Summoning Magic in Dark Souls 2

In my ever-lasting search to find ways to kill people while doing the least amount of work possible, I began to think of ways they could implement summoning magic into dark souls 2.

Just to be clear, summoning magic's main trait would be using a skill to create a type support NPC for your character. In my head, summoning magic should be very extreme with very steep stat investments to use it fully. There would also be 3 different types of summoning.

So just to be clear the main traits of summoning would be:
1.) A specific stat used for the spells(let's call it SUM). The stat would NOT be used to scale with any weapons. This is to make the Summoner class more dependent on their summons and weaker in every other aspect.

2.) Summons would act as friendly NPC phantoms.

3.) Strong summons would have a very high minimum stat requirement(30-60) and would take high numbers of attunement(2 or 3)

4.) All summons will have a faint trail of light/energy pointing in the direction of or connecting it to the summoner

5.)Summonig would be classified into 3 different version:

Weak/independent summoning:
Minimum stat requirements:15-30SUM, 1 attunement slot. Few casts(1-3)
The summon would act independently from the host and will follow them as a NPC phantom would. The summon has a time limit, and a health bar, and will disappear when either runs out.

Mid/dependent summoning:
Minimum stat requirements:30-50 SUM, 2 attunement slots. Medium casts(3-7)
The summon will appear and the summoner will be stuck in a defenseless state of limited mobility as they "concentrate" on their summon. The summon will have no life bar and will last only a few seconds(10-30). The summon however is much more powerful and should be thought of more as an AoE spell similar to Firestorm rather than an NPC. The summon will stay near the summoner and cannot go outside of a certain area around the summoner/get weaker the farther it gets from the summoner.

Strong/full-control summoning:
Minimum stat requirements:45-60 SUM, 2 or 3 attunement slots. Minimal casts: 1-2.
Once the summoner casts the spell, the player will take control and play as the summon, rather than their character. The summoner will be immobile while the summon is active. The summon will have a life bar, and a timelimit(10-120 seconds). While the summon is active it will consume a certain amount of HP(2-15) depending on the summon. The summon can be cancelled at any time. The summon will be cancelled automatically if the time limit ends, the summon loses all of it's HP, or if the summoner's real body is staggered with enough force.

Expect a more detailed topic on this in the future as I come up with specific summons.

I really like this idea.


I would love to write the "theoretical lore" about the origins of summoning.

People would find a way to abuse it. And it would become like Faith in DeS, where if you don't have enough for a lite summon, you'd be screwed in PvP(like second chance).

yes! i want all the summons from final fantasy, and they better do over 9999 damage, also limit breaks would be awesome too.

I have been wanting summons since dark souls 1 announcement! I think it could be great, sure, it would be HARD to balance, and people are already pointing out negatives, but honestly, dark souls and demons souls are NOT well balanced, and pvp is not even the main consideration of the developers(do not get mad, I only play for pvp). I have often thought the system employed by the puppeteer class(sub dancer for SOLO BLISS drain samba FTW) in FFXI was AMAZING! for people who do not know how it works, you have a machine puppet as your summon, and the differing pieces of it(head, body) determine its behavior, and the pieces installed inside it give it different moves and attributes. It acts independently, you do not give it commands if I recall correctly. Something like this could possibly work well. The idea of a timer is tricky, because if you are really investing allot of stat points, but your summons only last briefly, then you would probably just die allot. A way around this could possibly be charm like spells in which not only can u summon pets on a timer, you could cast a spell to get an enemy to fight for you, like undead rapport, but maybe a little better. I really like your ideas lunarfog, I would LOVE to see something like this implemented. I do highly doubt it will occur, but personally I would love this.... not sure what you would summon, I guess some kind of beast/pet, or possibly animated armor, mech almost steampunk stuff as long as its not too crazy....

While your idea for the stats is good i don't think summons will work that well. For starters what weapons will they wield. what if the summoner is fighting a ranger but the summon uses melee or vice verca. And what makes it so that it is better to summon a phantom but leave your body unprotected than to do the killing on your own? And the phantom that is dependant seems a bit useless as your foe could just back off a little ways and heal so you can't kill them.

I have many concerns about the idea but if implemented correctly might possibly work.

the problem i have all-ways found with summoning, is that it is so OP you need to atleast have a little of it or it is so horrible that no one could touch it/

samster628 wrote:While your idea for the stats is good i don't think summons will work that well. For starters what weapons will they wield. what if the summoner is fighting a ranger but the summon uses melee or vice verca. And what makes it so that it is better to summon a phantom but leave your body unprotected than to do the killing on your own? And the phantom that is dependant seems a bit useless as your foe could just back off a little ways and heal so you can't kill them.

I have many concerns about the idea but if implemented correctly might possibly work.

For the dependent type summonings, think of it as a Firestorm/gravelord sword dance than a summon. I posted another topic about this in the general discussion section. It has way more details that should answer most of your questions