Weapons & Equip Summoner Expansion

Aldenkynan

Skeletron Prime
Ok, am I the only one who thinks that the summoner class needs expanding on?
Players who want to do summoner runs have a very hard time starting off. The chance of the Slime Staff dropping is minuscule, and there’s a HUGE gap between the start of Pre-Hardmode and the defeating of the Queen Bee. All Pre-Hardmode has for summoners is the Slime Staff, which is insanely hard to get; the Hornet Staff, which is far into late Pre-Hardmode; and the Imp Staff, which is even LATER in Pre-Hardmode. Plus one set. ONE SET. Oh, and let’s not forget the mediocre sentries the Tavernkeep gives us. But you have to beat the Eater of Worlds and the Brain of Cthulhu for that. How do you expect to progress in the game if you’re lucky enough to get a SLIME STAFF?
Then you have Hardmode. If you manage to get there, you’re probably going to start off with the Spider Staff (which you might have a hard time getting relying on your imps) and the Queen Spider Staff. Then you have to try to use those spiders to beat the Twins. Good luck with that. If you manage that, you’ll be able to get more mediocre sentries from the Tavernkeep as well as some armor. Then, you have to fight Plantera with your Spazmatisms and Retinazers to progress. If RNG is on your side, you can get a Pygmy Staff, which can get you some cool stuff from the Witch Doctor.
I don’t think I have to go on. Hopefully, I’ve made my point.
Being a summoner is WAY too hard.
Take a look at Shadow Orbs and Crimson Hearts. They drop a melee weapon, ranged weapon, and magic weapon. No summon weapons to speak of.
Look at Biome Mimics. They drop a melee weapon, ranged weapon, and magic weapon. Not one summon weapon.
Then we have the Goblin Summoner. It drops a melee weapon, ranged weapon and magic weapon. Where’s the summon weapon?
There are so many opportunities for summon weapons, but they’re promptly wasted.
So, here I am to fill in those blanks.

Allow me to point out that I will soon make sprites (though I will happily accept sprites made for this thread).

Let’s begin.

FireflyStaff5e72ccc6c7ba0b8f.png

Firefly Staff
2 Damage
0 Knockback
10 Mana

The Firefly Staff is found in Wooden Chests. This summons a firefly that flies insanely quickly the enemy and deals rapid damage. Additionally, they only take up a third of a normal minion count (meaning, with no buffs to the number of minions you can spawn, you can spawn three fireflies). This is the weapon a summoner should ideally start off with. Thus, at the start of summoner playthroughs, players should search the surface layer for Wooden Chests as they might contain this item.

DevourerStaff997f47726ee0115f.png

Devourer Staff
5 Damage
1 Knockback
10 Mana

The Devourer Staff summons a miniature Devourer that attacks with a style similar to that of a Wyvern. It continuously flies around the enemy, dealing low damage but piercing all defense. This minion can naturally go through blocks (when it does go through blocks, it's hidden). This is obtained by breaking a Shadow Orb.

CreeperStaff2beec47b22a1d683.png

Creeper Staff
8 Damage
6.5 Knockback
10 Mana

The Creeper Staff is obtained by breaking a Crimson Heart. This summons a miniature Creeper that orbits the player and occasionally rams at the enemy at very quick speed. This minion goes through blocks.

Belt Staff
12 Damage (Meteor Head)

12 Damage (Projectile)
5 Knockback
10 Mana

The Belt Staff summons a meteor with a seven-block diameter. This can be summoned on the ground, in the air, or even inside blocks. By default, two meteor heads fly around the meteor and charge at any enemy who gets within 9 blocks of the meteor's center, inflicting the On Fire! debuff. Every time this sentry is "summoned" again, two more meteor heads are summoned around the meteor, and the range of attack is increased by 2 blocks. The meteor itself also shoots slow moving fireballs at enemies outside the range in volleys of three.

SpikeBallStaffed6a79379774df09.png

Spike Ball Staff
15 Damage
1 Knockback
10 Mana

The Spike Ball Staff can be found in Dungeon Chests. This summons a sentry that looks and behaves exactly like the Spike Ball enemy. The only difference is that it the chain can expand and retract to hit the enemy.

Skeleton Staff
15 Damage
1.5 Knockback
10 Mana

The Skeleton Staff is crafted with 100 Bones and 75 Cobwebs. This summons a skeleton that fires bones in volleys of four. These bones can ricochet up to three times and aren't affected by gravity, traveling at moderate speed.

