The Evil Summoner FAQ v1.0
"How to Be a Cheap Ass"
--------------------------------------
By Mochan
created May 28, 2001
last modified May 28, 2001
===============================================================================
cheap adj(1509) 1: at minimum expense
2: gained with little effort
3: obtainable at a low rate of interest
4: STINGY
ass (bef. 12c) 1: any of several hardy gregarious mammals (genus Equus)
that are smaller than the horse and have long ears
2: a stupid, obstinate, or perverse person
===============================================================================
DISCLAIMER
-----------------
This FAQ was written with the PC version of the game. Any discrepancies with
the PS2 should be excused. Best read with a 79-width text viewer with a
fixed-size font. This FAQ has no spoilers in the tactical section
(How to Be a Cheap Ass) but it does have spoilers in the omake section
at the end.
This FAQ will likely not be updated because I am lazy. Besides, this
particular FAQ isn't something I want to spend too much effort on.
I have included my e-mail address in the header up there. If you want to
write me anything be sure to include this tag in the subject:
[SUMMONER FAQ]
Actually, though, I'd prefer if you don't write me anything because
I'm betting I won't like whatever you'll have to say. ^____^
===============================================================================
TABLE OF CONTENTS
===============================================================================
DISCLAIMER
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Why this FAQ was written
===========================
2. How to Be a Cheap Ass
===========================
2.I. THE ART OF WAR
---------------------
Lesson 1
Lesson 2
Lesson 3
2.II. THE CHARACTERS
---------------------
1.) JOSEPH
INSERT #1: A NOTE ON SKILLS
SKILL LEVELS
SUMMON SKILL
WHY BLUNT AND NOT SWORD?
DODGE AND PUSH
PUSH AND DOUBLE ATTACK
COUNTERATTACK
INSERT #2: A NOTE ON QUICK SLOTS
* The Fire Wall Technique *
* The Fireball Tactic *
2.) FLECE
*Uragiri Technique *
3.) ROSALIND
* Guerilla Warfare *
* Assess *
4.) JEKHAR
===============================================================================
1. Why this FAQ was written (or, "Why I hate Summoner and so should you")
-------------------------
Let me state this from the start, so that you don't get the wrong idea.
This "Evil Summoner FAQ" is not like a "Fallout Evil FAQ" or a "Black
and White Evil FAQ." It will not tell you how to play the game in the
"evil way" because it is impossible to do so in Summoner. Being
totally linear in plot, Summoner can only be played the "good way."
So why call it the "Evil Summoner FAQ?"
Most people write FAQs for games they love and worship and adore
above all else. However, being unlike everyone else, I have taken it
upon myself to write this FAQ with the sole intention of utterly
trashing Summoner because I totally hate the game. And therein is
the answer: this FAQ is "evil" because it is based on hate, hate for
the piece of trash called "Summoner!"
Summoner is one of those rare games that gets practically nothing
right, and because of this it deserves to be soundly bashed, ripped,
slashed, broken and consigned to oblivion. However, no matter what you
think of the game, you cannot deny that Summoner did get ONE thing
right: the time of its release!
On the PC there was no other RPG out at the moment of its release, so
Summoner will likely be bought and played by default. Even now, some
months after its release, Arcanum has been bumped off to a September
release, Blade Masters seems to have turned into vaporware, Anachronox
is nowhere in sight, it will be a miracle if Morrowind is released any
time soon. You get the point. Likely, as of now you will have no RPG
to play on the PC except for this.
PS2 players probably have it better, too bad I don't have a PS2. ^^;
So, in anticipation of this sore trial my fellow gamers will have to
undergo, I have resolved to write this guide to show you "How to Be a
Cheap Ass" and breeze through the battles of Summoner, so you can get
over the game quickly and move on to better things.
Okay, so I won't mention all the bad things of Summoner right now. I'll
do that later. Let's get on to the business of this FAQ: how to
win battles easily and cheaply!
===============================================================================
2. How to Be a Cheap Ass (or the meat of this FAQ)
-------------------------
2.I. THE ART OF WAR
-------------------
First things first, to win a battle you must understand your
enemies. I will disclose to you how the algorithms work in
controlling monsters.
Lesson 1
--------
I will tell you the first hidden secret about Summoner: AI is ROCK STUPID!
For the PC version, anyway. I don't know if it's better on the PS2, but
on the PC it is utterly moronic.
Enemies within spitting distance will more often than not ignore you
as you bash their friends in right next to them. Take advantage of
this by knowing the maxim: "Divide and Conquer!"
If you ever have trouble with a battle, remember that fighting enemies
one-on-many (one being them and many being you) will make things much
easier.
Lesson 2
--------
An enemy will typically attack your active character (the one you
happen to be controlling at the moment). This, however, is mostly
because you will likely be leading your party with the active
character. The only time you won't will be when you are using
a bow or a spell.
At any rate, when engaged in melee I have noticed that the enemy
tends to face your active character more often than an inactive
character. This may not seem much, but it is important if you
want to make the most of Flece's backstab. More on this later.
For now, just know that if an enemy is fighting two or more of
your party, if you control one of them and walk away a bit, the
enemy will almost never pursue you, and will face the remaining
inactive party member it is engaged with. This is useful for
Flece later on, hee hee hee.
Lesson 3
--------
If it can't sense you, it won't fight you. These enemies are all
apathetic and are practically blind as a bat. What this means
is that, as long as you don't walk in front of them and hit them,
they'll ignore you.
Remember this; it works wonders when using the Blizzard and Firewall
spells.
