Spellforged Servitor seems underwhelming?

[FalconNL]

In my current game as a DECj, Vehumet offered me the knowledge of Spellforged Servitor, which just so happened to be the spell I really wanted to try out. However, after casting it a few times on Lair:$ it seemed rather... underwhelming. Obviously a feeling doesn't really mean anything, so I jumped into wizard mode to test my suspicions.

Test setup
1 DECj (relevant stats listed below)

  Code:

 Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.14-a0-3295-g3fd807f (tiles) character file.

FalconNL the Eclecticist (Deep Elf Conjurer)       Turns: 34010, Time: 03:32:37

HP  78/78        AC 12     Str  5      XL: 14   Next: 64%
MP  39/49        EV 21     Int 31      God: Vehumet [*****.]
Gold 1317        SH  0     Dex 15      Spells:  9 memorised, 11 levels left

e - +3 hat of Pondering {ponderous, MR+ MP+10 Int+5}

You worship Vehumet.
Vehumet is extremely pleased with you.

   Skills:
 + Level 5,1 Fighting
 - Level 9,0 Staves
 + Level 13,1 Dodging
 - Level 2,4 Stealth
 + Level 16,6 Spellcasting
 + Level 14,4 Conjurations
 - Level 6,5 Charms
 - Level 10,0 Summonings

 Your Spells              Type           Power        Failure   Level  Hunger
a - Magic Dart            Conj           ####         0%          1    None
b - Searing Ray           Conj           ######       0%          2    None
c - Iskenderun's Battles  Conj/Chrm      ######..     1%          5    None
d - Iskenderun's Mystic   Conj           #######.     1%          4    None
e - Throw Icicle          Conj/Ice       ######..     1%          4    None
f - Mephitic Cloud        Conj/Pois/Air  ######..     1%          3    None
g - Spellforged Servitor  Conj/Summ      #######...   3%          7    ####...
h - Bolt of Cold          Conj/Ice       ######....   4%          6    ##.....
i - Dazzling Spray        Conj/Hex       ######..     1%          3    None

1 Spellforged servitor (who in theory should know IMB, throw icicle, BoC and meph cloud, with one spell slot left blank)

1 hallway, with a death yak (chosen both because it is very generic and because that's what I was encountering at the time) on one side of the servitor and me on the other

Results for Spellforged servitor

  Code:

Round  1: Servitor wins, 10 turns (2 IMB, 1 BoC, 1 TI)
Round  2: Servitor wins,  3 turns (2 TI)
Round  3: Yak      wins,  7 turns (1 TI, 1 IMB)
Round  4: Yak      wins,  9 turns (2 TI)
Round  5: Servitor wins,  7 turns (1 TI, 1 IMB, 1 BoC)
Round  6: Servitor wins,  5 turns (3 IMB)
Round  7: Servitor wins,  5 turns (2 TI)
Round  8: Yak      wins,  7 turns (2 IMB, 1 BoC)
Round  9: Servitor wins,  8 turns (3 BoC, 2 IMB)
Round 10: Servitor wins,  7 turns (3 BoC)

Win rate: 70%
Avg. round length: 6.8 turns
Avg. attack rate: 1 spell every 2.3 turns


As a comparison, I chose Summon Hydra, another level 7 summoning spell. The spell power for that is a bit lower on my character (78 vs. 85 for the servitor), yet it completely trounces the servitor:

Results for Hydra

  Code:

Round  1: Hydra wins, 4 turns
Round  2: Hydra wins, 3 turns
Round  3: Hydra wins, 3 turns
Round  4: Hydra wins, 4 turns
Round  5: Hydra wins, 3 turns
Round  6: Hydra wins, 3 turns
Round  7: Hydra wins, 5 turns
Round  8: Hydra wins, 3 turns
Round  9: Hydra wins, 4 turns
Round 10: Hydra wins, 3 turns

Win rate: 100%
Avg. round length: 3.5 turns

While I didn't record the HP values after the fight, I'm fairly certain the hydra generally had much more HP remaining than the servitor, too.

Of course I realize the servitor will get better later on once you learn stuff like iron shot and LCS, but especially in the early midgame it seems fairly underpowered for a level 7 summoning spell. Probably the worst problem is that the servitor has a tendency to do absolutely nothing for long stretches: the record being 6 turns of inaction in round 4, but I recorded several cases of 4 and 5 turns of him just standing around. That's also the primary reason I started this test in the first place: in my own game it would just stand by and watch while a pack of death yaks chased my scrawny arse to the nearest staircase. The hydra, in comparison, has the decency to attack every turn.

