Improved Duration Conjuration Reagents

[Egon the Monkey]

I know that there's been debates before about Conjuration duration, and why it's been cut down. However, recently, Equinox was telling me how his PC and a necromancer buddy used a buffed up Shambling Corpse to *tank* Purple Crystal mine.  This is, of course *awesome* :D.

However, one of the major points brought up by DMs with summons  was "summons aren't there to tank the entire quest, they are there for temporary assistance". So, why should it be different for undead, especially as they are easier to buff and heal with negative spells? I've been thinking.

People will smite the crap out of undead?
-Not if you pick your team wisely.

Animation is only a choice for PCs who don't mind getting Evil on them by doing it?
-True, but by limiting the "super goon" option to Evil PCs, you only allow one sort of real minion master type concept around.

They are only easy to summon up without consumables if you are a palemaster, priest or have Special Epic Loot.
-True, but you can find enough consumable Instant Zombie to make it a reasonable occasional option.

That last one gave me an idea though. We already have Conjurative Foci that swap the type of creature a spell summons. So, how about Conjuration Binders?

Conjuration Binder
Base Item: some sort of "note" item.
This magical scroll has a single-use summoning circle design on it. When stood on while a summoning spell is cast, it will allow a summoned entity to be bound to the material plane for as long as the summoner wishes.

Unique Power unlimited uses/day.
Sets the next summoning spell to behave like Animate Dead and be semi-permanent in effect. (Raises the summon value slightly)

Cost: 50-100 gold, drops with same regularity as L2 scrolls.

This item would allow a conjuration-based PC to have that same level of "persistent minion" that animators can do, but with an attached cost, thus making it so it would be worthwhile to summon up an Earth Elemental or Blood Panther with one of these things,  but pretty stupid to waste them on a horde of snakes.

It would be good RP value to have Conjurers able to walk about with a minion like that for events, in the same way as Neveron did his Zombie Pride showing off on top of the zig. It would also mean that powerful conjurations could be used as a summoner wizard's main form of effort, not just the odd cannon fodder.

[Anonymous Bosch]

The main difference is that summons can be pretty powerful.
Shambling corpses suck noodles.
 
It's a cool idea, but the item should be expensive as hell.

[Egon the Monkey]

Ask Equinox about him having one tank Crystal mine :P.
Undead are very powerful on account of both their persistence and their Undead-ness. Negative rays (easy to get hold of on EfU) heal them at a distance, Ray of Enfeeblement and Negative Burst buff allied undead, stone bones will give them SIX additional AC on a L8 caster, or three with a scroll, and then you can mage armor them on top of that.

[Cruzel]

Not to mention you can get a hold of monster  corpses and animate those, some of which are no laughing matter, sir.


Btw, If you want a persistant summon try buffing your FAMILIAR. As they are now they are ridiculously strong, with snakes and rats easily passing 80+ hp.  Buff those and you can pretty much have the same effect as a 'tank'.


HOWEVER, While I do agree that some summons are absolutely amazing and should definately not last forever - Some summons are not so imbalancing. It would not be very hard at all to add a duration paramater to the existing summoning system I do not think, where each theme (maybe even each summon itself) would/could have it's own duration for it's summons. We could even go so far as to give a summoner a choice ; Multisummon or Duration. If the summoned creature is the 2nd or more summoned, it would have the normal efu 3 rounds/level, but the first one would stay according to it's theme's setting.


IMO.

[Egon the Monkey]

Hmm. About how powerful are Shambling Corpses compared to the average summon? If things were balanced so you could only make some L3/4 or below summons persistent that could be better. That way they don't end up better than undead. Being able to summon up one or two things that'll last through a quest would be a nice alternative to "well, for distracting stuff, dropping a GSFed Web or Stinking Cloud works as well, and that can't get wiped out with one fireball".

As for familiars, considering how they've been swapped more to mini-buffbots/support casters in EfU, using the fact that some of them have mad HP feels rather silly. Besides, I never noticed that, I've only used Chickens and Ravens.

[Egon the Monkey]

Hmm. About how powerful are Shambling Corpses compared to the average summon? If things were balanced so you could only make some L3/4 or below summons persistent that could be better. That way they don't end up better than undead. Being able to summon up one or two things that'll last through a quest would be a nice alternative to "well, for distracting stuff, dropping a GSFed Web, Evards or Stinking Cloud works as well, and that can't get wiped out with one fireball".

As for familiars, considering how they've been swapped more to mini-buffbots/support casters in EfU, using the fact that some of them have mad HP feels rather silly. Besides, I never noticed that, I've only used Chickens and Ravens.

[Oskar Maxon]

A buffed rat could take on a fighter of the same level, pretty much.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Not to mention you can get a hold of monster corpses and animate those, some of which are no laughing matter, sir.

So I've heard, but they're an OOC nuisance to get hold of, seeing as a DM needs to set it all up.  Certainly not something you can just batter out to quest with.
 

Ask Equinox about him having one tank Crystal mine :P.

A rat with buffs could tank that one. :)
 
As for the shambling corpses, they have decent hps, low base dmg, low ab and they are sloooooow.
 

It would not be very hard at all to add a duration paramater to the existing summoning system I do not think, where each theme (maybe even each summon itself) would/could have it's own duration for it's summons. We could even go so far as to give a summoner a choice ; Multisummon or Duration.

Epic.
This would be a great way to balance out the power differences between themes as well.

[The Crimson Magician]

I'll have to disagree with you on needing a DM to get some animation things.

Check corpses next time, yo.

[Mort]

Well. One is animating the dead. Something that should send shivers and disgust into the minds of most people.

The other doesn't have any prejudices/death-threats/risks/witch-hunts of being killed by crusaders associated to it.

[HalflingMaurauder]

I will play a transmuter dedicated to the outlawing and vehement opposition of conjuration, just for you Mort.