Alright, that's enough about enemy AI. Frankly because there's nothing
else to talk about. These are all the important things you have to
remember about your average enemy.
2.II. THE CHARACTERS
----------------
In Summoner, you will be controlling four morons who believe everything
they're told, and who all look particularly stupid. However, they do
have have diverse combat abilities. Being a Cheap Ass means knowing
how to use each character properly.
Here is my take on each one:
1.) JOSEPH
-----------
RENAISSANCE MORON
The dumb provincial idiot who gets to be the hero. As is the
tradition with consoles games, the hero gets to be the well-rounded
jack who, despite being an uneducated, untrained peasant, has great
potential to learn to use all weapons and wield powerful magic.
Despite being the "renaissance man" as heroes go, he is the 2nd
worst character in your party. Regardless, Joseph has his uses.
He has the Fire magic set, which is terribly effective, he can
heal, and he is relatively tough with lots of hit points.
Drawbacks:
No CRITICAL HIT - for someone who's supposed to be a fighter, not
having this skill makes him weak compared to the real fighter.
Then again, since there are only four PCs in this game, comparisons
are pretty stark.
Ugly - Joseph is plain ugly. How to describe it? Someone must have
dug a grave and dumped Joseph in, buried alive. Seven days later
someone exhumed him, and he looks as he does today: a walking corpse.
Don't believe me? Look at those gaunt cheekbones, that bony neck!
And those eyes... they're evil!
Skills
------
Raise the skills to the level dicatated, roughly in this order. That
is, in Joseph's case raise Heal first, then Dodge, Parry, and so on.
Typically, devote all the skill points you can to the top skills
before raising the others.
For Joseph, I recommend raising him in this manner:
Dodge - get up to 4 or so
Parry - about 4 or so
Heal - up to 10 is nice; the heal spells are all good
Fire - up to 7 just to get Fire Wall
Blunt - raise up to 10
Heavy Arms - up to 7 (9, if you want to use swords)
Magic Resist - get this up to 10.
When you have spare skills points, put them into either Darkness
up to level 8, or Dodge and Parry, until you reach up to 10 with them.
You can also put some in Staff Weapons at the start; you can get a
pretty good staff early in the game: the Fellstaff (If you're lucky).
Still, I'd stick with Blunt; more on that later.
--------------------
INSERT #1: A NOTE ON SKILLS
--------------------
SKILL LEVELS
Skills can be increased from 1 to 10. There are basically two kinds of
skills: those that give you access to certain things if their level is
high enough (e.g. -- Spell skills, Heavy Arms), and skills that give
you benefits from a formula derived from the skill level (e.g. --
weapon skills, dodge, parry). Generally, you will want to devote
precious skill points to the second type of skill, the one that gives
you a benefit if it is higher.
Now, certain items can boost skill levels higher than 10. As far as I
can tell, this gives you a positive advantage with the second type of
skill, but is useless with the first kind.
Thus, it is pointless to use items like the Hellfire Necklace to increase
your Fire Skill from 10 to 13, for instance. A higher Fire Skill does NOT
makes your fire spells do more damage, it only lets you access higher
level fire spells. And since the last spell you get is generally the one
at level 10, there is no point in increasing it further.
The other type of skill, though, seems to benefit from increasing it
beyond 10. Increasing a weapon skill beyond 10 apparently improves your
chance to hit with it. However, the difference is quite negligible, and
either way your characters are terribly cross-eyed, so it doesn't really
matter so much.
SUMMON SKILL
Joseph has the Summon skill which can call up a monster to do his bidding,
but frankly I discourage the development and use of this skill. It's next
to worthless. The summoned creatures are pathetically weak at the start,
heck they're softer than Flece and are about as effective as Rosalind.
The worst part is that if they die, you lose hit points PERMANENTLY. Don't
risk it.
Admittedly, the summon monsters get stronger when you get the dragon
rings later on in the game. But with the tactics I will be telling you
you don't need these creatures, so don't bother.
You also get two summons "ala Final Fantasy," that is you summon a
creature who just drops by, gives an eye-candy animation, pops damage
on your enemy, and leaves. Not really impressive, and damage is
actually pathetic, so don't bother.
WHY BLUNT AND NOT SWORD?
I'll let you in on a secret: swords SUCK. Yes, it's true! Although
the swords *LOOK* like they have better stats than the blunt weapons,
don't be misled. Most creatures in this game take more damage from
blunt weapons than slashing or piercing. Don't believe me? Just look
at Flece. She is weak because she only uses swords and daggers. Watch
her use her kick attack: it is her only "blunt" attack. Notice how
the kick tends to do more damage than her sword? Weird, yes, but it's
because of what I said.
Want more proof? Use Rosalind to Assess your enemies. You'll notice
that most monsters are "WEAK" or "VULNERABLE" against BLUNT but
"STRONG" or something against slash/pierce. Not all monsters, but
most of them.
Now, Joseph's strongest weapon in the game is the Sword of Summoners.
Sure, it does 150 damage but it doesn't mess your opponent up in any
way. So the Debasser, heck the Dreadblade is 10 times better. Besides,
you only get it at the very end of the game (and I do mean the end)
so WHAT'S THE POINT!?!?
I am also told that Jekhar's "strongest" weapon is the Breaching
Claymore, which does 100 damage. Again, it does nothing else so
what's the point? I'm pretty sure the Warhammer is a superior
weapon, as it does 90 BLUNT damage. I can't say for sure since
I didn't actually get the Breaching Claymore (I have no idea where
to get it), but even without testing I am 100% sure it's no big
deal.
