This collection aims to provide more fun and useful options, esp. ranged summons for nature mages, and to experiment with unusual summons like stationaries & miniboss scrolls.


Principles

Stats are based on numbers of similar original summoning spells. See below for details on balancing.
For stationary & explosive summons, gold value, duration & mana cost are much lower.
For miniboss summons, scrolls are used; gold value is much lower, duration & life is much higher.
Required level is around 4/3 of the level where players typically first encounter the creature, similar to the original spells.
Assignment to Nature vs. Combat Magic is done based on the creature, roughly following the shaky logic of the original spells.


Installation

If you use DSLOA, simply put the "Summons Collection.dsres" file into the DSLOA folder. It contains all summons.

Alternatively, pick from the partial .dsres files, which are split by functional type (standard / non-standard) and by DS version (vanilla / LoA).

If you use vanilla DS, use the partial .dsres files to only install the vanilla summons.

Spells are added to PContent, which means they appear in shops & drops with some probability.
Note: unfortunately, scrolls are excluded from PContent, so they won't appear on original maps without mods. See my minimod scrolls-in-shops for a solution.

Compatibility
- If you play with vanilla DS, use only the vanilla dsres - LoA summons will not work properly.
- This mod is compatible with Unlimited Summons, except for the explosive summon (Blazing Elemental) which can still only be summoned once at a time.


Creatures

Vanilla Standard:
- Animals (NM):
  - Phraks: Phrak, Phrak Piercer, Swamp Stinger, Forest Phrak
  - Spiders: Yellow Spider, Arakun Spider, Stalagnid, Frostnid, Frost Spitter
  - Manglers: Snapper, Mangler, Sea Mangler
  - Wolves: Gray Wolf, White Wolf
  - Dogs: Krug Dog, Krug Killer Dog
  - Drakes: Frost Drake, Blue Drake, Red Drake (CM)
  - Others: Googore Grub, Klaw, Furok Slasher, Spiked Maw, Giant Moth, Giant Wasp, Lectar, Slarg, Soul Stinger, Giant Lizard
- Elementals:
  - Gargoyles (CM): Gargoyle (melee), Bronze Gargoyle
  - Ice (NM): Ice Warrior, Ice Archer, Ice Fly
  - Crystal (NM): Teal Shard, Green Shard, Blue Shard, Purple Shard
  - Swamp (NM): Swamp Creature, Swamp Slinger
  - Lava (CM): Lava Beast, Lava Spirit (melee)
- Undead (CM):
  - Skeletons: Skeleton Archer, Skeleton Guard, Skeleton Ranger, Skeleton Mercenary
  - Zombies: Walking Corpse, Tortured Corpse, Goo Walker, Zombie
  - Others: Wraith Mage, Ghost, Rector
- Demonics (CM):
  - Mucosa: Vile Mucosa, Dark Mucosa
  - Other: Horrid, Forest Darkling, Synged, Toreck, Kell
- Robots (CM):
  - Pickers: Kill Bot, Hunter
  - Gobbots: Gobbot Shocker, Gobbot Igniter, Gobbot Gunner, Gobbot Grenadier
  - Others: Copter, Perforator, Heater, Blaster
- Humanoids:
  - Braak (NM): Braak, Braak Mage
  - Krug (NM): Krug Scavenger, Krug Scout, Krug Apprentice, Krug Grunt, Krug Chucker, Krug Raider, Krug Guard, Krug Commander
  - Lungers (NM): Dark Lunger, Dark Slinger, Dark Caster
  - Trog (NM): Trog, Trog Warrior, Trog Knight
  - Bandits (NM): Bandit, Bandit Archer
  - Goracks (NM): Gorack
  - Trolls (NM): Swamp Troll

Vanilla Non-Standard:
- Stationary:
  - Animals (NM):
    - Skrubbs: Farm Skrubb, Black Skrubb
    - Worms: Mine Worm, Googore
  - Plants (NM): Tretch
  - Robots (CM): Tesla Coil
  - Stationary Heal:
    - Robots (CM): Tesla Heal Coil
- Explosive:
  - Elementals:
    - Fire (CM): Blazing Elemental
  - Robots (CM): Proxo
- Resurrect:
  - Humanoids:
    - Krug (NM): Krug Shaman
- Sub-summoning:
  - Humanoids:
    - Nature Witches (NM): Ice Mage, Swamp Witch
- Miniboss Scrolls:
  - Animals (NM): Phrak Ballista, Hulking Gremal, Alpha Wolf, Dark Klaw, Grizzly Furok, Rabid Spiked Maw, Venom Fiend
  - Elementals:
    - Ice (NM): Frost Warrior, Frost Archer
    - Swamp (NM): Swamp Abomination
    - Lava (CM): Magma Beast
  - Undead (CM):
    - Zombies: Dark Wolf, Ancient Corpse, Wretched Zombie
    - Others: Skeleton Captain
  - Plants (NM): Infested Larch
  - Demonics (CM):
    - Mucosa Brute
  - Humanoids:
    - Braak (NM): Pitiful Braak, Ferocious Braak
    - Krug (NM): Brankar the Scavenger, Klandank the Krug, Futak the Trainer
    - Lungers (NM): Shadow Lunger
    - Trog (NM): Great Trog Warrior
    - Bandits (NM): Rogue Bandit, Bandit Boss
    - Goracks (NM): Enraged Gorack
    - Trolls (NM): Muong Troll, Rotten Troll
  - Miniboss Resurrect:
    - Humanoids:
      - Krug (NM): Huskar the Shaman
  - Miniboss Sub-summoning:
    - Humanoids:
      - Nature Witches (NM): Frost Mage, Skank Witch, Lost Witch

