Sumoners

[versengeteriks]

i used to run a few chars a while back that operated as summoners.

Had a few queries on it and also wanted some feedback on what people thought of them.

Fist thought. Whats the maximum creatures you can use at once including companions, spells etc. only 2? If so would people like that changed? Or maybe add a new Class, prestige or Quasi to allow more summons? Summons per level/4 maybe?

Next do would people find summoners a pain? lag causing? would they be a strain on the server?

Finally. whats the best route to go? Wizard necro, raising lots of undead? Druid pulling animals and spirits? Elementalists using elementals?

All input appreciated.

'trix

[desocupado]

I believe the maximum is 2 - but it's usually only one. Familiars and companions are useless.
I think it's a good maximum - 1 - so to make room for tanks and allow them to be more powerful.

I would rank the summons's problems as following:

1. Need for buffs (they need aov badly for stat boost and dodge ac, they also need barskin)
2. Limited Damage types (and unpredictability)
3. Attacking wrong targets (can be somewhat microed)
4. Ease of being "banished"

A pm does get higher CL and thereof potentially stronger minions BUT the best ones are:
1 - Bard's army - best damage and get multiple minions - should spam Mass haste to further increase dps
2 - BBoD - a not dying minion
3 - Superior Balor (ESF Enchant for arcane) - amazing defense and offense and much less dispelled than the next one
4 - Greater planar binding (for PF, Male and Balor) - good overall offense and defense
5 - Summon creature, Shadow Summon, Create Undead

I still haven't seen the sphere of annihilation.

[chainlink]

Banishment mobs are your biggest problem as you can go from an entire army to nothing in an instant as can be attested to by many a bard.
The Epic single summons are not banishable as far as I am aware but they don't last very long and still have stupid vulnerabilities based on my experience of the Death Phasm cleric one which is not Fear immune and can be instakilled by Malebranches, please explain to me how an Avatar of your god can be vulnerable to Fear, not much of a god then is it
Now if you could posess your summon ala the Pixie that might make a valid case for a new class

[Matt]

Man that sounds cool, building a character that enhances its familiar making it stronger with certain feats, then possessing it and doing uber kewl stuff. Imagine having your gear immunities and such transfer to the creature, and taking say different Spell Focus would benefit the pets differently. It'd be kinda like a shifter but cooler :3

[desocupado]

There have been some ideas of summoner quasi classes like Shepherd whose a few features were later built into my quasi class suggestion Avenger.

Regardless of that I would make it low priority to make a new class based on it.
For current classes, the best one for summons are Clerics and Theurges (due access to AoV, UEF, Barskin and some other useful spells). Heralds and Pm are also somewhat proficient at summoning.

Incidentally a play style similar to a summoner (several fire and forget spells) can be achieved with disable/damage clouds (you could say you "summon" them and they "attack" the enemies).

Worst case scenario keep a bbod rod/wand/scroll.

--------------
//Joke - If you want to have summons play any core and call a run. You will summon multiple tanks this way.

[condude1]

Well, technically you can have up to 5 companions at once (I think, I'm not sure if #4 and #5 below stack). You'd need to be a herald (or an arcane with a druid splash for some ungodly reason).

1: Greater Planar Binding
2: Familiar
3: Animal Companion
4: Animal Empathy something
5: Dominate something by spell.

For bonus points, transform into a badger!

That being said, the animal companion and familiar would be absolutely terrible.

[versengeteriks]

In a way crap summons kinda fits with summoners. As long as there's lots of them or they are easily recast.
As said above. Tough and good summons defeat the point of having team mates.
Spells to boost hp and survivability over uber summons sounds fitting. How well it would play I dont know.....

It would be almost impossible to solo bosses with. So it would still need a proper party to get any tags.
I feel a test coming on......

[desocupado]

As a Theurge/Cleric - I often restore (to remove vulnerability) and heal/harm my buffed summons (harm for undeads).

The issue is, you cannot easily recast current summons due the fact they need several buffs to be effective (throwing an AoV and Bar skin tends to do the trick in a rush).