What are the strongest summons?

[Particle]

Bleh! Abomination is still my fav!

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by Endoperez:
that Nataraja-prophet could still be an awesome super combatant...

I'd wish for a Void Lord instead of a Nataraja. You get one less attack (the Void Lord gets an extra life-draining tentacle), but the extra misc slot, better protection, better magic resistance, fear(+5) aura, underwater ability and immunity to eye loss more than make up for it IMO.

[Humer]

Vastness. Definately. You CAN'T beat movement of 10 (flying). After Gift of Reason, the V can zoom 10 provinces, easily beat local defence (Gotta love Blood Curse, sp?), set taxes to 200 and move away!

Yestereve got 3! Vastness' in 3 turns! So... I GoR'ed one and put the other 2 on tow and started taking provinces from the map at random.

BTW, Vastness really has Astral-3. GoR and see for yourself. Cast Luck and you have sacred ethereal creature which avoids 50% (from luck) of 25% hits (from etherealness) and on top of that, opponent who actually manages to land a hit must beat a magic resistance roll against Blood Curse (+2) or take the hit itself. But 0 prot and 'only' 76 hp makes it vulnerable to magical damage and as it is now hip, pop and on top, magic duel.

What's not to love?

- Humer

[Shael]

owning astral magic can be so bad
mind duel anyone ?

[Keir Maxwell]

I would be really interested to hear what low level summons people have had good results with. So what magic level 4 and below ritual summonings have people done well with?

I have had fun with Fire Drakes as artillery for Abyssia but they are not a must buy option. Cave Drakes look allright but its hard to summon enough to make a big difference. Summon Shades seems very handy and I have made use of Horned Snakes - in both case the numbers per ritual are the selling point. Call of the Wild is still a beaut but beyond these and celestial summons for Tien Ch'i I haven't found a great deal yet at the lower levels.

Anyone tried Spirits of the Wood?

I didn't much like Vine Ogres in Dom I but they look more attractive with other options scaled down from Dom1.

Cheers

Keir

[ November 25, 2003, 07:50: Message edited by: Keir Maxwell ]

[LordArioch]

Spirits of the wood might be decent, but being unable to move to other provinces seriously limits the usefulness of hama dryads. In terms of low level summons I'd have to go for behemoth for death, although wights might be decent...maybe.
I think I like the Kithanironic lion for nature/earth, although vine ogre mass production is great and economical. Maybe pride of lions? Costs a bit, but lions are pretty sturdy and it lets you spend gems fast. The scorpian beast isn't so costly as a drake, and the wyvern is cheaper now for spending air gems...
I don't really see much in earth...earth magic just strikes me as weak overall really. Besides blade wind its battlefield spells are weak or hard to cast, and its summons are not great either, except for some high level construction.

And blood of course has a wide selection of demons..I like the area damage on frost fiends against light troops, but the rest are more pratical it seems.

In high level summons, tartarian gate is awsome...you get a undead pretender god/mage for 10 death and 20 nature (Gift of reason). And some of them are pretty good mages too.

[Jasper]

Kithironic Lions are much improved from Dom 1. They cost less, while the seasonal spirits cost more.

Pride of Lions is less interesting, but more widely castable. The lions are a bit easily killed for my taste, but I can easily see using them in an early conflict.

Vine Ogres might also be worthwhile, but I'm not sure they're worth the time investment. They'd be much better if you got 3-5 Ogres for 3-5 gems.

The various drakes look ok now that Seasonals are more expensive. The Wyverns look like perhaps the best of this bunch, although I haven't tried them.

5 Gems for 3 Bog Beasts is a good deal -- especially for Miasma C'tis who starts with them!

IMHO the lesser elementals are still decent, just not so obvious a tactic as before.

Earth doesn't really get anything I like until level 5, either Clockwork Horrors or Gargoyles.

Tien Chi's summons would be good if Tien Chi was!

[HJ]

Originally posted by LordArioch:
In high level summons, tartarian gate is awsome...you get a undead pretender god/mage for 10 death and 20 nature (Gift of reason). And some of them are pretty good mages too.

And sometimes you don't even have to cast Gift of reason, as they come in a commander form. Awesome!

However silly it may sound, I see Spirit mastery as rather useful. You get a huge amount of cannon fodder for only 4 gems that is not completely useless either. If you have something to deal the actual damage after the paralysis kicks in, it works like a charm. For example, I found it to work great against knights and similar otherwise nasty units. Masses of ghosts both soak up the attacks, and evenutally succeed in paralyzing whoever they are fighting against, and then the rest is easy. Plus you don't mind if they die in droves, as you can summon droves just as easily, and they have a size of 1 so there are a lot of them per square, meaning a lot of chances both to succeed in paralyzing and to soak up attacks. They are also ethereal, and the sheer amounts mean they won't rout like the rest of the cannon fodder units.

[ November 25, 2003, 10:05: Message edited by: HJ ]

[Joonie73]

I have never seen Doom Horrors. How do you get them, aside from Wish?

Originally posted by Teraswaerto:
Nope, they don't. One fun thing to wish for is the Doom Horror.

[Joonie73]

What disadvantages come with "dead and decaying"? I have stayed away from Tartarian things for that reason.

Originally posted by HJ:
Maybe not the strongest (haven't really compared the stats), but tarrasque is really something. Its sprite is also great.
And considering the low cost (high magic requirements though), tartarian titans are also awesome. Through that spell, you in fact get other pretenders, only that they are dead and decaying...