I think the designers were worried about summoning becoming too good as the pool of available creatures expanded with every bestiary published. I feel like that was a real issue in 1st edition. Unfortunately, I think they went too far in trying to avoid that problem. I wish they had gone the same route as the various combat form spells and just provided a couple of base templates for summons, with easily applied modifiers as the spells were heightened. It would take some variety away, but it would hopefully allow summons to be a little more useful than "I'm here to absorb a single hit at -10 MAP, then die."
I don't want summons to be too good in combat -- they shouldn't take the spotlight from martial characters, or pet-based classes, after all. At the moment, though, I feel like they're tuned too far in the other direction.
I think the designers were worried about summoning becoming too good as the pool of available creatures expanded with every bestiary published. I feel like that was a real issue in 1st edition. Unfortunately, I think they went too far in trying to avoid that problem. I wish they had gone the same route as the various combat form spells and just provided a couple of base templates for summons, with easily applied modifiers as the spells were heightened. It would take some variety away, but it would hopefully allow summons to be a little more useful than "I'm here to absorb a single hit at -10 MAP, then die."
I don't want summons to be too good in combat -- they shouldn't take the spotlight from martial characters, or pet-based classes, after all. At the moment, though, I feel like they're tuned too far in the other direction.