechanics:

 
 

Spoiler

-When summoning flora or fauna, an experienced Life Evocationist can transpose up to three qualities of other species known to them onto it during the summoning process. Examples include a rose that bleeds, or a hawk with leaves in place of feathers.
-Using Chimeric Alteration adds [1] emote to Terrestrial and Perennial Conjuration Spellcasts, and adds a tier of mana cost to the conjuration, unless it’s already T5.

Redlines:

Spoiler

-Chimeric Alterations cannot be so major so as to increase or reduce the size category of the creature.
-Chimeric Alteration cannot be used to copy exceptionally exotic features, such as projectile spit or detachable tails. This includes unusually powerful qualities such as hide or teeth that are as strong as steel.
-Chimeric Alteration must respect biology and not be ludicrous; the body of the created creature must still be functional from a reasonable perspective.
-If summoning multiple creatures, all must have the same alterations. This would not result in multiple extra necessary emotes.

-Chimeric Alteration cannot be applied to enchantments.

-Though realistic life can be created with Life Evocation, users of the magic are encouraged to provide various tells signifying the nature of evoked life as alien and unnatural, such as conjured animals acting without actual animal instinct, having slightly uncanny appearances, plants looking slightly unnatural, etc. 

New
 

[T4] Chimeric Alteration [C] - At a certain stage of mastery, the Life Evocationist has gained an implicit understand of the material they study, and can transpose the aspects of certain species onto others.

 

Mechanics:
 

Spoiler

-When summoning flora or fauna, an experienced Life Evocationist can transpose up to three qualities of other species known to them onto it during the summoning process. Examples include a rose that bleeds shark with legs and lungs of a human, or a hawk with leaves in place of feathers.
-Using Chimeric Alteration adds [1] emote to Terrestrial and Perennial Conjuration Spellcasts, and adds a tier of mana cost to the conjuration, unless it’s already T5.

Redlines:

Spoiler

-Chimeric Alterations cannot be so major so as to increase or reduce the size category of the creature.
-Chimeric Alteration cannot be used to copy exceptionally exotic features, such as projectile spit or detachable tails. This includes unusually powerful qualities such as hide or teeth that are as strong as steel.
-Chimeric Alteration must respect biology and not be ludicrous; the body of the created creature must still be functional from a reasonable perspective.
-If summoning multiple creatures, all must have the same alterations. This would not result in multiple extra necessary emotes.

-Chimeric Alteration cannot be applied to enchantments.

-Though realistic life can be created with Life Evocation, users of the magic are encouraged to provide various tells signifying the nature of evoked life as alien and unnatural, such as conjured animals acting without actual animal instinct, having slightly uncanny appearances, plants looking slightly unnatural, etc. 
-When cast noncombatively any number of qualities can be given to the creation, but it is still restricted to traits from three organisms overall.

Reasons: First part is mostly just a clarification thing as I have had people try to tell me chimeric alteration only works when splicing animal and plant traits together. The examples given are not a good indicator of what you can do.

Secondly, in prior rewrites you could do basically however many alterations you wanted on a creature out of combat and I do not really see why that should change now. For transparency this does allow one of my spellforges to do more flavor wise so I am a bit biased.

 

 Original

[T2-T5] Perennial Conjuration [C] - What is beautiful can also be horrible, and it is natural for a dangerous gift to become a weapon. Though Life Evocationists cannot match the mastery of nature of a Druid, the simple existence and formation of certain flora can pose a problem in combat.

 

Mechanics:

 

Spoiler

-Conjurationists can summon flora in a radius on the ground to present an obstacle to opponents.
Flora summoned in this manner does not pose a direct threat to enemies, but will impede enemies summoned within the radius of conjured plants.
-Enemies who are within the radius of conjured flora upon their summoning will have those plants snake around them, impeding their movement to a maximum of [2] blocks for that emote, or [4] blocks while sprinting, and impeding their action slightly. In the following emotes, there will be a minor impedance of movement and action with no mechanical implications if they remain within the radius.

 

-Emotecounts and size restrictions for perennial conjuration are as follows:

 

-[2] emotes, 1x1 radius. [T2]
-[3] emotes, 3x3 radius. [T3]
-[4] emotes, 9x9 radius. [T4]

 

-If trees are summoned combatively, they cannot exceed 1x1 blocks in size, and [8] blocks in height. They will not provide the slowing effect, but instead serve as strong physical barriers, prone to antimagic and fire (and, of course, demanifestation). Similarly 'large' plants which could impede movement as barriers follow the same rules as trees.

Redlines:

Spoiler

-If any conjured flora leaves the line of sight of the caster (by means of the caster looking away or becoming unable to see) then it will disappear. The same is true for the caster’s disconnection.
-The impedance from Perennial Conjuration is not sufficient to nullify an action or disrupt the concentration of a mage, and is largely a ‘binding’.
-Perennial Conjuration can be enchanted, following the exact same mechanics.
-Trees must be spaced apart by at least [1] meter if conjured, so as not to form a large wall.

-There's a [1] emote cooldown on being slowed by the spell, even if multiple mages are casting it on a target.

