Overall Summons Rework [Outdated!]

[Un-Done]

I got a question about UD companions. Can we choose them or are they being planned in a future update?

[Yellena]

Hmm... weren't they upgraded with the Surface/Cordor companions?

[Un-Done]

Maybe I'm doing something wrong but I don't seem to have UD companions only surface ones. The only reskinned companion is the Rothe.

[DaTexican]

Are we talking about a Druid Companion/Ranger Companion? If so try changing your companion when you next level up? See if that fixes it? Then perhaps if you didnt like having to change them you could have a DM subtract like 50exp from you so u delv and can relv to change back again? Might work?

[Un-Done]

Yep druid and rangers companions.

I've heard by another player they also get surface companions so It could be a bug somewhere.

I'm gonna try changing companion next time I can and see if it works.

Thanks for the help so far

[BornToCrave]

Question about the upcoming Undead tweak;

Will the summons have some nifty abilities, beyond that 'DR / Vampirism / Spellcasting' niche?

Things like giving them a more hardcore necromancy approach. Zombies gaining some Infection/disease type of thing. Take it like the Boomers from L4D. Have them spew and cough their insides, or give them some on-hit property.

These things aren't those measly Undead mobs you fend off in the Cordorian crypt or the Bonefields, they should strike terror when you see them. Have them gain fear aura, or some thing akin to 'aura of despair'.

Also, is Dracolich being changed?

[DaTexican]

Remember that the game hast to remain balanced too.

Oh and is there any reason why the *sits* emote doesnt work while wildshaped? I know my character sits because if i Unwildshape I can see im sitting, but when still wildshaped, I donot actually sit. Something small to perhaps take a quick glance at

[Mayonnaise]

Some models don't have the sit animation.

[Preacher]

try *crouches* I'm pretty sure that is an emote that crosses many forms

[Yellena]

Question about the upcoming Undead tweak;

Will the summons have some nifty abilities, beyond that 'DR / Vampirism / Spellcasting' niche?

Things like giving them a more hardcore necromancy approach. Zombies gaining some Infection/disease type of thing. Take it like the Boomers from L4D. Have them spew and cough their insides, or give them some on-hit property.

These things aren't those measly Undead mobs you fend off in the Cordorian crypt or the Bonefields, they should strike terror when you see them. Have them gain fear aura, or some thing akin to 'aura of despair'.

Also, is Dracolich being changed?

Dracolich was already changed when I upgraded the dragons.

Some of them will in fact have some special abilities, but we have two HUGE limitations: performance issues (lag) and the infamous NWN AI (crappy).
Auras can greatly compromise server performance.
On-hit effects also consumes a bit of performance so we try to avoid.
Neat casting abilities are very limited by the AI, as NPCs may kill masters with Area of Effect abilities. Even single target ones can make them "lock" on casting, for example, Lvl 60 Dracolich casting Slow Bolt against a Lvl 1 target immune to slow (as the target never gets slow status, the summon will try again, and again...), a case that where attacking with claws would be way easier...

I do plan adding some things, but monstly on the top tiers ones, as these can't be spawned using regular scrolls and so, by limiting the access to them (and rewarding people who trully invested in necromantic summons), we also limits the number of performance impacting summons arround.

But as a rule of thumb on the new summons (with very rare exceptions):
-Area of Effect abilities removed
-No Auras
-NONEVERNOWAY "On-Hit Cast Spells" (not even laggy...)
-Limited "On-Hit Effects" (direct debuffs, like Fear, slow and such)
-Bolts are Ok. Just need to take care on bolts that can "lock" targets.
-Spell Like Abilities are limited: they have a caster lvl of at maximum 15, so if the target have high SR, the summon can "lock" trying to cast (instead of recognizing it's not effective and changing tatics). That said, I am using mostly buff and utility spells, or spells that I am confident the AI won't lock in.


So far, before further tests on new abilities, the high tiers have:
-Mummy: fear on hit (but reconsidering it at the moment as it is very slow and won't ever reach a fleeing feared target); In any case it will have a deffensive ability as it's the tanker.
-Vampire: vampiric regeneration and maybe some drain.
-Banshee: Banshee's Wail (trademark, so exception). I fear it may "lock" against death immune and high SR targets so I am planning how to solve this (will wait for when Mith have time, to discuss a plan I have to fix all these AI issues*).