Stick to blunt weapons. As an added incentive, I'll let you in on
another secret in the game: the Debasser is the BEST weapon. Period.
Other weapons, like the Dread Blade and Nodachi, are also quite
good, but nothing beats the Debasser. Why? It's doesn't slow you
down (speed 1), does great damage (75), is one-handed (thus allowing
you to use a shield), is blunt (which means it does more damage to
most enemies), and most importantly it can TRIP your enemy. And it
does so quite often, I might add. This is INVALUABLE. The Dread Blade
and Nodachi, being capable of petrifying and freezing enemies,
get runner-up for best weapons, but they have a lot of other cons
(being swords, expensive, slow and two-handed) which balance out to
make the Debasser better.
Further, the TRIP ability combos well with Flece, as I will discuss
later.
There is only one other Sword weapon which I find to be useful other
than the Debasser at certain points of the game: the Winterlong,
which does 90 points of ICE damage. This is particularly useful
near the end of the game where you fight Lichs and other monsters
which take lots of Ice damage, and are strong against Blunt weapons.
Yet when I fight those things I just fry them with Rosalind, so
what's the point? Oh, yeah, there are some big golems in Ikaemos
and some other parts who are resistant to magic, blunt and sword
weapons, but weak against ice. The Winterlong is the best weapon
against them. But still, too specialized an occurence.
Blunt is best. Trust me.
DODGE AND PUSH
These two skills are sound really useful, but after closer inspection
I have come to conclude that, like raising weapon skills, they don't
provide that big an advantage. Even with perfect dodge and parry skills
you'll be hit far too often for my liking, so again, what's the point?
PUSH AND DOUBLE ATTACK
These skills supposedly aid your chain combo rates. Bullshit. As far
as I can tell, they do squat. Leaving an inactive member on its own,
they did not do any more chain combos than they would with a zero
double attack skill. If you use your character, it doesn't really
help that much; I can easily get a 24 chain combo manually. In auto
chain mode, there isn't much noticeable difference.
Supposing these skills did increase your chain combo rate, why would
you want to use combo attacks? You'll discover that combo attacks
aren't really desirable, as I will discuss later.
COUNTERATTACK
This sounds like a great skill at first, since you get a free attack
when your enemy attacks, right? Wrong! If this were Tactics Ogre or
Final Fantasy Tactics, this would be a god technique. But this isn't.
This is Summoner, with the lame real-time combat system which is
trying to hard to be Diablo, and fails miserably.
Why is counterattack useless? Because after your opponent is blocked
you WILL ATTACK ANYWAY. And since it's real-time, you aren't given
a "free attack," since you are doing your counterattack while you're
supposed to be doing your normal attack! Trust me. I've timed the
speed of attack, there is no difference.
--------------------
END INSERT #1
--------------------
Now, let's talk about Joseph again.
Joseph isn't particularly effective as a fighter because he lacks
the one skill that makes Jekhar so strong: Critical Hit. It's
annoying that Jekhar is the only fighter in your party who has
that vital skill. However, he has lots of hit point and can wear
lots of good armor, so he makes a good shock troop.
How to Use Properly:
At the start of the game, Joseph is most effective as a healer.
Later on, he becomes a damage soaker (i.e. - shock troop),
moderate damage dealer, and back-up fireman.
Your gameplan is like this: Joseph is to be a shock troop who
doubles as a melee fighter. However, his main use is to heal,
particularly to revive Rosalind if she gets knocked out (which
will probably happen a lot).
At the start, Joseph will likely be using sword weapons and not
blunt ones, because you will have a hard time finding good
blunt weapons. Don't fear, this is only temporary. At this
point, Joseph is not your fighter, Flece is. Joseph is your
healer.
Later on, you'll get stronger blunt weapons. Joseph's best
weapon is without a doubt the Debasser. I thought at first
it was the Dreadblade, but I realized that it's nigh impossible
to get it, and it's a sword, after all.
--------------------
INSERT #2: A NOTE ON QUICK SLOTS
--------------------
Make sure to use your quickslots! Summoner's interface on the PC is
pathetic. A quickslot is a slot which houses a special ability,
which you can call by pressing buttons 1 to 6. This will save you
much effort and frustration on the PC.
To use, open your spell/skill menu, and pick a skill. Click on
the icon, hold, and drag to one of the six squares at the bottom
right. I'm mentioning this here because it is of VITAL import to
your sanity to use these quick slots. If you overlooked it in the
documentation, then don't overlook it here. They certainly over-
looked it in the tutorial (dumb Volition, dumb!)
--------------------
END INSERT #2
--------------------
SPECIAL TACTICS:
* The Fire Wall Technique *
You can use this with Joseph early on. It's slow, boring, but works
all the time and has a 100% safety rate. You will NEVER lose with
this technique.
Creep up to an enemy, just close enough to use Fire Wall on it.
Because of the stupidity of the enemies, you can creep up on any
non-boss enemy to cast Fire Wall on it, and it will not see you!
Even stupider, they will happily roast in the flames without a
care in the world until they keel over and die.
Take note that this is not very effective against monsters with high
magic resistance and/or fire resistance. But there are other methods
to deal with those....
Rosalind can also use this tactic, actually she uses it better.
* The Fireball Tactic *
This only works if you have Invisibility cast on your character. Use
Flece or Rosalind to make you invisible (depending on who you grew to
have that skill). Creep up as with the Fire Wall tactic, then shoot
Fireball. They will be hit, but since you're invisible they won't
notice. Pathetic.
