[Campaign] Unique summons

[Blake8]

What are some good ideas for some unique summoned beasts, like my buddy had an idea to summon a ward that has an anti magic field around it (units within a 500 range of it cannot casts spells) and attacks enemy units which are close to it. What are some good idea for unique summons?

 

[Deleted member 219079]

Interactive ward whose ability would proc while having issued smart order onto it while within its proximity. War Stomp and Blink come to mind. You could apply additional charges by casting it again to the same location.

 

[cleavinghammer]

A floating mana orb that multiplies spells cast on it: cast a [positive/negative] buff or spell on the orb, it casts the unit/item version of the spell on multiple [allies/enemies] of the orb's current owner (orb can be stolen by Control Magic or Charm).

A living cloud of noxious gas that can be controlled, dealing damage to all units in its area. The cloud's size and area can be changed, with the damage increasing when the area occupied shrinks. The hero summoning it channels the entire time, the cloud dissipating if the spell is interrupted.

A short-lived unit that gains damage and speed for every attack it makes, but explodes when it reaches a threshold.

 

[Chaosy]

Well a set of pets with interactions among each other would be pretty cool.
Say pet 1 builds a turret
pet 2 cannot attack but got a passive hp reg aura
pet 3 is a quick pet which cannot attack and has large vision range, perfect for scouting

Now, if the turret built by pet 1 is in range of pet 2 it will gain bonus max HP + the heal
The third pet can hop into the tower to double the attack/sight range of the tower

The specifics are not important, synergy in general is the important factor.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Nemesis: Invulnerable, uncontrollable timed spirit that attacks the player with the most kills. On spawning, switches ownership to the player with the most deaths/has lost the most units/was most recently killed by the target player (unless they're the same, in which case it goes Neutral Hostile).

 

[King Tidus]

A unit that that's like a mothership, it cannot attack but can summon other units to fight for it. if the mothership is destroyed then all the other units can no longer function

 

[cleavinghammer]

Blob Monster: Summons a tiny slime monster. Slimes can merge with each other to increase in size and power (Tiny -> Small -> Medium -> Large -> Huge -> Colossal etc.), with larger slimes able to absorb/break off bits of themselves as smaller slimes, healing/dealing damage to themselves in the process.

Bonedust Construct: Targets an area. Corpses in the area are turned into a single skeletal minion, whose size and power depends on the number of corpses (Skeleton Warrior, Giant Skeleton, etc.).

Efreet: Targets a building, spawning a burning demon next to it. The closer the building is to death, the more powerful the demon. If the building is undamaged, the caster takes damage instead.

 

[Rem]

How bout a unit which has a constant starfall surrounding it, the unit could move (but very slowly [speed >220]) but any units within close proximity of it will take heavy damage from the starfall.

 

[Colonel Aster]

What about a summon that essentially creates an illusion of an opposing side's hero? Im not sure about the mechanics involved with this but it would seems like a pretty nifty idea, dont you agree.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Portal of War: Creates a portal that spawns progressively stronger (level 1-10) creeps, spawning the next one as soon as the previous is killed. If the portal is killed, all monsters are summoned simultaneously and are neutral hostile.

 

[Lord Siler]

How about spawning a unit (like fog or mist) that is randomly converted into a very powerful unit if its not destroyed by the enemy within a 8 second time window.

 

[Colonel Aster]

Summon a forgotten one, lol

 

[ISL]

If you need just some random ideas, then:

1. Not actually a summon, but a ward. The spell creates a rod/ward/obelisk/totem that links itself to another ward of it's own kind. And whenever an enemy unit comes in between two or even few of these wards - well, something happens . The unit is constantly struck by fire, lightning, or is having it's mana drained. Maybe you can turn it into a trap that stuns all units in between two wards (the wards are destroyed by this).

2. A spell that: has already been suggested by Cleavinghammer; will probably be used by me; could be already seen in other maps; is still a nice idea.
Flesh Golem/Wraith Spawn/Any other epic undead name - A spell that "consumes" all dead bodies in the targeted area and summons a powerful unit. Power and strength of the sumoned unit will depend on the amount of consumed dead bodies. The unit should also have some abilities other than passives. Keep those corpse carts and meat wagons with their infinite amount of dead ghouls in mind . Adding a power limit should balance the things out.

3. A summoning spell that initially deals damage as a spell and then spawns a unit. Pretty much like the Infernal Golem spell in Warcraft. The summoned unit itself is quite tanky and devastating, and the fact that it's falling from the sky right on the heads of your enemies allows you to put a tank right into the action, or even behind the enemy army's front line. You can come up with something interesting like a huge, rolling boulder which, upon collision with building/cliff/etc, turns into a pumped-up rock golem (as an alternative to infernal golem). Or you can replace the rock golem and boudler with, let's say, a raging bear that rushes forward as it spawns.

I'd also like to remind you that any summon which has non-passive abilites or suits a certain role or purpose is always a good summon. Esepcially if this summon compelemnts the hero who's summoned it. (Careful not to turn this hero into an OP jack of all trades)
A summon can also provide some neat utilities like scouting, healing, Control Effects (stun, slow, root, etc.) or anti-spellcaster/target-damage abilities.

 

[cleavinghammer]

^ Flesh golem limit: Have it cast spells based on throwing chunks of itself (i.e. corpses) at enemies, doing damage to itself in the process (in addition to negative HP regen as the bodies rot, so it needs to keep Cannibalizing to remain healthy).

 

[ISL]

^ Flesh golem limit: Have it cast spells based on throwing chunks of itself (i.e. corpses) at enemies, doing damage to itself in the process (in addition to negative HP regen as the bodies rot, so it needs to keep Cannibalizing to remain healthy).

Sounds like a nice idea, didn't actually think about it .

Though the standard cannibalize ability would make him immobile and innactive for some time. Even if you'll mess up with it's duration and healing, you'll still need to click the button each time you need to eat a corspe. It needs to be automatized.

Would be better to give him an ability that "eats" corpses in an area around the summon. (~War stomp or Thunder clap)

Or make it so the golem will only need to approach (step onto) the bodies in order to consume them.

A spell based on "Raise Dead" is also an option.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Or based on the Phoenix: When its health gets below a threshold, it immediately goes to eat a corpse, ignoring all orders. If killed during the cannibalizing, it explodes in a shower of guts and gore.

Another idea: Give it Bloodlust-based buffs to make it bigger and faster, shrinking and slowing as it loses health (75%-> 25% faster, 20% faster -> 25% smaller and 20% slower).

 

[Colonel Aster]

How about an thundercloud summons; the thundercloud attacks ground enemies within close proximity to it with thunder, you can make whatever you want out of this ability, it has alot of potential.

 

[Colonel Aster]

How about an thundercloud summons; the thundercloud attacks ground enemies within close proximity to it with thunder, you can make whatever you want out of this ability, it has alot of potential.
Also you could let it use a barrage like ability to send bolts at an enemy below it at a very fast rate.