Summoner: Wizard (Conjurer) or Sorcerer?

TheGreatGodLoki

Hi all, been a while.

So I've always wanted to play a summoner esq mage. Some one who summons beasts, monsters, and the like while sitting in the back flinging minor buffs/debuffs. I'd carry this character to BG2:EE and possibly IWD:EE (the template that is). What do you guys recommend? Which class/race would be best? I'd be using mainly all the summon monster spells, in terms of priority.

NaughtyHand

Wait, u can carry character from bg2 to iwd?

TheGreatGodLoki

No idea. But the two games have to be similar in class types and spells

simples

restricted schools are different in iwd though

simples

also- finding spells to fill up your spellbook in iwd is pretty difficult, so i'd go with sorcerer

Wowo

For the theme id recommend a Heart of Fury game in IWDee.

Definitely don't do this with a sorcerer in BG as the summons get so weak and you can't change your spells.

Also consider Druid and Bard for the theme (Skald song to buff your summons is great).

lunar

Elemental summoning spells are bad for mages in bg games, it locks the mage in a mental combat for three rounds and there is the possibility of the elemental turning hostile. Also, monster summoning spells are crap. Very weak monsters, very limited duration, all around suckage.

Play a totemic druid, they are the most awesome summoners, their special summons have very nifty abilities and you can choose which one to call depending on the situation. Plus fire elemental summons by a druid is very very strong, easily the best mid level summon, also you can 'summon' insect plagues to harass your enemies. Insect plague is particularly devastating in bg2 against mages.

sarevok57

but the level 6 elemental summoning spells in bg2 for mages have HUGE durations, so that's nice, plus mordenkainen's sword is probably one of the best summons in the game ( or at least it was back in the day being virtually immune to all damage, don't know if they have nerfed this spell in the enhanced edition ) and by contrast, mages probably have the biggest number of summoning spells to offer, carrion summons, wyvern call, efreeti, djinni, hakeshars, nishruu's, various demons, if you really want to experiment on summoning dudes, be a conjurer and find all the summon spells and cast away

Sharguild

I suppose it comes down to, do you want variety or power? Druids, hands down, have the best summons. HLA Elemental Princes being the ultimate.
Thing is, the game requires a lot more from you than sitting back, unloading a few summons and then relaxing in the lazyboy with a cool one and popcorn while your boys go to town.
Be aware there will be times where you are out of summons and now need to rely on other measures.
So what do you want those other measures to be?
You need to have an idea of what you want your PC to be capable of. To a degree, your party will carry you through but they will depend on your leadership to progress the game.
First rule of BG, do not suck at what you do.
Second rule, see first rule.
You need to build a character that can handle bizarre situations with impromptu flexibility. Being a summoner is great, right up until the enemy just purged all your summons with a spell.
Read the forums, get an idea of what you are going up against but most importantly build a fun character that will see you through the game.

TheGreatGodLoki

My issue with BGEE, is that unless I "cheated" I couldn't find all the scrolls of summoning I needed. I'd get a few of them. I thought the sorcerer (While having a small spell pool, and level choice) would eventually get me all the summons necessary.

Wowo

TheGreatGodLoki said:

My issue with BGEE, is that unless I "cheated" I couldn't find all the scrolls of summoning I needed. I'd get a few of them. I thought the sorcerer (While having a small spell pool, and level choice) would eventually get me all the summons necessary.

In bg1 your choice of summons for a sorcerer are:
Summon monster I
Summon monster II
Spider Spawn

Mage:
Summon monster I
Summon monster II
Summon monster III (level 5)
Spider Spawn (I'm pretty sure that there is 1 scroll of this)

In bg2 you get many more options but it's difficult to have summons that are strong enough relative to your level.

If you adventure with a small party - maybe 3 characters - then you'll level up fast enough to get some decent summons before they're too low level to make a difference. In bg1 sorcerer is okay as an option but in bg2 your lower level summons will quickly be worthless.

I still recommend to play a summoner in IWD with HoF active as the summons get the same buffs as the enemies so your summons become really strong. Add a bard and a skald to the party and your summons can become quite strong.

AHF

Sharguild said:

I suppose it comes down to, do you want variety or power? Druids, hands down, have the best summons. HLA Elemental Princes being the ultimate.

I don't think any summons get more powerful than the Mage or Sorcerer's Planetar. In addition to the automatic seeing invisible enemies, haste, and vorpal attacks, they have a variety of very useful spells to help the rest of your party such as restoration, true seeing, heal, raise dead, insect summons, etc. that are all quite useful. The duration on a Planetar is also more than twice as long as the HLA Elemental Princes.

FinneousPJ

@AHF Yes, but until that, mage summons aren't particularly exciting.

AHF

FinneousPJ said:

@AHF Yes, but until that, mage summons aren't particularly exciting.

@FinneousPJ After those two, I think the Mordy sword is the best summons in the game but other than Planetar and Mordy the only mage summons that strikes me as at all worthy of the slot is the skeletal warrior and then only once it hits its max potential. I agree that all the lower level elemental and monster summoning spells for mages are not real exciting as anything but short duration fodder. In that respect, the totemic druid is probably much better from a start-to-finish summoner experience. That is one of the few classes I've never played through, though, so I can't tell you for sure.

lunar

AHF said:

FinneousPJ said:

@AHF Yes, but until that, mage summons aren't particularly exciting.

@FinneousPJ After those two, I think the Mordy sword is the best summons in the game but other than Planetar and Mordy the only mage summons that strikes me as at all worthy of the slot is the skeletal warrior and then only once it hits its max potential. I agree that all the lower level elemental and monster summoning spells for mages are not real exciting as anything but short duration fodder. In that respect, the totemic druid is probably much better from a start-to-finish summoner experience. That is one of the few classes I've never played through, though, so I can't tell you for sure.

Well I am playing a totemic druid in bg2 and at lvl 10 (which is super easy to reach thanks to druids funky lvl progress) the spirit animals are very very strong:they are immune to normal weaponry and do very good damage in melee reliably, also they do all kinds of nasty things to enemies like hold, fear, poison, lvl drain. I had improved Irenicus dungeon from scs which spawns duergar fighters and archers instead of weak sauce goblins in the dungeon, and spirit animals are invulnerable to their weapons so sliced/diced through hordes of them. Thugs, bandits, minotauts, some animals, and slavers who have normal weapons, they can not touch the spirit animals at all and get owned very quickly and efficiently. It is fun.

JuliusBorisov

You can check how totemic druid's summons are helpful if you read http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/30553/the-tale-of-the-totemic-druid#latest

They are amazing!