Ideas for a Tier 8 Death Summon

[Hoverdog]

We're finalizing summonable creatures list. It's complete for all circles, but there's one spot we have a problem with.

Death magic is planned to have seven summonable units. Six of them are agreed upon. These are:

Tier 1: Skeletons – extremely cheap, no upkeep, even weaker than normal level 1 units.

Tier 1: Zombies – meatshields. Lots of HP, but no offensive skills.

Tier 2: Mummies – meatshields with cursing attack.

Tier 5: Shadow Demons - ethereal shooters.

Tier 6: Wights – ethereal infantry with cursing attack.

Tier 7: Wraiths – ethereal, flying unit with life-steal. Similar to MoM's wraiths.

That leaves us with Tier Eight. My first idea for the ultimate Death summon was obvious - Lich. However, Aaron correctly pointed out that we want to preserve them for other uses (like undead champions). Unfortunately, that leaves us with no real replacements.

We were thinking of doing something related to both lich and a bodak. So: a powerful caster (not as powerful as a lich, though) with good fighting skills and Gaze (Doom or Death) attack (like a bodak). The name and appearance of said creature eludes us.

Help us, guys!

[Troy_Costisick]

How about Arch Demon?

[Hoverdog]

The MoM-y demon lord was a possibility, but I don't really associate demons with death (magic). Shadow demons need a rename, probably.

[Beregar]

There are literally dozens of undead to draw inspiration from but for high level. I assume we wish to avoid epic enemies.

• Ghost (not level bound)
• Mohrg (boring; just a more powerful zombie with paralyzing tongue)
• Nightshade: Nightwing (huge flying magic draining, desecrating horror)
• Nightshade: Nightwalker (huge walking desecrating horror with paralyzing gase and tendency to crush magic items)
• Nightshade: Nightcrawler (gargantuan desecrating undead worm that drains energy and poisons things it swallows whole)
• Dracolich (it's a lich AND a dragon with really bad breath) - zombie/skeletal dragons less powerful
• Bodak (not as powerful as nightwalkers but they are humanoid undead with death gaze and a lot resistances)
• Devourer (extraplanar soul trapping energy draining spell deflecting undead with spell-like abilities)
• Banshee (incorporeal death wailing fear inducing charisma draining horrors)

Those are but a few. All except Banshee and Dracolich are srd stuff.Nightshades (esp crawler) and dracolich are by far the most powerful ones. The rest are aroun CR10.

[Shadow Knight]

What about a Death Knight or Blackguard? Or dare I suggest a Shadow Knight?

I.e. Basically an evil version of the High Men Paladin but instead of money and food would require a high Power (mana) upkeep.

If you need a D&D inspiration look towards that creepy undead knight in the Dragonlance novels.

[Beregar]

What about a Death Knight or Blackguard? Or dare I suggest a Shadow Knight?

I.e. Basically an evil version of the High Men Paladin but instead of money and food would require a high Power (mana) upkeep.

Keep in mind that these are not Unhallowed units. They are death sphere summons. Unhallowed already have the anti-paladin in Death Guard and also other mounted warriors in Phantom Lancers.

[jamoecw]

well vampire jumps to mind, but i think that was being saved for future DLC.

MoM has a hero be the ultimate summon (torin) and was available at rare level (below very rare), so maybe you could have a demi lich hero as a summon (and thus only be able to get 1).

edit: ps, by demi lich i mean a weaker version than in the srd, basically a stronger lich hero.

[Happerry]

As fair warning, in DnD a Demi Lich is a thing that is quite a bit stronger then a lich, with powerful instant death soul stealing attacks. (And then it eats said souls).

They aren't Demi because they've only partially become a lich, they're Demi because they've partially transcended beyond that status.

So be careful with that term.

I am in favor of jamoecw's idea of a Torin the Chosen One type hero for tier 9 death summoning though.

[jamoecw]

As fair warning, in DnD a Demi Lich is a thing that is quite a bit stronger then a lich, with powerful instant death soul stealing attacks. (And then it eats said souls).

They aren't Demi because they've only partially become a lich, they're Demi because they've partially transcended beyond that status.

So be careful with that term.

I am in favor of jamoecw's idea of a Torin the Chosen One type hero for tier 9 death summoning though.

tier 9 spell are of only 1 circle, death summoning is in fact 2 circles, thus the highest it goes is 8.

[Happerry]

Tier 8 then.