Weapons & Equip The Ceremonial Dagger - A new Summoner Class tool to go alongside whips

[BluuMoon3]

Main Ability - The Ceremonial Dagger, when used, will cause summons to temporarily use a special ability or behavior at the expense of 20-35% of the user's health and maybe defense as well. If there is more than one type of summon out then a scroll wheel will appear, allowing the player to choose which summon gets the ability activation. The idea here is that the summoner is giving blood to strengthen their pact with their summons. The Ceremonial Dagger will have a cooldown similar to potion sickness. Below I will list the aforementioned abilities of each summon. Also if I just label them as "Simple boost in speed and damage" that means I couldn't think of anything. So feel free to suggest your own. Also, just a reminder, all abilities are temporary and have a cooldown. Depending on the abilities, the cooldowns and drawbacks might vary. Lastly, summons may change appearances when activated.

Crafting and Progression - Ceremonial Daggers will be crafted pre-hardmode using a small amount of wood along with ores or gems. Hardmode daggers will be the same except they will require hardmode ores, soul material, and boss drops. Progressing daggers will increase the number of active summon types that can have their abilities activated per dagger use. The more powerful ones will inflict a debuff upon use.

Why I think this should be added - As we know, the Summoner class is relatively recent and seems a bit incomplete. It also gets a rap of being the class where you "do nothing" and let your minions do everything, and that's actually how it feels at times, especially in late game progression where the summons practically replace the need for player input. The other issue I have with Summoner is how there isn't too much of a reason to use pre-endgame minions for too long of a time, or at least use them in conjunction with other minions.

