Summons Revamp

[apocaladle]

At the moment Summons in game are substantially underperforming and I think there are a few changes that may help with that (not including any AI fixes).

I dont think they need a huge power boost in heroics they are just punishing to use if they die so for starters:

1. Remove all death penalty for using summons/companions/hires as in exp/hp/sp hits because they died.
2. Change the 1/rest Raise dead on your companion to a 1 min cooldown.

Next the power of the summons is pretty lacking end game but to balance just giving streight power creep, I suggest revamping the feats so a player has to choose between personal power or summon power for example:
(Feats replace each other and do NOT stack)

Augment Summoning: (ML: 0)
Your summoned creatures, charmed minions, and hirelings have +4 to all ability scores, increased health (5 hp per character level), and increased fortification (+50%).
They also get increased Melee power, Ranged power, Universal spell power, PRR and MRR equal to (3+ 1/3 your INT/WIS/CHA modifier + conjuration bonuses).
They also get 10% Enhancement bonus to move speed.

Improved Augment Summoning: (ML: 10, Requires: Augment Summoning)
Your summoned creatures, charmed minions, and hirelings have +8 to all ability scores, increased health (10 hp per character level), and increased fortification (+100%).
They also get increased Melee power, Ranged power, Universal spell power, PRR and MRR equal to (6+ 1/2 your INT/WIS/CHA modifier + conjuration bonuses).
They also get 20% Enhancement bonus to move speed and get 20% concealment (Blurry).

Greater Augment Summoning: (ML:20, Requires: Improved Augment Summoning) (Epic Feat)
Your summoned creatures, charmed minions, and hirelings have +12 to all ability scores, increased health (15 hp per character level), and increased fortification (+150%).
They also get increased Melee power, Ranged power, Universal spell power, PRR and MRR equal to (10+ your INT/WIS/CHA modifier + conjuration bonuses).
They also get 30% Enhancement bonus to move speed and get 25% concealment (Lesser Displacement) and 10% feat bonus to dodge.

Perfect Augment Summoning: (ML: 30, Requires: Greater Augment Summoning) (Legendary Feat)
Your summoned creatures, charmed minions, and hirelings have +16 to all ability scores, increased health (20 hp per character level), and increased fortification (+200%).
They also get increased Melee power, Ranged power, Universal spell power, PRR and MRR equal to 2x (10+ your INT/WIS/CHA modifier + conjuration bonuses).
They also get 40% Enhancement bonus to move speed and get 50% concealment (Displacement) and 10% feat bonus to dodge, Ghostly 10% and 10% feat bonus to attack speed.

These feats would replace "Augment Summoning", "Improved Augment Summoning" and "Scion of Elysium", all other summoning buffs would stack with this feat chain (Epic Summons, Grand Summoner, Past Life: Druid etc.)

Thoughts?

[JOTMON]

Thoughts?

Don't use summons.

[Chacka_DDO]

In general, I would agree because Summoned creatures and hirelings are plain useless in reaper difficulty. And my strong opinion is, if you have something in the game, it must work or you can drop it.
But at the first place, I would make Summoned Creatures stronger so they do what you expect from them. So they should be similar strong as a monster you fight at your level in a quest.
It is your ally and similar strong as if you would have one more charmed monster on your side. I see not a big balance issue here but I might be wrong.
Read maybe also this, because e.g. the Summon Monster I spell should also summon a more powerful dog or spider if you summon it at character level 30 and if you have the feat spell focus conjuration it should be even stronger as if you cast it with character level 32 (or so)
For hirelings the same. If you cannot make the AI better, make them stronger. If they run into traps even if you tell them they should stop before them, and you can not make it better, make them immune to traps.
It cannot be, that hirelings die on the first hit in elite and reaper, so they need either more hp, or they just don't pull aggro at all.
For hirelings I could imagine that you can have something like in Star Wars: The Old Republic where you can develop a companion similar to your own character who can aid you in battle (still very limited due to the AI).