Draft:Summoning
Summoning creates new creatures, usually on empty floor beside the player. It is not inherently a way to acquire allies: the ordinary spell preserves the selected creature's attitude, while summoning scrolls and rods force hostile results even when blessed. Monster reinforcements also commonly appear beside the player, not beside the creature calling them.[1]
Each call attempts to place one creature in the first available adjacent square, in this order: southeast, northeast, southwest, northwest, east, west, south, north. The square must be in bounds, have floor terrain and have no creature. Ground items do not block it. Water, doors and other non-floor terrain fail this test, even when the creature could normally cross them.[2]
If no square qualifies, nothing is placed. Multiple calls repeat the search, filling available squares in order, so an effect attempting four summons can create fewer than four. There is no success message or refund from the shared placement routine. It also does not apply ordinary creature movement or terrain-entry checks to the newly placed creature.[3]
| Summon type | Selection | Initial attitude |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary random | Current-difficulty ordinary pool | Preserves the constructed creature's attitude; starts with wandering behavior |
| Unrestricted hostile random | Any of the 150 templates, without the ordinary uniqueness or difficulty filter | Forced hostile |
| Specified creature | Constructs that particular kind | Preserved or forced hostile, according to the caller |
| Positive-strength choice | Prompts for a catalogue entry | Clears hostility; this is not the behavior of a blessed summoning scroll or rod |
All use normal creature construction, including the selected kind's possessions and identity-specific behavior. There is no separate temporary-summon lifetime or automatic dismissal in this process. Later death, disappearance or level handling follows the creature and environment's ordinary rules.[4]
Player sources
| Source | Result | Cost or limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Summoning spell | One ordinary random creature | Uses current spell mana cost; no monster or square choice |
| Scroll of summoning | One unrestricted hostile random creature | One scroll is consumed even when there is no space; blessing and enchantment do not change the summon type |
| Rod of summoning | One unrestricted hostile random creature | One charge; blessing and enchantment do not change the summon type |
| Ordinary "Summoning" wish | One ordinary random creature | Does not open a selection menu or force peacefulness |
| Ritual in a harem or boudoir | An incubus/succubus or nymph/satyr, with roughly equal choice | Preserves the creature's own attitude; subject to Ritual's room restrictions |
| Ritual in a pentagram room | One unrestricted hostile random creature | Its subsequent confinement removes movement, not hostility or every attack; a failed placement is not a reliable confinement effect |
The spell, reading and zapping commands charge their resource independently of whether placement succeeds. Fear prevents ordinary spellcasting, scroll reading and wand use; blindness also prevents reading. A summoning item is consequently a poor emergency response to an already crowded or disabling encounter.[5]
Choosing a creature
The positive-strength selection branch lists all 150 catalogue entries and repeats until a valid number is supplied; Escape or an invalid number does not cancel that prompt. In the checked normal sources, the spell and ordinary Summoning wish supply zero strength, while scrolls and rods always supply negative strength. A Summoning wish with the game's cheated flag set can reach the positive branch. It is not an ordinary blessed-item benefit.[6]
Older spoiler discussions describe differing local versions of selectable summoning and explicitly warn that their choice-based advice does not apply generally. They do not establish a way to choose a friendly creature with a blessed scroll in 0.90.4.[7]
Creature and event sources
The following counts are attempted calls per trigger, not guaranteed arrivals. Ordinary monster special actions also have their own awake, proximity and scheduling conditions; Monster behavior explains that shared dispatch. Sanctuary suppresses ordinary monster specials, but is not a prohibition inside the shared summoning routine itself.[8]
| Source | Trigger and attempts | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Fnord | Adjacent special action, one-in-three check; two attempts | Ordinary random creatures, preserving their own attitude; fnord need not be hostile |
| Demonic reinforcement ability | HP greater than 1 but below five times demon level; sets its HP to 1 and attempts two summons | Hostile helpers chosen by the demon's level; see the table below |
| Angel, high angel, archangel | Hostile angel response; three attempts, then removes that summoning special | Hostile phantoms, angels or high angels, respectively |
| Swarm | One-in-five special-action check; one attempt | Another hostile swarm beside the player |
| Mirror master | Visible special action; succeeds when random 0–19 + 6 is below its level | Hostile copy of its kind; an ordinary level-7 master has a 5% attempt chance |
| Zombie overlord | Checks the top ground item on each square within two squares of itself | Each corpse found is removed and used for a hostile summon of its original species, beside the player; no space still loses the remains |
| Hostile nymph or satyr | Vanishes and attempts three summons | Unrestricted hostile random creatures |
| Prime Sorceror court response | If hostile, attempts four summons, then changes to ordinary spellcasting | Hostile demon princes |
| Evil fairy conversation | Four attempts, alongside its other harmful effects | Unrestricted hostile random creatures |
| Ban sidhe scream conversation | One attempt, then changes its dialogue | Hostile quail |