Note that this trick also works with the other projectile spells
like Fire Arrow and Icicle.
2.) FLECE
-----------
QUEEN OF BACKSTABS AND OTHER THINGS
Flece is the best character in the game! No doubt about it.
She has the best line-up of skills, and I get the feeling the game
developers like her so much as their "favorite child" that they
gave her so many perks, gameplay-wise and story-wise.
Why is Flece the best? Because she does the most damage*, she has
a lot of good skills, she's the prettiest person in the game (which
isn't saying much), and she rules (literally; you'll understand when
you get half-way through the game, hehehe!!!)
Drawbacks:
Low life: She is the 2nd weakest character in the game. Still,
she's reasonably stout and won't fall easily.
Pierce/Slash only: Flece can only use sword weapons, which means that
she has no blunt damage ability except for the KICK skill, which
doesn't cut it.
No CRITICAL HIT skill: a shame, if she did she'd be a show-stopper!
So many Good Skills: it's hard to grow her properly because there
are so many good skills to choose from! Don't worry, I'm here to
help.
Skills
------
For Flece, I recommend raising her in this manner:
Sword Weapons - raise to about 4
Dodge - Raise to about 4
Pick Lock - Raise to 3
Backstab - raise to 10
Dark - up to 8, just to get the invisibility
Heavy Arms - raise to 4
Appraise - raise to a 9
Trip - raise to a 10
Magic Resist - raise to a 10
It's annoying that Flece has some worthless skills raised to 2
automatically. I'd much rather have placed those precious points
elsewhere.
The reason why I tell you not to put points in Sword Weapons is
because, at the start of the game, she can hit enemies well enough
with a low sword skill. Come the end of the game, you won't be
using her in frontal combat: you'll only backstab. And when you
backstab it always hits. Only raise sword weapons to a 10 when
you have spare points (not likely)! Sneak is a convenience to raise,
but you don't really need to, if you're patient. Sneak skill actually
just tells how long it takes for you to be able to use sneak again,
it doesn't stand for a success rate. Also, certain items boost
sneak skill, and you'll likely be using these items anyway.
Picklocks - it is actually quite beneficial to raise picklocks to
10. But why not? Because precious points are useful elsewhere.
Instead, you will sometime in the game come across Shadow
Gauntlets (which give +1 Picklock) and the Ring of Thieves,
which give +3. Whenever faced with a locked item, just equip
these items and you'll boost your picklocks up to 10, no problem.
After opening it, take them off so you can use the other better
rings and gloves.
Heavy Arms - you can actually get away with just raising it to 4.
The only reason to raise it to 5 is to use the Bough-Kote, which
is a great pair of gloves.
Appraise - like Picklocks, you can get away with a 9 because there
is a pair of gloves which can temporarily raise it to 10 for those
hard to identify items.
Dark - should only be raised to level 8. It is USELESS to get the
Death Spell because the Death Spell almost never works! I tried
the Assassin Crossbow and it never killed anyone outright. For
fun I experimented with the Death Spell and only managed to kill
1 (!) guy out of every 25! Not worth it. Alternately you can put
the Dark allotment to Sneak, so you can skulk around and backstab
enemies a lot more conveniently.
How to Use Properly:
Flece was not meant to be a head-on character. You've got Joseph
and Jekhar to do that. Flece was meant to be the "brains" behind
Joseph and Jekhar's dumb brawn. Typically, in this game you
should be controlling only one of two characters: either Flece
or Rosalind. Controlling Jekhar is worthless, since he's just
your shock troop to draw enemy attention while you do the good
stuff with Flece or Rosalind. Joseph should be controlled as
sparingly as possible; typically only when Rosalind's busy
recuperating or something.
If you have sneak skill (or even if you don't), be sure to
sneak and backstab enemies every now and then. It's faster
than using the Fire Wall trick, but it only works when enemies
are isolated. When they are bunched up together, be sure to use
the Fire Wall.
Using Art of War Lesson #2, you must weave about the enemy and
hit them from behind with a backstab. Use her to silence enemy
mages early on when magic resistance hasn't been fully-developed.
Finally, use her Invisibility on Joseph or Rosalind to let them
use spells undetected.
Notice that Flece's tiny daggers do pathetic damage against most
enemies. However, check out the Special Tactics below.
Flece should keep getting the best dagger available. For a long
time her best weapon will be the Gutting Dirk, available at
Tancred's for a whopping price. You will want to make her use
the Katar from the Khosani. It says you can't backstab with it,
but that's what they say. Just do the backstab motion with the
Dirk, and go to your inventory and switch to the Katar. There
you go, instant Katar backstab! The bonus is that they get
poisoned. This is invaluable against boss fights, particularly
that damn immortal Lich in the catacombs, and against that
flying monster at the end of the game who loves to run away.
Later on, her best weapon will be the Sornehan Dagger.
Flece is the strongest damaging character in the game. Don't believe me?
You will. Against any humanoid enemy who is not immune to piercing weapons,
simply go up to them. Use trip to bring them down. Go behind them. Use
backstab. You will then do something like 1200-4000 damage. Bye bye enemy.
Backstab is the ultimate damage skill! Now, there are two kinds of
backstab: the "fake" backstab which magnifies damage by about 500%, and
the "true" backstab that does some 2000% more damage.
The difference is in your enemy's "awareness." Used on an "unaware"
enemy, you will magnify your damage by 1000% - 4000%. Normally, this
means using the Sneak skill to creep up behind an enemy, and do the
backstab. In combat situations, if you backstab an enemy, it is only
a "fake" backstab that does lesser damage.