JellyfishStaff5c53f484cf388493.png

Jellyfish Staff
17 Damage
1 Knockback
10 Mana

The Jellyfish Staff summons a pink, green, or blue jellyfish. This jellyfish bounces up and down on land, jumping up to attack enemies. In water, however, it swims very quickly (over double movement speed on land) and deals double damage. The jellyfish minion also prioritizes enemies in water over enemies out of water (unless the player as an enemy selected). This makes this weapon very effective when dealing with enemies like the Piranha. This weapon has a small chance to be obtained while fishing in the ocean.

Shadowflame Staff
28 Damage
2 Knockback
10 Mana

The Shadowflame Staff is an item that has a chance of being dropped by the Goblin Summoner. This summons a small Shadowflame Apparation that attempts to line up vertically with the enemy before doing a horizontal dash (this dash is like that of the Spazmatism summoned by the Optic Staff, but it's only horizontal, is faster, and goes farther). This minion flies quickly and goes through blocks. In addition, it also inflicts Shadowflame.

Ichor Staff
30 Damage
1 Knockback
10 Mana

The Ichor Staff is dropped by the Crimson Mimic and summons a small Ichor Sticker. This functions like a normal Ichor Sticker, shooting streams of Ichor that inflict the Ichor debuff. This minion cannot normally go through blocks.

Cursed Inferno Staff
36 Damage
2 Knockback
10 Mana

The Cursed Inferno Staff is dropped by the Corruption Mimic and summons a Clinger on the specified block. This acts as a sentry and functions just like a normal Clinger, shooting Cursed Flames.

PixieStaff7489028119436533.png

Pixie Staff
32 Damage
2 Knockback
10 Mana

The Pixie Staff is dropped by the Hallowed Mimic and summons a Pixie. This acts like a normal Pixie but is faster. Upon impact, the minion has a chance of inflicting the Slow debuff.

Coral Headgear
3 Defense
+1 Minion

This is crafted with 7 Coral.

Coral Chestplate
4 Defense
+1 Sentry
+11% Sentry Damage

This is crafted with 8 Coral.

Coral Greaves
3 Defense
+11% Minion Damage

This is crafted with 5 Coral.

Set Bonus: Submerge yourself in water to give yourself the Water Power! buff, increasing damage of your minions and sentries by 30%.

Resulting minions of all weapons
Belt Staff
Cursed Inferno Staff
Ichor Staff
Skeleton Staff
Shadowflame Staff
Coral Armor

Note: Things like grammar fixes or text fixes will not be recorded here.
Added Jellyfish Staff.
Added Pre-Hardmode Weapons section.
Added Change Log.
Made Devourer Staff pierce all defense.
Made Firefly Staff take a third of the normal minion count.
Added To Be Sprited section.
Added Hardmode Weapons section.
Added Shadowflame Staff, Ichor Staff, Great Clinger Staff, and Pixie Staff.
Made Jellyfish Staff prioritize enemies in water.
Added Skeleton Staff.
Changed the name of Great Clinger Staff to Cursed Inferno Staff.
Made Jellyfish Staff able to spawn three different colors of jellyfish.
Sprited Pixie Staff.
Added Belt Staff.
Added Coral Armor.
Added Armor section.
 
Last edited:
You've got my support, but I'd change a few things.
Ok, am I the only one who thinks that the summoner class needs expanding on?
No. It's a very popular topic for suggestors.
DevourerStaff997f47726ee0115f.png

Devourer Staff
5 Damage
1 Knockback
10 Mana

The Devourer Staff summons a miniature Devourer that attacks with a style similar to that of a Wyvern. It continuously flies around the enemy, dealing low damage. This minion can naturally go through blocks (when it does go through blocks, it's hidden). This is obtained by breaking a Shadow Orb.
So, like a stardust dragon. When you summon more than one, does it summon a 2nd or grow longer? Final thing: Defense exists. These all would do 1 damage. I reccomend they peice defense.
 
So, like a stardust dragon. When you summon more than one, does it summon a 2nd or grow longer? Final thing: Defense exists. These all would do 1 damage. I reccomend they peice defense.
Basically, yes, it's a Stardust Dragon, but it summons multiple minions instead of growing longer.

Also, I'll make them pierce armor.
 
Obligatory plug for my summoner suggestion. Anyway, I'm not in the mood to delve into these stats but they're solid ideas and Cthulu knows summoner needs refinement.
 
