Xeenite water summons - advice

[kenty191]

Hi all,
  Since I created Karn who is a follower of Xeen I have wanted to give him his deities summons rather than the good aligned ones I have now. However, it seems Xeen's summons are water elementals who are quite fond of drowning everyone in the immediate vicinity. As a bard (whos not the best fighter ever, shock horror!) I use my summons a lot when Karn is alone. Also considering the censer changes summons perminantly I was wondering if anyone would advise such a switch given the fact it would be preferable RP wise but might cripple Karn's ability to survive alone in any capacity.
  What are peoples thoughts on these summons? At the moment Karn summons celestial animals and they are quite useful however not really in keeping with his personality.
  (edit) Also the drown pulse attack is fort vs. death! Karns lowest save is fort...
  Thanks

[Talan Va'lash]

Well, I'm pretty sure this isn't what you're looking for, but bard's are not very good alone at low levels. Layonara isn't designed to be soloable.
 
  Also, bards are bad summoners. This is because they get the spell levels at later levels and they never go as high. About when a cleric/druid/mage would be getting his summon 9, a bard will get... summon 6. Which is WHOLELY unimpressive when compared to the summon 9.
 
  With that said, I'll see if I can give you an answer that will help in the vein of what your question was really getting it (though I don't imagine you'll be able to solo either way at < level 12ish and only then if you're very careful.)
 
  Well, I looked at the summon list and since you wont be able to cast death wards, if you want to use the higher level xeen summons, I'd suggest hanging well back for the first couple rnds of the battle (I think they can only use their drown attack x/day.)

[Xandor Loriland]

This is sort of related but I was told that death ward did not protect against the drown attack.  Is that right?  It seems strange but the person that told me seemed in the know.  I usually cast undeath's eternal foe on my party so they all have immunity to death magic.  I have yet to use my Summon 9 because I didn't know for sure if it was going to kill everyone.  Thanks.

[kenty191]

From what I've read on the forums even the lower level summons for Xeen such as the waterspout can drown a party if they fail their saves. The Rp'er in me is saying do it no matter what! Its only my rational side which is saying hang on a minute, do you really want to make Karn even less effective? hehe.
  As for the soloing, Karn is level six, and the highest area Karn would ever solo (with a summon) are the swamps east of Hlint. Actually I did that yesterday quite sucsessfuly trying to raise money for the censer of arcane devotion!
  Also from the forums I've heard even being a Seaelf might not protect you from this drown ability, given they are only immune to the druid spell drown. Seems no-one is safe from these things unless they have a high fort save!

[Weeblie]

Death Ward (and all other death magic immunity) do protect against drown attack. And having talked with other seaelf players before, I got the impression that their immunity against drown works for water elementals too.

Logs:

[CHAT WINDOW TEXT] [Sun Apr 09 22:17:39] Summoned Medium Water Elemental severs self to attempt Drown attack.
[CHAT WINDOW TEXT] [Sun Apr 09 22:17:39] Summoned Medium Water Elemental damages Summoned Medium Water Elemental: 41 (41 Magical)
[CHAT WINDOW TEXT] [Sun Apr 09 22:17:39] Alleina Shiante : Fortitude Save : *failure* : (6 + 12 = 18 vs. DC: 20)
[CHAT WINDOW TEXT] [Sun Apr 09 22:17:39] Alleina Shiante : Fortitude Save : *failure* : (6 + 12 = 18 vs. DC: 20)
[CHAT WINDOW TEXT] [Sun Apr 09 22:17:39] Alleina Shiante : Immune to Death Magic.

[Frelinder]

If you wan't to have a summon that is helpfull for you, don't choose a water summon. In strength its not that bad but since it also almost kill itself when using drown attack (atleast half of their HP) they doesn't last long. And from my own experience the water summons drown attack never seems to have an affect on enemies but always kills your partymembers or yourself.

[Vyris]

yeah, kindof the anti-summon.

Be very afraid of any NPC that summons water elementals

Vyris

[kenty191]

is this not something which could perhaps be altered then? Suicidal killer elementals for Xeen arent exactly all that useful by the sounds of it! I imagine it puts some people off using Xeenite summons, when RP wise it would be highly desirable. Most things can be sacrificed for RP but killing off your whole party? Not really!

[minerva]

The chaotic nature of the goddess, the all or nothing attitude?   Seems to fit the goddess quite well. IMHO  

[Weeblie]

My character has it as a level 5 or 6 summon and she used them quite a lot before. It's best if you can get Death ward on your whole party (or some other death magic immunity spell), but if not, they can still be useful for two situations (that I can think of right now):

1. "Bombing"... Summon the water elemental in the middle of the enemies at the beginning of a battle. Depending on what you are facing (and on the rolls), the elemental will usually drown around 50% of the enemies.

2. "Emergency summon"... Cast it when your party members are at near death (i.e. they'll probably die anyway ) and pray for lucky dices. Has worked a few times for me.

[Xandor Loriland]

Its a bummer that the level nine summon for a good cleric of Aeridin has this property that makes it very hazardous to the lives of those around you.  Maybe it should be a bigger fire or earth elemental?

[Acacea]

High level good clerics of Aeridin usually have protections against death magic anyway, right? Heh.

[Zelda1]

Yup. Really sucks when you have a cleric of Xeen that always has a grave somewhere because of her summon..

[LynnJuniper]

Ash...Ash...Died...From Summoning..A water spout...*bursts out into laughter*

[Zelda1]

No.. not Ash! She gets the ranger summons.. like Teddy.

[lunchboxkilla]

Death wards