Aerial Servant. I really love this spell. A monster which stays for 9 whole hours, and doing 20-40 damage per hit to boot.

Does anyone else use this spell often?

I am bit biased I suppose, if I going to pick a summon spell for level 6 and I'm just a straight cleric, (no acess to Druid's fire elemental) then I choose the bears over the Aeriel Servant. Who knows why, they're big, stupid, and slow ;) but something keeps making me choose them over again. :D Perhaps it's their growls, I like the growls :D

[This message has been edited by Big B (edited September 10, 2001).]

If you're going to use a summon, use the arcane Summon Fiend spell with the fixed Staff of the Magi equipped.

I'm a big aerial servant fan myself, they do punch for a ton of damage, however that strange bear summoning spell conjures two creatures, which can cause nearly 20 damage on a hit, and I think they attack three times a round as opposed to an aerial servant attacking once.

9 hours?! Spell description does say it stands for 1 turn per casterlevel...

I prefer animate dead instead :)

I say the Aerial servant is much more powerful than the druids fire elemental. More damage and hp, I don't know if this is a bug or not.

Though skeletons are one of my favorites as well, mostly because of the immunity to mind attacks, but till you're around the 15th level, I stick with aerial servant as well, especially in dragon fights.

I love Aerial Servant.

Don't forget it is also immune to Normal Weapons, and, say, can wipe a horde of Bone Golems, and almost the whole Kou-Toa dungeon by itself.

Modjahed started with spoilers ;) so I'll add some more on it:

Aerial Servant's attack counts as enchanted+4 weapon wich deals 4d8 crushing damage. Die golems!!!

And yes, one thing more - Aerial Servant is immune to Maze. So who are you summoning next against Irenicus? ;)

Yet, in my game it never stayed summoned for 9 hours... Is there a glitch in your game?

OK cool, but what's the stats on the bears? I know they can hurt golems, I've used them before on golems, even iron golems. Of course I'm sure the bears can be mazed...and by the time they got out the battle would be long done... :D

I like animate dead for several reasons. You can summon them, walk around, SLEEP, walk around AND fight a few baddies before they disappear.

I also like the fact that they are immune to just about all bad effects.

What sucks about them is your cleric disrupts them when they turn undead.

Aerial Servant is OK too.

I don't really like any of the other summons (I never use monster summoning, demon summoning or elemental summoning and the nishruu line of summons can have wierd effects on magic item).

I didn't realise the Aerial Servant was such a tank... 4d8 damage! They also have 128 hit points, 23 STR, and are immune to normal weapons.

Cave bears don't even come close... 50 hit points, hit as +2, and do 1d10 damage. The only advantage is they have 3 attacks per round compared to Aerial Servant's 1, but their THAC0 is 13 compared to 5.

Aerial servant has a str of 24! Its only "disadvantage" is that it can attack only once per round. It is a very mighty summon indeed!!!!

Mountain bears(Big B's favorites) have a str of 18/00; can attack 3 times per round; have 80 HP-s; their attacks count as done by a +3 enchanted weapon; and have a base THAC0 of 11. They are also mighty!

[This message has been edited by TIN_MAN (edited September 13, 2001).]

Well I summoned both yesterday in my game. And I say I still like the bears, even if for no other reason that I love to hear them roar ;) :D That's good enough for me.

Mord swords IMO is the best summon in the game. It deals some pretty nefty damage, but the best of all, they are immune to every kind of phsyical damage, ooowww yea.

As for 9 hours, I must have been thinking of the invisable stalker. That and a Aerial Servant has never expired in any of my games before. Doh.

My favourite summon spells are Animate Dead, Mord.Swords and Elemental summoning.
I've summoned Aerial servants a few times, but they always missed all of their attacks, so I never realised that they were that powerful.

And they are so small!

Call woodland beings is quite nice. The extra spells are handy, and some of them are even higher level spells than the nymph herself! She doesn't have many hit points though.

Yes, most definatley if you summon a woodland being keep them in the back ;) Otherwise you won't get good use of them. Most summonings you let have at it, but not that one.