Sources: fnord and demon calls, angel response, swarm expansion, raising remains, mirrors, seductor departure and the Prime's gate; the conversations are independent entry points.[9]
| Demon level | Reinforcement kind |
|---|---|
| 3 | Night gaunt |
| 4–5 | Lesser frost demon |
| 6 | Frost demon |
| 7 | Outer circle demon |
| 8 | Demon serpent |
| 9 | Inner circle demon |
The damaged demon's life force pays for these attempts, but recovery above 1 HP can allow another trigger. Level 10 has no defined selection in this response: the Demon Emperor's low-HP summon is faulty, not a predictable additional row. An ordinary level-5 mirrorshade likewise cannot pass the mirror-copy check; its apparent duplicates are display images, not new creatures.[10]
A Circle siren trap attempts three hostile demon princes; a village stone's infrared response attempts one unrestricted hostile creature. Being thrown by an overloaded mount on a local map attempts a hostile horse after removing the mounted state. Countryside bucking has a different inventory-loss path and is not this local horse summon.[11]
Rewards and risks
Summoned creatures can carry real possessions and leave remains under the ordinary death rules. Normal death awards experience when the player has line of sight. There is no universal reduction just because the creature was summoned, but individual exceptions such as Death still apply. A fixed unique item may be withheld if its item-uniqueness state no longer permits construction.[12]
Peaceful is not the same as safe or controlled. A summoned fnord can summon again, and an astral vampire can drain mana without hostility. Making an enemy immobile does not remove adjacent melee or special powers. Conversely, summoning a water-only creature on floor does not give it ordinary land movement.[13]
Strategy
Count empty floor squares around yourself before spending a scroll or charge. The effect uses the first qualifying square, so the choice is constrained by nearby terrain and occupants. Blocking those squares can prevent reinforcements, but may also remove your escape route; it does not stop the summoner's other attacks.
Use the spell's local difficulty when judging its random results, and treat scrolls and rods as unrestricted encounters. Their blessing offers no control. Deliberate summoning for experience, items or alchemical ingredients must account for the encounter, recovery and ordinary corpse chance; it is not a guaranteed safe source of a selected reward.
Collect valuable remains before a zombie overlord can reach them. Its resurrection checks near the overlord but places the result near you, so standing far from the corpse does not move the resulting enemy away from your character.
References
- ↑ effect3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 7–43; spell.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 162–165; itemf3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 724–730.
- ↑ effect3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 20–43; util.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 182–203.
- ↑ effect3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 7–43; util.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 93–161; mon.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 72–83.
- ↑ effect3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 7–43; lev.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 316–394.
- ↑ spell.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 162–165; effect1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 631–633; spell.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 237–295; iinit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 132; itemf3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 724–730; command2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 38–69; command2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 457–518.
- ↑ effect3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 7–19; effect3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 70–99; effect1.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 631–633; itemf3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 724–730.
- ↑ A. Light (editor), Omega Spoilers, version 1.10, updated 3 May 1994, reposted 19 April 1995; mixed older game versions. Staffs & Wands, lines 317–326, preserved locally as
omega-0.75-spoilers.txt. - ↑ mon.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 12–76; mon.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 402–417; effect3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 7–43.
- ↑ mspec.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 68–100; mspec.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 265–285; mspec.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 468–556; mspec.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 587–606; mspec.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 675–683; mspec.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 760–773; mtalk.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 466–481; mtalk.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 668–679.
- ↑ mspec.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 82–99; mspec.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 587–606; minit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 189; minit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 295.
- ↑ trap.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 15–47; aux3.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 968–974; command2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 1064–1088; command2.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 1128–1160.
- ↑ lev.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 373–394; mon.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 134–203.
- ↑ mspec.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 458–466; mspec.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 675–683; mon.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 12–76; util.c in Omega 0.90.4, lines 93–107.