Summons: Your thoughts.....

[Ewierl]

Valandil said:
Sadly, they don't last very long in the face of firestorm and the like.

Quite true. But even before you can lay down buffs like Army of Gold, the main use of Vine Ogres is in the early game. They are accessible and useful way, way, way before there are spells that can slaughter them en masse.

Oh, and other useful summons: I find Mechanical Men very useful sometimes. They're a niche critter, but the niche isn't a rare one: if your opponent is using lots of nasty elemental spells, you can plough through happily with these immune-everything fighters. (Even once you eventually get access to the equally-protected Iron Dragons, the MMs can still be worthwhile when your opponent backs up elemental spells with a few MR-targeting effects like Disintegrate. Neither type has excellent MR, so it can be better to have a stack of small guys than one big one.)