So,a player had a question. And not one I thought of myself because it never would occur to me for consideration until now.
Is jumpsummons allowed?
Secondly, allowed or not, is it considered purely an IC or OOC action?
They are asking because they do not want to get in trouble for using it. I had a hard time answering it because until recently I never really had a PC with a regular summon.
Thanks!
Sincerely,
Arya
The JumpSum command was added because of the weird way summons interact with NWN transitions, specifically those that transition between two points on the same map. For example if your character goes through a doorway leading to another floor but is on the same map, the summon will remain behind, unable to follow.
Under most circumstances, JumpSum is fine to use, and was added exactly for these purposes. Since the purpose of the command is to allow summons to follow you when the game engine forces you to leave them behind, it's equal parts IC (the summon should be able to follow you through a doorway/cave/tunnel/other transition) and OOC (this mechanic only exists because NWN's engine is being problematic).
The main exception I would imagine to this would be in a DM event. But most DMs also prefer if players ask first before using summons at all.
Obviously abuses will not be tolerated. Having mobs swarm your summon while you run away and then /jumpsum the summon to you away from them. That is 100% not okay.
I've yet to even need to justify it ICly, on any character. People know that they'll get buggy and stuck in doors or around corners.
~BR
The command is an entirely OOC construct I put in for convenience because summons will often get stuck or not follow properly through same-area transition doors etc.
Or the fact they just tend to do incredibly stupid things the game's regular commands cannot disengage them from. I find it's also an adequate way to get a summon to attack a particular target in a melee or pull them back if they try to suicide charge a group of mobs before the group is ready to aggro them. I consider the JumpSum command to be a requirement on the hotbar for anyone considering making strong use of summons in their day to day combat.