Magic Restrictions

[The Hive Mind]

Planar Travel

Aryth is completely cut off from the other planes, and as such spells that require contact with or travel to or through other planes do not function. This includes such spells as blink, etherealness and ethereal jaunt, dimension door, teleport, tree stride, or any other spell with the teleport descriptor, gate, plane shift, and astral projection; essentially, any spell or effect that would be prevented by a dimensional lock or dimensional anchor is not possible. Additionally, since there is nowehere for extradimensional spaces to exist, such as those created by rope trick or a bag of holding, spells and effects that crate extradimensional spaces also do not function.

Summoning

There are no planes from which to draw extraplanar cratures via the summon monster or summon nature's ally spells. However, this is not to say that those spells are useless. Rather, they simply have different effects.

Rather than calling on extraplanar cratures, summoning spells call on the lesser eternal spirits on Aryth, those who have always been part of the world and always will be. The sumoning spell merely gives the spirit a physical form, powers, and even provides it with a certain level of intellect and ability to communicate, all dependent on the power of the caster who created the vessel for it and bound it temporarily to this world.

Creatures crated by the summon monster and summon nature's ally spells have exactly the same abilities, powers, and stats as a creature of the listed type, including all listed templates.

Limited Creatures

Each summoner can only bind a limited number of spirits to his aid. This means that a spellcaster may only summon a limited number of types of creatures. For each summoning spell he knows, a caster may choose a number of creatures from that summoning spell's list equal to his spellcasting ability modifier. The summoner may only summon these types of creatures when casting the spell. Creatures need not be chosen until the caster wishes to summon them, and even then need not all be chosen at once. For instance, a charismatic channeler with a Charisma of 16 could wair until the first time he casts summon monster I to choose one of his creature types; if he likes, he can then continue to summon only that type of creature for an indefinite period, waiting to choose his second and third creature type until circumstances require it.

Communicating With Summoned Creatures

Summoned creatures automatically understand and obey any spoken commands of their summoner, regardless of whether or not the creature whose form they take would normally know his language. Creature forms that are intelligent simply follow the commands to the best of their ability; creature forms with animal intelligence or lower are assumed to know any trick that may be taught via the Handle Animal skill, and the summoner automatically succeeds in commanding the creature to perform that trick.

The summoner may give a number of commands each round as a free action equal to his spellcasting ability modifier. A single command may be applied to any number of the caster's summoned creatures while still counting as only one of the free action commands in a round. In order to receive a command, the creature must be able to either hear or see the caster.

Spirit Servants

Spellcasters have an additional option when using summoning spells. They may summon creatures to act as servants rather than combatants. Such creatures require less arcane power to maintain their forms because they are not engaged in violent physical activity, and therefore can retain their forms for longer periods of time.

When the spirit servant version of a summoning spell is cast, the following changes are applied to the summoning spell:

Casting Time: 1 minute.
Duration: 10 minutes/level or see below (D)
Description: The summoned creature is intended to act as a servant, scout, mount, advisor, or any other non-combat role. The creature has half its normal Strength and Constitution and weighs one-tenth its normal weight. It can perform any non-strenuous activity within its means, including casting spells, tracking enemies, scouting, or even performing simple chores. However, the trade-off is that the cdreature's form is very unstable. As soon as the creature suffers any lethal damage whatsoever, the spell ends and the creature disappears. The spell also ends immediately after the creature attacks any creature (using the same determinig factors as those that would cause an invisibility spell to end) or performs any strenuous act, including running or charging, breaking down a door, lifting or dragging an amount of weight equal to its maximum load, and so on.

Spirit Memory

A summoned creature of any one type seems to remember the events and experiences from each previous time it was summoned.

This allows a spellcaster to, for instance, send a creature in to scout a location from which he may not have the time or ability to return. The spellcaster could then simply summon the creature again and ask it to report on what it saw. This continuity also allows spellcasters to form personal bonds with the spirits they summon that are, in some cses, akin to friendship. They might even summon creatures merely to talk with them about some problem or get advice from a friendly source.

Calling Spells

Calling spells suffer from the same limitation as summoning spells: there is no access to other planes from which to draw a creature. These spells continue to unction on Aryth as well, however, but whereas summoning spells allow a caster to give form of his choice to one of the eternal spirits found throughout Aryth, calling spells instead bring forth one of the bodiless spirits trapped on Aryth. The calling spell allows them to manifest physical bodies in their original, natural shapes.

This means that the called creature is a native of Aryth rather than an extraplanar visitor. Otherwise, the spell effect is the same as in the core rules. As the planar ally spells may only be cast by legates, the spirits summoned are always demons or devils that serve that dark god. The planar binding spells, on the other hand, can summon any trapped spirit whose true name is known by the caster. Because each trapped spirit is unique, planar binding spells may not be used to simply call forth a desired creature type.

Learning a spirit's true name should always be the result of an adventure or quest, and not simply the result of a conversation with an NPC or a simple spell check.