Summon Spell

[alloowishus]

The spell states that Summons in the Gate mastery list is random, however, there are not enough creatures in C&T for this to work, especially at low levels. So instead I was looking (for an NPC) at what possible non-intelligent creatures they could summon, I came across a jadeback, which is a 2nd level giant beetle (and kind of nasty for 2nd level). So obviously if he specifies "6 legged large insect at 2nd level" there is really only one creature that fits into this category in C&T, so in effect he is summoning a specific creature. Is this allowed or does it have to be random? I was thinking that one possible modification to that spell would be that in addition to being able to increase the level, duration doubled, or extra 1st level, there should also be "can specify creature", so a Summons III could summon a specific 2nd level creature. Otherwise it seems all you can summon are things like dogs, horses, cats etc, and nothing more interesting like monsters because these canimals would not normally attack an armoured combatant and probably just run away.

[QuirkyBirky]

It's supposed to be random. The GM can vary the level of a creature to make more options available, otherwise a savvy player can abuse any knowledge that they do have, which is what you're saying. In practice, I'd imagine the GM would get fed up of trying to keep the result random (especially if there are limited options available) and the player will end up with (more or less) what they're after.

Spell Law suggests you could opt for "four legged, hoofed", but if it's your game you could try to keep things a bit more vague (four legged or medium sized or water breathing etc.) in order to prevent anything too specific - that could make results more interesting and diverse. Maybe allow them to select one or maybe two attributes (i.e. number of legs, level, size). Summoning a house cat when you were hoping for a pack animal would be amusing but then, if the spell is likely to be a waste a spell points, they won't cast it, so it's all about balance.

It's also a bit vague about whether the animal is under your control. RM2 said you could control it by concentrating, but RMC doesn't mention this (unless I've missed it).