Just some basics
You can probably guess, but these spells are going to entirely revolve around summoning constructs, spirits and/or familiars to fight at your side in some way or another.
This is a bit beyond the current level we are at, from a balancing perspective. Or maybe it’s not and I’m just still not experienced enough with the game to judge such things.
The Spell (Series)
So, this is not going to be just one Spell, but a series of multiple Spells that can each accomplish different functions.
To start with, while these are called Summoning Spells, they do not actually summon full-on NPCs with health bars and stuff. Arcane Odyssey is not a traditional MMORPG, that kind of thing wouldn’t fly here. The Balance Team and a sizeable chunk of the community would send assassins to my residence for ever suggesting such a Spell.
These Spells are just that: Spells. They have limited durations they can last, they can be clashed with and destroyed(or strengthened, depending on the elements involved in the clash!), and they can deal certain amounts of damage.
“Seems reasonable.”
Yup.
Now, to get down into the real meat of these Spells.
Summon Familiar
The most basic Summoning Spell, the beginning of any aspiring Summoner’s journey, and the one most generally useful.
It just conjures up a dude that rushes towards your enemy and tries to brawl. They’ll throw out some Basic Combat M1s, then dissipate. They can be destroyed by a sufficiently strong attack, with their ability to resist damage depending directly on their clash strength. Depending on what element hits them and what element they’ve been cast in, they might actually have their attacks strengthened by a clash, which will refresh their timer for dissipating, allowing them to stick around longer. These clash mechanics apply to all Summon Spells.
This spell can be customized in a few ways. You can give them a name, for one. The far right synonym selector that pulls up when you choose the Spell’s name will be replaced entirely by the list of the given names that you can pick for your character and that can randomly appear on NPCs in-game. This naming system applies to all Summon Spells.
You can also customize their appearance at a higher Magic level, via a menu similar to the Tailor, though they will always have a ghost-like or element-dependent texture.
At even higher Magic Levels, you can customize their size, within limits of Vetex’s teased ability to change sizes for player characters, which will effect their attack sizes and movement speed.
Higher than that, you can set weapons for them. This is basically the same as setting shapes with normal spells, but of course it must be within the limits of what weapons a character can actually wield. A sword ups their attack speed but lowers their damage a bit. A hammer really ups their damage, but also drastically lowers their attack speed. And so on.
And no, you can not give them ranged weapons. You cannot summon dakkas at will, that’s practically free damage.
Obviously setting them as an Ult makes them significantly stronger. For one, their duration before dissipating is increased drastically. They’ll also use special attacks related to what weapon they have, instead of just rushing and using M1s. They’re also somewhat more resistant to clashing than a usual one but not absurdly so. And of course, their damage, attack size and allat fun stuff rise greatly.
Summon Golem
The biggest boi. The chonker. The bruiser. This guy brings the pain. You want something flattened, Golem’s the dude ya call.
This thing is essentially the equivalent of a normal Magic’s Explosion Spell. They’re big, they’re slow, and they need to get in close. Once they do get in close, they throw massive haymakers at the enemy. These have decent wind-up, so you’ll see’em coming, but if they hit, they really hurt, and will knock you away.
If they fail to close the gap before their time limit runs out, they’ll suddenly leap at the enemy and slam their whole selves into the ground, creating an explosion where they land and destroying themselves in the process. This only triggers if they haven’t gotten close enough to throw a punch since they were spawned. Doesn’t matter if they land it or not, if they throw a punch once, they won’t leap when their time runs out. The leap also has some wind up, and if you’re still standing where you were when they first leapt, I’m questioning your sanity.
“Pretty sure your sanity is the one under scrutiny…”
Quiet, you.
At a higher Magic level, you can customize their size. This affects their movement speed, and attack sizes, as well as the size(positively) and damage(negatively) of their final explosion, should it trigger.
Higher than that, you can change their main attack method. This is shaping, basically, and will change their big fists into one of the other shapes, and effect the stats of their attack sizes, speeds and damage accordingly.
