Non-elemental arcane summons preferences
Aerich
Member Posts: 272
Are any so good that they ought to be taken, in your experience? I find myself consistently underwhelmed by the spell duration and the monsters summoned. I sometimes take one or two at lower levels for quick-cast meatshields if my main summons are dying too quickly, but I don't really use them for damage or long-term tanking. Since I mostly play HoF, duration is quite important, and the lesser HP of the shadow/demi-shadow type of summons makes those less helpful.
1
Comments
At high levels, U can try something like lvl 9 Gate spell, summoning a Pit Fiend for 33 rounds. ?
N.B. There is 1 Gate scroll in TotL. ?
well to be honest the elemental summons are the best arcane ones, and you asked for summons that weren't the elementals
in fact, even for the priests the elementals are the best summons
the only real hidden gem amongst the arcane ones would probably be the invisible stalker, they have very low AC and are immune to all mind influencing effects, in fact, they make better mind flayer killers than skeleton warriors thanks to their incredible AC
so if you want to try a new arcane summon, try invisible stalkers and see how they treat you
or you could try carrion summons and then cast champion's strength on it and an improved haste and watch it paralyze all yer foes no sweat with it's 8 APR and if your cleric is level 12 it will make your carrion crawler's thac0 8 with some decent hitting power to boot
this can also work with the spider spawn spell, casting champions strength plus improved haste, also gives it 8 APR, with some decent to hit, and with 8 APR that is going to be some decent damage
Has the spider spawn bug been fixed?
That’s a good one, but I’ve always been hesitant to burn level 9 slots on a summons. Don’t you miss out on the xp for what it kills?
Summons you control directly grant experience for what they kill, though it's not credited to any individual character. Summons you don't control such as demons don't grant experience for their kills.
Still active in 2.6. There's a quick "drop in override" fix available here.
Not a major problem in IWD on HoF imho, there are tons of XP anyway. ?
In one of the first play through, where a player dualed his cleric of lathander at level 29, he summoned a bunch of these before dualing (and cashed in some postponed quests) for an easy time after the dual.
I have done that too. Aerial Servants are a solo cleric's best friend, and useful from the time you get access to them through the endgame. The point is, though, with respect to the original topic, is that they seem to be far better than any arcane summons available, when you consider ability to control them, duration, weapon immunity, and hitting power. Considering when you get access to them, they are in the conversation for best summons in the game on a pound-for-pound basis - IMO with Stalkers, elementals, beetles, and animate dead.
Boring beetles also do great damage, relative to when you get access to this summons, and all beetles have good DR to non-crushing damage, which increases their tanking potential, along with the eight hour duration.
From the roleplay perspective, one could also argue that it's morally superior to summon insects to their doom instead of higher orders (animals, humanoids).
Verminmaster Druids would like to have a word with you.