Summoner!

[chronosmaker]

I was wondering, and I'm still relatively new so my knowledge is limited, is it possible to actually succesfully make pretty much a summoner? Taking into account the, I think, Pale Master option and such, could you focus on summoning, and make it good? While having your character either use them as shields, or support them, something along those lines.

What I'm saying, is there a build, or anyone willing to try a build, to make a summoner possible, and at least decent?

As for specifics of my own capabilities I have 32 point, all races unlocked, etc. So feel free to use as you like.

[Visty]

sadly the summons in ddo suck like hell, theres no reason to make a build around them

unless you want to do lvl3 quests with lvl10, then they might actually kill some stuff

[chronosmaker]

Pity. I seem to have idea for builds but, I can't really build them myself...look for more of my random ideas, heh.

[voodoogroves]

I've been cutting and pasting this lots lately. It isn't a pure summoner, but it does work and isn't really gimped at all.

Human - Wizard 20

1 - Extend, Toughness, Focus Enchantment
3 - Focus Necromancy
5 - Greater Focus Enchantment
6 - Maximize
9 - Augment Summoning
10 - Empower
12 - GSF Necromancy
15 - Quicken, Spell Penetration
18 - Heighten
20 - Greater Spell Penetration


Essentially,
- the Pale Master investment (SF / GSF) isn't horrible - after all it boosts finger/wail which you'll use later
- a few extra AP gets you the summons from PM and some of them are very situationally handy (the archer makes great radar, all of them can grab aggro initially, etc.)
- at early levels you only use clickies to summon - don't waste spell slots on them; you can go very far with the totemic staff of splinterskull
- enchantment is not a bad investment either; charm/hold/you name it ... at early levels charm/hypnotize/etc. ... at later hold then mass hold
- carry all the usually and necessary party buffs (bluff, haste, resist energy, etc.)
- for pure offense I went to 7 without a damage causing spell; instead I used eternal wands I'd collected (acid, snowball storm, finger of fire, etc.) and then I rode wall of fire for a while

Play-wise, I started at vet status (4th). It went like this:

4th - Charm and kill with wands & hellhound
5th - Charm and kill with wands & hellhound, haste party frequently
6th - Charm and kill with wands & hellhound, haste party frequently
7th - WALL OF FIRE
etc.

[Doxmaster]

You dont get heighten for a very long time. That is bad. There is no reason you should trade +1(enchantment) dc for +(however many levels a spell is increased) dc when you could have the +(everything) dc early and the +1(enchantment) dc later. Keeping the feats the same but changing the order would be great.

1 - Extend, Toughness, Augment summoning
3 - Focus Necromancy
5 - Heighten
6 - Maximize
9 - Focus Enchantment
10 - Empower
12 - GSF Necromancy
15 - Quicken, Spell Penetration
18 - Greater Focus Enchantment
20 - Greater Spell Penetration

If you really want to be a charm leader, instead of actually casting charms you should invest in Charm wands. If you focus on getting rogue/ranged or melee monsters, it will land reasonably, especially if you manage to fit in the wand/scroll dc boosting enhancement.

50 charges will last at least 3 quests if you insist on charming everything you see and the wands have a seperate cooldown from your actual spell; if the wand fails, you can cast the spell normally and by the time you finish casting, you can use the wand again. Since melee and rogue/ranger monsters typically have low will saves, you will certainly get it on at least one of those 3 charms in normal and hard. Elite might be a bit tough, but its still pretty probable.

You should also, at all times, have a reasonable sized stack of summon monster scrolls (10 if you are poor, 20+ if you are rich). You can do this from the day you leave korthos onward; you will do this because the monster is exactly the same whether you use a scroll or use spell points. It will have the same boost from augment summoning and will last 10 minutes.

10 minutes is typically long enough to finish a quest. Even if you use 5 scrolls per quest and walk slowly, they will pay for themselves since they barely cost anything. Also, scrolls let you summon a monster 1 level above what you can actually summon. So...before you get the Splinterskull totem (a scepter with a summon hellhound 3 times per rest clicky) you can summon a hellhound. At level 3, that is very nice.

