Summoning reviews

[Johnny Casey]

Following is the list of reviews for summoning in this game. Bold ones are my recommendations. (For that skill level, of course) Haven't really messed around with summoning from Shivering Isle, so they're not on the list. Summoning from greater powers are also excluded.

--- Apprentice ---
-- Ghost --
- Has only 50% resistance to normal weapon unlike the normal version.
- Good mixture of ranged/melee attacks.
- Moves dreadfully slow.

-- Skeleton --
- Very squish; has only 20 health. Not recommended.

-- Scamp --
- Only lasts 20 seconds, and wastes its time on shooting a fireball that misses a lot. Not recommended.

-- Zombie --
- Has 80 health. Serves as a good tank in the early game.
- Moves fast for an undead, but still rather slow.



--- Journeyman ---
-- Dremora --
- Low health with short duration with not much damage output. Not recommended.

-- Flame Atronach --
- Prefers ranged combat but its attack is so marginal. Not recommended.

-- Headless Zombie --
- Has 175 health, with surprisingly high melee damage of 27. Very good tank/melee attacker.
- Lasts 25 seconds.

-- Skeleton Guardian --
- Same as Headless Zombie except its melee damage is almost non-existent. (8 pts)
- Lasts 35 seconds.



--- Expert ---
-- Clannfear --
- Has 180 health. Moves fast and hits hard. (36 pts)
- Also possesses reflect damage.
- Lasts 45 seconds.

-- Daedroth --
- Surprisingly ineffective due to its slow attack/movement speed.
- Its massive size can make it stuck in a narrow hallway.
- Lasts 30 seconds, but wastes its time on casting a shield spell on itself, then goes into its 'combat stance'.

-- Faded Wraith --
- Has 280 health. Immune to frost and normal weapon, but NOT immune to paralysis.
- Very powerful summoning with the addition of decent ranged attack and silence spell.
- Moves dreadfully slow.
- Lasts 40 seconds.

-- Frost Atronach --
- Attacks and moves slow, costs lots of magicka to cast. Not recommended.
- Can heal itself.

-- Skeleton Champion --
- Has 320 health. Moves slow and hits okay. (14 pts)
- Lasts 25 seconds.

-- Skeleton Hero --
- Has 280 health. Moves slow and hits okay. (12 pts)
- Lasts 50 seconds.

-- Spider Daedra --
- Moves fast but attacks slow, costs lots of magicka to cast, only lasts 20 seconds. Not recommended.
- Can heal itself.
- Does not summon spiderling.



--- Master ---
-- Dremora Lord --
- Low health with relatively high magicka cost with not much damage output. Not recommended.

-- Gloom Wraith --
- Has 500 health. (Highest among all summoning)
- Somehow not the straight upgrade variant of Faded Wraith; Its melee attack is actually weaker, but its spells are more powerful.
- Has the second highest base magicka cost.
- Moves dreadfully slow.

-- Lich --
- Has the highest base magicka cost.
- Comes with a random selection of spells/staff. The randomness is both the blessing and the curse; may take out an entire horde of Daedra with powerful shock spell, or get beaten up by fellow undead if it only has frost spell.
- Has both spell absorption and reflect. Casting a custom buff spell on it is not advisable. (Doesn't really need one, anyway)
- Moves slow, as with all undead.

-- Storm Atronach --
- The best summoning IMO.
- Only attacks while standing still; no directional attacks. Also has longer melee range, so its attacks will almost never miss, unlike many other summoning that 'whips at misses' a lot.
- Immune to paralysis, but NOT immune to shock, unless the Unofficial Patch is installed.
- Costs low magicka to cast; base magicka cost is almost the same as that of Daedroth.
- Moves dreadfully slow, and wastes its time on shooting a lighting. Preferable to cast a custom buff spell that drains its magicka to 0 and fortifies its speed.
- May affects your performance due to its intense appearance.

-- Xivilai --
- An absolute trash due to certain oversight. (All fixed by the Unofficial Patch)
- Its fatigue is set to 0, and its magicka pool is not large enough to cast some of its spell. Also attacks slow.
- *Could* be good against spell casters thanks to its 50 pts of spell absorption, but doubtful.

[arottweiler]

Nice list and summons are a very useful part of the armoury. The basic skeleton is useful for low level training as you can take a lot of hits which increases skills faster at level one and they have some distraction value in battle but I prefer the Frost Atronach because it's large so can act as a shield and adds some illumination which is useful in dark areas. The Headless Zombie is also surprisingly powerful and like the Frost Atronach they keep up with me unlike other summons who can be slow to catch up. They all have their own unique sounds and animations and I like the bone crunching sound skeletons make and the ice crunching sound the Frost Atronachs make. I also like the random and menacing sounds humanoid daedra like the Dremora Lord and Xivilai make but they are not very useful in combat because of the slow attack moves. I think I know the oversight you mean because one hit from a dagger and it would collapse in a heap every time but I'm sure that still happened after the patch so was never fixed for me. Either way the two handed attack makes them too open to damage but against a soft target they are more than capable.

Some mods add very powerful summons such as the Angel summon and Golum summon added by the Midas Spells mod. You can pickpocket the Angel summon for her sword which slices through the HP of most enemies. The Angel is unique because it's the only Midas summon that expires. All the other Midas summon spells will remain active until they are killed or you use an unsummon spell on the. There is no time limit to how long the Angel spends with you other than the higher your level the longer she hangs around and she never leaves during combat. So if there is a large scale battle going on you know she isn't going to return to the heavens until the job is done. The blade she carries has about 45 charges and she has saved my skin more times than I care to remember. In a way it's slightly cheating to use her early on in the game because of how powerful she is but by level 10 it's more even.

Frost Atronachs are also useful when closing Oblivion gates because most of the enemies have a weakness to frost so a lot depends on the type of enemy you are going to encounter and be ready to hit them with weakness spells and melee hits before the summons join the party. A very useful mod for creating permanent summons is Advanced Magecraft

https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/15587

It needs OBSE and MenuQUE but both are easy enough to install and you can then assign summons to items like rings and amulets so when you equip them the summon appears. You can have multiple summons up to eight in total. The first item I created is a ring called 'Skully - Trainer' which is a basic skeleton and I equip the ring every time I'm ready for some sparring.

[MonkeyMummyMoney]

Some of the tankier summons aren't bad depending on build.
Like, if you are an archer or mage and just need a sturdy meatshield between you and whatever is trying to kill you, it doesn't really matter if the summon in question does low damage, or is slow/has a slow attack rate.

That being said Conjuration is kind of iffy as a skill. In all the situations in which it would shine, Restoration/illusion would work just as well.

Side-note: You forgot to mention the staff of worms. it's technically conjuration.