Druid Ranger Summons to have their CR increased.

[whitehawk74]

Maybe this applies more to the Ranger than Druid, but I for one am very annoyed that my Ranger's best Summoned animal is a CR 4.
It's useless at that Challenge Rating. I honestly think it would be safe to double or triple the CR on all Ranger summons.
A CR 12 Razor Cat might actually be worth having around. A CR4 for a compulsory spell is just a joke. I cast them just to watch them get killed.

Sorc/Wiz/Clr/FvS get a monster with a CR of 16.
The DDOWiki doesnt say what the CR of Druid summons are so I cant quote them.

I think its time for Rangers to get some love and this would be a great way to give it to them.

Why Rangers dont use Druid spells like a Paladin uses Cleric spells is beyond me.
Maybe that should be my suggestion. "Rangers should use Druid spells"
It's only logical.

While I'm here, the MOTU Panther should scale to the level of its owner. The way it is at the moment it is mostly useless when it can only be used at level 18 (min) and it hurts XP because its a level 20.

[Uska]

Ranger pets shouldnt be as good as a druid's that said they do need a boost. Nor should a ranger's pets be as good as a wiz's or the like since they aren't as powerful casters as a true caster.

[Archangel666]

Ranger pets shouldnt be as good as a druid's that said they do need a boost. Nor should a ranger's pets be as good as a wiz's or the like since they aren't as powerful casters as a true caster.

This is not aimed at you specifically Uska (Though you do seem a big proponent of that stance) but could you tell me something?

How does To-Hit work in PnP?

How does Druid Wildshape work in PnP?

How does Wail of the Banshee work in PnP?

How does the Half Elf Dilletante work in PnP?


Turbine have already set precedents by either straying completely from PnP or by using a bastardized mix of 3.5 and 4th Editions (Which even Wotc are abandoning for 5th Edition btw).

Personally I think all Summons should scale to caster level and offer different things. Air Ellies and animals like wolves should trip a lot, rats etc should have very fast attack speeds, larger summons should be more Tanky etc.

[redspecter23]

All summons need to be looked at from the ground up. First of all, they don't scale well into any content higher than normal. They are woefully weak compared to mobs you're fighting of a similar level.

A push has been made to make players want to play elite for bravery streak and better loot and summons are a complete joke outside of a few niche uses.

At absolute bare minimum a summon should be about as powerful as a charmed mob in an at level quest on normal. Enhancements should be put in place to allow summoned creatures to be as powerful as charmed mobs in elite content at the level of the player. In this way, if one chooses to specialize in summoning, you could be summoning up to CR35+ creatures for use in epic elite content with hp totals between 5k and 10k depending on the creature summoned.

Balancing of summoned creatures should be done in other areas instead of lowering it's CR or hp and making it functionally useless. If summons become useful and powerful, consider lowering the duration of the summon or adding longer cooldowns. I don't mind a 5 minute cooldown if I can reasonably expect my summon to live for 5 minutes. I also don't mind a summon only being around for 30 seconds to a minute if it's providing a nice benefit during that time.

Anyway, just my thoughts on the topic.

[CaptainSpacePony]

All summons need to be looked at from the ground up. First of all, they don't scale well into any content higher than normal. They are woefully weak compared to mobs you're fighting of a similar level.

A push has been made to make players want to play elite for bravery streak and better loot and summons are a complete joke outside of a few niche uses.

Fully agree.

[psykopeta]

pets/summon w/o investment (druid pl or augment summoning) are trash, like they should be

get augment summoning, they get a really nice boost, get druid pl, they become really powerful

my puppy (druid's pet) on my 1st druid life was tanking in tempest spine while i did the puzzle, elite, yes
actually on 3rd druid life, and that fleas sack steals me kills most times(has his dragonscale too, quite nice he uses the heavy white one from my clr lives, and vampiric stonedust handwraps)

so, w/o investment they suck, as they should

however having a cr4 summon is...well, a lvl 2 spell in rest of classes, guess that's a bit useless

rest of summons as druid (with augment summoning ofc) work very well, guess some reason of their little uses come from the AI, pls, fire the dev who worked in tha AI, can't understand how can be the pets/hires so dumb when i tell em 1 thing and ignore me (example: attack the mob you have right in front)

guess every summon should have an "special ability" and spam it like mad (i.e. knockdown as air ele) to be more useful for players

[InsanityIsYourFriend]

All summons need to be looked at from the ground up. First of all, they don't scale well into any content higher than normal. They are woefully weak compared to mobs you're fighting of a similar level.

Enhancements should be put in place to allow summoned creatures to be as powerful as charmed mobs in elite content at the level of the player. In this way, if one chooses to specialize in summoning, you could be summoning up to CR35+ creatures for use in epic elite content with hp totals between 5k and 10k depending on the creature summoned.

Balancing of summoned creatures should be done in other areas instead of lowering it's CR or hp and making it functionally useless. If summons become useful and powerful, consider lowering the duration of the summon or adding longer cooldowns. I don't mind a 5 minute cooldown if I can reasonably expect my summon to live for 5 minutes. I also don't mind a summon only being around for 30 seconds to a minute if it's providing a nice benefit during that time.

I agree with this. If my summon lasted 2.5 min (of actually fighting) with a 5 min cool down I would summon it every time. Summons so far that work perfectly at the level you start summoning them: Chaos Beholder, Evil Eye, Mind Flayer (circumstantially), Dryad Elder (pre-nerf) and some of the magister summons. Most other summons really lack. If all the summons worked even just AT LEVEL I would be happy. Let my Pale Master summon up a Frostmarrow Arcane Skeleton and a Lich. I want those two summons to be able to actually work.

(I would seriously take more summoner feats if they were available!)