Focus summons- animal not undead

Post by **Amoenotep** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 4:07 pm

dragon knight summons don't lvl up after you get them. they stay the same lvl and your enemies grow harder and harder. get ready to cuss them repeatedly for dying as you attain lvls 30+

Post by **Binkyuk** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 5:20 pm

Yup, if you're not multiclassing much then definitely go Mummy Dust.
Also the MD summon actually attacks stuff, while the DK summons will hit stuff, but only after spending 10 minutes casting spells and failing concentration checks while he's beaten up doing it (the slaad especially).
Also MD is immune to crits, while when the DK switches targets and goes flatfoot (not Solar 'cos it has Monster Uncanny Dodge and full plate, but definitely the Slaad, 'cosw it has neither - give the Slaad Uncanny Dodge!) it becomes a total crit magnet and will often die in seconds before you can heal it.
I used to sing my Solar's praises, but after spending more time over level 30 i'm with MD all the way.

disastro · Post by **disastro** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 5:37 pm

eh, the mummy dies pretty fast to dwarves, crit immune or no. I guess i will reserve judgement until i'm higher level in each.

these guys would probably work better if they scaled a bit with level, instead of pwning when you're level 21 only to become cannon fodder by the time you're level 30.

Post by **TheBestDeception** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 5:40 pm

As i've stated in another thread, WoF owns Mummy Dust, period, whereas the planar summons have inherent spell resistance, which can be quite beefy with the focuses.

The Solar can hold her own against Planar creatures quite well, so long as you don't aggro too many ... but when is that not the case? I can't speak too much for the other Planar summons, though from facing them, I am fairly sure the Solar wins as far as damage is concerned.

CrazyJ · Post by **CrazyJ** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 6:25 pm

Slaad stinks. Haven't had a balor yet.

Solar is by far the best...

kingfatzo · Post by **kingfatzo** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 7:18 pm

meh .. solar is crap. he has to cast 4 worthless spells before he can even attack

Post by **Binkyuk** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 8:16 pm

you should try a slaad, off the top of my head i think:
horrid wilting
greater dispel
chaos spittle (uninterruptable)
chaos spittle (uninterruptable)
mestil's acid breath
call lightning

and when casting he's flatfoot and has no Monster UD, so his AC goes through the floor. he has decent concentration, but faced with frequent AOO crits he usually fails once or twice.

watchwood · Post by **watchwood** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 7:47 pm

Couple questions: Are the dragon knight summons affected by the elemental cleric domains, and if so, do those domains stack for even greater bonuses?

Post by **Metis** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 8:07 pm

No Clerics get increases like so:

Animal - Bonues to monster summon I-IX
Good/Evil - Bonus to Planar Binding, Dragonknight
Death - Undead summon, Mummy dust

Focusing conjuration - Bonus to ALL summons

Core · Post by **Core** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 9:10 am

Not so sure about that dragon knight being effected by good or evil domains.

JesterOI · Post by **JesterOI** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 9:59 am

Metis wrote:Focusing conjuration - Bonus to ALL summons

Thought all undead summons were affected by Necro Focusing and not Conj Focusing...

The main issue I have seen with most summons is the lack of AC. Though, I haven't personally seen the stats for the BG or PM summons.

Post by **Amoenotep** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 11:50 am

all of the epic summons end up with close to the same ac. with a druid i can buff the Slaad's ac close to 50, but doesn't really help it when the ab for most planar mobs is close to 50

disastro · Post by **disastro** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 12:03 pm

Metis wrote:No Clerics get increases like so:

Animal - Bonues to monster summon I-IX
Good/Evil - Bonus to Planar Binding, Dragonknight
Death - Undead summon, Mummy dust

Focusing conjuration - Bonus to ALL summons

so necro AND conj feats add to undead summons? if so I'll really kick myself for taking dragon knight over mummy dust.

Post by **Metis** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 2:12 pm

My mistake, just got back into town when I posted so my apologies, yes necro boosts undead not conjuration

watchwood · Post by **watchwood** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 3:57 pm

Which I assume also means that the Druid bonuses are only for the Summon X line, and don't apply to any of the epic summoms. Correct?