Summon-specced Wizard?

[Zachski]

As my mood has dictated, I was thinking of creating a wizard that basically focuses on summoning, though also includes other spells.

This is purely flavor, though at the same time, I wouldn't mind making optimal use of this flavor, even if this means summoning and then doing normal Wizard business.

I will go Pale Master for the skeletal summon, and so, may as well take advantage of the self-healing there.

So... Human. 28 point. 18 Int, 16 Con, 10 Strength (Low level melee accuracy will come from Human Versatility when it is needed, but mostly have the summon tank)

Major skills are Concentration and UMD. All other skill points seem like they could go anywhere. Not interested in Shadow Mage style.

Initial feats are Toughness, Insightful Reflexes, and Augment Summoning (duh)

Pale Master is taken because of summons it gives. Lesser and Death Aura will be taken to take advantage of Pale Master.

In addition to summons, Wizard will play like your average wizard, Elemental specced, and abusing Wall of Fire, PK, FoD, and Wail. As such, two Spell Penetration feats will be included somewhere in the feat list, if possible.

Any advice for feats? Also, since I'm low-funded, I'd like to take the level up spells based off of usefulness rather than availability, though with some regard to availability. As I level up, though, and have access to more things, it will switch to availability.

[shagath]

I had all skeletal summons(frostmarrows too) and augmented summoning couple days ago. Did this just to try summoning stuff out and now went back to insightful reflexes and more APs. Hezrou and frostmarrows/blackbones aren't working at lvls 17-20. They are just too weak in damage and taking hits. Last place where I used summons were Vale of Twilight slayer. I will try frostmarrow archer once I get back to lvl20 to see if he freezes monsters on crits in epics.

At GH, blackbones were very cool. I actually loved to have company when I solo'd. They aren't dying that easily at middle levels and you will be using death aura for yourself, he gets healed as well.

It was interesting and lots of fun but I wouldn't make a build for this. Most often you will get better tank by just charming/dominating/commanding/controlling monsters. Augmented summon works on them also so it's not a waste of feat thought.

[richieelias27]

If you're building for summons, you are going to absolutely love the new changes to summons in Update 7

[voodoogroves]

This is what I did ... Pale Master for the extra summon. Enchantment is there because (a) it's a solid school and (b) charms also benefit from Augment Summoning.


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, Heighten
18 - Spell Penetration
20 - Greater Spell Penetration


I avoided Mental Toughness; after the update I might swap it in for something because Wraith Form is also fun.

[rapdogztor]

If you cut out shadow mage out of the question, it frees up a lot of skill points. I have pale master 1 for the extra skeleton, but I was always debating to go pale master 2, or focusing on elemental damage. I may use some charms from time to time, but I have never used hold monster or web.

[Zachski]

If you're building for summons, you are going to absolutely love the new changes to summons in Update 7

Indeed. Part of what inspired me to try to make a Summoner.

For those not in the know: In Update 7, each summon spell will now provide a list of summons rather than having exactly one summon per spell level.

[shagath]

For those not in the know: In Update 7, each summon spell will now provide a list of summons rather than having exactly one summon per spell level.

I read that but forgot it totally! That's pretty cool. Anyone can list level IX summons?

[frznvimes]

I read that but forgot it totally! That's pretty cool. Anyone can list level IX summons?

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=276013

[Doxmaster]

I just played around in Lamma...you cant have all the different types of summons running around at a time in the next update. Create undead (seems to) lock of PM summons. Summon monster locks out iron defender. Didnt get to test anything else...

Also, when you use Iron defender, that sets you Summon Monster cooldown to the Iron defender cooldown.

I believe the same currently happens in game with scrolls: summoning a monster using a scroll will give you the old long cooldown on your summon monster spells.

[Entelech]

They really need to go back and fix the Iron Defender enhancement line, since they've made a lot of sweeping changes to summoning spells since they last looked at it.

It ought to either be on its' own 'slot' or it ought to occupy the same summoning slot as the Pale Master skellie.

