If summoned monsters have been altered....

Nertanef · Post by **Nertanef** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 8:02 pm

Perhaps you could also alter the stats of companions and domains. My character is a cleric with a evil domain. I can summon a shadow, later on a shadow mastiff then it goes into a shadow lord if i recall at level 20. Perhaps these could be altered to be more useful. I know it takes alot of work altering scripts but perhaps as the character gets stronger you could alter the summoned creatre from a shadow lord to another shadow type critter, shadow dragon at lvl 40 for instance.

If anyone has got some suggestions on this, feel free to add your 2 cents.

Denort · Post by **Denort** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 4:46 am

I think I read somewhere a while a go that a revamp of familiars and companions is planned. As you pointed out, I hope they do not overlook things like death domain summons as well as others like blackguard, pale master and shadowdancer.
With all of these it would be great if the was a level 40 (30 for prestige) version that was better than the rest. A shadow dragon sounds like a great idea for a level 40 death domain cleric.
The blackguard level 30 summon would have to be some sort of epic sucubus. What self respecting blackguard would not want a scantily clad serving wench at his call?

The default pale master summons are pretty poor except (so I am told) the demi lich at level 30. Unfortunately a level 30 pale master is pretty lacking in casting power himself.
I have never taken a shadowdancer beyond about level 13 so I am no sure how good the epic shadow gets. I would suggest that for NS4 by level 30 the shadow would have a stack of immunities, damage reduction and self concealment. Either that or give the shadowdancer the shadow dragon summon at 30 instead.

Here's hoping the "niche" summons do not get missed in the overhaul.

Oops, its death domain that gets the Negative Plane Avatar not evil domain.

Post by **Lokey** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 5:35 am

Bio tried to do a couple things that are broken unfortunately (mummy dust and dragon knight summons are supposed to level for example).

Finished the hard part of summons, still have balancing to do--Dragon Knight's summons can solo Drakmarr for example, oops.

Anyway, working on a system where they're useful when you first get them, then their power increases as you level or take feats/classes involved with summoning or spell focus conjuration or necromancy (depends on the spell) and eventually by in character training opportunities.

JesterOI · Post by **JesterOI** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 2:14 pm

What about taking Conjuration or Necromancy school as a wizard? Shouldn't that help also?

Post by **Lokey** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 2:53 pm

It should but there is no way to extract that information in game that I know of. Possibly from the level up package, but that's only if you take it at level 1.

All specialize does is gives you an extra spell per level and a forbidden school (think the manual says it does more).

JesterOI · Post by **JesterOI** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 2:56 pm

The game has to do something to make a school banned for the wizard, no way to detect which spells the wizard can't take, then make a decision based off of that?
(Yes I know that some schools get banned by several opposing schools, but it's a start!)

>> It's engine

-Lokey

Denort · Post by **Denort** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 11:28 pm

Maybe skill points in Animal Empathy could improve any summon that has "levels" in animal, vermin, beast or magical beast?

Something along the lines of a magical bonus to str, dex and con equal to summoners animal empathy skill divided by 6. So if you took animal empathy to 43 points with about +5 from charisma and +12 from skill focuses, all your animal, vermin, beast and magical beast summons would get a bonus +10 to str dex and con. Wouldn't that be a shock, a druid able to summon a more powerful animal than a cleric with the animal domain.

It would be a little like set trap and disable trap synergy, because a panther with squid parts is a lot more intimidating than a squid strapped to a panther.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 12:36 am

That would very much depend on how long it had been out in the sun.

Trust me on this one...

JesterOI · Post by **JesterOI** » Tue Jul 27, 2004 12:36 pm

Denort wrote:Maybe skill points in Animal Empathy could improve any summon that has "levels" in animal, vermin, beast or magical beast?

Something along the lines of a magical bonus to str, dex and con equal to summoners animal empathy skill divided by 6. So if you took animal empathy to 43 points with about +5 from charisma and +12 from skill focuses, all your animal, vermin, beast and magical beast summons would get a bonus +10 to str dex and con. Wouldn't that be a shock, a druid able to summon a more powerful animal than a cleric with the animal domain.

It would be a little like set trap and disable trap synergy, because a panther with squid parts is a lot more intimidating than a squid strapped to a panther.

Good idea, maybe make it so that the druid gets a bard song that is automatically applied to his summons, and is affected by his A/E skill and level.