Summoner

Version 0.34: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

The Summoner specialises in calling creatures from this and other worlds to give assistance. Although they can at first summon only very wimpy creatures, the more advanced summoning spells allow summoners to call on such powers as hydras and dragons.

Summoner is a background which focuses on creating summons, creating magical monsters from thin air.

Preferred Species

Deep Elf, Mountain Dwarf, Merfolk, Tengu, Vine Stalker, and Vampire are the recommended species if you pick a Summoner Background.

Starting Equipment

Some species may receive different items based on their unique restrictions.

• +0 robe
• Potion of magic

Available Spells:

• Summon Small Mammal
• Call Imp
• Call Canine Familiar
• Eringya's Surprising Crocodile
• Summon Seismosaurus Egg

Summoners start with the Summon Small Mammal spell already memorised.

Starting Skills and Stats

These are adjusted by your species' aptitudes.

• Dodging: 2
• Stealth: 2
• Spellcasting: 2
• Summonings: 4

Choosing Summoner adds 7 to your starting Intelligence and 5 to your starting Dexterity.

Strategy

Technically, Summoners never have to see a single fight. For many frailer species, this is an optimal thing to do. Summons in general are great; they soak up damage, block enemy line of fire, and you can replenish them for only an MP cost.

Spell Details

Summon Small Mammals was historically called "spammals"; Summoners should live that name out to the fullest. While recent versions of Crawl have strict summon limits, all that means is that you should use a wide repertoire of Summonings spells. Call Imp gives you a spear-wielding imp that can poke enemies from behind your spammals or a canine familiar. There's almost no downside to having all your conventional summons out at the same time. You can have up to two Small Mammals, and one of any other starting spell.

Eringya's Surprising Crocodile is one of the best movement spells in the game, and will allow you to displace yourself up to 2 tiles while placing a strong summon (for the early game) in between you and the target enemy. You will generally want to save this as a defensive move rather than an offensive one.

Summon Seismosaurus Egg is rather harder to use well. This spell places an egg on a random tile nearby, which then needs to be defended for several turns before hatching into a powerful dinosaur. While this dinosaur can easily handle everything up to and including S-branches, it is often more trouble than it's worth to hatch in the first place. Don't get yourself killed doing so.

Tips and Tricks

• Summons can be used to create space away from the enemy. For strong or fast monsters, you want as many summons as possible.
• Don't forget that you can command your summoned monsters using t, compelling them to do useful things, such as proactively moving toward your foes, attacking a different enemy or retreating when they are hurt, rather than simply waiting for hostile monsters to approach. Using the t command will use up your turn, though.
• Summoners need to think carefully about the offensive spells they pick up if they intend to keep relying on their summons as well. Borgnjor's Vile Clutch and Ignition are examples of spells that offer area-of-effect damage without damaging your summons.
• Damaging your summons (such as attacking with v) will immediately dispel them. This is great for when an inconvenient lightning spire gets in your way, but don't try this on lit golems. You can also just recast the spell, though that costs MP.

History

• In 0.33, Summoners start with Eringya's Surprising Crocodile and Summon Seismosaurus Egg instead of Summon Blazeheart Golem and Summon Lightning Spire.
• Prior to 0.31, Summoners started with Summon Guardian Golem instead of Summon Blazeheart Golem. (Also, Call Canine Familiar was reworked this version, and Call Imp the version before.)
• In 0.29, most backgrounds were buffed; all Mage backgrounds gained a potion of magic.
• Prior to 0.28, summoned creatures took up to half of your XP, but many spells had a higher summon cap.
• Prior to 0.27, Summoners started with the book of Callings, and also had Summon Ice Beast.
• Prior to 0.15, Summoners started with 20 gold.
• Prior to 0.14, Summoners started with only 1 level of Spellcasting.