-Trees and other conjurations capable of serving as a barrier cannot be summoned when casting this spell at T2.

-The radius of summoning must be telegraphed properly with tells related to plant growth.

-Any effectual antimagic or fire would easily cause any conjured plants, including trees, to demanifest instantly.

-The summoning of plants and trees will not impede or interrupt beyond what is written. A tree can serve as a barrier against an attack, but not be utilized to deliver an offensive blow upon appearing.

-If attempting to conjure lore herbs, they will not carry their lore properties.  

New
 

 Original

[T2-T5] Perennial Conjuration [C] - What is beautiful can also be horrible, and it is natural for a dangerous gift to become a weapon. Though Life Evocationists cannot match the mastery of nature of a Druid, the simple existence and formation of certain flora can pose a problem in combat.

 

Mechanics:

 

Spoiler

-Conjurationists can summon flora in a radius on the ground to present an obstacle to opponents.
Flora summoned in this manner does not pose a direct threat to enemies, but will impede enemies summoned within the radius of conjured plants.
-Enemies who are within the radius of conjured flora upon their summoning will have those plants snake around them, impeding their movement to a maximum of [2] blocks for that emote, or [4] blocks while sprinting, and impeding their action slightly. In the following emotes, there will be a minor impedance of movement and action with no mechanical implications if they remain within the radius.

 

-Emotecounts and size restrictions for perennial conjuration are as follows:

 

-[2] emotes, 1x1 radius. [T2]
-[3] emotes, 3x3 radius. [T3]
-[4] emotes, 9x9 radius. [T4]

 

-If trees are summoned combatively, they cannot exceed 1x1 blocks in size, and [8] blocks in height. They will not provide the slowing effect, but instead serve as strong physical barriers, prone to antimagic and fire (and, of course, demanifestation). Similarly 'large' plants which could impede movement as barriers follow the same rules as trees.

Redlines:

Spoiler

-If any conjured flora leaves the line of sight of the caster (by means of the caster looking away or becoming unable to see) then it will disappear. The same is true for the caster’s disconnection.
-The impedance from Perennial Conjuration is not sufficient to nullify an action or disrupt the concentration of a mage, and is largely a ‘binding’.
-Perennial Conjuration can be enchanted, following the exact same mechanics.
-Trees must be spaced apart by at least [1] meter if conjured, so as not to form a large wall.

-There's a [1] emote cooldown on being slowed by the spell, even if multiple mages are casting it on a target.

-Trees and other conjurations capable of serving as a barrier cannot be summoned when casting this spell at T2.

-The radius of summoning must be telegraphed properly with tells related to plant growth.

-Any effectual antimagic or fire would easily cause any conjured plants, including trees, to demanifest instantly.

-The summoning of plants and trees will not impede or interrupt beyond what is written. A tree can serve as a barrier against an attack, but not be utilized to deliver an offensive blow upon appearing.

-If attempting to conjure lore herbs, they will not carry their lore properties.  
- Perennial Conjuration is considered a deployable spell if cast at [T3] or higher, meaning a mage may cast while maintaining the spell but is locked to its same magic (Life evocation.) A mage can only have one deployable spell active at any given time.

Reasons: Most of these sort of terrain utility spells are deployable under current lore, so it really makes sense that this one would be to. Its less effective than its deployable counterparts in other evocations so I think it would not break anything to allow this.

 

Original
 

 

Jing Binding [C] - At the absolute pinnacle of the art, there is the creation of life that can operate truly in tandem with the operations of the magus. Through a pair of Jing bound together, the caster and conjuration can share an immutable linkage, forming a long-standing companion.

 

Mechanics:

Spoiler

-The ritual to create a Jing Binding can only occur outside of combat, and should consist of at least [5] detailed emotes detailing the creation of the pair of Jing and the conceptualization of the companion animal.
-The creation process takes more mana than a mage can actively possess, and thus must be performed with the aid of a greater mana source.
-Up to two Chimeric Alterations may be made to the summoned animal bound by the Jing. These are permanent, and decided when the item is created.
-A bound conjuration must be medium sized or smaller (as described in Terrestrial Conjuration).
-The bound creature can be manifested or demanifested from the associated Jing in [3] emotes.
-Bound creatures function as Independent Combat Pets, and do not require additional input from the caster beyond their summoning to act.
-In order to use a bound creature in combat, it must be directly summoned in combat, or its presence must have been emoted for the entirety of the encounter if it were already summoned.
-An ST-signed item is necessary to represent both the pair of Jing and to include the details of the associated creature. The mechanical Jing item must be on the caster’s body in order to summon the creature.

-If the bound conjuration were killed by means of antimagic or mortal wound, it would demanifest and the Jing would appear in its place. If this is recovered, the conjuration could be resummoned, but if it is lost or destroyed, the Jing Binding must be remade.

