Summons

pixie359

I'm thinking ahead to late game SoA and into ToB - which of the HLA summons is best? I know of the Deva, Planetar and (greater) elemental summons. Am I right that you cannot have more than one of deva/planetar at a time?

Actually, while we're at it, what are the most worthwhile summons throughout? Are the spider figurine, efreeti bottle and berzerker horn worth it?

Lord_Tansheron

Planetars are usually regarded as the best, though the elemental princes are also quite strong. I do believe there is a "cap" of one for Planetars/Devas, but I don't think it extends to high level elementals. There's also ways around it...

Set up a Chain Contingecy with condition: helpless, and load it up with Project Images. Then cast Project Image yourself; as you are considered "helpless" during the image, your contingency will trigger and spawn a load of more images. Have each of those images summon a Planetar: presto, your own extraplanar army!

Corvino

Planetars are quite a bit tougher than Devas, so they're a good first choice. Greater Elemental Summoning is also very solid, but the type of elemental you get is random. IIRC the Elemental Prince of Fire is evil-aligned and can become hostile if he gets hit with holy smites, which limits things a bit.

Devas can be useful but are less powerful than planetars, and you can get them as a HLA for Paladins meaning not all the summoning needs to take up your Mage, Druid or Priest spell slots.

lunar

Planetars are the best, their swords occasionaly dispel magic at hit and can have vorpal effect (insta death) also they can cast a lot of priest spells to buff/heal the party. They have good resistances and immunities, too. Cast Improved Haste on a Planetar and send her into battle, you'll see how strong she is!

Devas are cheaper cos clerics can summon them with 7th lvl slots and Paladins can via special ability. They are inferior to Planetars in every way, though.

Elemental princes are neat too, but are somewhat lackluster when compared to Planetars, plus IIRC their duration is shorter too, which limits their usefulness in long fights.

DreadKhan

It can be argued that if you rely on holy smite in tob, you have bigger issues than an Elemental Prince.

Actually, never thought about it, but I would expect some abilities beyond the basic for the elemental princes... Ie some spells. Not a lot, but something to make them more comparable. Unless you like seeing Druids cry.

Corvino

@DreadKhan Load Aerie up with a sequencer and a few at the same time and it's a good way to soften up some mook groups.

It's not ADHW, but it's cheap and low-level, ideal for trash.

pixie359

Holy smite remains fairly useful as a low level spell that scales with the caster - hitting everything evil within an area for levelxd4 is pretty good at mid to higher levels. Sure it won't kill Melissan or Demogorgan, but it's by no means useless.

lunar

I've killed Firkraag with a final Holy Smite, the very first time I played the game, with my very first character! Holy Smite is one of the best offensive spells for clerics.

But turning a Planetar hostile is bad. Very very bad. They can insta-kill and chunk your characters, forcing an annoying reload.

Lord_Tansheron

Planetars can be quite annoying to fight against indeed... I sigh loudly every time SCS mages summon against me, and particularly at low levels it is quite often a more challenging fight than the mage itself...

DJKajuru

Elementals are my favorite summons throughout SoA - they's strong and immune to normal weapons !

PawnSlayer

Mordenkainen's Swords are incredibly useful throughout the game as well - they're immune to most damage (though not the Death spell), very powerful and can be summoned in bulk quite quickly. They're also one of the best anti-Mindflayer weapons in the game since they're completely immune and generally rip them to pieces. Lock a couple of the Swords in a room with them and admire the collection of Illithid bodyparts a couple of minutes later.

Planetars are of course more powerful, and Elemental Princes are extremely good as well. One downside to summoning the latter - you can only have one at once, and since Elemental Summoning has a chance to summon a prince, you can waste a spell if it tries to summon a second one.

Also good earlier on are Skeletal Warriors, which you'll get from Animate Dead once you hit level 15. Strong and resilient, they lose most of their value in the later stages, but are amazing for much of SOA.

Corvino

Skeleton warriors are still useful in parts as distractions to get Mages to waste spells on. They won't kill anything, but they might distract someone from targeting the party for a round or 2.

DreadKhan

Skel wars are useful period... They won't drop draconis by any stretch, but they can eat spells like a golem. In soa they make the game embarrassingly easy. Animate Dead is straight up ridiculous for 3rd level spell.

...sure, you can sequence holy smite, but unless you ran only good, watch out or your tanks! Ie sarevok or Korgan. Sequence silence seems more intuitive, since monks can just be slaughtered. For low level sequence btw.

ZanathKariashi

Skeleton warriors actually do hit pretty hard, it's just their +1 weapons that kind of hold them back a little. The Druid's fire elemental summon is better then the princes. Fire elemental hits as +5, the princes/elders only hit as +2, sure they're tougher and hit harder...but when they can't hit at all, none of that really matters much.

Deva is pretty much a lvl 25 cleric to do with as you please.

The plantears are more offensive based, the devas are more defensive/support based.

Mord's swords and Skeleton warriors are the only summons anyone actually needs. Or fire elementals for druids, since that's all they really get that's good...or their swarms I guess, for vs mages.

chickenhed

ZanathKariashi said:

Skeleton warriors actually do hit pretty hard, it's just their +1 weapons that kind of hold them back a little. The Druid's fire elemental summon is better then the princes. Fire elemental hits as +5, the princes/elders only hit as +2, sure they're tougher and hit harder...but when they can't hit at all, none of that really matters much.

Deva is pretty much a lvl 25 cleric to do with as you please.

The plantears are more offensive based, the devas are more defensive/support based.

Mord's swords and Skeleton warriors are the only summons anyone actually needs. Or fire elementals for druids, since that's all they really get that's good...or their swarms I guess, for vs mages.

Firstly, the fire elementals stirke as +4. Secondly the princes strike as +3 and they are pretty awesome. They are immune to +2 weapons and most importantly they are "gated" and not "summoned" like other elemental summoning spells. Which means they are immune to the Death spell.

I agree that, overall, the Deva and Planetar's are superior and they also have the benefit of being "Gated". But Sunnis, the Greater Earth Elemental, is pretty freaking awesome.