Summons Q's (limit, etc...)

[Beef]

I heard that SoA & ToB limit your summons to 5. How does this work, exactly? Is that 5 creatures or five summons spells? Also, that would be five per character, right? Do Project Images get another five?

I am confused with how the limit works with summon spells that can grant you more than 1 creature. If my mage casts MonstersII and get 3 creatures. Can he only get 2 more creatures for instance from a summon spiders spells (2 spiders). Would that be my limit? Or would he be able to get creatures from another four summon spells?

It's annoying that summons can't go up/down stairs or through doorways to another level/area. If you have to leave them behind to go through a door/stair, can they only unsummon when you return to that area? (that's been my experience) Do these expired-but-not-yet-unsummoned creatures still count towards your summons limit?

[Willard]

You can only have 5 summons at any given time, not five summon spells. If you cast Monster Summoning 2, for example, and summoned 3 creatures, and then cast Monster summoning 3, and summon 3 creatures, it will not summon one of them. I believe that the unsummoned creatures still count toward your limit, but I'm not sure. I have heard that Project Images get to summon more, but I've never tried it before.

[whacky]

Originally posted by Willard: You can only have 5 summons at any given time, not five summon spells. If you cast Monster Summoning 2, for example, and summoned 3 creatures, and then cast Monster summoning 3, and summon 3 creatures, it will not summon one of them. I believe that the unsummoned creatures still count toward your limit, but I'm not sure. I have heard that Project Images get to summon more, but I've never tried it before.

Yes project images do get to summon more as a matter of fact with a wish spell you can crank out unlimited planetars as well.

[Beef]

So what you guys are telling me is that each character/Projected-Image has a limit of 5. So 2 Mages + 1 Projected Image + 1 Simulacrum = 20 total summons. Is that correct?

Is there a way to check to seee how many summons you/a character currently have/has? CLUAConsole command?

I'd hate to be limited in my summons because I left an unsummoned Fire Elemental somewhere.

[Willard]

I don't believe there is a CLUAconsole command for checking on you summons. And no, there is a limit to 5 per party, +5 if you use a project image. So 2 mages in your party+ a Project Image + a similacrum casting summoning spells will only be able to summon about 6. I think.....

[ 09-19-2002, 07:37 PM: Message edited by: Willard ]

[Hayashi]

Rule of thumb: only 5 summons *total* at any one time. There are exceptions as some of the posters have alluded to, but I'm not too sure what works & what doesn't.

You have to make sure all summons are either dead or unsummoned when you leave the area, or they will still count even though logically the summons should have expired. As you have observed, summons don't follow when you move from one area to another. The creature that you left behind is *still* summoned & counts towards the summoning limit. You will have to return to the area you left the creature in and either kill it or wait for the summons to expire.

Creatures imprisoned by the spell of the same name also count towards the summoning limit.

Hope this clarifies things for you.

[SixOfSpades]

Your entire party may not have more than 5 Summoned monsters active at 1 time.
Project Image and Simulacrum are immune to this limitation--they can summon as many beasties at 1 times as they want.
If your Summons get Imprisoned, they will count against your Summon limit forever unless you cast Freedom.

[Dundee Slaytern]

I will add on to what SixOfSpades said,

The rule of thumb is that you can only have 5 summons at any one time. This is also known as the summoning limit.

Project Images and Simulacrum doubles ignore this rule of thumb, and may summon as many summons as they like.

If you summon a Kobold in the Docks District, and then go to the Graveyard District to rest. When you wake up, the Kobold would have expired by then and no longer count to your summoning limit. When you return to the Docks District, you will see the Kobold being unsummoned.

Imprisoned summons will always count towards your summoning limit. You need to free them using the Freedom spell( level 9 Mage spell), and let them expire. Or you can just use Project Images and Simularcrum doubles to cast your summoning spells( not ideal, you will want to keep your base summon count as 0).

[LennonCook]

Originally posted by Dundee Slaytern: If you summon a Kobold in the Docks District, and then go to the Graveyard District to rest. When you wake up, the Kobold would have expired by then and no longer count to your summoning limit. When you return to the Docks District, you will see the Kobold being unsummoned.

Unfortunately, the game engine doesn`t recognise that they nolonger exist until it gets the "Unsummoned" message. Thus, if you summon a Kobold in the docks, go to the Graveyard and rest, then cast some more summons you can only summon another 4, because as far as the game knows, the Kobold hasn`t yet been unsummoned.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Originally posted by LennonCook: Unfortunately, the game engine doesn`t recognise that they nolonger exist until it gets the "Unsummoned" message. Thus, if you summon a Kobold in the docks, go to the Graveyard and rest, then cast some more summons you can only summon another 4, because as far as the game knows, the Kobold hasn`t yet been unsummoned.

That is incorrect, and I have tested it out before. I have had Jaheira( because she is the easiest to gain multiple summoning spells) summon 1-2 Mountain Bears in one area, go to another area and rest. Wake up and cast 5 more summons, then go back to the original area to witness the previous summons get unsummoned.

ADD] To further add on, when you...
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Chapter 4 Spoiler
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... fight Bhaal in your dream. You might have used some summons, then you got teleported back once you defeated him. You will note that you can still summon 5 summons after you rest or the summons' timer expire.

[ 09-20-2002, 06:25 AM: Message edited by: Dundee Slaytern ]