A return to a Demonic Summoner idea… looking for help.

[Delmuir]

I'm not 100% on how this works in with the mythos but I consider that easy enough to fix so I'm not going to address it here.

The premise is a summoner with semi-permanent summons, each of which taxes the constitution of the summoner. Simply put, more and more powerful summons make the character weaker in specific ways.

I aim to make this a character class that can have multiple builds, play-styles and equipment dependencies AND is viable all the way through the higher difficulties. I aim to do that last part with synergies akin to how the Celestial/Light tree works with heal mod, crit percent, and crit modifier on a mage.

Critical playstyle elements:

1. Summons take time to cast a la the rod of recall. Thus, recasting one in the heat of battle can be tricky and with longer casting times, impossible. Moving, while casting, increases the casting time.

2. Each summon stays with the summoner until it is killed or cancelled.

3. Each summon comes at a cost… a stat or resource penalty to the summoner. In terms of gear, this class is primarily focused on stat boosts, +life, and +resource, rather than crit rate, etc. I imagine some summons will even reduce vision, light radius, stealth/invisibility power, etc.

4. Each summon provides a benefit that, if properly built with synergy in mind, can be very powerful to other summons and/or summoner.

5. Stacking is the concept that elevates this class from normal to being viable in the later difficulty levels. Namely, this is the idea of summoning a seemingly weak summon which provides a stat and/or resource benefit that lets the character summon something more powerful, rinse and repeat.

6. Summons cannot wear or use gear but they can gain stats, damage, defense, and skills based on other summons that are in play.

7. Switching between the player and the summon is instant and natural. The player has an "army" that they can control at all times. Keeping alive weaker summons can be critical to keeping your damage dealers working, so to speak.

8. When you cancel a summon, you regain the stats but things like life/mana/stamina would have to re-build at their normal rate. However, a benefit is that any enemy within one tile of the canceled summon would have a very small chance of being dragged back to the summon's dimension with them for "x" turns or possibly take damage or receive a debuff, etc.

9. Summoners can trade PERMANENT stats/resources/etc. for extra summons.

10. There are five primary types of summons:

Damage dealers: they're like all current summons. They deal damage directly.

Crowd-control: these summons offer up status effects, de-buffs, et al. as their primary focus.

Stat and skill enhancers: primary purpose is to add skills, stats, resistances, et al., to the summoner or other summons.

Tanks/defenders: primary function is to absorb damage, de-buffs, provide shields to other summons or summoner, and/or heal.

Utility summons: provide unique skills and/or opportunities for synergy such as stealth, etc.

---- So, that's the idea and I'm wondering if anyone wants to discuss, critique, code an add-on, etc., for this idea.