Later, when you would normally be summoning earth elementals, you are instead summoning fiendish trolls (the troll regenerates its health, can attack from a distance when monsters are far off and are just plain awesome compared to most other summons.) Oh and if you give a scroll to a cleric, they will also have a summoned pet. You dont own that monster, but an extra being beating the **** out of monsters is great (a lot of clerics completely forget they can summon monsters.)

Also, try to get ahold of a wand of Invisiblity; monsters will focus on your pets instead of you letting you walk past the action mostly unharmed.
---edit---
Also, if you really want to have a lot of pets, you can get Iron dogs by picking up wizard repair 2. To get EVEN MORE pets, you can go drow instead of human and get a giant drow drider pet.

You can have, at any time;
1 summon monster pet
1 pale master pet
1 metal dog pet
1 Drow drider pet
and as many charmed monsters as you can find.
**(I cant remember, but I'm pretty sure Create Undead doesnt block any other summons. But...this spell fails SO hard, the monster you summon will either turn on you and attack you, or just plain die because THEY CANT FIGHT KORTHOS LEVEL ENEMIES! Augmented summoning actually makes it HARDER to use this spell, since the new undead you make has a boosted will save from it and they get to make a will save vs being loyal to you. The DC of that save is something like 14. Always. With or without all the DC boosts, high int and everything else you can get. It has a permanent dc of 14 ish no matter what you do.)**

Typically, the summoned monster+pale master combo is enough, but if you want to be an overkill summoner, you can be an overkill summoner this way.

[voodoogroves]

When I ran this thing up, I avoided charm wands other than the Eternal Charm Monster - the saves on charm wands are horrendous and I wouldn't buy them - burn them if you find them in chests or send them over from other characters, but I wouldn't buy them.

I also start(ed) at 4th (vet status) so the Splinter Skull 3/rest Hellhound clickie was immediately available. Absolutely on the summon scrolls (earth elemental and troll both have benefits).

I hear you on heighten, though I honestly never really had a need in the early levels. My concept behind the build was less "uber charmer" and more using charm as part of the arsenal. If one charm failed to land, no big deal. In group runs you're still a fully spec'd caster. Heighten also has an additional opportunity cost (toggling it on and off, more SP when it's in place, etc.) where as the others are passive. I might consider moving empower, actually, if I wanted heighten sooner. In the early levels w/ hypnotize and charm person, heighten is simply an extra cost whereas SF works on what you'll be using it for passively. Also note that when charm monster comes out you're using that instead of charm person, so you can't heighten it (it's at the highest level you can cast or nearly so).

I built this as a model for what I'll end up doing with my capped wizard. When I TR him, I'll be following this plan dropping the SF-enchant for the past life feat. The other feat I really wish I could fit in is enlarge as that makes handling some things much easier.

[Doxmaster]

At level, with the wand/scroll DC boosting enhancement, they serve me well. You would be surprised how many monsters fail a dc 17 will save. It offers a mediocre chance of not needing to use sp too, something invaluble in certain circumstances.

[voodoogroves]

I think you have sold me...since they are enhancement based you can take the dc boosts early and just swap them out later when the return is weaker on their use. Next low level caster I run up I will try that.

[OldAquarian]

To get EVEN MORE pets, you can go drow instead of human and get a giant drow drider pet.

How does one get the drider pet?

[Visty]

How does one get the drider pet?

6 levels of pally, cleric or fav soul

[Lathly]

Allso, you can NOT have the regular summoned monster and a mechanical dog up at the same time. The one you summoned first will go poof. I tried myself with Repair II on my wiz.

The pale master pet will work together with either the summoned monster or the mechanical dog, though.

Havent tried with the drow scorpion yet, but will this scorpion rise in power as you level, or wil it not be any point to use at higher levels?