Savage Encounters: Preview 2

Ever since 2005’s release of Archfiends, D&D Miniatures players have had a bit of a love affair with Summoning powers. The idea of setting aside a variety of figures that could be used in various situations, surrounding the enemy with them, and squeezing? Timmy, Johnny, and even Spike find something to love in the idea.

Several figures in the revised edition have hinted at summoning, but until recently, the designers have been careful—as the Summoning mechanics in the original edition showed, Summoning could easily become over-powered or be lamely underpowered.

A few figures have hinted at summoning—the Bonded Fire Summoner from War of the Dragon Queen’s back-story involved having summoned dozens of tiny fire elementals prior to the battle. The Grim Necromancer from Deathknell has powers which help Undead (presumedly summoned into the warband).

Then, earlier this month, the Archfiends re-stats introduced Reserve Summoning, a mechanism for “setting aside” several figures in a warband for tactical positioning later in the battle, without sacrificing any slots in the figure limit.

Now, Savage Encounters introduces Summoning as a core mechanic, building on these forms (and expanding the rules for Reserve Summoning). The new rule is: “Summoning: A creature brought into play via a summoning effect is part of your warband, is considered to have activated on the round it enters play, and gains the Summoned keyword until end of battle.”

If you’ve seen a glimpse of the setlist, you probably can guess which figure gets to be the harbinger of this summoning. Meet the Tiefling Necromancer.

Unlike Reserve Summoning, you don’t have to choose which creatures will join your warband later, those figures are not limited by faction or alignment restrictions (this form of summoning lets you choose figures well after Warband Building restrictions have passed), and—and this is the kicker—you are limited in the number of creatures you can summon only by the number of enemies you destroy.

If ever there was a power that dissuaded filling out a warband with a pile of cheap, easily killed creatures, this is it.

So who can the Necromancer summon? Whatever he wants to… including the common Skeletal Tiefling. This cheap Undead is slightly more resilient than other Undead at its cost, making it a prime candidate for summoning behind enemy lines.

If you’re lucky, you might even pull two of them alongside the Tiefling in a sealed event, essentially giving you a 20-point advantage before you even hit the table.

It wouldn’t be right to reveal all of the secrets of the Shadowfell before the release of the set tomorrow night, but suffice it to say that, sadly, Elementals, Beasts, and Undead are not the only fell creatures that appear with a wave of a hand.