ARCHIVED Bim's Demonspawn Summoner guide

Version Unknown: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

This article contains advice from other players, which may be subjective, outdated, inaccurate or ill-advised. Take advice as you see fit, and read at your own risk!

THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN FOR AN EARLIER VERSION OF CRAWL, AND IS NO LONGER RELIABLE. TO HAVE IT REMOVED FROM THE ARCHIVES, PLEASE UPDATE IT FOR THE CURRENT VERSION.

Demonspawns rely heavily on what mutations they are given, although most of them (with the update) can be used effectively with most play styles. Starting as a Summoner is good as it is one of their only Ok skills, and allows for different offensive play styles once mutations have been given. For instance, if you receive the nightstalker mutation, then becoming a stealthy character with summons to use as back ups/escapes becomes very possible. For this guide, I'll be focusing on a pure summoner which can 'help' out in melee or at a range. I'll be calling this a 'summonator' for simplicity. I've found this a very versatile setup, and works well with whatever your chosen playstyle is.

Skills

Skills to train depend on your mutation and particular play style, however for :

• Armour
• Fighting
• Summoning
• Maces & Flails or Polearms (for the demonic items)
• Bows, Slings, or Throwing, depending on what you find which is good.
• Necromancy or Conjurations

1. To start off, train summoning A LOT. Don't be tempted to get into the melee unless absolutely necessary. Keep on focusing till at least level 10.
2. Try to find some acceptable medium armor and a ring of protection and train armor for a reasonable length of time to offset spell failure. If you still can't find good armor after a while, stick with dodging. However, I found that having my armor at about 18 was good enough to offset damage from most hits.
3. Train up either Maces & Flails or Polearms mid game, this is for the demonic whip or trident which you will hopefully find.
4. Try to find either a runed sling or bow, preferably with a fire/ice enchantment so that you can help out from a distance
5. Train up Necromancy or Conjurations depending on what books you find. Necromancy does go well with summoning (especially for Haunt), however conjurations does away with the need for ranged weapon training.

Stats

Train Strength till 10, then intelligence till at least 25, then back to strength.

Spells

All of the spells in the book of callings are good, especially when they get to a high level.

Summon small mammals needs to be trained up to full power, and cast as often as you want. Eventually you can create absolute hordes of small mammals which can surround anything, giving you chance to retreat, then summon loads more if needed.

Summon Imps is very useful as some of the imps have additional powers (such as raising the dead). These zombies stay with you after the imps disappear, which is very useful. However, red imps tend to be useless as they blink away, exposing you to enemies. They also tend to be quite weak and so are more useful after an initial wave of canines/scorpions or mammals.

Summon Canine Familiars is useful especially when war dogs and wolves are summoned. Very multipurpose, but with no additional effects like poisoning or raising the dead, they can prove slightly less useful especially if you are playing offensively.

Summon Scorpions is basically a more powerful version of Summon Canines, as they are useful in all situations, but can also poison. However, this uses the poison skill as well, which makes it less effective, and double trains.

Summon Ice Beasts can be useful, but I found the cost very high for one ice beast and waited for better spells.

God

Vehumet is the god of choice, especially if you are going down the more magical branch. Jiyva can be great if you fancy just flooding the place with minions, but without Vehumet, it is impossible to get the Book of Demonology.

Strategy

• Use summons as much as possible in the beginning, but BEWARE OF THE FOOD COST! Summoning can easily cause starvation, especially at the early-mid game where more powerful summons are available.
• Always summon something before you go down stairs, they'll always be put in front of you, and give you an easy escape/time to create more summons if needed.
• Use summon small mammals to get to safety and keep summoning them behind you and making them wait if needed. You can do this with canines later if needed.
• The best way to take down most difficult monsters is to lead them into the open and flood it with summons (so they can be attacked from all angles). Even small mammals can take down large targets this way.
• Use Imps (or demons later on) mainly as support troops, and beware of them turning hostile! This makes them not always a good escape plan.
• Get abjuration as soon as possible, this can be useful for sending back hostile demons and dealing with other summons.
• As a demonspawn, beware of holy weapons/spells and smiting! Orc priests will usually try and smite you if they can't get near you and even a weak enemy with a sword of holy wrath can mean game over!
• Try to train up your defensive capabilities as much as possible, as its usually possible to retreat and then come back in force later. Dodging and translocations can make this easier especially if you want to go down a purely magical route.
• The amount of MP you have is very important, try to find a ring of magical power if possible, but beware of the food cost!