[Doxmaster]

No way- The pale master skeles are from a prestige enhancement. It should either have its own slot, or go in the normal summon monster slot like it does now, but without imposing its horrible cooldown.

[rapdogztor]

There should be a whole separete but easily achievable line up for iron defenders, something mechanic rogues or high repair wizards should be able to get, but it should augment not replace the opther 2 line ups. you are not summoning an extra planar celetrail beast, you are not conjuring an undead form from the abyss, no, you are tinkering with nuts and bolts and coming up with something from this actual corpereal world. Even though a robot dog is not actually corpereal, its better than undead. Right now Iron defenders take too muc feats just to gain access to them, and they dont do much compared to their rival wizard summonds. I think it should be a separate line up. Something that allows a rogue to have a pet robot dog, or a wizard to have 3 summonds and be a master summoner, as apposed to an arch mage or pale master form. Pale master 1 is a base form for 3 line ups so far. Lich form, Wraith form, and Summoner form. If your going to dedicate ability points to repair instead of concentration, you might as well be able to get a dog and have 3 summons to fight for you. Beast master mage is what Id like to see. Or even better beast master Sorcerer

[Kalosamasan]

Um... robot dogs are corporeal, corporeal basically means physical. Also, it only takes one feat to access them...

[rapdogztor]

what feat is that? Self reliant, On top of augment summoning? Not to mention Spell focus necromancy? what extra feat would I have to get to own this robot dog, beyind haviing high repair skills?


wizarda can have between 10 and 13 feats max, depending on human status, or splashes. 5 meta magic feats, Extend, maximize, Empower, quicken, heighten, and/or enlarge. Dont forget survivability feats: Diehard, insightful reflexes, , dont forget spell penetration, and greater penetration. Thats 9 right there. If your a pure human wizard, with 12-13 feats, you dont have to worry, but if you took another race, or splashed a little rogue, or cleric in there, then you have a hard choise for your last few feats. Either you sacrafice some of the core wizard line up, or you sacrefice your freedom to go in multiple routs at once, and you have to chose your final biuld. If you get all 6 meta magic feats, then you really dont have much of a choise.

[Doxmaster]

There should be a whole separete but easily achievable line up for iron defenders, something mechanic rogues or high repair wizards should be able to get, but it should augment not replace the opther 2 line ups. you are not summoning an extra planar celetrail beast, you are not conjuring an undead form from the abyss, no, you are tinkering with nuts and bolts and coming up with something from this actual corpereal world. Even though a robot dog is not actually corpereal, its better than undead. Right now Iron defenders take too muc feats just to gain access to them, and they dont do much compared to their rival wizard summonds. I think it should be a separate line up. Something that allows a rogue to have a pet robot dog, or a wizard to have 3 summonds and be a master summoner, as apposed to an arch mage or pale master form. Pale master 1 is a base form for 3 line ups so far. Lich form, Wraith form, and Summoner form. If your going to dedicate ability points to repair instead of concentration, you might as well be able to get a dog and have 3 summons to fight for you. Beast master mage is what Id like to see. Or even better beast master Sorcerer

what feat is that? Self reliant, On top of augment summoning? Not to mention Spell focus necromancy? what extra feat would I have to get to own this robot dog, beyind haviing high repair skills?
…
wizarda can have between 10 and 13 feats max, depending on human status, or splashes. 5 meta magic feats, Extend, maximize, Empower, quicken, heighten, and/or enlarge. Dont forget survivability feats: Diehard, insightful reflexes, , dont forget spell penetration, and greater penetration. Thats 9 right there. If your a pure human wizard, with 12-13 feats, you dont have to worry, but if you took another race, or splashed a little rogue, or cleric in there, then you have a hard choise for your last few feats. Either you sacrafice some of the core wizard line up, or you sacrefice your freedom to go in multiple routs at once, and you have to chose your final biuld. If you get all 6 meta magic feats, then you really dont have much of a choise.

1)-One cannot really say where the summoned skeletons come from; necromancy worked upon one’s own flesh could produce them, as could bone dust and the wizard’s blood. Since they are permanent and products of necromancy, they could just as easily be re-animated skeletons bound to your blood as anything else.

