Unique summoner nasty vs. AM

[tromboneandrew]

I'm currently playing an Exploration Mode character, and I went through several lives trying to off a unique storm giant summoner I found in the big 'city vault' that often appears in Daikara. The character is a Barbarian Anti-magic build, nothing too special. It is probably a fight that I should have run away from sooner - this was a particularly nasty fight for this character build. My char, as far as I could tell, had no way of reliably slowing down the summons, and the unique could regenerate while I was trying to cut through the chaff. To make it worse, way too often if I tried to use a movement infusion to get away once things got a bit too heated, the unique would - crazily often - summon something on the side opposite of me from itself, effectively trapping me in corridors and making that movement infusion useless.

So, this seemed to be overpowered, but I think that a simple adjustment will make it a lot more manageable: only allow summoning along tiles within the targeting beam, so that it's much harder for summoners to surround and trap enemies like this.

[lukep]

Summoning ws just changed from a range 10 bolt (eg, needs a clear path) to a range 5 hit (can go through monsters). I'm guessing that the AI isn't actually trying to summon on the far side of you, and instead it's just a 50% chance that when you are targeted, it pops up behind you.

[tromboneandrew]

Was that change made to benefit PCs or NPCs (monsters)?

[Elkan]

A nerf to both, I believe

[tromboneandrew]

If it was a nerf to both, it didn't have exactly that effect. Yes, once you get far enough away, enemies can't spawn melee summons next to you any more, but reliably trapping someone in a corridor before they get too far is perhaps even nastier.

Changing it back to a range bolt will help, maybe keep the range 5 limitation, or add another talent ability somewhere which extends summoning range.

[supermini]

It's harder to just stand 2 rooms away and spam summons, which is what most summoners were doing. I'm not sure how it's not a nerf.

[tromboneandrew]

It's harder to just stand 2 rooms away and spam summons, which is what most summoners were doing. I'm not sure how it's not a nerf.

It probably is a nerf versus many PCs, but not versus antimagic characters which depend on movement infusions for escape. If this is an intended effect, to be able to reliably trap non-teleporting characters in corridors, and still be considered a nerf, I guess it works.

I am not disputing reducing the range of the summoning targeting, but the change in allowing the summoning to happen outside of the target beam-line tiles (whatever they're called). The combination not really a nerf, but a nerf combined with an anti-nerf.

[Mewtarthio]

Plenty of monsters can ruin a non-teleporting character's day. Ghouls and Devourers come in packs and can leap over you. A whole host of status effects can immobilize you. You could even simply get cornered against a dead end. A huge part of playing an antimagic character is working out some way of shoring up your escape options. Some classes have it easier than others (eg a Sand Wyrmic can just make an escape route, while a Solipsist can Dream Walk to safety), but whatever your solution, you need to deal with that if you're going Antimagic.

[supermini]

You can get dream walk if you betray a temporal explorer to Zigur. There's telekinetic leap on wanderer's rest if you find it. There are charms of psychoportation. All of these are harder to find than phase door/teleport runes, but it's part of the risk of going antimagic.