DevourerStaff997f47726ee0115f.png

Devourer Staff
5 Damage
1 Knockback
10 Mana

The Devourer Staff summons a miniature Devourer that attacks with a style similar to that of a Wyvern. It continuously flies around the enemy, dealing low damage but piercing all defense. This minion can naturally go through blocks (when it does go through blocks, it's hidden). This is obtained by breaking a Shadow Orb.
Bonus points if it makes a digging noise while going through blocks!
Ichor Staff
30 Damage
1 Knockback
10 Mana

The Ichor Staff is dropped by the Crimson Mimic and summons a small Ichor Sticker. This functions like a normal Ichor Sticker, shooting streams of Ichor that inflict the Ichor debuff. This minion cannot normally go through blocks.
I didn't know how badly I needed this until you mentioned it. Ichor stickers annoy me, but this would be really fun. Could be really useful for classless runs too.
 
There are tons of other summoner proposals. Yours is much more developed than most of them.

I support the general idea for sure. Adding all those at once looks nuts, too much at once. And being a pure summoner is not that hard. Let's just call it challenging.

Way too many, too boring in it's OPness, hard to test and unbalanced most likely. Pre-hardmode summons can't be that cool. Should at least rework existing hardmode ones then to provide space for new mechanics on lower stages. Trying to express it from time to time: agile flying body-slamming minions are too good for pre-hardmode.


Firefly staff could deal 1 damage, nothing would change much. Unless you gonna give it lots of armor penetration. Again, "firefly that flies insanely quickly at the enemy and deals rapid damage" right at start (almost) is way too powerful. We have stoned Ravens and plain useless Deadly Spheres post-Plantera. Firefly staff is better it seems, except the damage, and that makes it even more sad.

Devourer Staff's damage is kind of too low for the "devourer" enemy (and even for an Eater of Souls I'd say). And actually getting longer with each summon would fit it much better IMO. Yet the fact that minion "can naturally go through blocks" is completely overpowered for this stage of the game almost independent of other properties.

Creeper Staff is too connected to Brain of Cthulhu to be used by player probably. And getting one from breaking a mere Crimson Heart almost feels like blasphemy. And it "goes through blocks" again. "At very quick speed" isn't that bad for this particular one though IMO, as it's close-range weapon practically (that's why the high knockback I guess, to actually save your butt from enemies that got too close?). Quite solid stuff anyway, new mechanics similar to Spirit Flame but with summon damage would be nice to have.

Why Belt Staff is called "Belt Staff" btw? It looks cool but kind of too complicated for this stage. Has too many attack types. I like that it uses additional summons for something interesting though, not just for additional copies of itself. We need more of those in game.

Spike Ball Staff looks very cool. Might be too good for base defense, but damn it's cool anyway.

Skeleton Staff seems to outclass Pygmy Staff by mechanics.

Jellyfish Staff is interesting but might be weird due to this environmental bind. Also, people will just make farms with water now, to speed up the farm process.

Same for Coral armor. Relatively easy to get, 10 armor, +1 minion, +1 sentry, +41% (!) minion damage (just need to go swimming to a nearby puddle to call minions). Very attractive to any class, not just the summoner.


Shadowflame Staff actually looks fine even for the early hardmode player except the "goes through blocks" part. Attack pattern/damage might be adjusted after thorough testing.

Ichor Staff will be extremely popular (actually the only real option) for any non-summoner. Autodebuff on enemies rocks.

Cursed Inferno Staff is nice, maybe deals too much damage for it's stage.

Pixie Staff - too good, even if it sticks to the ground mostly.


P.S. Align center is evil.
 
There are tons of other summoner proposals. Yours is much more developed than most of them.

I support the general idea for sure. Adding all those at once looks nuts, too much at once. And being a pure summoner is not that hard. Let's just call it challenging.

Way too many, too boring in it's OPness, hard to test and unbalanced most likely. Pre-hardmode summons can't be that cool. Should at least rework existing hardmode ones then to provide space for new mechanics on lower stages. Trying to express it from time to time: agile flying body-slamming minions are too good for pre-hardmode.


Firefly staff could deal 1 damage, nothing would change much. Unless you gonna give it lots of armor penetration. Again, "firefly that flies insanely quickly at the enemy and deals rapid damage" right at start (almost) is way too powerful. We have stoned Ravens and plain useless Deadly Spheres post-Plantera. Firefly staff is better it seems, except the damage, and that makes it even more sad.

Devourer Staff's damage is kind of too low for the "devourer" enemy (and even for an Eater of Souls I'd say). And actually getting longer with each summon would fit it much better IMO. Yet the fact that minion "can naturally go through blocks" is completely overpowered for this stage of the game almost independent of other properties.

Creeper Staff is too connected to Brain of Cthulhu to be used by player probably. And getting one from breaking a mere Crimson Heart almost feels like blasphemy. And it "goes through blocks" again. "At very quick speed" isn't that bad for this particular one though IMO, as it's close-range weapon practically (that's why the high knockback I guess, to actually save your butt from enemies that got too close?). Quite solid stuff anyway, new mechanics similar to Spirit Flame but with summon damage would be nice to have.

