User blog:TheFlamingScyther/Summoner Class - New Mechanics, Items and Scrolls.

Hello everybody! This is me, Scythe and today I'm going to share with you my second project I'll be running (first is about expaning Expert Mode a little bit. You can find the blog here). Another thing worth noting is that some of ideas posted here are not mine. I pretty much summed all ideas that I think could fit well, added few of mines and there ya go. I'll be crediting their creators when posting links:

So, let's start, shall we? I bet a lot of people noticed that Summoner class lacks some items. It has so little Pre-Hard Mode gear that you may as well cheat your way straight into Hard Mode where real fun starts. There are no Summoner-related accessories before WoF, there's only one armor and it is obtained in Mid-Late Game. A huge problem I also spotted is that you really haven't got anything to do with your hands. You can pretty much just spam stuff like Vampire Knives as your damage does not depends primarily on them.

We've got a lot to cover...

First I'll start on filling holes. As we start our game we're granted with Copper Shortsword - the worst weapon in the game which will protect us (or atleast try to :P) against any potential dangers before we'll obtain Wooden Swords, Wooden Bows, Shurikens, Wand of Sparking and... Crab Staff (Idea by Zoomo. Post). The Minion would slowly walk at enemies and jump to deal melee damage. Of course it would be worse than Slime Staff but will help defend the player until the latter will be obtained. Speaking about the Slime Staff - It would now be dropped by King Slime with 33% Chance. This way you can be sure you'll get it at some point and will also become easier to get.

After you obtain your second Minion, you're free to grind huge Slime once again to get Slimy Necklace - Accessory that makes you spawn 2-5 Slimes, depending on your max minion count, when hit or check brand, new Undead Armor and Staff Of The Undead. Both can be crafted from Rotted Meat (Which is dropped by some Undead monsters but I propose alternate solution: To make it drop from Zombies on Blood Moon). Additionally Summoner Players will be able to use Slime Mount to its full potential. I wrote a page which implements concept of all Mounts dealing Summoning Damage. This way you could increase their stats even further with greater accessories and armor. That's enough for early game, don't you think?

Let's take a look at our Dark Biomes. There's one thing I always disliked in playing the class. The fact it skips certain parts of progression. You don't get anything from Dungeon, you don't get anything from Ichor/Cursed Flames, you can't deal most debuffs, you skip Hallowed and Chlorophyte and you don't get anything good from Pre-Hard Mode Crimson/Corruption either. I'm going to change it right now. New Summoner-related items will drop from Shadow Orbs, Crimson Hearts, Shattered Spirits, Tears and Hive Pods of any kind: After you're finished with above mentioned biomes, it's time to set a course on Underground Desert! Gather new Antlion Staff (Also by Zoomo. Post). Obviously a Turret Minion. Shoots Sand Balls at enemies. Crafted from Sturdy Fossils, Antlion Mandibles and some Amber. You can also try to complete some Hunting Quests to get yourself a Snatcher Rod - A magical Rod which summons stationary Snatcher/Man Eater to aid players in fight.
 * Corruption:
 * ​Worm Staff - Spawns Worm Minion to help you in fight. Better damage than Slime Staff but its downside is that worms need blocks to burrow through.
 * ​Crimson:
 * ​Creeper Pendant - Spawns 2 Baby Creepers to float around you. They will pass through the player and deal damage to anything they'll occasionally touch. Their damage can be increased with items that increase Summoning Damage.
 * ​Infestation:
 * Book of Plagues - Idea by Zofran4. He's also the one who partially inspired me to make this blog. Spawns deadly Swarm which both provides light and attacks enemies. Sort of Shadow Orb & Bee Gun & Minion mix.
 * Catacombs:
 * ​Wisp Scroll - More on scrolls later. I can only tell that it will spawn Will-O'-Wisp to fly around and draw enemies' attention. Despawns after taking too damage or 10 seconds after being summoned.

