Ahh, Level 5

Not much has really gone on this week amongst the group.

We made level 5 last week.
In my opinion, that's where the game begins to open up.

At level 1 you're too fragile. Your hit points are low and your equipment is limited. Maneuvering in combat simply to get a flanking bonus is almost required.
The differences in the classes aren’t quite as apparent either. Yeah they all have different skills and abilities, but if you blink you won't know whether it's the cleric or the druid casting Cure Light Wounds. And when everyone has a BAB of +0 or +1, melee is fun for all...until you get hit anyway.
Usually if I'm running a game, I will probably have the players skip this level.

At level 3 you usually have a good feel for the how your DM is running the world and your PC is a little stronger. The fragility is not gone entirely, but it's certainly better than before.

But at level 5 the fragility is gone and the differences in the classes become more apparent. Casters have a variety of spell slots to use. Warrior-types can take damage and deal it. And most class abilities are available to your PCs.

At level 5 for a druid, he gets his first taste of Wild Shape. Now it's not all that powerful now, but from everything I've heard and read - a properly buffed up druid using Wild Shape is as nasty in melee as the front-line fighters.

But I don't want to have to deal with that.
Kal is summoning druid and a summoning wizard.
Getting into melee combat pretty much removes the usefulness of his summoning.

So I looked into seeing what other options there were.
Aaron found the alternate druid in the Unearthed Arcana, and I found some conjurer wizard alternative options.

The druid one is not bad - you lose your Wild Shape abilities, but you gain the monk's speed and AC bonuses and the ranger's tracking and favored enemy abilities.
That is more than fair. In fact, from what I've heard about level 12 druids turning into dire bears and laying waste to the combat field, it's probably a bit of a loss.

But Dale doesn't like the conjurer alternate choices; you lose the ability to summon a familiar and you gain the ability to cast Summon Monster spells (not Summon Nature's Ally spells) in only 1 standard action rather than 1 round.

So what I'd be doing is dumping an unused class ability in favor of summoning a wizard creature in a single round rather than taking the span of 2 rounds to cast the same spell.

Dale is not sure that the cost of the familiar is worth the gain.

So I was thinking of what potential abuses there could be.
Only two came up. One is nice, but not abusive. And the other is not even close to abusive, and in fact is rather dumb.

The nice is that Kal would be able to finish casting 2 summon spells in the same round. On round 1 he casts a druid summon spell and then on round 2 he finishes the druid spell at the start of the round and then casts his wizard summon spell. All monsters from both spells appear and act on that round.
Now that seems powerful until you realize that Kal was doing nothing but casting that first round and received nothing for it.

And the dumb idea is that you could then quicken the summon spell. So you could conceivably get 4 summon spells off in 2 rounds.
On round 1 you cast a quickened wizard summon spell and a regular druid summon spell. Then on round 2, you finish the druid spell, cast a regular wizard summon spell, and then you cast another quickened wizard summon spell.
The result, if you're casting only level 9 spells:
1 Summon Nature's Ally IX
1 Summon Monster IX
2 Summon Monster V

The level 9 one looks powerful, but if you think about it, the 2 creatures you summon into a fight that also needs creatures from level 9 summoning spells, they won't live more than a round or two.
They would only be level 9 fodders for the pit fiend you're fighting.
I can think of a lot of better uses for your level 9 spells.

So I think it's a fair trade to give up:
- Familiar
- All Wild Shapes
In order to get:
- Monk AC bonus
- Monk Speed
- Ranger Tracking
- Ranger Favored Enemies
- Summon Monster spells take only a standard action.

Seems pretty fair to me.
Now I get to see tonight if Dale has given his stamp of approval to it.

I have no idea what is in store for the game tonight.
We're back in town, and the only things on our campaign "To do" list is to find a gray render and some hags and do them in.

Oh, and my wife wanted me to mention her on the blog.
So I just did.

Now I'm off to buy some chocolates. Because once she reads that, I'm in trouble.