Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-27082610-20170624011641/@comment-25936766-20170728201528

Ah, Summoning Semblances. I recall I made one. Let me look for it in the SSMASLE....

......................And of course, it's not there, because why would it be there?

But whatever, I don't even remember the name and I was planning on updating it somewhat anyway.

Personally, if we're talking about solely the Semblance, leaving aside the user, then you should try to make it balanced within itself, something that isn't too weak but not too strong either, in terms of effectiveness and practicality.

Sounds vague? Good, because it's supposed to sound vague. A Summon-related ability has dozens of ways to be done, and thus also has myriads of ways to be balanced.

>Turret-like Summons that attack things in range but cannot move. Thus, as powerful as they could be, anyone can save themselves just by walking away or getting behind cover, and if the Summons are attacked they can only block at best.

>Animal-like Summons that act like an animal, with whatever strengths and weaknesses that animal would have. Summoning a dog means that, well, it can't really grab things well and can't fly, as well as meaning that it would most likely be stupid.

>Summons that can be almost anything, but require a very, very clear image of what is being Summoned in order to work, with varying results if otherwise, like simply not working to making some weird, useless figure.

>Summoning "ghosts" of fallen enemies. Which means there must be at least 1 dead enemy to begin with.

>Summons multiple things, and like in real life, higher Quantity has it's drawbacks like higher costs for maintainance or harder to coordinate.

There are many ways to make a Summoning Semblance, and each way has it's own ways to be balanced.

.........Now, regardless of what you make, it will most likely NOT be as OP as Weiss's.

Why? Because the Schnee Glyphs do not just Summon fallen enemies, they allow them to do a lot of shit that has nothing to do with Summoning, like Time Dilation, or swords of Ice Dust, or Push/Pull.

So as long as your Summon Semblance is just a Summon Semblance, it won't be the "Does whatever the writers want" machine that is the Schnee Glyphs, so it won't necesarily be as powerful or practical.

Now, if we include the User, it doesn't need as much balancing by itself. A strong Semblance can be balanced, if you balance the User.

For example, someone with a Summon Semblance that would, by itself, be powerful. But the User depends on it so much that their skills and strengths in nearly every other combat area are mediocre at best, and thus whatever can get around or just beat the Summons could crush the User.