Are summons supposed to be not very good?

[rpgfreakiod]

Either I have terrible luck, or the summons seem a bit bad at their jobs.

I keep making Raw Prophets to get rid of evidence, but they keep vanishing which I assume means they were caught and just die instantly.

But the biggest disappointment was when I finally summoned King Crucible, sent it on a expedition, the first thing I think it hit was a wall that its forge should of easily broken, but instead it was instantly banished. like the first thing it did at all killed it. I guess I should of used something to block for it in case of failure, but seriously why do the summons seem to be killed off so easily?

[Vanagandr]

Bad luck mostly.

The breakpoints are 1-5-10 in terms of Aspect, which means that a Raw Prophet will usually-but-not-always succeed at doing Moth things, while King Crucible will almost-always-but-it's-not-guaranteed succeed within his own spheres.

That said, while having several attempts in a row go wrong is *unlikely*, you're not guaranteed a high roll just because you've tried several times. Getting streaks is in the nature of randomness. Generally speaking, though, the King is very reliable.

[rpgfreakiod]

Bad rolls of the dice I guess. The Raw Prophets aren't so bad, they seem easier to summon.

But King Crucible was a pain. It felt like I had gathered tough reagents, summoned a giant fire demon, he went stomping across the plains in terrible glory, and then he tripped over a rock and went *poof*. Just seems like he should of had something more to him since it even said he was unique.

[Vanagandr]

The rock probably tripped him as long-awaited vengeance in the name of the Gods-From-Stone.

He's about as strong as it's possible to be, but sometimes things just go awry.

[AK]

FWIW, one of the UI things I wish we'd done better was making the odds clearer. It would have dented the obscurity, but I can now think of a number of ways I might have got round that. I reckon we'll use them in Book of Hours.

In the meantime, sorry about your fiery boi's bad luck. Probably a rival Name set a trap for him, or an ancient binding rune was left on a wall somewhere, or as Areetsa said it was a vengeance from an earlier age. At least there's always more of him.

[Red Earth]

The highest possible success rate is 90% at 10 aspect.
It's 70% at 5
And 30% at 1.
I usually have a cultist in first so they'll get wounded and get a nice, powerful scar.
The leader role in expeditions is not as prestigious as one might think.

[cswiger]

I prefer to use a summoned spirit to act as the leader.
You can always re-summon whatever it is if it takes a hit.

It's not always convenient to heal a wounded follower, especially if you're busy using Talk + Sulochana to keep some card from timing out.

Sure, it's pretty useful for Neville or Enid to gain Moth or Edge via a scar, but you can always gift them with a tool. Likewise, anyone else gaining some Knock makes them into a more flexible summoner.

[rpgfreakiod]

Ya Knock on someone is really nice. I got some Knocks on one of my Moth followers, and now they can almost summon Raw Prophets by themselves. Now my expeditions can be led by a mass of arms and legs, and then a fire god thing.

[Devin]

Yeah it's not so much a problem with summons, it's just that anything in expeditions, no matter what you send, has at least a 10% chance to fail.

[timarehart]

The 10% failure always seems to bite me in the butt on curses.

[Red Earth]

Yeah, I've taken to waiting until I have a high heart influence before even attempting cursed vaults and preserving it while I do as many as possible. It's a hassle to be using one verb at all times to hold the influence. So much so that I start hoping a curse hits so I can use the influence and get on with life. Makes me wish there was a ritual where one could "solidify" the influence into a curse preventing object so I could just work on that before going vaultin'.

[cswiger]

Maybe the Names could offer protection or a solution to a pending curse?

For example, if you talk to Ezeem about Health, he acts as a Phylaxian which prevents death by loss of health from sickness. It would be nifty if that would also do something to the Creeping Breath Curse which affects Health.

Likewise, maybe Teresa as a Name of Lantern should be able to offer a defense against the Dry Soul Curse which blights Reason into Dread.

And King Crucible of "FLESH IS SMOKE" fame seems like an appropriate Name to ask for help against the Worms in the World. Even the Worms can be burned to ash by sufficient Forge.

[Red Earth]

Originally posted by cswiger:

Maybe the Names could offer protection or a solution to a pending curse?

For example, if you talk to Ezeem about Health, he acts as a Phylaxian which prevents death by loss of health from sickness. It would be nifty if that would also do something to the Creeping Breath Curse which affects Health.

Likewise, maybe Teresa as a Name of Lantern should be able to offer a defense against the Dry Soul Curse which blights Reason into Dread.

And King Crucible of "FLESH IS SMOKE" fame seems like an appropriate Name to ask for help against the Worms in the World. Even the Worms can be burned to ash by sufficient Forge.

Yes, I like where this is going. Talk to a summoned name about a high heart influence and have them craft you a protection. There's still the Fifth Eye Curse and we're out of summonable Names. I was thinking about my original idea of a ritual for protection, however looking at the Creeping Breath curse, it turns health into decrepitude, which can be fixed with Forge's Redemption. So in that way there already is a way to fix a failed Creeping Breath Curse with a ritual. Which means that protection from it is not as important as the others. While Ezeem is themactically right for it, I think he should protect from another curse.

The Lionsmith is said to be able to kill worms on his own and his aspects are forge and edge, same as King Crucible, so I think it's fair to have him protect from Worms in the World.

Teresa is of lantern as is the Colonel who is the one called on via lantern if you use it to resist the Dry Soul curse, so she fits that too.

Ezeem is edge and grail, and nothing connected to Fifth Eye is about edge or grail. So while it would be unsatisfying lore-wise to have him protect from Fifth Eye, it's the last curse and he the last of the Names.