Monster summon

Penryn · Post by **Penryn** » Sat Nov 15, 2003 7:53 am

Curious about this spell, I always had thought the creatures summoned would come and fight for the priest normally. like summon elemental would do for druids or summon planar ally (which would Love to see in game), Is there anyway to get them to fight for yas? so far everytime I have tried seem to pull up stuff that though strong doesnt exactly work for the priest

penryn

Cyric · Post by **Cyric** » Sat Nov 15, 2003 8:26 am

Summon elemental is in the game.

As for Summon Monster, as I believe it now, it will summon a monster to fight for you, IF you are in a fight (i.e. you are fighting a thri-kreen, and you cast summon monster they will default to fight against your enemies first). If there you are not fighting, they resume their aggressive behavior of "smashing all".

Mele · Post by **Mele** » Sat Nov 15, 2003 5:58 pm

Summon monster has always worked fine for me, it does summon one. He beats up my foes, then me.

~Danica

Isaldur · Post by **Isaldur** » Sun Nov 16, 2003 12:29 am

Let's not forget you can Summon Monster at a distance.

Wyvern Cannon anyone?

Dagev · Post by **Dagev** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 4:17 pm

I have always enjoyed this spell....However, is there any way it could be set truly to "smash all" ? As in...completely aggressive? Like, it would attack anything in the room, whether it was aggressive towards them or not? I have noticed that the summoned monster is very effective agains PCs at a distance when they unknowingly wander into the room the monster sits, but I would think that the mobs in that room would also be affected by the monster, not just a PC. An example is in a place such as hartsvale....summoning a wyvern into the middle of the ogres should cause a stir. Instead it just sits until a PC enters the room to do anything. You could even cast the monster into the room that Brianna sits and nothing would happen until you or another PC entered. I just think making the monster all aggressive would make more sense and create some very interesting rp.

Dagev

Rhelian · Post by **Rhelian** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 10:32 pm

look west

You see
A phaerim is nearby west from here
A giant is nearby west from here
Lord Piergeiron is nearby west from here
A merchant is nearby west from here

cast 'summon monster' west
wait 10 rounds, monster dies
cast 'summon monster' west
wait 10 rounds, monster dies
cast 'summon monster' west

look west

You see
A wyvern nearby west from here

That'd be why it shouldn't be implemented, in my opinion. Otherwise it will be abused within 10 minutes of being changed.

Dagev · Post by **Dagev** » Sat Dec 20, 2003 6:58 am

For clarification.....
I understand that problem. What I meant to speak of was aggressive mobs. I think that should be implemented....not just use the spell to kill everything. I can see the numerous problems with that. I was just speaking of examples like......the tons of giants in hartsvale should attack a wyvern that gets "tossed" room. You could have a "battle of beasts" or whatever you want to call it. Just an idea really.

Dagev

Cyric · Post by **Cyric** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 1:37 am

Perhaps there would be a way to set the beast that you casted it on aggro to the character whom casted it. That way, after a monster dying, the Phaerimm would come stomping in to see whom sent the monster in there. *shrugs* Suggestion.

Pakur · Post by **Pakur** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 9:33 am

Maybe if you summoned a monster, it could be affected by charm for a short time. ( 5 mins IRL? )

Yboesh · Post by **Yboesh** » Sun Mar 28, 2004 8:12 am

Hmm, here is an idea I had while reading the other replies. How about putting a kind of add-on to the summon monster spell, so that after the monster kills all that it is supposed to(if it doesn't die first) it then comes looking for the caster? THat way, it would come with a fairly hefty price, other than just the mn cost, and would be perhaps less prone to abuse that way.

Jerigo · Post by **Jerigo** » Sun Mar 28, 2004 3:56 pm

Anything that I know about FR comes only from my experience in the mud, but in the FR world do the summoned monsters have a tendency to want to attack whoever summoned them? Or would it just be that they're indiscriminately aggressive? If the monsters of FR don't generally try to seek out vengeance specifically on the caster, then I don't know that it would be fair to paint the caster as a specific target to the monster in the game.

Yboesh · Post by **Yboesh** » Mon Mar 29, 2004 9:21 am

Jerigo wrote:If the monsters of FR don't generally try to seek out vengeance specifically on the caster, then I don't know that it would be fair to paint the caster as a specific target to the monster in the game.

It may not corrospond to actual F.R. rules and regs, but it might make the caster think before using this spell on someone from a distance. Which is the basis, in my opinion, of a wizards code, to think of all the possible consequences before casting any spell. But there could perhaps be a modifier added to the spell that would make said monster roll against the luck/wis/int of the caster, if it loses the roll, it is the subserviant to the caster for the duration fo the spell if it wins the roll, it eats him. (or her). Something like that, maybe?

