best summoner builds?

[ace412]

hi all,i've been wanting to play a summoner...but i dont know what race is best to use for that,also what gods should i worship? and what skills to focus on?

[Sar]

Anything that doesn't have a terrible Summoning aptitude will do. I would recommend... probably Draconian?
Out of gods, Kiku, Sif and Ash will do fine, I think.
Skill-wise, you will want to get melee at some point (that is true for pretty much every Crawl character, though).

[crate]

kiku is not a good su god, you dont get piety unless undead things (or you) kill monsters

the gods that actually boost summoning are sif (more spells), ash (more skill), tso (makes your summons better)

[ace412]

hmm,i heard mummys of sif muna are good summoners,though they have a hard time early game.

[Sar]

Well damn, that's right. I remember playing a Su of Kiku and that was OK, though I guess I weren't relying on my summons that much in that game.
I would recommend against playing a mummy, for a new player at least.

[Sandman25]

I liked VSSu of Ash, VS restores MP with melee attacks and Ash is great for hybrids.

[rockygargoyle]

kiku is not a good su god, you dont get piety unless undead things (or you) kill monsters

the gods that actually boost summoning are sif (more spells), ash (more skill), tso (makes your summons better)

The problems with a summoner of tso:
Most of the summons are "evil":
Call imp, malign gateway, summon horrible things, etc;
You can't attack distracted creatures (you have to wait until they target you again to attack).

[ontoclasm]

Most of the summons are "evil":
Call imp, malign gateway, summon horrible things, etc;

That's not "most." Maybe a quarter of the summons are evil, and it's the shitty quarter for the most part; why would you cast Summon Demon when you can cast Ice Beasts and get a usually-better creature and never have to worry about hostiles?

The distraction thing is sort of annoying though.

[Klown]

Tengu <3
Everyone always ignores the birdpeople :'(

[Sar]

I do love my Ice Beasts, but Summon Demon is a pretty amazing spell - demons last forever, are strong as hell (a Sun Demon will roll over most things in the game like it's nothing), it's level 5 single school and if a demon comes out hostile, well, Abjuration is a level 3 spell that handily appears in the very same book of Summoning.

Besides, who doesn't want to summon a demon?

[Hopeless]

I do love my Ice Beasts, but Summon Demon is a pretty amazing spell - demons last forever, are strong as hell (a Sun Demon will roll over most things in the game like it's nothing), it's level 5 single school and if a demon comes out hostile, well, Abjuration is a level 3 spell that handily appears in the very same book of Summoning.

Besides, who doesn't want to summon a demon?

Not me. I'd prefer cats.

[rockygargoyle]

Most of the summons are "evil":
Call imp, malign gateway, summon horrible things, etc;

That's not "most." Maybe a quarter of the summons are evil, and it's the shitty quarter for the most part; why would you cast Summon Demon when you can cast Ice Beasts and get a usually-better creature and never have to worry about hostiles?

The distraction thing is sort of annoying though.

I meant "most of the strong summons", but you're right.