EFU Summoning System

[Howlando]

[SIZE="5"][FONT="Times New Roman"]EFU Summoning System[/FONT][/SIZE]

First and foremost, EFU uses a custom system that allows characters to bring forth more than just one summon depending on the size of their summoning pool and the cost of this summon as explained below. This means that as opposed to vanilla NWN, your dream of having an army of summoned creatures can easily come true on EFU.

The summoning system consists of three primary variables:

[SIZE="3"]1) Your summoning pool[/SIZE]

[SIZE="3"]2) The cost of the selected summon[/SIZE]

[SIZE="3"]3) Your current summoning theme[/SIZE]

Simply said, you have a certain amount of points in your summoning pool and the desired summon you wish to bring forth will 'occupy' some of these points, which means that as opposed to vanilla NWN, you can bring forth as many summons as your summoning pool can handle.

[SIZE="4"]Summoning Pool[/SIZE]
You receive 20 summoning points per level into your summoning pool. For example, a level 8 wizard will have 160 points to use. Although it isn't normally done, there are certain ways with which one's summoning pool might be increased (such as the Sorcerer Cultist perk - see EFU Perks for reference). In other words, it is possible to have your summoning pool increased beyond the 20*level formula.

[SIZE="4"]Summoning Costs[/SIZE]
 The cost of the selected summon type depends on:
1) Whether you have SF / GSF Conjuration
2) The summoning theme you are currently using
3) Which level of summon creature you are casting (Summon Creature I, Summon Creature II, etc...)

Spell Focus: Conjuration decreases the cost of summons and GSF: Conjuration  does so drastically as your character is truly a dedicated summoner. Additionally, different summon themes of various levels have different cost that is decided according to their power as a balancing measure. The cost might increase rapidly: a level 1 summon might cost mere 10 points but a level 4 one will easily eat up half of your summoning pool.

[SIZE="4"]Summoning themes[/SIZE]
With a few exceptions that are best figured out IG, characters with unchanged summoning theme end up with the default Underdark theme. However, even in the OOC starting area you can choose different themes to fit your character and once IG, there are many different ways to go about ICly acquiring a summoning theme.
Firstly, the easiest to acquire are summoning reagents, which serve as a one-time use only and require you to have a conjurative focus (an item that can be rather easily acquired IG) to use them. As said before, you use them once and the reagent in question will be destroyed and the character will return to his default summon theme. It should be said that discovering summoning reagents will certainly require a new player to pay attention and use another easy-to-acquire item to successfuly identify an item as a summoning reagent.
Another option are summoning tomes, which are definitely harder to acquire than reagents. Similiarly as the reagents, summoning tomes require you to have a conjurative focus to use them, but once you do, they can be used permanently and will not disappear after single use.
Finally, there is the character's default summoning theme. The default theme is the summon type your character casts without the use of reagents and tomes, meaning it is mostly what you have selected in the OOC area or acquired through other IC means to be applied to your character.

EFU has a large selection of summoning themes so it is always possible to app for a unique one that may not be accessible otherwise.

An example:
A level 7 wizard with SF: Conjuration will have 140 points in his summoning pool. He wants to summon a level 4 creature, which would normally cost 50 of his pool, but thanks to the SF: Conjuration feat the cost will instead be 40, meaning he can summon three of these creatures and still have 20 points in his pool left. He uses these to summon two level 2 creatures which cost 7 each - (3*40)+(2*7)=134. He will have three level 4 and two level 2 summons out and still have 6 points left.

If the wizard was to summon another level 2 creature, he would receive a message that his summoning pool is overflowing and the creature in question would be promptly unsummoned.

Additionally, your summons can be controlled using the player tool: 'Control Companion', which can be set up in the crafting skills menu along with the rest of the player tools. Before you manage to have your summons do your bidding, it is useful to issue the "Stand your ground" command, after which they will obediently respond to the player tool.

Thanks to Robocop for throwing this guide together