Summonings
Version 0.28: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.
Summonings is a magical skill that governs your ability at bringing forth monsters and other entities to fight for you (though unskilled practitioners may summon a hostile nameless horror instead). These summoned monsters function much like real monsters, with the following exceptions:
- They are worth no experience or piety, and leave nothing behind when slain.
- Vampiric weapons and Vampiric Draining don't work on them.
- They eventually "time out" regardless of their HP, vanishing in a cloud of smoke. Summoned monsters immediately vanish upon the death of their summoner.
- They will not follow you up or down stairs. This allows you to flee hostile summoned units and return after sufficient time has passed. Your own summoned allies will disappear immediately when you change floors.
- They will not attack monsters outside of the player's line of sight.
- They will not turn hostile when hit by the player. The only exceptions are demons produced by Makhleb or the Malign Gateway spell.
Note that there is one spell in this school of magic that does not create summoned monsters: eldritch tentacles, which can be created with the Malign Gateway spell and cannot be abjured.
Contents
Aptitudes
| At | Ba | Co | DE | Dg | Ds | Dj | Dr | Fe | Fo | Gr | Gh | Gn | Hu | Ko | Mf | Mi | MD | Mu | Na | Op | On | Sp | Te | Tr | Vp | VS |
| -2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | -1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 0 | -2 | 0 | 0 | -1 | -2 | 2 | -3 | 0 | 0 |
Spells
Sources
- Main Texts
- Book of Beasts: Summon Ice Beast, Summon Mana Viper, Monstrous Menagerie
- Book of Callings: Summon Small Mammal, Call Canine Familiar, Summon Blazeheart Golem
- Book of Dangerous Friends: Summon Blazeheart Golem, Spellforged Servitor
- Book of the Wilderness: Summon Forest, Summon Mana Viper, Summon Cactus Giant
- Grand Grimoire: Malign Gateway, Summon Horrible Things
- Other Texts
- Book of Armaments: Animate Armour
- Book of Blood: Call Imp, Summon Hydra
- Book of Cantrips: Summon Small Mammal
- Book of Death: Haunt
- Book of Decay: Martyr's Knell
- Book of the Dragon: Dragon's Call
- Fen Folio: Summon Forest, Summon Hydra
- Book of the Hunter: Call Canine Familiar
- Book of Iron: Summon Lightning Spire, Animate Armour
- Book of Minor Magic: Call Imp
- Book of Necromancy: Martyr's Knell
- Necronomicon: Haunt
- Book of Power: Spellforged Servitor
- Book of Scorching: Summon Cactus Giant
- Book of Storms: Summon Lightning Spire
- Book of the Tundra: Summon Ice Beast
Duration
Summoned monsters are generated with a duration between 1 and 6. This value roughly corresponds to the following amount in turns:
- 90 aut (arbitrary units of time; 10 aut = 1 "turn")
- 180 aut
- 270 aut
- 360 aut
- 810 aut
- 1710 aut
Some Summonings spells have a fixed duration. The other spells will increase monster duration with spell power.
Summoning Limits
Most Summonings spells also have a fixed cap on how many monsters of that type you can sustain at any one time. Exceeding that cap by casting the spell too often will cause the oldest monsters to time out almost immediately.
| Spell | Level | Duration Type | Duration | Summoning Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summon Small Mammal | 1 | Fixed | 3 | 2 |
| Call Imp | 2 | Spellpower Dependent | 2-6 | 1 |
| Call Canine Familiar | 3 | Spellpower Dependent | 2-6 | 1 |
| Summon Guardian Golem | 3 | Fixed | 3 | 1 |
| Summon Ice Beast | 4 | Spellpower Dependent | 2-4 | 1 |
| Summon Lightning Spire | 4 | Fixed | 2 | 1 |
| Summon Forest | 5 | Fixed | 1 | No Limit** |
| Summon Mana Viper | 5 | Fixed | 2 | 1 |
| Tukima's Dance* | 5 | Spellpower Dependent | 2-6 | No Limit |
| Death Channel* | 6 | Fixed | 6 | No Limit |
| Summon Cactus Giant | 6 | ? | ? | 1 |
| Simulacrum* | 6 | Fixed | 6 | No Limit |
| Haunt | 7 | Fixed | 3 | Special |
| Monstrous Menagerie | 7 | Fixed | 4 | 2 |
| Malign Gateway | 7 | Random | - | 1*** |
| Spellforged Servitor | 7 | Fixed | 4 | 1 |
| Summon Hydra | 7 | Fixed | 1 | 2 |
| Summon Horrible Things | 8 | Fixed | 3 | 8 |
| Dragon's Call | 9 | Fixed | 2 | No Limit |
* - Not a Summonings spell, but operates similarly. ** - Can't cast again until duration has expired. *** - Only one Malign Gateway can exist in the dungeon at time, regardless of who created it.
Non-standard summoning
These non-standard methods for summoning allies have no cap on the number of units you can have out at once, but their costs are often prohibitive:
- Source : Duration
- Brothers in Arms : 2-6
- Summon Divine Warrior : 2-6
- Elemental Force: 1
- Scroll of summoning : Monster's HD dependent, but better than the spell
History
- Prior to 0.28, summons reduced your xp gain, but most summoning spells had much higher summon limits. Shadow Creatures is removed as a player castable spell, with a new level 6 spell Summon Cactus Giant.
- In 0.27, Summon Demon and Summon Greater Demon were removed (Makhleb can still do both).
- In 0.26, the last two utility spells were removed from this magic school: Aura of Abjuration and Recall.
- In 0.25, Summonings miscasts produce nameless horrors. Monsters summoned by the player dismiss if the player harms them or they would become hostile for some other reason, rather than attacking the player. Also, summoned monsters can get the inner flame status from the spell and the scroll of immolation.
- Prior to 0.18, warding provided partial protection from melee and ranged attacks of summoned creatures.
- Prior to 0.14, summoned creatures could exist even after their summoner was defeated, leading to much more cautious behavior around certain enemy summoners. Many enemy summoners were also much more fragile and were not subject to the same summoning caps as players. 0.14 also massively overhauled the Summonings spell list; Summon Lightning Spire, Summon Guardian Golem, Summon Forest, Summon Mana Viper, Monstrous Menagerie, Aura of Abjuration, Forceful Dismissal, and Spellforged Servitor were all added, replacing Summon Scorpions, Summon Ugly Thing, Mass Abjuration, Demonic Horde, and Summon Dragon.
- Prior to 0.13, Summonings spells had no limit on how many monsters you could summon at a time, barring MP restrictions. This led to players summoning hordes of monsters at all times, rendering them nearly untouchable by most monsters and leading to extremely dull optimal gameplay.
- Prior to 0.12, summoned monsters could attack monsters outside of the player's line of sight, and you could not recall flying monsters over lava or deep water.
See Also
| Skills | |
|---|---|
| Weapons | Short Blades • Long Blades • Ranged Weapons
Axes • Maces & Flails • Polearms • Staves • Unarmed Combat • Throwing |
| Physical | Fighting • Armour • Dodging • Stealth • Shields |
| Magical | Spellcasting • Invocations • Evocations • Shapeshifting |
| Spell Schools | Air • Alchemy • Conjurations • Earth • Fire • Hexes • Ice • Necromancy • Summoning • Translocations |
