Summons! (spoilers maybe and a bit long)

chickenhed · Post by **chickenhed** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:03 pm

I like summons. They make me happy. I enjoy summoning an army of powerful fighters/fodder and blasting away in the back lines with a mage. Or summoning my army, and charging in there with my fighter/cleric or fighter/druid.

I spent about an hour last night CLUAing in monsters to fight against summons to test their power. I was hoping to cross reference my findings with the experience of those on this board (experience which far outweighs my own). This is what I came up with:

The planetar was, overall, the toughest fighter. Combined with the amazing spell arsenal, and you have a ridiculously powerful summon.

HOWEVER, I don't feel like being a mage this time through the game. So I wanted to pit a mage's best summon with what I think SHOULD be the best summoner in the game, the druid. The best druidic summon? Well that should be the HLA Greater Elemental Summoning. I am summoning the princes themselves! They better kick butt! now, did they?

Overall, no. I was VERY disappointed with the prince of fire and air. Pitted against various incredibly tough monsters (unfair i know, but i wanted to see) like a lich, dragon, adamantium golem, etc and the princes could barely get a hit in. However, put those monsters against the planetar or even the cleric's deva, and they often came out on top!

Now, you notice that I did not mention the prince of Earth, Sunnis. Holy COW this guy is a MONSTER! I was completely shocked by his domination in the field of battle! A hasted Sunnis (I hasted all the summons when testing) defeated a red dragon, adamantium golem, and a lich one on one! the only assistance i gave him (which is the same for the other summons too) is help with dispelling the lich.

That brings me to my final round of testing. I put the planetar against Sunnis. Now I will say that I did not use any of the planetar's spells. I'm sure if I did, things would have turned out differently. That being said, Sunnis completely wiped the floor with the planetar. It wasnt even a close match. This is all due, I believe, to one spell that Sunnis automatically casts on himself at the beginning of every fight, which is Stoneskiin. Because of this one spell, Sunnis can absorb an obscene amount of punishment. As well, he can dish it out FAR more than the other princes. Getting an extra +3 to hit, and doing an average of around 30 damage per hit.

Lastly Sunnis, like the other princes as well, have very high magic resistance. This allowed him to stay toe to toe with the lich.

As a side note, the planetar beat the crap out of the prince of fire and air. Not even a close match at all.

My conclusion is of pure annoyance. If there was a "Summon Prince Sunnis" I would pick the druid in a heartbeat as the class to play for my summoning character. But I HATE that I have to save, and load, until I get the all powerful Sunnis. I'm sorry, but it just annoys me to no end.

So this brings me (FINALLY) to what I hope to get from this forum. Your opinions of the summons in this game. Do you guys generally agree with my final assessment? Planetar being the most powerful overall, but Sunnis being the toughest SOB in a toe to toe fight? What are your experiences with summons? All comments welcome!

Pellinore · Post by **Pellinore** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 4:37 pm

I rarely ever use summons aside from skellies and the occasional spider. I lost faith in the devas and planetars when I summoned one and put it against an illithid

The illithid very quickly killed my devas & planetars one on one. The skeleton warrior on the other hand...can beat an illithid (very long fight that was) but not a Ulitharid (sp?). Maybe others have had better luck with them than I...

Jedi_Sauraus · Post by **Jedi_Sauraus** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 8:15 pm

An Illithid beat a Planetar ?? Trust me he must have had an obscene amount of luck to do so. Planetars can hold their own against level 30 tanks provided the tanks don't use HLA's

Maybe it was a whole group of them and it got stat drained ?? but wow I'm shocked I usually clean out the Illithid places at around level 15 with 2 buffed tanks.

Try summoning up 30 or so via CC 3x PI on self. Condition either being hit or spotting enemy

gloin · Post by **gloin** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 2:40 pm

Summons

My computer got fried recently and so I have to start over again. I had been using summoned creatures recently. An air elemental is great against the undead. When the undead attacks, you usually see "Weapon ineffective" message. Air elementals are also good against "were-creatures" and most humans. Fire elementals are not as good. Devas are the best.
Gloin

Pellinore · Post by **Pellinore** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 9:11 pm

Maybe it was a whole group of them and it got stat drained ?? but wow I'm shocked I usually clean out the Illithid places at around level 15 with 2 buffed tanks.

All I know is those psionic blasts stopped my devas & planetars (as well as mordenkainens swords) dead in their tracks and then they get their brains sucked out....

Jedi_Sauraus · Post by **Jedi_Sauraus** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 12:55 am

Mordy swords as well ???!!! well I never used that tactic but I assumed they were pretty much immune to everything. Wow it actually looks as if mind flayers are more challangeing than I suspected. before this thread my threat assesment for them was maybe 2/10 provided I had some access to "chaotic commands" which nulifies their stunning attack. Live and learn I guess

Pellinore · Post by **Pellinore** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 6:05 pm

I found that blocking the passage with the high INT summons and letting them get stunned with a Psionic Blast works great with archers and such... They block and the party simply picks them off one at a time...

Jedi_Sauraus · Post by **Jedi_Sauraus** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:36 pm

My tactic is to just go on in and watch how many times I get hit. watch intelligence all the time. mind flayers have a nasty habit of going after the stunned char so chaotic commands are critical here

rbeverjr · Post by **rbeverjr** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:28 pm

@chickenhead
I think your assessment is good in general. The Planetar is much more powerful than other summons and not just because of his fighting ability and vorpal weapon, but primarily because he has useful spells. Sunnis is a good pounder and so is useful. But I would choose a planetar over him in almost every situation - my fighters pound better than Sunnis. Devas do very well against undead; they have maces of disruption. I have used skeleton warriors and Mord swords effectively against liches and mindflayers. The mord swords work much better than skellies when facing ultraillithids.

The elemental prince I hate to see is the one of air. If you aren't careful, he can chop up your own forces.

Even junk summons from the staff of monster summoning can be useful because the AI is too stupid to realize the real threat are your PC and NPC.