Why Belt Staff is called "Belt Staff" btw? It looks cool but kind of too complicated for this stage. Has too many attack types. I like that it uses additional summons for something interesting though, not just for additional copies of itself. We need more of those in game.

Spike Ball Staff looks very cool. Might be too good for base defense, but damn it's cool anyway.

Skeleton Staff seems to outclass Pygmy Staff by mechanics.

Jellyfish Staff is interesting but might be weird due to this environmental bind. Also, people will just make farms with water now, to speed up the farm process.

Same for Coral armor. Relatively easy to get, 10 armor, +1 minion, +1 sentry, +41% (!) minion damage (just need to go swimming to a nearby puddle to call minions). Very attractive to any class, not just the summoner.


Shadowflame Staff actually looks fine even for the early hardmode player except the "goes through blocks" part. Attack pattern/damage might be adjusted after thorough testing.

Ichor Staff will be extremely popular (actually the only real option) for any non-summoner. Autodebuff on enemies rocks.

Cursed Inferno Staff is nice, maybe deals too much damage for it's stage.

Pixie Staff - too good, even if it sticks to the ground mostly.


P.S. Align center is evil.
Firefly Staff - Seems fine to me. Just rapidly does 1 damage (except if the enemy has no defense, then it does 2). I mean, it works for the start of the game.

Devourer Staff - I don't want an early-game Stardust Dragon. I like it better with it just being separate minions. I want to keep what keeps that endgame weapon unique. Also, don't understand how going through blocks is OP (please explain).

Creeper Staff - I understand what you're getting at with it being related to the Brain of Cthulhu, but is it that bad? Shouldn't be.

Belt Staff - Asteroid belts (and Meteor Staff is a magic weapon already).

Spike Ball Staff - Thanks!

Skeleton Staff - I see. I'll give it a nerf later.

Jellyfish Staff - Never thought of water farms. Well, let them do that. Seems cool.

Coral Armor - Ok, ok, I'll nerf it.

Shadowflame Staff - This thing has to vertically align with the enemy before it can attack. What's wrong with going through blocks?

Ichor Staff - Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Cursed Inferno Staff - Maybe it does too much damage, but this is meant to compare with the other drops of the Corruption Mimic. Add that to the fact that it's a sentry with about the same fire rate as a Clinger, seems fine.

Pixie Staff - How's it OP at all?



Anyway, thanks for the feedback. Really helpful.
 
DevourerStaff997f47726ee0115f.png

Devourer Staff
5 Damage
1 Knockback
10 Mana

The Devourer Staff summons a miniature Devourer that attacks with a style similar to that of a Wyvern. It continuously flies around the enemy, dealing low damage but piercing all defense. This minion can naturally go through blocks (when it does go through blocks, it's hidden). This is obtained by breaking a Shadow Orb.
Just a thought I had for this: what if the minions behave more like the worm AI (leaping out of the blocks at enemies, building up momentum while burrowing for bigger jumps) if there are enough nearby blocks for them to burrow through? Seems like it would be a little truer to actual devourers without completely underpowering it. Not sure how that would be implemented though. Perhaps the wyvern AI you suggested could be used when there aren't enough burrowing blocks.
 
This message box is really






























Long
Hi @Purple Cat King, we want to be able to have fun and be silly here, such as making a really long message as you have. But I’d ask that you keep those types of messages to your profile. If you’re posting in a thread, it needs to be about the topic.

So from now on please keep silly off-topic posting to your profile. Thanks. Send me a private message if you have questions.
 
Ok. The size of this box represents my support of this thread idea



















Is that ok?
No. It’d be better if you added relevant quality content to the discussion by expressing your thoughts of the suggestion and support with actual corresponding words, like you did earlier in the thread, instead of replying with jokes.

And in case that wasn’t clear, this is your second warning on the matter. Stop with the long scrolling messages.
 
Ok....everything looks cool here.

but does the skeleton staff spawn cursed skull ?

also i got an idea...You can farm angry bones to get an angry bones staff that spawn angry bones minion...
 
I TRYED to make a sprite, and here is. The Firefly Staff:

View attachment 214017
Thanks for the sprite! I’ll make sure to put it in when I get the chance.
Ok....everything looks cool here.

but does the skeleton staff spawn cursed skull ?

also i got an idea...You can farm angry bones to get an angry bones staff that spawn angry bones minion...
No, it does not spawn a cursed skull. It spawns a skeleton (like the skeleton enemy).
Also, I could make it for farming, but I want to add more craftable summon weapons.
 
Back
Top Bottom