In the heat of battle, remember Art of War Lesson #2 and you will be
able to use Backstab to consistently chip away your enemy's life,
even bosses. You can do this to ANY opponent, and average some 500
damage or so.
However, the true art of backstabbing is in making "unaware" backstabs
ALL THE TIME. How to do this? It works against any humanoid opponent.
In the midst of combat, just Trip them with the Trip skill. This lays
them flat on their back. Now, for some reason, when an opponent is
levelled like this they become "unaware." I'm assuming they got the
wind knocked out of them and are stunned senseless. Whatever the case,
go behind them and use Backstab. Poof! 2000 damage on average! You
will be doing maximum backstab damage! Incredible!
The best part is, *THIS WORKS ON BOSSES!*
This is the easy way to kill those pesky horsemen and the 2nd final
boss (I killed him in five seconds, believe it or not). You can kill
almost all normal humanoids in one blow (some, like the Ice Soldiers
can take two because of their bladed-weapon resistance, and some
can't be killed at all, like the Lich because of immunity). All
humanoid bosses can be killed in two hits! How many times you can
hit them isn't really a problem: after the backstab, as they get up,
just trip them again! Viola! Instant win.
Because of this Trip/Backstab combo, Flece is without a doubt the
strongest character in the game. Note that the higher your backstab
skill, tyhe greater the damage seems to be. I am not entirely sure
of this, but if you raise your backstab skill to 20 (it is possible
with a certain sword, glove and two rings) you will be doing massive
damage. However, once you get a good dagger and a backstab of 10,
it's usually enough to kill most enemies easily, so there's no need
to raise it that high.
I cannot emphasize enough that you should use this technique whenever
you engage in battle. A word of caution: it is easier to do this if
you have only one shock troop drawing enemy attention. Too many cooks
spoil the broth, so to speak. Typically, you should have only either
Joseph or Jekhar distracting the enemy and you will creep up behind,
do a trip, and backstab. Better, if Jekhar or Jospeh are using the
Debasser, they will drop the enemy for you, and you can just backstab
away. Always have Trip and Backstab in your quickslots.
If all four of you are in melee mode and whacking the enemy, it is
very frustrating and difficult to pull off this cheap backstab trick.
At the most only Joseph and Jekhar should be attacking; it is still
relatively easy to pull it off with the two of them, but with Rosalind
you will likely be clicking on her or the two dorks instead of behind
the enemy, thanks to Summoner's pathetic interface.
3.) ROSALIND
---------------
MASTER OF MAGIC
Rosalind is another idiot coming from a cloister who does everything
her headmaster tells her. I'm pretty sure she'd climb up the highest
tower of the temple and strip naked if the headmaster told her.
Regardless, she is the second best character in the game. She has
absolute command of magic; she can learn all spells and because she
is so fragile you will likely want to keep her in the back casting
spells, so she has her work cut out for her.
Drawbacks:
Fragile - Rosalind has the lowest hit points AND the lowest defense
in your party. She can only use staff weapons, which she uses SO
slowly. Because of this, get her in battle and even if she has a
dodge and parry of 10 she will die in ten seconds flat.
No Heavy Arms - the only character without Heavy Arms, this
restricts her equipment, making her incapable of using the better
weapons and armor. Ah well, all the more reason to keep her at the
back casting spells and shooting arrows.
Has Critical Hit Skill - although technically it is a boon for a person
to have this great skill, it is wasted on Rosalind because 1.) She has
a glass jaw, and 2.) she can only use Staves. What's so bad about that?
Well, get her in combat and she'll go down in seconds. Two, the staves,
although they should be very fast (such as the Fellstaff), are wielded
very slowly by Rosalind. It's because she twirls them around all the
time. How silly! Combat is about practicality, not form and fancy tricks!
Keep it simple, duh! Since she keeps twirling that stick around, enemies
get free attacks while she's busy playing baton cheer leader. Ahou.
Such a shame, since you can get the Fellstaff relatively early in the
game, and it does great damage. Oh well.
Skills
------
Fire - get it up to 8
Heal - up to 10, thank you
Ice - up to level 8, just to get Blizzard
Assess - I got it up to 10
Bow Weapons - get it up to 10
Magic Resist - up to 7
Trip - put spare points here
Do NOT put points in these skills:
Holy - (level 2 is fine)
Dark
Critical Hit
Staff Weapons
Dodge
Energy
Parry
Holy is fine up to level 2, but the real prize is Faith at level 7.
I recommend using two Ring of Blessings and a Bacite Medallion to get
it up to 7, just to cast Faith.
Magic Resist should normally be taken up to 10, but in Rosalind's
case you'll be getting lots of clothing that boost Magic Resistance,
and you'll likely be wearing them until the end of the game so save
those skill points for something else.
You should have Trip ability just in case someone sneaks up on Rosalind,
so you can knock them down and laugh at them.
How to Use Properly:
Just keep Rosalind out of melee battle and you're fine. Rosalind is
invulnerable to magic, so if you're fighting lichs and other mages,
you have nothing to fear. Study the enemy, whether they are bunched
together or solitary. If they're solitary, Flece is the way to go,
or you can just overpower it. If there are a lot together, then it's
Rosalind's turn and she will fry all the idiot enemies who seem to
enjoy basking in a barbecue or sunbathe in a Blizzard.
Since Rosaling is such a weak fighter, give her a bow. Her best
weapon is the Long Bow, until you get the Bow of Lynnai, which
is terribly useful against Fire-weak opponents.
