Two major issues I find with the new, modified undead summons:
1. Undead-type summons need to be much better. They were underpowered before, and if anything, they actually seem to have gotten worse with this revamp. All of them have low AC, and crappy attack progression. All the undead I summoned had 1 level of a class, and the rest were levels of "undead". Undead levels only give +1/2 BAB, leading to pathetic attacks compared to other summons of the same level. Add on top of this the large number of anti-undead spells and items available and it leaves much to be desired.
2. Mummy Dust summon is pathetic. A zombie that is Undead 20 / Monk 1? It has decent strength, but with a BAB of 10 that leaves it with only 3 unarmed attacks per round. Add in an AC of 20, and anything you run into that is even close to CR 20 is going to destroy it in just a few rounds. Plus the fact that it is unarmed means you can't use Greater Magic Weapon, Darkfire, or similar to help out its damage means that it's worse than many of the standard Summon Monster spells. I spent a feat to get an "Epic" creature that is weaker than my Summon Monster 7? The previously summoned Greater Mummy was MUCH better - it actually had some AC and attacks, and it cast some spells that were useful (not always, but sometimes).
(Also of note: I am level 22, but only got a level 21 mummy? I've even got Spell Focus: Necro. and GSF: Necro. Is this right, or is it a bug?)
Undead summons need more tweaking.
It really depends on what level you are, and what undead you are summoning. At level 5-10, I found the summon to be great, if not overpowered! It had double my HP, an AC of 18, which turned to 21 if you used strong bones, and you could also put shield of faith on it. The summon didn't go away, but like all summons, it was very lacking in AI.
Past level 10, I found the undead summons to be crap. The initial level 3 animate dead no longer grows powerful, and once you finally get into create undead, you are going up against creatures that can destroy it with ease. Mind you, I havn't going past lvl 7 spells yet. After taking a look at the Undead's character sheet, they have weapon focus in longsword, and the higher undead even has greater weapon focus in longsword. These are two utterly useless feats, as it is impossible to give them a longsword. Perhaps that was the intention? After all, we don't want summons to replace a fighter in the party.
Now, let me explain what I mean when I say that it is destroyed with ease. Quite a few times I have summoned the skeleton to have it turned, run away, etc. Not a complaint, it should be turnable. Unfortunatly the AC never increases, and you never get any of the origional bonuses like wraiths being somewhat concieled. My cleric has an AC of 34 at level 14, and still takes quite a few beatings. The ac of 18 just doesn't cut it for a summon expected to help out. I've watched the "Create Undead" Lose more then half it's HP to creatures I usually don't bother fighting. They just don't give out enough xp, and are simply time waisters in fighting. (They don't really hurt me). The undead does minimual damage unless in Power attack, or improved power attack, which means it doesn't attack well. So far, the only thing I have noticed with the higher casted summon is that it has more HP, and is able to knockdown. Speaking of knockdown, the ability is great! I was very impressed when I saw it pull off a knockdown hit.
Personally I would like it if the "Create Undead" made something other then just the undead zombie and skeleton. I was also very dissapointed when at level 10, my Animate Undead didn't create a skeleton chieftan.
The earlier undead created by "Animate Dead" could possibly use a few less HP. At level 8, my cleric ran into, and fought two other characters both raited challenging. Between the skeleton and my cleric, they just about dropped one (about 3 times), before taking any considerable damage. The two other char's actually won the fight because they could both bandage the near death character. For 1 character to pose a serious challenge to two characters the same level, shows me that something might not be balanced right. I stronlgly contribute the success of that fight to the "Animate Dead", and would suggest it is toned down a little.
Perhaps a bit more feedback could help here?
Past level 10, I found the undead summons to be crap. The initial level 3 animate dead no longer grows powerful, and once you finally get into create undead, you are going up against creatures that can destroy it with ease. Mind you, I havn't going past lvl 7 spells yet. After taking a look at the Undead's character sheet, they have weapon focus in longsword, and the higher undead even has greater weapon focus in longsword. These are two utterly useless feats, as it is impossible to give them a longsword. Perhaps that was the intention? After all, we don't want summons to replace a fighter in the party.
Now, let me explain what I mean when I say that it is destroyed with ease. Quite a few times I have summoned the skeleton to have it turned, run away, etc. Not a complaint, it should be turnable. Unfortunatly the AC never increases, and you never get any of the origional bonuses like wraiths being somewhat concieled. My cleric has an AC of 34 at level 14, and still takes quite a few beatings. The ac of 18 just doesn't cut it for a summon expected to help out. I've watched the "Create Undead" Lose more then half it's HP to creatures I usually don't bother fighting. They just don't give out enough xp, and are simply time waisters in fighting. (They don't really hurt me). The undead does minimual damage unless in Power attack, or improved power attack, which means it doesn't attack well. So far, the only thing I have noticed with the higher casted summon is that it has more HP, and is able to knockdown. Speaking of knockdown, the ability is great! I was very impressed when I saw it pull off a knockdown hit.
Personally I would like it if the "Create Undead" made something other then just the undead zombie and skeleton. I was also very dissapointed when at level 10, my Animate Undead didn't create a skeleton chieftan.
The earlier undead created by "Animate Dead" could possibly use a few less HP. At level 8, my cleric ran into, and fought two other characters both raited challenging. Between the skeleton and my cleric, they just about dropped one (about 3 times), before taking any considerable damage. The two other char's actually won the fight because they could both bandage the near death character. For 1 character to pose a serious challenge to two characters the same level, shows me that something might not be balanced right. I stronlgly contribute the success of that fight to the "Animate Dead", and would suggest it is toned down a little.
Perhaps a bit more feedback could help here?
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Terminal Insanity
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