Sensible Ranger Summons

[Anon09834]

There are a number of problems with the default Ranger summons:

 

1) 2 out of 3 summons are needlessly bulky, which is a hassle in the many tight corridors of the game.

2) The "tank" summon (Bear) has no way of increasing hostility, so it's not an effective tank.

3) The abilities of the Bear and Spider summons do not all mesh with its supposed purpose.

4) None of the three summons have a ranged basic attack, meaning that melee parties (or parties with a lot of summons) get crowded very quickly when trying to focus damage on a single enemy, especially in light of point #1.

5) Summons do not persist across areas.

6) Summoning cooldowns are excessive.

7) Tactics do not persist across summonings, and cannot be configured except at the time of summoning.

 

 

Furthermore, Ranger mods thus far tend to not directly address these problems, while introducing a number of their own:

 

1) Summons that do not mesh aesthetically with a Ranger/Rogue: demons, mages, soldiers, etc.

2) Overcomplicated skill trees.

3) Blatantly high power level, either through overpowered single summons or allowing a multitude of simultaneous normal summons.

4) Overcomplicated summons, with 3 or more activated or sustained abilities. Summons are an ability, not a whole extra character.

 

 

My proposed solution: A simple (in game terms) mod that replaces the three Ranger summons with alternatives that don't run into the problems above. Keep in mind that I don't even know if everything here is possible, but it's at least a workable loose framework. In no particular order:

 

1) Tank. The Bear (especially the giant bear you get with Master Ranger) is a bit too bulky, so let's shift the Wolf into this spot, with bear stats but wolf speed. Give it a passive ability that increases hostility. Give it a taunt howl, and Overwhelm as its Master Ranger ability. Also, personally I think the Blight Wolf looks silly, so let's consider keeping the Wolf model for both versions. Or possibly, a Dog for normal and a Wolf for Master.

 

2) Debuffer/Crowd control. Again, the Spider is cumbersome, so how about a Deepstalker? For its level 1 ability, maybe a low-cooldown(5s?), short-duration (3s?) stunning acid spit. For its level 2 ability, maybe a high-cooldown(20s), longer-duration(10s) stunning acid spray cone (friendly fire)? Since it is acid, both should probably do some relatively minor damage as well.

 

3) DPS. To alleviate the problems seen in number 4 above, I'd like the DPS summon to have a ranged basic attack. Unfortunately, I don't think any of the monsters in the game can reasonably do this. However, I don't think it's too much of a stretch for a Ranger to call up one of his buddies to give him a hand. So I think something like an elven archer could fit here. Passive Melee Archer, level 1 Shattering Shot, level 2 Critical Shot.

 

4) Make summons persist across areas, or simply be compatible with existing mods that accomplish this.

 

5) Lower all 3 cooldowns to 30 seconds. 99 times out of 100, this won't make a difference in combat, but it will make summoning out of combat much more convenient. In addition, since none of the summons should be objectively more powerful than the others (just different), there should be no reason for a difference in cooldown time.

 

6) If possible, allow persisting and normally modifiable tactics.

 

Suggestions would be appreciated. I may attempt this myself eventually if no one answers the call, but I have no idea what I'm doing.