Be sure to use Assess on enemies, to find out their weak spots.
Finally, I'm sure that you'll get sick of using Fire Wall/Blizzard
guerilla tactics so if you're fighting Fire-vulnerable enemies
don't be afraid to walk up to them with Rosalind. Just keep casting
Meteor Swarm and they'll die after a few burning rocks to the head.
I've already mentioned how to be cheap with Rosalind in Joseph's
section. However, Rosalind can also use Blizzard instead of Fire
Wall; this is helpful for fire-resistant monsters, or if you're
impatient to wait for Fire Wall to regenerate.
To be safe, be sure to have Flece cast Invisibility on Rosalind.
That way she can also use Icicles and Fireballs to take potshots
at nearby enemies.
* Assess *
The great thing about Summoner is that you can pause the game and
use Assess as much as you want! It's stupid, but it's true. Just
pause, activate assess from the skill menu, and point at your
enemy of choice. It works, without any time cost or penalties!
4.) JEKHAR
-----------
MUSCLE-BRAINED MORON
Jekhar was Joseph's, uh, "childhood friend" (so to speak). However,
since Joseph burned down their village, Jekhar's been holding a
grudge for quite some time. However, Jekhar is every bit as stupid
as Rosalind because he'll believe and do everything he's told. You'll
see.
Anyway, Jekhar is your team's muscle-man. He's got high hit points,
high defense, high attack, and not much else. He is the perfect
shock troop. Unfortunately, that's all he's good for.
Drawbacks:
Boring - Jekhar is totally boring. Just suit him up, give him a weapon,
and let him loose.
Stupid - I'll discuss his stupidy later in the omake section.
Wasted Skills - Jekhar has a LOT of points wasted in worthless skills,
because he comes with a 3 in them. Such a waste.
Skills
------
Critical Hit - Raise to 10. NOW.
Blunt Weapons - Raise to 10
Parry - Get up to about 5
Dodge - up to 5 is fine
Heavy Arms - 7 is fine
Magic Resist - Raise to 10
Heal - Raise to 10
Don't worry, you don't ever need to control him so just give him his
armor and his Debasser, and he'll do fine without you. Set his script
to Healer so that he'll stop and fix you up every now and then when
necessary.
You'll eventually want to arm him with a Debasser. This is his best
weapon, make no mistake.
None. That's why he's the worst character in the game. However, just
because he's the worst doesn't mean he doesn't have his uses. Shock
troops and cannon fodder are vital in this game, too.
2.III. OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
----------------------------
* Chain Combo Attacks *
"Wow, if I press the right mouse button I get to do a free attack! That's
so cool!"
WRONG! Chain Combo attacks are USELESS! If this were Vagrant Story, Chain
Combo attacks would be god techniques. In Summoner, they are utter crap.
Don't believe me? Then consider this:
Summoner battle occurs in real time. When you attack with a chain combo,
TIME DOES NOT STOP, like in Vagrant Story. So while you think that you
are actually getting a free attack, you are NOT. That's while you are
doing your chain attack, your enemy is also attacking. It is NOT A FREE
ATTACK.
Further, instead of doing a chain combo, you could be doing something
more useful -- like doing another normal attack. This is because chain
combos almost always do less damage than your normal attack. Those
that don't do damage, have rather worthless effects.
The only chain attacks that can do more damage than your normal attack
are the Stamina Burst early in the game, when you haven't spent any
mana, and the Desperation attack when you are at death's door. But since
Chain Combos use up mana, your Stamina Burst isn't likely going to stay
strong for long, and when you're dying I think you'd much rather heal
yourself than attack, no? This isn't Final Fantasy 8 where you purposefully
keep Squall perpetually dead.
Trust me, it's not worth it. Further, as you get better weapons later
in the game they will all do more damage than your chain attacks, so
don't bother. It's not like speed is improved dramatically by chain
attacks (I will discuss this later).
So be sure to keep your chain combo setting to Manual and not Auto, so
that you don't inadvertently do chain attacks. Your inactive party members
will do chain attacks every now and then, but that's a necessary evil that
can't be helped.
* Speed *
Here is the other important consideration. I do not know if this is just in
the PC version, but in the PC Speed is MEANINGLESS. Yes, you heard me, the
Speed attribute has NO EFFECT on the game whatsoever.
Your attack speed is totally dependent on only two things: WHO you're using,
and WHAT WEAPON you're using. It doesn't matter if that character's speed
rating is in the red at 50%, or blue at 250%. They will attack at the same
rate as prescribed by the character and the weapon.
Don't believe me? You will.
Give Rosalind a Fellstaff. That's supposed to be a 1.66 speed weapon. Give
her all the good stuff to raise her speed up to 250% or so. Now attack.
Notice how slow she twirls that staff?
Now give Flece a Gutting Dirk. Then put all the heavy armor and shields
on her, so that her speed is say 130% or so. Now attack. Notice how fast
she stabs with that knife? Much faster than Rosalind, no?
Try giving Rosalind a Reflex Bow (speed 1.43), and Flece a Heavy Crossbow
(speed .50) Even if Rosalind's speed rating is 180% and Flece's is only
50%, Flece will still be attacking faster.
You can give Flece the Reflex Bow and you'll notice that she attacks faster
than Rosalind does, with the same weapon.
So that proves that attack rate is totally dependent on the CHARACTER,
not on the speed rating, thus proving my first assertion. Now to prove
my second assertion.
