Summoning sorcerer

I decided to ditch the my typical build for a solo sorc (reliance on offense), and create a sorc who relied on his buffed summons to kick ass (a tiny bit of an exaggeration. My sorc doesn't sit on his ass doing nothing, he stands wayyyyy back and hurls attack spells when appropriate).

Monster Summoning I is far more effective than I thought. At the beginning of the game, they held the evil monsters at bay while I composed myself to whip out a magic missile or two. What is awesome is that you can actually summon 4 kobold archers from just one casting (something I never actually knew). Quite nice. Their arrows are like pin pricks, but enough pin pricks will fell a target...

Even now, my lvl 18 sorc uses them in an emergency, as a meat shield, and to lure a demon towards the enemy.

Spider Spawn is just great, and won me many battles. Web + Spider Spawn = L33t. They also accompany my 'shock troopers' as some fodder which can deal out damage before keeling over.

Animate Dead was so-so until I hit lvl 15, then *POW*. Ass kicking time! What chance do Beholders and Liches stand when 5 hasted skeleton warriors are charging at them?

But what was I to do until then? Easy, a lvl 6 fire elemental fit the bill quite nicely, especially versus mages with stoneskin. Mencar and his gang gave me some lip, so I decided to teach them a lesson. You'd be surprised how effective even just 3 of these guys are with strength, haste, improved invisibility and spirit armour. I'm not exaggerating when I say that Mencar and his mates were wiped out in approx. five rounds.

The gang in the sewer took a tiny bit longer, but my fire elementals come out none the worse for the wear. Symbol stun and symbol fear don't really have much effect on fire elementals who have spirit armour and improved invisibility. It didn't work in the gang's favour that one of the Fire Elementals I summoned was 24 HD. 192 hitpoints of brimstone and flame. Nice...

Choosing my lvl 7 summon was the most difficult decision yet. Haskeshar? Nahh, Skeleton Warriors serve the same purpose. Djinn? Too frail, and no real resistances. It also doesn't have the same duration as its rival, the efreeti.

So it came down to Mordy's sword, the Efreeti. (I decided to neglect Cacofiend, as the Lvl 8 Spell 'Fiend' is the only Lvl 8 summon). The Efreeti sure is a tough character, and ultimately deals out more damage (and it also has very high fire resistance + spells), but Mordy beats it by being a +4, and immune to almost everything (except energy, which can be easily rectified with a level 6 spell. Heh). So Mordy it is!

Finally I made it to lvl 16, and I chose 'Fiend'. I decided to test out his effectiveness by casting improved haste, and sending in a skeleton warrior. In one round, the skeleton warrior had been annihilated. 8 attacks per round, many resistances, death spell immunity, and some very nasty spells, I realized that my little pet demon wasn't a bad choice, if I was careful in controlling him. It's a pity that he has a rather low constitution (80 hp? Bah! Oh well, the Baalor summoned using Gate only has 80 hp as well!), but that doesn't change the fact that he is a bag of ass kickery which can be summoned in the heat of battle.

I'm about to go to Spellhold. It should be interesting to see my little minions hold their own in the Underdark and beyond. If things get tough, or if on a whim I should decide to do so, I'll use project image to summon an army. But honestly, I'm a rather impatient fellow, and prefer a small group of crack troopers to an unwieldly army.

To be honest, I enjoy this build a lot more than the normal sorc. It's great to have EXPENDABLE warriors, which you can easily replace at the blink of an eye (apart from fire elemental, which requires some prep). And I haven't died once during combat (quite impressive, for me, give that I'm playing on insane). The only real damage I've actually suffered is when I walked over some pain in the ass traps.

Any comments?

[Armen]

nice - sounds enjoyable and a nice way to inspire the old creativity through limiting your options

hasted skeleton warriors are ridiculous though eh? [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Kyrvias]

Wow. That sounds really fun. Couple that with the Amulet of Power and the Robe of Vecna... *drools*

[Kyrvias]

I hate to double post, but have some major advice for your conjuring needs.

Use the spell "Wizard Eye". From a scroll, if need be. With it, you can leave your character in one place, while 5 of your best summons, and your wizard eye go exploring. Your character stays safe, while your summons explore the map.

I've done this throughout my playthrough, though I played with a regular mage, and not a sorcerer.

Use the spell "Wizard Eye".

Or you could just use a familiar which is hiding in the shadows, or has improved invisibility.

[Sir Degrader]

The risks are too great if the damn thing gets discovered.

[timothy trotter]

you dont get the exp for the kills made by summons do you?

[Dundee Slaytern]

Originally posted by timothy trotter: you dont get the exp for the kills made by summons do you?

You do, if the summon is controllable by you( aka green circle).

[Arias De'Minal]

Originally posted by Dundee Slaytern: quote: Originally posted by timothy trotter: you dont get the exp for the kills made by summons do you?

You do, if the summon is controllable by you( aka green circle). [/QUOTE]Charming people, though, has the opposite effect right? If they kill something for you, you dont get the XP, IIRC.

[Armen]

chaos and counfusion have that downside as well i realised recently - you know you're XP-farming rather than role-playing when you're thinking 'hey, don't kill each other - wait for me . . .'

EDIT: correcting errant apostrophes and, while i'm here, what sort of avatar is that?

[ 01-14-2006, 05:51 PM: Message edited by: Armen ]