It doesn’t, after all, say in the ability description where they come from. Fact vs speculation. To be honest, it doesn’t really matter where they come from, does it?

2)- It actually seems more like you turn the Iron defender on, having carried a disabled one in your backpack, and it will only work for 5 minutes before you need to do more work on it. However, that is speculation. Where it comes from is not truly important.

It takes a wizard, rogue, Warforged and fighter 0 Feats to access the metal defender line. 0. If someone who is not one of those 4 things wants one, they have to get a single feat to access all of them. 1 feat.

3)- Whether the defenders are better than other pets is debatable. Looking purely at facts:
* They are easier to heal. (Requires a repair wand to heal, instead of requiring negative energy spells or the Pale master Necrotic touch)
*Cannot cast spells: A Pale master’s pet can cast spells such as hold monster, fireball, magic missile, firewall…, etc. The defenders can cast burning hands (their fire breath) and grease (their grease breath).
*Metal defenders can last a much shorter amount of time than a wizard’s skeletons. All pale master skeletons last until they die, are replaced or you leave the instance. Defenders last 5 minutes.
*Pale master summons have more uses: The knights can tank a little, the ranger can hit opponents from a distance with ease (and also act as a living radar), the mage casts spells. The defenders are only able to enter melee. This puts them, for our purposes, on par with the skeleton knights, the weakest of pale master summons.

4)- Where exactly did you get “master summoner”/“beast master”? “Summoner” isn’t a “form” of pale master. It is an option, yes, but forms cause your abilities to change (Lich and wraith make you undead, lich boosts your spell DCS, wraith boosts your sneaking ability) A wraith can summon the Pale master skeletons just as easily as a Lich or someone who chose not to get either pale master form but is still a pale master.

5)- If you do chose to use a feat to get the defenders, instead of using AP, you can use any of 5 extra feats wizards automatically get. Wizards get a total of 12 feats (13 if you are human). Using one of them to get the metal defenders is basically wasting a feat, yes, but Wizards have 11-12 more feats to use after wasting that one. Most wont even notice the 1 missing/wasted feat.

6)- No one takes Diehard. It is the biggest waste of a feat in the game, unless you are playing Permadeath style. Quicken isn’t required, but is nice to have. Insightful reflexes is optional, but well liked. Splashing cleric is only viable in the hands of a very skilled player, and even then it is debatable whether doing so is worth anything.
Extend, maximize, empower, heighten, spell focus necromancy, greater spell focus necromancy, toughness, mental toughness, spell penetration, greater spell penetration, augment summoning; 11 useful wizard feats that a Pale master would probably take. You still have 1-2 more feats to use after that.

7)- Anyone with a few summon monster scrolls, an item that has a summon monster clicky, or is a wizard, cleric, favored soul or sorcerer can summon monsters (as can rangers, in their own way)

[BuyerSeller]

I love the new changes coming for summoning spells. I just wish that taking SF/GSF conjuration would do something for the summon spells. In my opinion when you take SF conjuration it should increase the CR of your summoned pet by 1 and GSF Conjuration should increase the CR another 1.

[ThePrincipal]

I like the Pale Master Summoner idea alot. Just one question on the death-aura self healing... does it benefit from human healing amp?

[shagath]

Just one question on the death-aura self healing... does it benefit from human healing amp?

I have no facts how human healing amp works but at least 'Healing Amplification 20%' on Levik's Bracers doesn't do anything to it. It's not really healing, it's more like damaging yourself.

[Antag]

As a PM summoner, how many undead minions can you have at one time? And can you have a Summon(ed) Monster at the same time?

I'm picturing a create/control undead, a PM skeleton, a summoned monster, and a NPC hireling for no less than 4 helpers. I'm really liking this idea.

[Requiro]

As a PM summoner, how many undead minions can you have at one time? And can you have a Summon(ed) Monster at the same time?

I'm picturing a create/control undead, a PM skeleton, a summoned monster, and a NPC hireling for no less than 4 helpers. I'm really liking this idea.

Get hireling with Summon monster and you get 5 summons