Try Joseph. Give him a Debasser (speed 1.00) and load him with all the
heavy armor and shields. This should give him a speed in the red,
probably about 80% or so. Make him attack. Notice the fast attack
speed.
Now give the same Joseph a Warhammer (speed .50), but load him with
the light armor, shield, and equip the Torque of Time (+2 speed) and
two Rings of Swiftness (+ 8 speed) so that he'll have a speed rating
of about, say, 180%. Make him attack. Notice how slow he attacks?
To take the experiment further, you can give him the Debasser and the
torque and rings. Notice how his attack speed hasn't changed at all,
even though his speed rating has gone from 80% to 200%?
The same goes for the Warhammer, if you take off all the speed and
give him the heavy armor. He'll attack at the same speed.
That means that rate of attack is also totally dependent on the WEAPON,
not on the speed rating!
What does this mean? The Speed Rating is totally bogus! It doesn't affect
movement rate, either, because in my games Rosalind always walks so slowly
despite having the highest speed rating. So ignore speed altogether!
When dressing your characters up don't pay any attention at all to the
armor's speed ratings, they're all the same. The only thing to consider
is how fast the character can swing whatever weapon you give them.
* ARMOR *
Just a quick tip: don't wear the full-body armors until the end where you
get the strongest ones. Except for the strongest of them, you'll get better
results wearing a good piece of body armor and a good piece of leg armor.
I personally used nothing but Haramakis and Chain Leggings for a long time.
That gives you a rating of 35 + 15. You could opt for hte Chainmail and
Chainmail Leggings, which give a 40 + 15, but I like the piercing resistance
of the Haramaki, and they look better too. Later you'll want Jekhar to use
the Hero set.
The combined armor rating is definitely better than the full-body suit
ratings, except for the best ones. The only ones worth wearing are the
Hero's Plate and Summoner Plate.
2.IV. OTHER TRICKS
------------------
* Never Die
Summoner is full of bugs and bad design problems. One of the main exponents
of this bad design is the real-time combat system. By exploiting the various
design errors, you can achieve immortality!
Well, not really, but it's close enough. If you pause the game, you will
notice that certain commands, like Rosalind's Assess, can be used
indefinitely even with time stopped! It's stupid, but that's what happens
when you rip-off the Diablo system and giving it a pause feature, without
knowing what you're doing (shame on you, Volition).
Now, apply this concept to healing items like the Healing Elixir, Panacea
of Life, and so on. What do you get? You can heal as much damage as you
have healing potions, INSTANTANEOUSLY!!! What does this mean? On the brink
of death, with no time to cast heal or vitalize? Simply pause the game,
go to your inventory screen, and drink up!
You'll never die, as long as you have potions! So if you're having trouble
staying alive and have lots of extra cash hanging around, be sure to stock
up on those healing potions.
===============================================================================
3. HOW TO CHEAT (or, The Best Way to be a Cheap Ass)
----------------------
Cheat! The Summoner savegame file is a whopping 265KB (270,755 bytes).
With such a small size it is terribly easy to pinpoint several key
locations to cheat by editing.
As Summoner is such a crappy game, I really doubt that anyone will
have the drive to write an editor. Now you might say that I had the
drive to write this FAQ, but FAQs are writing and writing is a great
way of venting frustration, especially since you can be very
articulate about it. Editors tend not to be so politically-inclined,
unless the crazy programmer makes a ton of pop-up windows screaming
how much he hates the game whenever you press the "Max Gold" button.
Alright, enough of that. Now, get your standard Hex editor and get
to work. Here are the addresses and what they do. Oh, and if you
don't know what a Hex editor is, don't bother. Sorry, I don't feel
like giving simple hacking tutorials.
My apologies, I didn't feel like looking for Jekhar's offsets because
he's so boring. However, by doing some subtraction and addition you
should be able to come up with them. Simply subtract the value of
Joseph's offsets from Flece's offsets, and add the result to Rosalind's.
That should give you Jekhar's offsets.
This should get you up and going make you as rich as you need to be.
Very useful for buying the Dreadblade from the merchant in the hills
in Medeva!
By editing the skill points attribute, you can give yourself as many
free skill points as you need.
By changing the XP, you can go to any level you want.
By changing your level back to 1, but keeping your current XP level,
you will level up to your previous level instantly, gaining that
much HP, AP, and Skill Points. Great trick! Only drawback is that
you lose all skills you're not supposed to have at that level.
The main use of this option really is to pump up your HP and AP.
I was too lazy to look for HP and AP, so I just did it this way for
simplicity's sake.
Anyway, this isn't supposed to be a cheating FAQ so I'll leave it
at this. (Actually, I'm just too lazy to find other offsets like
items, specific skills, etcetera)
--< End Evil Summoner FAQ >--
===============================================================================
LEGALESE
-----------------
This document is copyrighted by me, Mochan, on May 28, 2001.
That said, you can do whatever you want with this document. You can burn it,
erase it, post it on SPAM lists, do whatever you want! You can even steal,
plagiarize, or cut my name out and paste your name in if you want! Since
this FAQ will generally be of ill-repute, I'm pretty sure no one would want
to. I'm also pretty sure quite a number of you will be printing copies of
this just to shred, immolate, and otherwise dismember it, giving physical,
tangible release to your frustration at being unable to give me a good one
for trashing your game.
In light of this, I am expecting a lot of flame mail to be sent my way. Ah,
the sacrifices one must make for what he believes is true and just.
