BlueCorvid
Terrarian
Many suggestions have been made for how to give the summoner class more love, but I feel like a main holdout is that these options could be used by other classes for an unbalancing amount of free damage. To this end, vanilla Terraria has opted to keep buffs to summoners to a handful of class armors, endgame accessories, and prohibitively rare minions. Surely there must be a way to let summoners have a little more development without overpowering anyone who picks up a summon staff?
What if instead of being afraid that every character will look at an empty minion slot and go "it's free real estate," we embrace the idea that every character will have at least one minion? What if we have things that can use that slot that will benefit other classes more (or at least more thematically, for those class purists who weren't going to use a minion for damage anyway) than some free summon damage? Entire new items are out of the purview of this suggestion (and likely out of question for vanilla Terraria anyway) -- instead, I want to talk mechanical changes.
Have light pets use up a minion slot.
What if instead of being afraid that every character will look at an empty minion slot and go "it's free real estate," we embrace the idea that every character will have at least one minion? What if we have things that can use that slot that will benefit other classes more (or at least more thematically, for those class purists who weren't going to use a minion for damage anyway) than some free summon damage? Entire new items are out of the purview of this suggestion (and likely out of question for vanilla Terraria anyway) -- instead, I want to talk mechanical changes.
Have light pets use up a minion slot.
- Endgame armor and a few later-game summons already make light, so this isn't a huge penalty for summoners, while also being something for other classes to do with that "free real estate."
- The current light pet inventory slot can be repurposed into a general minion inventory slot that keeps at least one instance of the minion in it summoned. (There are benefits and drawbacks I can see to having a slot auto-summon the minion in it to your full capability. On one hand, it's convenient for people with just one minion to maintain. On the other, it's a pain for someone who wants multiple instances of more than one minion, but that seems like a small enough case that it might still be fine. Other problems include that if a summon staff isn't in your hotbar, you can't use it to tag an enemy -- thankfully we have whips for that now -- and also that it might cause the new critter shampoo item to be useless, which isn't ideal.)
- Light pet summons could "level" with extra minion slots, the way the tiger does, adding a small increase in brightness each time. If we give light pets other small but stackable buffs, it could incentivize players outside the summoner class to use them instead of damage-dealing minions.
- With a non-damage purpose for these slots, more slots can be added early on without breaking the game.
- I've seen people suggest a minion slot accessory modifier, similar to Arcane -- I think one minion is a considerably bigger buff than 4% damage, so perhaps it could add half a slot.
- With five accessory slots, that's a maximum of two extra minions, in exchange for 8% potential damage/crit chance or 8 defense per minion.
- If that's still too big a buff (I'll admit I haven't crunched the numbers) 1/3 of a minion slot would allow for one extra minion in Normal, and two in Expert and Master Modes.
- Maybe differently-colored mana stars, since minions do use mana? Perhaps silver stars, similar to the gold hearts we get from life fruits?
- Capping the max number of minions to the number of mana crystals the character has could be a related suggestion if a system like this is implemented.
- Alternately, a more drastic combined approach: have each minion reduce maximum mana by 20 when it's summoned. The used mana star can be darkened out like the mana in it is used, and it won't regenerate for as long as a minion has been summoned. This would cap the number of minion slots to ten without mana-increasing equipment, which could offset the ease of getting more slots.
What's a buff you would give up your light pet slot to be able to have? What would be fun but not game-breaking to be able to stack up a bunch of if you have extra minion slots to waste?
- Shadow Orb: +2 defense and +2% minion damage per slot. A defensive summon sounds strange at first, especially if you're stacking it with bonus minions slots from a summoner armor (after all, why not just wear better armor in the first place?) but might be fun for someone who wants to play with a smaller number of summons and a whip. A slight boost to minion damage in exchange for taking up minion slots could accommodate a more aggressive, whip-centric, lower-minion playstyle.
- Crimson Heart: +1 regen and +20 mana (one mana star) per slot. I feel like this is more generically useful than the one I gave to the Shadow Orb, following the Crimson's trend of "slightly but noticeably better." +2 regen might be better, but regen is a pretty big boost in general. I used extra mana here because I thought it would be simpler, but a boost to mana regeneration would be more thematic. A reduction to mana sickness time could be novel.
- Fairy Bell/Jewel of Light: an extra jump, similar to cloud in a bottle. Since these aren't available until hardmode, when most players are moving toward wings, the function won't undermine early-game mobility struggles.
- Creeper Egg/Guardian Golem: thorns? The minion could produce some kind of aura that functions similarly (but less powerfully) to the damage/knockback on hit of the Solar Flare armor. Each used slot would give an instance of the effect which would have a cooldown. (Alternately, in keeping to the theme of the OOA event, the Creeper Egg could have a similar effect to the one I outlined for the Shadow Orb -- maybe a bigger minion damage buff without the defense.)
- Wisp in a Bottle/Pumpkin Scented Candle: damage reduction. The minion could produce little balls of fire that function similarly (though less powerfully) to the beetles from Beetle Armor. Each used slot would give an instance of damage reduction that disappears when used and would regenerate after a cooldown.
- Magic Lantern/Suspicious-Looking Tentacle: no change. The spelunker effect is already great, though stacking the minions could extend it by a tile or so.
- Spore Sac: reduced but stackable effect. Just another idea for an item that could work in this kind of space, but without the light effect.