Losing control of elementals

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Came across another tidbit I wanted to share. In 1E, under the druid spell conjure fire elemental it says that:

"Because of th erelationship of druids to natural and elemental forces, the conjuring druid need not fear that the elemental force summoned will turn on him or her, so concentration upon the activities of the fire elemental (or other creatures summoned) or the protection of a magic circle is not necessary."

"Only a druid can dismiss summoned salamanders, efreeti, or ultra-powerful elementals."

If a wizard is conjuring an elemental (wouldn't it more properly be called summoning an elemental, not conjuring it...side note?), there is a 5% chance per round that it breaks free and becomes free-willed, attacking the wizard.

I love how clerics cannot summon elementals, only druids and wizards. I almost wish it were druids only. Call me biased because druids are my favorite class, but I do like that elemental/nature concept and the idea that only a druid can work with an elemental with no chance of losing control of it.

However, in 2E the rules are a mess. Clerics of all sorts can summon elementals, without losing control. Yet in the MM, it says summoned elementals have a 5% chance per round of becoming free willed. So which is it?

The reason I'm posting all this it because I have fallen in love with the idea of printing up my own AD&D Rulebook. Just all the rules from 1E and 2E combined (I use rules from both) and leaving out any I don't like (demihuman level limits, spell damage caps, etc). Sort of a way to combine the 1E PHB with the 2E PHB, the 1E DMG with the 2E DMG and have just one set of books with all of the rules I use personally. I'd love to have this printed up and hardbound. It would be so awesome!

So I'm working on the idea in times where I can't creatively write for the BIP RoUIII project. For which. by the way, I have some more work to do today.

[Mira]

When 2E came out, my game became a mix as well

Personally, I am ok with demi-human level limits, Wish can be used to allow another level. Plus we didn't play to high level without someone using a Wish to become human or gain levels if they weren't human to begin with. I think part of the reason they were put in was to get around the issue of certain spells that age you. Although if you use relative aging, it should be a decent counter-balance, and therefore demi-humans don't really need that limit.

The one thing that I really liked in 2E about clerics is when they came out with the specialty priests. I have always hated the 'generic cleric', I always thought that all clerics should have access to a unique set of spells based on the deity they worship.

Wizards would rarely summon elementals because the elemental WOULD eventually break free unless they had some protection in place (like a summoning circle). So only druids could do it safely

Of course we never used damage caps either

Surprisingly, the Hackmaster system that was published, isn't that bad, I know it was meant as a parody, based on Knights of the Dinner Table, but it's really a decent rules fusion. But it still doesn't have the spell slot system and specialty priests that I love

Mira (To err is human; to blame it on the other party is politics.)

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Yeah, specialty priests were one of the best innovations of 2E. The generic cleric never worked for me either.

Summoning elementals has always been nerve-wracking. I remember once I was DMing our Taladas campaign and I had a character (PC/NPC) who had a stone of earth elemental summoning or whatever it's called. We were fighting in an Egyptian style area (Old Aurim) and combatting a nasty high level mummy/priest. We were inside a pyramid complex and the battle went badly. Our party consisted of:

1 Tamire Elf wizard
1 Kagonesti Elf monk
1 Minotaur fighter
1 Human thief
1 Human druid
1 Kagonesti Elf ranger (my character)

The wizard died, the minotaur fighter was damn near dead from damage, the druid was I believe dead or nearly so (as well as out of spells that were useful in any way considering where we were), the rest were hurting pretty bad. Several had lost their magical weapons against a caryatid column or something.

So the mummy simply used stone shape to seal us into the room, saying "I'll unearth you in several years so you can become my undead servants."

Real nasty enemy!

Anyway, we're gonna suffocate. No way to raise our dead, no way to tunnel out. So the ranger says "It's this or nothing. I'll summon an elemental." It got conjured, destroyed the wall and released us, then we dismissed it. Luckily we did not lose control of it for those few rounds. The round after we dismissed it, one player said "What would have happened next round if we hadn't gotten free yet?"

I rolled, and viola! Rolled a "01". I said "We'd all be dead."

It would have destroyed us. Whew!