Anyone looking for an in-depth FAQ to this game probably likes it, right? Yet
on the off-chance that you are one of those who, like me, played Summoner not
because of its merits but rather for lack of anything better, then welcome
aboard! I hope you have a great time.
I don't think anyone will appreciate me naming them in the credits
of this FAQ. I think they'd consider it more a black-listing than
something to be proud of. So I won't mention anyone. Doesn't really
matter, since I wrote this FAQ ground-up without help from anyone.
As if anyone would want to help write this seditious material.
-------------------------
OMAKE!!! (or the fun part of this FAQ)
-------------------------
< WARNING !!! >
SPOILERS AHEAD -- both for story
and the game. That is; I will
diss the game such that I will
"despoil" it. YOU DON'T NEED TO
READ THIS UNLESS YOU WANT TO.
SOME STUFF ABOUT SUMMONER
-------------------------
Summoner is short. Really short, for an RPG anyway. That's actually a good
point, because making this pile of garbage any longer would have been sheer
torture.
I managed to finish the game in 22 hours. I did so sporadically over a month,
though. I had to mentally prepare myself to play this game every single time.
If I didn't, I might have gone insane.
Anyway, it took me 22 hours, but that was taking my time with it, and
ignoring sidequests. A good player should be able to finish the main
storyline in 15 or so hours, if he went breakneck through it, making no
mistakes. Doing all the sidequests would probably add an extra 5-10 hours
of playtime.
If you play to level up your characters and do everything, you should finish
in 35 or so hours.
Typical of an American-developed RPG, side-quests occupy a lot of game time,
are stupid, non-sensical, and totally uninteresting. But these American
developers just seem to LOVE side-quests and think it's the Holy Grail of
RPGs. Whatever, if you ask me it's just a cheap way of adding length to a
game, when actually writing a more interesting story and providing character
interaction is too difficult.
Incidentally: Wakasashi - what the heck is a wakasashi? That's not what
short swords were called. They were called wakizashi. And how come a
"wakasashi" requires heavy arms 2, while a katana has no heavy arms
requirement at all? Hen.
HYPER SPEED
Also, did you notice how fast the sundial goes? The sundial is the litte
thing in the middle of your status bar that you click on to pause the game.
Sundials were used in ancient times to keep track of time by measuring
the sun's shadow.
In Summoner, the sun dial finishes a complete cycle in about 7 seconds!
That means that days in Summoner only last 7 seconds!!! I shudder at the
thought of how fast the planet spins; that's even faster than Jupiter!
WHEN CONSOLE MEETS PC
----------------------
Summoner is supposed to be a game which combines PC and Console conventions
when it comes to RPGs. This is evident in Summoner. The bad thing is,
Volition probably meant to combine the best of both worlds. What they
managed was actually the opposite: they managed to get virtually all the
bad traits of PC RPGs and combined it with the bad traits of console RPGs.
An RPG renaissance Summoner is not.
To be fair, Summoner does manage to get some good points from each
convention. For instance, Summoner lets you save anywhere (but only outside
of combat). Still, too many things have gone wrong with this game.
Perhaps the biggest thing I have to complain about, though, is the lackluster
character interaction. RPGs tell stories, and stories are interesting if the
characters are memorable through their actions and the way they interact
with each other and the environment.
Sadly, in Summoner the intersest level for me was not so high, because the
characters were totally unintersting. This is a shame because Summoner
actually has a rather decent story plot. But even good plots are wasted if
they are badly written; and in Summoner's case this is true. Proof of this
is a failure to address a basic requirement of good writing: characters.
Characters in Summoner are all very unbelievable and lack depth. They do not
manage to achieve the suspension of disbelief necessary to make the player
feel that they are real, living people. Instead, they feel totally artificial
and fake, as if they were reading their lines in front of an audience.
For instance, Jekhar, who allegedly hates Joseph's guts for destroying his
entire life, is strangely civil upon meeting Joseph again in Lenelle. Sure,
he puts on a show of saying he'll have Joseph's head on a pike if they meet
outside Lenelle, but for all his apparent gruffness he suddenly stops to
give Joseph directions when the summoner asks for Yago. Oh, how cordial you
are, Vegeta!
Later on, Jekhar displays his massive asininity by acquiescing to his King
to join Joseph and help him. This on its own is not yet unbelievable,
especially as Jekhar makes a show of protest to his liege (unprecedented!),
showing his distaste. Yet as soon as Jekhar joins Joseph you will never
see Jekhar so much as complain in his stay in Joseph's party! No grudging
campside discussions, no murderous glares as they travel to Ikaemos, nothing!
It's as if they're all goody-goody joyous friends and nothing was ever wrong.
It's totally artificial and reeks of poor character interaction.
It's the same thing with all the characters -- Joseph, Flece, Rosalind, and
even the supporting characters like Qi Feng, Galliene, and so on. Joseph,
for instance, is betrayed by Flece (I am not entirely sure how, though) and
spends three miserable months without his hand in a stinking hell-hole.
And yet, when Flece springs him, Joseph is head over heels ready to forgive
her! Sure, he makes a show of being coy, but in the end he just quietly
comes over like a lovesick puppy and not ever again does he even brood or
sneer at his malefactor. It's so FAKE!
Well, I think I've said enough dissident ideas about Summoner. Any more
and I'll oversteep the bounds of a FAQ and likely be censored. ^_^
On a lighter note, I think that the best part of Summoner is the little
Dungeons and Dragons skit you see at the end of the Credits screen. Yet,
it's sad when the best part of the game is a little extra which the
developers just threw in for laughs. Ah, Volition, how funny you are!
