Are Nature Magic summons worth it?

[Masoc]

Hey, i'm playing as a nature mage and i love the concept of a versatile mage with a summon.

I'm currently about 14 levels into nature magic with just a few points into increasing the summon HP and currently it dies quite quickly. It's kinda useful, tanks a bit and does noticable dmg, but resummoning and rebuffing it after almost every encounter is tedious and costs a lot of mana.

so... will it be better in relative to enemy strength in the later portion of the game compared to now or should I avoid putting many points into it?

[vorik]

there are bigger nature monsters, but you should have the nature dog at least, by Nature Magic level 14! I think you are confusing Nature magic level vs. character level. Nature magic level will only increase if you use the Magic. Try for 2 skills, like, ranged and nature magic, or melee and combat magic, or other combination of 2. The Nature dog (Summon II or something like that) is like Nature level 3, but I haven't played in a while.

I'd suggest saving points for later skills, but it's not too big a deal, you can roll another char. your points in summon hp should benefit later creatures.

[Masoc]

before you i read your comment i didn't even know there was a character level^^ it's pretty much irrelevant anyway, isn't it?

oh and i was mistaken, it's actually 12 points, thus i don't have the dog yet, just the lesser rhinok, which is "ok", but has the problems described above, just like the other summons before. sounds like the dog is especially strong?

regarding hybrid characters: is it really that useful? i'm spamming nature spells all the time anyway and as far is understand the other skills (combat magic etc.) level more slower the more nature magic i have.

i don't know you mean by "Summon II" or "nature level 3" since i'm 12 already.

thanks for your reply!

[vorik]

character level is used for different gear. more powerful gear needs higher character level. some gear is also restricted by skill level (which is nature, combat, melee, ranged). so a blue or yellow gloves may require Nature 3 and character level 7.

I probably meant the rhinok instead of "dog". feel free to boost him if you need to. forgot what other creatures are there.

no problem! :)

[Mýval]

I always use summons. Gives you a bunch of extra bodies on the feild and in time they become very powerful. And I tend to prefer hybrids personally. I like to have full use all of the autocast slots, which on Merc is a maxium of 8 slots which means you could have multiple curses, embraces, heals or summons out and about. And there is some synergy to be found in the hybridizing, and I haven't found that my gear advancement hasn't been horribly held back, at least not yet. I tend to have a primary skill catagory which I put 2 points in for every 1 point I put in my secondary skill catagory.