Re: Summons

[Zhorn]

Given how precious feats are, I don't really recommend anyone to take any conjuration spell focus feats at all. You're much better off pumping up your Death Magic or Evocation DC's (or maybe taking spell penetration feats, but then again Mordies lowers SR by 10...).

And as for taking Animal Domain.... Travel & Trickery > All.

[TheKala]

It all depends on preference ... perhaps some people are getting sick of seeing all the mages with almost the exact same build. does anyone else think the death magic is getting a little old? how about trying new builds.. what a concept!!

on a side note.. once you reach level 25.. would you like to duel my atypical cleric? maybe that will change your mind on the conjuration spell focus (death magic really isnt the way to go!)

[Zhorn]

It all depends on preference ... perhaps some people are getting sick of seeing all the mages with almost the exact same build. does anyone else think the death magic is getting a little old? how about trying new builds.. what a concept!!

Nope, I never get tired of seeing that death animation and hearing that cool sound.

on a side note.. once you reach level 25.. would you like to duel my atypical cleric? maybe that will change your mind on the conjuration spell focus (death magic really isnt the way to go!)

Storm of Vengance is another dirty trick! But a good one.

[Flailer]

Since Epic Spell Focus normally adds only +2 to your DCs, I fail to see how simply adding 2 to STR, DEX, CON, AB, and AC is too low...

In the manual, it says that Epic Spell Focus adds +6 to your DC - is that in addition or cumulative with the other two Foci? If all 3 foci just give a +6 bonus, then yeah, I guess increasing everything by +2 would make sense. However, it may not be as good of a bonus that you'd get from raising your Necro or Evo by +6. But I guess the jury's still out until they release the final summons. :/

How about SR? is that affected at all by foci?

Not that I saw, unless it kicks in at higher levels than Summon Creature III. That would be a good addition though.

It all depends on preference ... perhaps some people are getting sick of seeing all the mages with almost the exact same build. does anyone else think the death magic is getting a little old? how about trying new builds.. what a concept!!

Yeah, that's kind of my point. I mean, for the most part, everybody knows that if a mage gets off the typical Bigbies/IGMS spam storm, the fight is over. *yawn* Just tyring to make a build that I and nobody else feels dirty about fighting - I may be wasting my time, but that's apparently what I do best....

[DrakhanValane]

The focus feats do not stack. Epic gives you a cummulative total of +6.

In the 3.5 Handbook the bonuses are listed as +1 so that it's easy to see that they stack (and it's specifically mentioned that they do as well). You heard that right, it's lowered to +1 each in 3.5. :)

[Brax]

It all depends on preference ... perhaps some people are getting sick of seeing all the mages with almost the exact same build. does anyone else think the death magic is getting a little old? how about trying new builds.. what a concept!!

There are a lot of great mage spells out there, but on most servers, everything and it's mother has immunity to mind spells which gets rid of half of them straight away. Add in improved evasion, and that only leaves a hand full of spells left, most of which are rubbish anyway. So people who played mages just used the spells that were any good in the best way possible.

[TheBestDeception]

Now, maybe I missed something, but how does the cheap itemset of other servers affect the way characters are made on Neversummer 4? It just doesn't seem to matter, IMO.

[Brax]

It matters because that is the way people have always built mages, so why would they change just because it is neversummer 4?

[DrakhanValane]

People who play a server based on previous experience that doesn't match the current setting are doomed to failure. If you play NS4 as you would NS3 you're going to be in trouble.

It's somewhat akin to complaining about a rule in NWN because it wasn't like that in Second Edition AD&D...

[Brax]

Ah.. But they are not doomed to failure. It works, so why change? What advantages are there to taking a different set of spells?

[TheBestDeception]

Surprise...for example, no one expects the summon Solar to have an AB of 50+...

[Brax]

Ok... so we can add one more spell to a mages usable list. And one more reason why fighters will complain that mages are too over powered. There are a lot of really cool spells out there, but most never see the light of day.

[TheBestDeception]

I think you are confused by this thread...I was hoping to enlighten people about the summon-route one may be able to choose...this way they will focus on something that does not include the "typical" cheap spells...if you'd like to make a plug for some other spell school, do testing and knock yourself out.

[jwiwchar]

After reading this thread I decided to try a cleric with animal domain and spell focus / greater spell focus conjuration... The result has been very impressive. Though it's a little embarrasing having my summons show me up, lol...

It does, however, make me feel a little nervous having a Dire lion following around my lawful good cleric. Never know when he's going to rebel and bite my head off.

[trent]

So would spell focus con help out a pale masters crappy summon? .... man they should have least made the thing a monk ... atm it gives you an undead fighter witch is cool cause its immune to crits and sneak but why give it weapon focus lonsword if it doesn't have one and most of the time it just stands there and spams powerattack lol .... it would be cool if they would have made it to where the higher lvl pm you are the more you can summon at once .... i.e lvl 10 pm can summon 10 crappy zombies all around him .... that would be usefull to draw ememy hits away from you awhile you plot your escape.