It's finally time for Queen Bee battle but this time - You're prepared. What's now? Well, you've just obtained Hornet Staff and Bee Armor (Which is now second Pre-Hard Mode Summoner Armor) and I think you can go straight to Underworld 'cause Dungeon does not provide any loot for Summ... WAIT! That's simply wrong! It does provide Summoner loot now. I present to you 3 new items from the Dungeon: Hyped? But wait! That's not everything. We're still left with Summoner Scrolls. So what are they? I can say for sure that they have nothing to do with Necromantic Scroll. These scrolls are actual weapons rather than accessories.
 * Skull Scroll - Another Scroll, details later. Upon use, spawns Cursed Skull to attack your enemies. Found placed on shelves in Dungeon, just like Water Bolt.
 * Spike Ball Staff - Dropped rarely by Angry Bones. When used it spawns rotating Spike Ball on cursor's location.
 * Target Rod - Found inside locked Golden Chests. When held, it gains its user total control of his/her minions. All of them will follow cursor's location and left-clicking will make minions shoot their respective projectile if they have any.

Basically they're charged spells which upon use grant their user additional minions, buffs or other effects that aid in battles. All Scrolls are charged by standing still and holding attack button. Taking knockback or being damaged while charging will immediately cancel the charge. Also, to prevent players from spamming, all spells have a cooldown, during it they cannot be used again. If charge was cancelled by any of above things, cooldown will still begin. Most of Scrolls will spawn additional creature which does not count towards max minion cap. There can only be one creature of the same type and if player tries to summon another one, older version will disappear.

All monsters spawned via Scrolls have got Health Bars so they can still be killed by enemies (This was inspired by Gray's thread about new summoner mechanics he proposed. Link Here).
 * ===Pre-Hard Mode Scrolls:===


 * ​Wisp Scroll - Spawns Will-O'-Wisp to draw enemies' attention. Dropped from Shattered Spirits in Catacombs biome.
 * Nature Scroll - Does not summons anything but rather spawns Dryad's leaf ring around the user. All players inside it will receive "Dryad's Blessing" which will be now renamed to "Nature's Blessing" to better fit the theme. Sold by Dryad for 20
 * Honey Scroll - Spawns swarm of Bees to attack your foes. Swarm's size depends on time charged. Drops from Queen Bee with 10% Chance.
 * Skull Scroll - Spawns flying Cursed Skull to aid player in battle. It will quickly charge at enemies before killed. Found placed on Shelves in the Dungeon.
 * Demon Scroll - Spawns flying Hungry to chase your opponents. Hungry's got very agresive AI and will dash multiple time at very high speed (similar to Eye of Cthulhu on expert). Rarely dropped by Demons.
 * ===Hard Mode Scrolls:===

All Scrolls could get their special modifiers. They can increase or decrease weapon's Charge Time, Recharge Time (How long it takes to be functional again), Damage, Minion's Health and Minion's Knockback.
 * Mechanical Scroll - Crafted from Souls of Might, Hallowed Bars and some other stuff. Spawns Probes (Amount of them depends on time charged) that shoot lasers at enemies.
 * Shadowflame Scroll - Dropped by Goblin Summoner in Hard Mode Goblin Invasions. Spawns Shadowflame Apparitions.
 * Eclipse Scroll - Dropped by Mothron with 20% Chance, has much faster recharge rate than all other scrolls and can spawn up to 3 creatures of the same kind (As opposed to rest which can make only 1). Spawns Moth Egg at player's location which after a short time turns into Baby Mothron.
 * Dragon Scroll - Dropped by all Casters in Hard Mode Dungeon (Excluding Dark Caster). When used it summons Ancient Portal which lasts for a while, then spawns Phantasm Dragon to help in fight.
 * Stardust Scroll - Pretty much the best scroll in the game. Crafted from Stardust Fragments, it will spawn 3-5 Stardust Portals (Like those the pillar makes), that release Milkyway Weavers to attack your enemies.

All Minion Staves could get their own modifiers too and btw, remove mana cost entirely. It was put there just because Minions were more or less Magic sidegrade back then. It's simply unnecessary. I however need some help with that as I haven't got time (And will) to create all Modifiers right now. Any feedback would be appreciated! :)

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If you payed attention to rest of the post, you might noticed that I said Summoner skips certain parts of progression. Well, I'm fixing that mistake. Now on Corruption worlds you can craft a Corrupted Turret. Senty-styled minion. Crafted from Rotten Chunks, Worm's Teeth and Cursed Flames. Able to shoot medium-ranged bursts of Cursed Flames (Like Spazmatist does in his second form). The Crimson on the other hand could get a Minion instead. Baby Ichor Sticker? How this sounds? Also craftable....

''...due to me being so tired I'll finish this post as fast as I can wake up. In part 2 I'm gonna discuss some new mechanics I invented, dyable minions, more loot for rest of progression and adress any comments. Peace! ''