LoA Standard:
- Animals (NM):
  - Spiders: Emerald Spider, Widow Spider
  - Manglers: Angler, Jungle Angler, Shadow Angler
  - Lizards: Island Lizard, Thunder Lizard
  - Boars: Snow Boar, Mhulliq, Rending Mhulliq
  - Chitterskrags: Immature Chitterskrag, Chitterskrag, Spewing Chitterskrag
  - Skitterclaws: Skitterling, Skitterclaw
  - Pickers: Swarmling Drone, Swarmling Queen, Sandskreech
  - Scorpions: Greater Scrub Scorpion, Lesser Scrub Scorpion
  - Others: Ice Grub, Ice Moth, Swirling Midges, Varg, Jungle Spiker, Monstrous Rat, Swarmling, Leetch, Flying Gritch
- Elementals:
  - Frost (NM): Frost Golem
  - Earth (NM): Marble Golem, Cobble Man
  - Swamp (NM): Bog Beast
- Undead (CM):
  - Zombies: Mummy, Slime Zombie, Living Dead
  - Ghosts: Noctiss (red), Noctiss (blue)
  - Rahks: Rahk, Scaly Rahk
  - Others: Ghastly Necron, Dark Acolyte
- Demonics (CM):
  - Large Twisted Mucosa, Rune Fiend, Whelnar's Eyes
- Robots (CM):
  - Automatons: Weathered Automaton, Rusted Automaton
  - Others: Ancient Scorpiot
- Humanoids:

LoA Non-Standard:
- Stationary:
  - Animals (NM): Jungle Skrubb
  - Plants (NM): Killer Vines, Mantrap
- Sub-summoning:
  - Humanoids:
    - Combat Witches (CM): Rune Caster
- Miniboss Scrolls:
  - Animals (NM): Giant Chitterskrag, Yellow Eye
  - Elementals:
    - Earth (NM): Earth Elemental Minion
    - Air (NM): Air Elemental Minion
    - Water (NM): Water Elemental Minion
  - Undead (CM): Krakemaw the Putrid
  - Demonics (CM): Twisted Mucosa Brute


Balancing

Gold Value: is based on a formula reconstructed from original:
Required Level 0-30: gold value = 30 * 10^(required level / 10)
Required Level 30+:  gold value = 30 * 10^(required level / 50 + 2.4)
Melee summons get 20% discount; stationary summons & miniboss scrolls get 80% discount.

Duration: base duration for standard summons is 5 minutes.
Stationary summons have 1 minute, because you'll have to re-summon them frequently anyway.
Miniboss scrolls get a full 15 minutes, because they're single-use. Make sure to heal them!
Bonus minutes are given for melee summons and for slow creatures, because these factors waste a bit of time.
Further bonus/minus minutes are given to counter the damage & health/defense values a bit.

Level cap: the maximum level (from which on the summon doesn't get stronger anymore) is always the required level + 20.
Most originals follow this scheme as well, with a few minor deviations. (The only really odd one out is Summon Clone, by the way, which improves all the way from level 15 to level 65.)

Alterations: All summons use the same alteration formulas to make balancing simple & comprehensible.
Damage: based on caster's level, with slight variation corresponding to the creature's properties. (Factors 0.9 and 1.1 applied for min and max damage respectively.)
Only slight variation here with factors between 0.8 and 1.2 because damage affects XP balancing! Miniboss scrolls get an additional +0.2 damage factor on top of that of their base creature.
Defense & Health: based on caster's level, with variations corresponding to the creature's properties. Miniboss scrolls get 3x the health of their base creature.
Level (melee/ranged/CM): based on caster's level, with a dip around level 50, to match the strength of original summons. (Since LoA, creature level is part of damage calculations.)
Strength/Dexterity/Intelligence: based on caster's level.
Mana: based on caster's level.


Note

The functionality for gaining experience from the summon's damage is broken in the Siege Engine. Over-simplified, it only works for Combat Magic summons with ranged attacks, e.g. Jade Gargoyle. Which sucks, especially for Nature Mages - and also prohibits using this mod to play a campaign as a "summoner".\
But fear not, I made a fix for it! Have a look at the minimod "no xp limits - fixes summons xp".


Attribution

Made by me with lots of testing support from Estaf.