ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I've loved Summoners since I first unlocked them (they're just so different from everything else. And easier...), but I've always wanted some way to summon multiple creatures - even really weak ones - as an instant meatshield. And now that I've finally gotten one past the Dreadfell, it looks like they could use an extra talent tree or two to keep later levels interesting. So here are a few ideas, in the form of a talent tree.

Wild Gift / Summoning (swarm) (unlockable for 1 Category point at level 10. Summoners only have one tree worth unlocking so far. They should have some reason not to have five Infusions.)

1- Giant Wasp Swarm - Summons a swarm of Giant Wasps to poison and harass your foes. Swarm is weak, but VERY fast, with a weak poison that stacks.

2- Green Worm Mass - Summons many worms to overwhelm and poison your foes. Summons 1-3 worm units. Worms are weak and have a very short duration, but can use Multiply, and stack poison on enemies.

3- Hatchling Brood - Summons Drake hatchlings around you. Summons up to 8 hatchlings (max number determined by talent level. Or maybe just by your max # of summons. Type? Multihued might be most useful, but cold could work, since summoners currently have no source of cold damage. Maybe just random. Random's always fun), but only in the spaces adjacent to the summoner (the hatchlings can always move away, unless you tell them not to).

4- Frantic Summoning - Sustained (100 Eq). Increases the speed of your Summoning talents by 100x(talent level)%. The sustain cost looks huge, but it should work out. Basically, mastering the talent lets you summon 6 critters in the time it takes for one turn to pass, but until the late late lategame, you always have a chance to fail each summon. And even then, you'll earn your chance to fail pretty quickly, if you're summoning six critters at a time. OR...balance it by making the sustain end as soon as you fail to use a Wild Gift. Maybe reduce the Sustain cost to around 60 or so. Maybe leave it at 100, and let the risk be that much higher.

I like the general idea

I've had a similar idea, but less fully developed.

As far as I can see, the War Hound summon, while generally reliable, doesn't do anything exciting that the other summons can't do, and the talent doesn't tend to be maxed that often.

What I thought would be cool is if the War Hound became a War Hound Pack. So, instead of the overall combat ability of the hound increasing with talent level, the number that are summoned is increased.

Double the hounds at a 2/5 talent level might be a bit too many. One way could be: 1/5 - 1 hound, 2/5 - 1 hound with a slight increase in power and duration, 3/5 - 2 hounds, 4/5 - 2 hounds with an increase in power and duration, 5/5 - 3 hounds.

Another way, which I think is more elegant as it solves the problem of how to handle party display and how to handle the use of Summon Control, is for one of the hounds to be a Pack Leader. The other hounds that are summoned are less powerful (so the talent scaling is less severe), and use dumb [edit: I mean, less sophisticated] AI, tending just to stick around their pack leader. If the player switches control to the hound summon, then she controls the pack leader, while the other hounds follow.

I think a mix of the above two solutions might be ideal. More than 3 hounds with a single summon might crowd out the battlefield. If you do need a true stampede, there is the option of Nature's Balance through which double or triple the number of 'swarm' creatures might be summoned. This must be considered in balance.

Yet another idea is that an en masse summon might scale by probabilities, e.g. 4/5 in this talent would give "between 2 and 3 hounds with an average of 2.5".

Just a note - I wouldn't give anything that is a 'pack' a dumb ai - if it is working as a pack, it is clearly tactical in thought.

FM, this might astound you, but I have not yet looked at the code and have no idea as to what are all the distinctions in capability between the tactical and regular AIs.

My thoughts were that it would be easiest if they were 'slaved' to to the master hound, and whether this is doable without the resources of tactical AI, I have no idea. All they would need to do is follow the pack leader and attack what it attacks. This is so that they can all be controlled by a single command, and so that switching to control this summon does not grant the player control over only 1/3 of the creatures put in play by the spell.

I may have been led astray by an odd notion that a tactical ally requires a party member panel, three of which is not what this talent wants. The simplest solution might be a tactical AI but forever set to a leash of 1 or 2 to the pack leader.

What I certainly wouldn't expect, from this spell, is a pack that works as a fully tactically functioning pack of creatures might, splitting up to surround its prey or whatnot. A small, dumb group is best in every way, surely? Easy to manage and easy to code?