...My favorite-LOOKING summon is the Pit Fiend (sic) from the Gate spell [does that strictly count as a "summon"? - in the manual Elminster sez there's a difference between summoning and gating...] - I also think it has the coolest-looking summon effect. The first time an enemy cast Gate at us, we just stood transfixed at the sight saying "OH - MY - GOD..." to ourselves. [Of course we couldn't do anything else 'cause we were Time-Stopped
] I couldn't wait for Anomen to earn that spell, just to try it out inside the Adventure Mart...Ribald was not amused...
Fire Elementals made me feel the most confident in battle in the earlier part of the game - don't know if I could have handled wolfweres so well without them... Now in chapter 5 I'd say, yeah, the Skeleton Warriors are damned nice to have as friends - I like their death animation also. Though the Mountain Bears are sort of... cuddly...
I've never tried the Animal Summoning spells- didn't know there were any creatures worth the memo slot. Thanks - I'll give those a try.