Elementalists

I've also got a summon ally table for elementals in mind, as I really like the idea of an Elementalist mage with awesome summoning powers. But at the moment (using the existing monster lists) it's an extremely sparse list:

• Novice:
• Seasoned:
• Veteran: Elemental
• Heroic:
• Legendary:

Yeah, needs a bit of filling out. The Border elementals from the Fantasy Companion will of course be in there, but I've got to decide if they're of equal or lesser rank than the normal elementals. Various kind of demi-elemental creatures could also probably be added (like Salamanders, and possibly Djinni / Efreet), but that's only part of the way. I'm going to need to create some new elemental creatures. Here are some ideas:

• More border elementals. I don't know why, but I find them really cool, and love the idea of more of them. We've got lava, mud, sand and steam. How about (consulting the AD&D list of para & quasi elemental planes...) smoke, ice, lightning, ash, dust and salt?
  
• Lesser elementals. I've coined the name "elementines" for these creatures. The intention is to make some creatures that can be summoned by Novice elementalists.
• Greater elementals. I'm not sure how powerful these should go, have to think about it.

Summoning lists

I'm very keen on the idea of summoners. And the summon ally spell in Savage Worlds (Fantasy Companion) really makes it possible to do this archetypal specialist wizard justice. However, my only problem with that power is that it's very limited and rather specific in the types of creatures it allows a character to summon. Basically it's just animals, elementals, and a few construct-type creatures. Which are all fine, but I thought it'd be nice to create some more diverse, themed lists which a character can choose from when learning summon ally. Here's what I've got so far.

Animals

• Novice: Bird of prey (FC), Dog / wolf (SWEX), Snake, venomous (SWEX), Swarm of rats (SWEX)
• Seasoned: Boar (FC), Dire wolf (FC), Snake, constrictor (SWEX)
• Veteran: Alligator / crocodile (SWEX), Lion (SWEX), Snake, deadly venomous (SWEX)
• Heroic: Bear, large (SWEX), Bull (SWEX), Rhino (Savage Beasts)
• Legendary: Elephant (Savage Beasts)

Demons / Devils

• Novice: Damned (Savage Beasts)
• Seasoned: Hell hound (FC), Demonic soldier (FC)
• Veteran: Diabolic servitor (Man-cat, Man-goat, Man-toad)
• Heroic: Black knight (FC), Master of the pit (Savage Beasts)
• Legendary: Lasher (FC), Torture lord (Savage Beasts)

Undead

• Novice: Skeleton (FC), Zombie (FC)
• Seasoned: Ghoul (FC)
• Veteran: Frozen wight (Savage Beasts)
• Heroic: Guardian mummy (FC), Shadow (Savage Beasts), Spectre (Savage Beasts), Wight (FC)
• Legendary: Vampire, young (FC)

Wilderness encounter tables

Another thing I've got planned, with this work on collating monster lists, is to create some classic D&D style random wilderness encounter tables for Savage Worlds. There are encounter tables in Advanced Dungeons & Savages, but they only include the creatures from Savage Beasts, nothing from the Fantasy Companion, so I thought it'd be a useful and fun project to make some encounter tables using the combined monster list!

I had vague memories of there being a kind of "standard method" for making wilderness encounter tables, which I thought was in the D&D Expert set. It turns out that what I was thinking of was actually in the AD&D 2nd edition DMG. The 2-20 table. Creatures are assigned a place on the table based on their frequency in the terrain type.

2 - Very rare
3 - Very rare
4 - Rare to very rare
5 - Rare
6 - Uncommon
7 - Uncommon
8 - Uncommon
9 - Common
10 - Common
11 - Common
12 - Common
13 - Common
14 - Uncommon
15 - Uncommon
16 - Uncommon
17 - Rare
18 - Rare to very rare
19 - Very rare
20 - Very rare or unique

I also just came across some very nice ideas about including other types of encounters, which would be more campaign specific, but sounds marvellous. It ties in nicely with the classic 1d6 "dungeon room contents" table from D&D Basic, which goes something like:

1 - 2 - Monster
3 - 4 - Empty
5 - Trap
6 - Special

I love that table, and I also love the idea of a wilderness equivalent of it!