Even higher, and you can change the sort of Golem you spawn in. Brute is the default. Guardian has lower movement and attack speeds, but has better clash stats, provides a percentage-based damage absorption effect to keep the caster somewhat safer in the meantime, and stays near the caster, only moving to attack whenever an opponent comes close. Berserker has higher attack and movement speeds, but has weaker clash stats.
No matter the type of Golem, they will always perform their Leap if the trigger requirements are met.
Ult will, of course, make them significantly stronger. No special effects, they just become even more of an absolute unit than before.
Summon Ranger
You want to summon a dakka? You have to get a scroll for it. I’m not going to make it easy for you. And even with this scroll, it’s not a real Dakka.
“I thought we were going to skip this one! We all hate NPCs with ranged weapons!”
Don’t worry, I think I’m cooking with this.
The Ranger is pretty self-explanatory. They attack from range. This is pretty much a beam spell, just weaker, and more annoying than anything.
This dude will fire off M1s with their little bow at the enemy. I know, we all hate this already, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Like I said before, they’re a lot weaker than an actual Dakka would be. They’re just there to apply pressure, and maybe some status effects or synergies if you have the right element applied to them. Basically, they’re in the offensive support role. Doesn’t do much damage on their own, but can consistently apply a status effect since, y’know, they’re basically aimbotting, which can be useful in its own way.
“So it won’t just be free damage?”
Not enough damage for it to matter, that’s for sure.
At a higher Magic level, you can customize them in the same way as a Familiar in a Tailor-like menu.
Higher than that, and you can set their behavior. If you want them to move around, try and keep their distance from the enemy, that’s the Default mode. Want a turret dude that’ll just sit there and fire? Turret mode. Want a dude that does nothing but strafe at a certain distance from the enemy, staying just out of reach of them, but being an absolute pest? Trickster mode.
Even higher, you can customize their attack speed, raising it lowers their damage, lowering it raises their damage. This can make them apply status effects more or less often, as needed. Even at the highest damage setting, they still shouldn’t even approach a quarter of the average Weapon player’s bow M1 damage.
Ult will affect their attack speed and damage. Ult Ranger might have damage similar to a Weapon player’s bow M1 now, but you’d have to specifically set them for that, and they get no other extra functionality.
I could do more, but… Well, I think ya’ll kinda get the premise, right? I’ve explained pretty well how this would work, right?
There’ll be more basic ones, and rarer, more specialized Summons.
Healing ones(Temp name Paeon), ones that’ll fly around and dive bomb the enemy(Temp name Harpy), ones that exist solely to sacrifice their lives to temporarily bind an enemy(I dunno, temp name Warden? Like a prison warden?), ones that function basically as a second-in-command, using weakened basic spells of the Magic of their Element(Temp name Archon), and what the Hades, maybe you could even summon an Elemental Dragon after doing a ritual or something with Dragon’s blood.
There’s just a lot that can be done but not enough time(okay, there’s plenty of time but I don’t want to type up another 10 or so Summon Spells in full, this is a suggestion, not a Trello card) and again, I think I’ve explained these ideas pretty well.
Reasons to add change
“Do we even have a single real reason?”
Honestly? No.
No, actually, y’know what, yes. This is fantasy. We’re using magic. Not having Summoners as part of the game is practically criminal. Or maybe that’s my 'tism speaking.
I get it, Arcane Odyssey isn’t really that kind of MMORPG, it’s more action focused than anything, so Summoning doesn’t fit very well.
“Actually…”
What? What is it?
“Behold, an action oriented MMORPG that utilizes a summoner class!”
Asshole used me for a transition…
TLDR
So yeah, as you can see, there are cases where it can work. The way it’s implemented in PSO2 NGS isn’t the same as what I’ve done here, but to be honest, NGS’s method could work as its own thing in AO at some point, but probably not as a Magic.
Then again, that gameplay’s the Waker from NGS. OG PSO2 has an actual Summoner class that works similarly to what I’ve described in this suggestion, and it works pretty well, ngl.
But yeah, that vid’s the TLDR. You throw things out and they kick ass in your place, sorta. You should prolly read most of this to actually understand the things being suggested here properly.
If you read the whole bloody thing, uhhh… Congrats? Free hugs? I dunno, thanks for putting up with my schizo ass, and I hope I wrote things out clearly enough for you to understand.