*: Not sure if possible, but the plan would be to give monsters a cooldown like Weave Masters PER ability/spell (Independant cooldowns, what may also cause lag performances), that are carefully chosen. A way to easilly customize this would be to make a script that checks daily uses (1 use = 1 round cooldown) of the ability set on the creature sheet.
If not possible, then a general but shorter cooldown would work, even if that limits the control over the AIs tatics a bit.
The next step would be to make the AI check if some ability/spell is on cooldown before ordering to use it, and if yes, the creature would choose another one or attack.
With this strategy, we can time the cooldowns and give them abilities based on what we want them to do.
For example, lets use the Banshee and base Weave Master's Colldowns with Auto Quicken III:
-Wail of Banshee: 9*6-12s = 54-12 = 42s cd ==> 42/6 = 7 rounds cd
-Death Pulse: 60s (lets give pulses 1min cd as they are the strongest area ability) ==> 10 rounds cd

If we consider a battle of 1 minute:
-Round 1: Banshee will use Wail at the start
-Round 2: Banshee will approach and use the Death Pulse
-Round 3 to 8: Banshee is out of abilities and will attacks with her cold ghostly drainy scary touch
-Round 8 to 10: Banshee MAY use Wail again or continue attacking

IF this work, it would open a big fan of possibilities when planning NPC AI. And of course I am sure the builders would have a lot of fun on planning dirty tatics to screw kill you all!!!

[Mithradates]

Not sure if this has been asked or addressed, but will the shadow conjuration series summons get bonuses from illusion focus feats?

[Yellena]

I hope so. =P
Will brainstorm them with Mith after undeads are finished.

[Garrsi]

Sooon

Pleeeease

I'm actually putting off making a necromancer, because I don't want to login one day and find out I built it wrong for the new update.

Sooooooooon

[Yellena]

No worries with that part. You can't "build it wrong".
All you need is spell focus in necromancy and necromancers can't go wrong with that.

[Mithradates]

I hope so. =P
Will brainstorm them with Mith after undeads are finished.

[DestroyerOTN]

Just a checkup, I know I saw the discussion of it:

All relevant caster levels are considered in the calculation of undead strength, with palemaster counted twice, yes?

A check... so that if, say, I was playing a 9 sorc/9 cleric I would have an effective 18th level deady.

... and that a 9 sorc/4 palemaster would have a 17th.



Relevant, and it was in the discussion former, so I was hoping to ponder over wether that was still a plan... or even possible. Is it, Yellena? Pleeeeease? *Crosses fingers!*

[Yellena]

That's Mith department, but I really wish multiple classes levels stacks for the purposes of undead and shadow summons.

And no, no idea how a 9 sorc and 4 PM would haev a caster level of 17 =p

[Faye]

Because for the purpose of summoning Undead, Palemaster levels count twice?
So 9 (SORC) + 8 (PM x 2) = 17.

I don't know. I just wanted to do some Maths.

[RED GANOT]

Query about blackguard summons!
For those who take this feat, will the summon be improved?

[Mayonnaise]

http://arelith.com/node/142208?page=16

Blackguards gains Balor witht he Epic Fiendish Servant (they NEED lvl 16 BG for that), instead of Epic Vrock.

[KregorRanger]

I'm throwing this out here, for some food for thought:

Substituting Paladin mounts for a celestial summon, that increases with paladin level, could be a tasty incentive for pure classing/high classing Paladins.

[Yellena]

Already on the list of things to discuss with Mith when he's back.
Poor man... *unrolls a giant list with enough meters to make a giant mummy*
Can't promisse anything, but will surely discuss it. Along with other ideas to incentivate going pure over powerbuilding/skilldumping.

[Hunter548]

What sort of pure-class incentivizing? And will it differ for sub-classes vs vanilla, ie: Warlocks from bards, weave masters from normal sorcs, etc?

[Preacher]

oooo yes, can we get a pure class capstone for warlocks

[one day remains]

oooo yes, can we get a pure class capstone for warlocks

Wait... Ethereal Visage and Ice Storm aren't enough? O.o