One possible idea might be to give the servitor the beam from Iskenderun's Battlesphere as a guaranteed sixth spell slot, which it uses to pad out its attacks so that it attacks at least every other turn. Other ideas are of course welcome.

[Amnesiac]

I think I read somewhere, that if servitor does nothing, if you tell him to 'wait here'(t,w) then he might engage into fighting monsters in LoS. I also think that summons don't attack until being attacked, even if you have have monsters in your LoS, because their main default action is follow you by being adjacent to you. Did you use 'attack' command(t,a, chosen enemy)?

[RBrandon]

Your test is not very good because it does not show that hydras are better than servitors, rather it shows that hydras are better than servitors (with middling spells) summoned point blank (melee) in a hallway. Pretty sure this is intended. I'm not sure of it's current behavior, but besides improving its spells as the game goes on, it would seem to me that a spellforged servitor would do better in the open with more turns to cast its spells and more area to avoid damage. From the test above the overall rate of spells/turn doesn't seem too bad, though I understand how long periods of inaction could be frustrating. Bear in mind this is a very new spell and may require tweaking. Certainly more testing would be useful to determine if any such tweaks ought to be made.

[Sandman25]

Yes, I am not sure why a monster with AoE spells is compared to melee only monster. The latter should deal more damage in melee otherwise it would be too weak and you would always summon the Servitor.

[and into]

As a counterpoint, however, servitor is a dual school spell, and the two spells in question don't have any other overlapping spells (AFAIK), so it requires a lot of skill investment. I agree the comparison is not good but perhaps servitors could be less fiddly (more consistent taking actions) or else kept as they are and dropped to lvl 6 summ/conj. My instinct is that the latter might be more appropriate, and would be easy to test out.

[crate]

My understanding is that servitor isn't designed to be desirable to summoners anyway (and you can figure this out on your own, since it doesn't play nice with other summons). I don't have a comment on how good the spell is, but probably you are supposed to be comparing it to things like ... um I don't think conjurations has any level 7 dual-school spells so it doesn't have a great direct comparison but I guess to things like LCS.

[Leafsnail]

Haunt seems like the closest analogue to me: a level 7 spell in two skills that don't really have natural synergy (except for Recall, which is only level 3). Haunt could probably reliably kill a yak, and it also has the benefit of smite targeting.

[and into]

Haunt seems like the closest analogue to me: a level 7 spell in two skills that don't really have natural synergy (except for Recall, which is only level 3). Haunt could probably reliably kill a yak, and it also has the benefit of smite targeting.

I agree that's probably the closest analogy. Haunt can and should be more powerful (rarer*, appears in the "ultimate" books, has sickness component even if that's generally minor), but the question is how much weaker relative to Haunt should another dual school lvl 7 summoning spell be?

*I don't actually know what P(Grimoire + Necronomicon) vs. P(Wizardry) actually is but I suspect P(Wizardry) is higher. Could be totally wrong about that though; overall point still stands.

[Leafsnail]

That's true, although you can also get Haunt from Kiku if you really want it.

[Amnesiac]

Hm, last time I cast haunt on cerebov(I think) in like 0.10 or 0.11 it held him back quite ok while I was running away with a cursed amulet of stasis on me.

[FalconNL]

I think I read somewhere, that if servitor does nothing, if you tell him to 'wait here'(t,w) then he might engage into fighting monsters in LoS. I also think that summons don't attack until being attacked, even if you have have monsters in your LoS, because their main default action is follow you by being adjacent to you. Did you use 'attack' command(t,a, chosen enemy)?

Yes. Generating a monster in Wizard mode summons the monster asleep. I then told the servitor to attack the yak with t,a, which wakes up the yak and starts the battle.

Bear in mind this is a very new spell and may require tweaking.

I know, which is why I'm trying to get the discussion started on whether or not it should be tweaked.

I agree the comparison is not good but perhaps servitors could be less fiddly (more consistent taking actions) or else kept as they are and dropped to lvl 6 summ/conj. My instinct is that the latter might be more appropriate, and would be easy to test out.

I would personally prefer the former. I'd much rather spend 7 MP on a servitor that actually helps me than 6 MP on one that will just stand there cheering on the enemies if the RNG decides not to play nice.