Redlines:

Spoiler

-These creatures ignore range limits and line of sight requirements. They can be implicitly communicated with mentally akin to ordinary conjurations.
-While a bound conjuration is summoned, all other subsections of Life Evocation are unavailable for use except for Disjointed Conjuration, but any other casting or action can be utilized by the caster.
-The bound conjuration cannot act the emote it is conjured.
-Generally, these creatures follow all the same practical limitations as Terrestrial Conjuration. No special effects or super-powerful hide or jaws, no armor or weapons.

-Bound Jing count as a T5 spell.  

 

 New
 

 

Jing Binding [C] - At the absolute pinnacle of the art, there is the creation of life that can operate truly in tandem with the operations of the magus. Through a pair of Jing bound together, the caster and conjuration can share an immutable linkage, forming a long-standing companion.

 

Mechanics:

Spoiler

-The ritual to create a Jing Binding can only occur outside of combat, and should consist of at least [5] detailed emotes detailing the creation of the pair of Jing and the conceptualization of the companion animal.
-The creation process takes more mana than a mage can actively possess, and thus must be performed with the aid of a greater mana source.
-Up to two Chimeric Alterations may be made to the summoned animal bound by the Jing. These are permanent, and decided when the item is created.
-A bound conjuration must be medium sized or smaller (as described in Terrestrial Conjuration).
-The bound creature can be manifested or demanifested from the associated Jing in [3] emotes.
-Bound creatures function as Independent Combat Pets, and do not require additional input from the caster beyond their summoning to act.
-In order to use a bound creature in combat, it must be directly summoned in combat, or its presence must have been emoted for the entirety of the encounter if it were already summoned.
-An ST-signed item is necessary to represent both the pair of Jing and to include the details of the associated creature. The mechanical Jing item must be on the caster’s body in order to summon the creature.

-If the bound conjuration were killed by means of antimagic or mortal wound, it would demanifest and the Jing would appear in its place. If this is recovered, the conjuration could be resummoned, but if it is lost or destroyed, the Jing Binding must be remade.

Redlines:

Spoiler

-These creatures ignore range limits and line of sight requirements. They can be implicitly communicated with mentally akin to ordinary conjurations.
-While a bound conjuration is summoned, all other subsections of Life Evocation are unavailable for use except for Disjointed Conjuration, but any other casting or action can be utilized by the caster.
- While a bound Jing is summoned in combat, no summons of any kind (such as those made by Terrestrial Conjuration) can be present at the same time. The caster is completely unable to even attempt to bring a new independent summon into combat, and bringing a dependent summon into combat causes the bound jing to die and require recharging at a greater mana source.
-The bound conjuration cannot act the emote it is conjured.
-Generally, these creatures follow all the same practical limitations as Terrestrial Conjuration. No special effects or super-powerful hide or jaws, no armor or weapons.

-Bound Jing count as a T5 spell.

Reasons: Triple thing! First part is the one I am the most iffy on, but in my opinion I think the capstone of a magic should not be disabling said magic for what is effectively a better version of a mundane thing. The spells it is blocking are also not particularly strong and it is my opinion that the intention of this limitation was to prevent summon spam and not to stop people from making a tree in combat. I instead changed it to something which focuses more on what is actually trying to be prevented, and having it apply explicitly to other summoning magics beyond conjuration.

Second part, I am fairly certain ST would shoot you for doing this but given that other magics can produce many independent summons (looking at you Naztherak) I think it is fair to explicitly state you can only summon one per combat. Otherwise there is nothing really stopping someone from becoming Ash Ketchum and spamming Jing rather than using the cooler dependent summon spells.

Finally, while I KNOW for a fact this last part is intended to already work this way, I have had multiple people tell me that they actively plan to bypass this redline by having someone else make it for them (which is a consequence of having Jing no longer be bound to a specific user.) This is a mere act of clarification so that scions, who already have after images and treat all summons as independent anyways, cannot stack even more summons on that in a combat.

This spoiler is a ghost and does not actually exist.

 

[MsLinni 830]

These changes are actually very good and keeps the lore up to date with recent changes :)

[StingyParrot 1595]

me when my pet bird makes me unable to create plants (I am its slave)

[ClassyDryad 2368]

3 minutes ago, StingyParrot said:

me when my pet bird makes me unable to create plants (I am its slave)

Ironically if anything being allowed to use the plant spell is a debuff because it will tempt you away from evocation spells which are just better and fully usable. The bird is trying to save you.

[LoTC's Next Top Model 1628]

as the guy who inititally wrote conj before werew0lf updated and reformatted it to make it actually readable, i wish to share my two cents...

the general redline thing is something i initially intended and think had written down somewhere, but it's a good thing to add. summoning a clone of my buddy to face execution instead of him or whatever is pretty cringe and shouldn't be allowed, for instance.

chimeric alteration can do whatever, it's a good clarification redline.

i have no opinions on the other stuff, i'm sure it's mechanically good for perennial to be a deployable or whatever but that's new terminology and i'm old and dont know what it means!

and finally for jing binding, the balance changes are good but i'd personally like if scions could still use it.

[Pallodium 3776]

Amendments/Additions implemented into main lore post. Thank you for your submission. Moving to correct subforum to prevent redundancy and clutter.