I'm soloing a Cleric of Talos at the moment, (well, eventually I'll pick up Viconia), and just picked up my first 6th level spell. Now, I've soloed mages, and I've soloed a ranger/cleric but never a straight cleric. Soloing mages got me to understand their summons very well but I've not that experience with a cleric.

One thing I've overlooked then because of the strength of the ranger/cleric is the importance of that first 6th level spell. I'm thinking I should use it on a summons and I've got a few options - aerial servant, fire elemental (i think, right?), and the 2 mountain bears spell I believe. A search reveals no comparison of the summons attributes.

So, what spell should be a clerics first 6th level spell, particularly, which summons is superior?

I'd go for Fire elemental spell.

He's fairly powerful and stays around for a very long while. 1 turn/level i think. Thats completely enough for any battle.

Except on second appearance it appears I screwed that up, there isn't a fire elemental at 6 I guess.

My favourite cleric summons were always the bears. Bears mixed with skeletons. I used the bears always as meatshield.In places, where theres a passage, the bears are ideal to block the passage and than I used either spells or ranged weapons. But that's in the end my personal type of playing.

Clerics have a spell that summon bears? *confuzzled*

I'd personally take Heal as my first level 6 spell rather than a summons.

Summon fire elemental is a 6th level druid spell, not a 6th level cleric spell. R/Cs get access to both cleric and druid spells, which is why you were expecting to learn it.

Sorry.

The skeletal worriors (after you reach cleric level 15) might be the best summon you can get with a R/C. I guess an Aerial Servant is better, but they take a real long time to get.

Aerial Servant is your best bet. Since you're waiting for a level 6 spell anyway, taking Aerial Servant as your tank can help. They have moderate hitpoints, but they can do TONS of damage! In my experience, they hit for 25-35 a pop.

I tend to use the bears more just because there are two of them to soak up damage. They are a bit slow though. But I like using the Aerial Servant too for more offense.

Of course versus magic users, skeletons are better for their resistances.

I assume it is agreed that Aerial Servants get best offense, but which summons is better for fodder? In the sense, which has more hitpoints? Also, which has more resistances, bonuses etc? Also...where can you find out how many attacks per round each summon has??

I.e. if the Skeleton Warriors do 20 damage a pop, but get 2 attacks per round instead of the 1 attack Aerial Servants get, then they would obviously be better.

Good ol' SK can tell you everything you want to know about summoned monsters. Skeleton warriors do get 2 attacks, and have much better resists than an aerial servant. They make great tanks.

Servants hit for so much damage because they have a strength of 23 (!). So when they hit, it's an ouchy. But they get ripped by monsters usually, so I'd go with the skeletons for tanks.

Do buffs apply to summons?

Improved Haste, Mass Invisibility, Protection from evil 10' Radius, Free Action, Chaotic Commands etc...whew, summoning can get heaps good then.

In fact, if it IS indeed viable, then I feel greatly tempted to roleplay a summoner...perhaps a Druid, or a Mage/Cleric...to carry out the buffs to extremes! :D

I've used haste on summons, but nothing else that I can think of. As far as I know they all work. Servants have an immunity to effects, so some of those wouldn't be very helpful. But you could still put together a pretty strong summon, I suppose.

Now I'm really interested. Does anyone know where I can find the details for all this? Or, I have IEEP myself, so I can probably open it up and go through them...but that's way too cumbersome. There's got to be some kind of document detailing the pros and cons of some, if not all, summons.

Anyone know where I can find it?

Why not ctrl_Q it ? :D

What does CTRL+Q do?

Skeleton Warriors is the best summons for a cleric. Why would you use a 6th level spell when you can get Skeleton Warriors from a 3rd level spell?
Of course there is the gap after you get 6th level spells but haven't yet reached level 15 (for the Skeleton Warriors) in which case I'd go with Aerial Servants.

Which 6th level spells to pick?
My favorites are:
- Wondrous Recall because it makes it easy to cast Chaotic Commands and/or Death Ward on all party members.
- Heal because it's such a great healing spell - well, duh!
- Bolt of Glory because it ignores Magic Resistance.

Do Clerics get any summon which isn't dispellable by Death Spell? IIRC, Skeleton Warriors are thrown off by that one.

Gated monsters are not summoned, so they stand up to death spell. I think they are the only ones, though.

What does CTRL+Q do? Umh, Ctrl Q adds the creature to your party, so you can read its stats, though the skills and spells are not correct :)

Nothing is correct man.
I Ctrl-Q'ed that slaver boss just outside where you rescue a girl from trolls. This guy uses throwing axes and a two-handed sword but he had neither proficiency. Instead I got weird proficiencies like ++++ in blunt weapons and all kinds of other nonsence.
The stats, resistances were alright but other stuff was plain crap. Unless thats how the game gives its charecters godly THAC0.