Selune · Post by **Selune** » Mon Mar 29, 2004 1:25 pm

Monsters can no longer be ordered around because of abuse.

Summoned monsters do turn on the caster if the foe dies and the summoned monster still lives - at least they did the last time my mortal summoned one.

Stayne · Post by **Stayne** » Mon Mar 29, 2004 5:06 pm

One of my favourite spells monster summon, both in RP and combat, but I am not sure it works the way it is supposed to.
One instance, my char and another where doing a RP in a forest where an occasional deer was wandering in and out. As part of the RP I summon a monster targeting the other player. We both stood there stunned as the said monster went after the deer.
Could the code be a bit wonky there?
It did turn an attack us after the deer was killed, as it seems that a summoned monster will auto attack a PC regardless and the summoner of course is a potential target.

What I wouldn't mind seeing, if it is possible, is that the spell changed to be that a target must be specified, if none then it attacks the caster. Leave the code as it is in that if there is no PC in the room then the summoned monster remains there without attacking (prevent summon monster bombs). When a PC enters it will random attack one PC/MOB in room. Once its target is dead (regardless of how acquired - the monster vanishes).

This would make it nicer for low levels to gain the spell in the future, as well as remove the abuse...I hope.

Just my opinion
-Stayne

Nysan · Post by **Nysan** » Mon Mar 29, 2004 6:45 pm

Quick comment, the spell (far as I can tell) has been altered so that the summoned creature stays for brief periods of time then disappears, not until dead like in times past. So abuse of it for 'traps' or whatever is all but impossible.

N.R.

Lerytha · Post by **Lerytha** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 2:22 pm

I think this is the only appropriate post to put it in: does anybody know the policy for use of monster summon in PK situations?

Duranamir · Post by **Duranamir** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 2:11 pm

Summon monster.

Speaking as player with an active high level conjurer i both love and hate this spell. I love the imagery of summoning a creature from elsewhere and bending it to your will. I hate how this actually works in the game. I would like to have a discussion about making the spell more usable than it currently is.

Good points

You get summon a large and ferocious wyvern that chomps on your enemy and then disappears.

Bad points

It does this whether you want it to or not !.

For example this is really unfair to use in a PK situation because the wyvern being aggressive immediately attacks full force in killmode kill. And it is nearly impossible to get it out of this behaviour. This means if you are in a Spar mode PK you can not use the wyvern as it will go Killmode on your opponent which is a bit rough.

It could also break quests as it will kill a quest mob even if you dont want it to.

Also it is very hard to have an aggressive mob take any part in an RP and summoned mobs should really be usable for more than just combat.

It seems a bit unfair to have one of a conjurers signature spells as almost unusable so below i include a few suggestions for making the spell more usable. If anyone else has any ideas ?

Suggestions

Two possible ideas

Either make the summoned creature a non aggresive mob of a similar level of power to the wyvern for example an elemental of some type ? so that the player has to at least order the mob to attack and therefore gets a chance to alter its killmode before it does so.

Or have the summoned MOB inherit the killmode of its summoner ?. So that if you want to you can go Killmode nofight and use the mob for RP or non combat purposes if you want.

Duranamir

Dalvyn · Post by **Dalvyn** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 4:26 pm

My plan is to replace the crazy wyvern with a list of option, depending on skill levels.

That is, there would be a list of creatures, depending on alignment (good/neutral/evil) perhaps.

A - celestial dog / dire rat / fiendish raven
B - dire wolf / dire wolf / dire wolf
C - celestial bison / dire tiger / fiendish aligator
...

and the caster would then use "cast 'monster summon' B", and so on.

If his/her skill level is high enough, the B creature corresponding to his/her alignment would be summoned, as a temporary pet. Otherwise (if the caster can't use option B), the highest option available would be summoned instead.

That will mean that the spell will be toned down in power (no more crazily overpowered wyverns). That would also mean that the spell would most likely be dropped in level (not sure to what level yet).

Another option is to remove 'monster summon' and replace it with a series of spells (as per DnD rules) : monster summon I (level 1 spell), monster summon II (2nd level spell), ..., monster summon IX (level 9 spell). Perhaps not the 9 spells, maybe only the four even-numbered ones. That would mean that the current skill level in "monster summon" would be lost and that those spells would have to be re-trained/learned.

Opinions? Comments?

Duranamir · Post by **Duranamir** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 6:03 pm

I like option 1 with the alignment variable pets.

It has the least disruption and the most fun options. As long as the pets are not Aggressive like the mad bad wyvern.

Duranamir

Aliatris · Post by **Aliatris** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 11:13 pm

In order to enhance the utility of Charisma, maybe could be done a CHA check every time you summon a creature, if you pass the check the creature remains under control like a pet, being possible ordering things to him, if you fail it could attack anyone nearby (you and your friends too).