[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by Saxon:
Thanks a lot for the clarification. I have been trying a number of different things over the Last couple of days. Having a good group of body guards is essential early on, as you I do not have the construction skills to build decent items.

I wouldn't waste items on a Void Summoner - except a +1 astral item for Returning (Thaumaturgy 1), if you can't find a candidate priest with astral 2. Still, your summoner can be feebleminded and attacked in the same turn, and then you've lost the item and the gems. But when you reach Enchantment 5, have your current summoner cast Ritual of Returning, and he'll be almost safe - even a Greater Otherness can't kill a Starspawn in a single attack, and as soon as he takes damage the ritual will kick in. For even more safety, cast Ritual of Returning and use Returning in combat - as I'm not sure Ritual of Returning will work if you're succesfully Soul Slayed by a Vastness.

If you haven't researched Returning or Ritual of Returning yet, your first scripted spell should be Resist Magic if available. Then Quickness (if ?=water), Personal Luck, Body Ethereal, Ironskin (if ?=earth) or Barkskin (if ?=nature). That way you can survive the Vastnesses' Soul Slays (I once saw an unequipped, unescorted Starspawn kill a Vastness single-handedly), the Mind BLasts, and the trampling attacks of Othernesses (ethereal beings are hard to trample) while draining life from them.

10% of all summonings will wipe out your summoning skill, leaving you with the minor summons resulting from low skill as you start again.

It's 5% actually.

To be honest, it seems like a lot of investment for limited gain. To get the really good summons, you have to keep someone alive and sane for a long time. If he gets knocked out around turn 30, you have to start again and will not get much useful for that stage of the game. You know that feeble mind is going to knock him out at some point, so it is hard to justify.

Well, the Vastnesses, Greater Othernesses, Things that should not be, etc. are truly fearsome beasts, and can justify a lot of things. And you want that at no risk, just for an initial investment of 150 gold? BTW, a Starspawn priest's "half-life" is ~14 turns (at that point his chances to be feebleminded are 50%), so basically entering the gate costs you ~15 gold/turn (including upkeep). Not so expensive when you consider what you can get from it.

Put another way, it is an expensive lottery ticket and I am not sure the prize is being paid!

I think just the opposite. And these summons are so much fun!

[ January 13, 2004, 06:02: Message edited by: Nagot Gick Fel ]