The Ceremonial Dagger solves some of this by giving special utilities to summons to increase their usefulness and diversify the possible strategies/play-styles available to the player. It also increases the risk taken by the Summoner, which makes the class more fun, challenging and deeper overall. This could be inspiration for Terraria 2 if it doesn't make it in here.

~~~~~Summon Tweaks~~~~~ ​

• Finch - Upon activating the ceremonial dagger, the Finch will do one of two things: If the player does not have wings, the finch will carry the player as a rudimentary and inferior form of early flight. This is activated by a double jump. If the player has wings, jet boots, or a mount, the Finch will generate gusts with its wings, which will increase the speed and flight time of the player for increased mobility. This all scales with the number of Finches btw.
• Slime - The slime's ability is to temporarily turn into the last thing you killed that wasn't a boss or NPC. This is going off the idea that slimes are the precursors to modern life forms in the world of Terraria (If the lore im referencing is correct at least). If you have multiple slimes, like 5 for example, they will copy the last five killed enemies in order and stay that way until the ability runs out.
• Abigail - Will possess and control any non-boss enemy that the player clicks on with a whip in hand. No matter what it becomes, it will retain its ability to travel through solid objects. The use of more than one minion slot will strengthen Abigail as she possesses other mobs.
• Flinxes - Will inflict a frozen debuff that doubles the damage of the next hit from the player or a different type of summon.
• Vampire Frogs - Vampire Frogs will become more aggressive and damaging, being able to jump faster and higher while sticking surfaces if they need to.
• Hornets - Simple boost in speed and damage/Ideas Needed
• Imps - Imp fireballs will become homing, much larger, more damaging, and will explode into ricocheting/bouncing fire with piercing.
• Spiders - The spiders will quickly weave a web around the player and continue to do so as the player moves. The web will allow the player to quickly and freely move while any enemies or bosses caught in it are slowed down. The spiders will also have a chance to lay eggs as they move that will hatch into temporary smaller spiders that will swarm the enemy and inflict the acid venom debuff.
• Sanguine Bats - The Sanguine bats will have a chance of making a heart drop from an enemy when hit as well as decreasing the enemy's attack and defense by a certain amount.
• Pirates - Each Pirate will temporarily "steal" a weapon from your non-hotbar inventory and use it. Might make them pretty useful.
• Enchanted Daggers - Simple boost in speed and damage/Ideas Needed
• Twins - The Retinazers will brighter and more powerful lasers, while Spazmatism will become more aggressive and sometimes spew its signature cursed flames.
• Pygmies - Will restrain whipped enemies with poisonous vines that resemble Platera's vines. Normal enemies will be restrained while bosses will be slowed down variably. The duration on both regular enemies and bosses depends on how many pygmies are present.
• Desert Tiger - Pretty powerful already
• Deadly Spheres - Will temporarily orbit the player and form a force field around themselves individually that blocks any attack. However, they will phase on and off at unpredictable intervals and orbit at a set speed. Enemies that touch the fields will be damaged and enemies that are whipped will be hit with bolts of energy streaming from the fields.
• Ravens - The Ravens will become faster and more aggressive. On top of this, they will cast illusions of the player over themselves, temporarily confusing the focus of enemies. The enemy/boss will attack whatever is closest to them, whether it be the actual player or their illusion.
• UFOs - Simple boost in speed and damage.
• Tempest Tornados - Will spread out a bit and summon wind gusts to blow projectiles away.
• Stardust Dragon, Cell, and Terraprisma - They are already pretty powerful so I cant think of anything here honestly.

 

[nilzer]

holy risk of rain reference

anyways i think this idea is neat, it feels very modded tho. when the 1.4.4 sword reworks got shown they felt pretty modded too tho. this seems like a cool feature tho, maybe lower the penalty a little though—a third of your health isn’t nothing. maybe make it like a flat 40 health? this idea has potential

 

[BluuMoon3]

holy risk of rain reference

anyways i think this idea is neat, it feels very modded tho. when the 1.4.4 sword reworks got shown they felt pretty modded too tho. this seems like a cool feature tho, maybe lower the penalty a little though—a third of your health isn’t nothing. maybe make it like a flat 40 health? this idea has potential

Thanks. I haven't played risk of rain tho so I didn't actually intend a reference

 

[nilzer]

Thanks. I haven't played risk of rain tho so I didn't actually intend a reference

it’s a solid game, i recommend the second game over the first

 

[OlleWernersson]

Many of these suggested effects that the Ceremonial dagger would have seem to be very involved and complicated.

Also, I feel like sacrificing your own health to make your minions stronger is very dark in its nature, and I don't know how I feel about it.

Hopefully summoners are getting enough love this update that we all feel like they are more or less in par with the other classes

 

[BluuMoon3]

Many of these suggested effects that the Ceremonial dagger would have seem to be very involved and complicated.

Also, I feel like sacrificing your own health to make your minions stronger is very dark in its nature, and I don't know how I feel about it.

Hopefully summoners are getting enough love this update that we all feel like they are more or less in par with the other classes

I've come back to revisit this and I might make a better version of this post

 

[nilzer]

I've come back to revisit this and I might make a better version of this post

cool, ill look out for it

 

[Big Sammich]

I've come back to revisit this and I might make a better version of this post

If you're re-tooling the suggestion, I would recommend focusing on keeping it more general, instead of minion-specific. While the idea of giving every minion a unique ability is a cool one, it's not really in line with vanilla Terraria. Ideally, the item would improve the weakness of the Summoner class by utilizing the strong points, but that's pretty tough to do, so don't stress about it.

 

[BluuMoon3]

If you're re-tooling the suggestion, I would recommend focusing on keeping it more general, instead of minion-specific. While the idea of giving every minion a unique ability is a cool one, it's not really in line with vanilla Terraria. Ideally, the item would improve the weakness of the Summoner class by utilizing the strong points, but that's pretty tough to do, so don't stress about it.

So far my draft is redoing the minion abilities but I do feel that the new ones I'm brainstorming are more grounded, since they either fit thematically or improve upon the existing minion characteristics.

 

[Golden Heretic Snakeboat]

Stardust Dragon, Cell, and Terraprisma - They are already pretty powerful so I cant think of anything here honestly.

can't think of anything for star cell and terraprisma, but the ability for dragon could be that all of the segments split off from eachother and attack seperately, while reducing each segment's damage to what it would be if you only summoned the dragon once, which would also solve the issue of star dragon taking 3 seconds to kill some stupid green slime because it's targeting is utterly wack

 

[OtherGeneric_User]

Main Ability - The Ceremonial Dagger, when used, will cause summons to temporarily use a special ability or behavior at the expense of 20-35% of the user's health and maybe defense as well. If there is more than one type of summon out then a scroll wheel will appear, allowing the player to choose which summon gets the ability activation. The idea here is that the summoner is giving blood to strengthen their pact with their summons. The Ceremonial Dagger will have a cooldown similar to potion sickness. Below I will list the aforementioned abilities of each summon. Also if I just label them as "Simple boost in speed and damage" that means I couldn't think of anything. So feel free to suggest your own. Also, just a reminder, all abilities are temporary and have a cooldown. Depending on the abilities, the cooldowns and drawbacks might vary. Lastly, summons may change appearances when activated.

Crafting and Progression - Ceremonial Daggers will be crafted pre-hardmode using a small amount of wood along with ores or gems. Hardmode daggers will be the same except they will require hardmode ores, soul material, and boss drops. Progressing daggers will increase the number of active summon types that can have their abilities activated per dagger use. The more powerful ones will inflict a debuff upon use.

Why I think this should be added - As we know, the Summoner class is relatively recent and seems a bit incomplete. It also gets a rap of being the class where you "do nothing" and let your minions do everything, and that's actually how it feels at times, especially in late game progression where the summons practically replace the need for player input. The other issue I have with Summoner is how there isn't too much of a reason to use pre-endgame minions for too long of a time, or at least use them in conjunction with other minions.

The Ceremonial Dagger solves some of this by giving special utilities to summons to increase their usefulness and diversify the possible strategies/play-styles available to the player. It also increases the risk taken by the Summoner, which makes the class more fun, challenging and deeper overall. This could be inspiration for Terraria 2 if it doesn't make it in here.

~~~~~Summon Tweaks~~~~~ ​

• Finch - Upon activating the ceremonial dagger, the Finch will do one of two things: If the player does not have wings, the finch will carry the player as a rudimentary and inferior form of early flight. This is activated by a double jump. If the player has wings, jet boots, or a mount, the Finch will generate gusts with its wings, which will increase the speed and flight time of the player for increased mobility. This all scales with the number of Finches btw.
• Slime - The slime's ability is to temporarily turn into the last thing you killed that wasn't a boss or NPC. This is going off the idea that slimes are the precursors to modern life forms in the world of Terraria (If the lore im referencing is correct at least). If you have multiple slimes, like 5 for example, they will copy the last five killed enemies in order and stay that way until the ability runs out.
• Abigail - Will possess and control any non-boss enemy that the player clicks on with a whip in hand. No matter what it becomes, it will retain its ability to travel through solid objects. The use of more than one minion slot will strengthen Abigail as she possesses other mobs.
• Flinxes - Will inflict a frozen debuff that doubles the damage of the next hit from the player or a different type of summon.
• Vampire Frogs - Vampire Frogs will become more aggressive and damaging, being able to jump faster and higher while sticking surfaces if they need to.
• Hornets - Simple boost in speed and damage/Ideas Needed
• Imps - Imp fireballs will become homing, much larger, more damaging, and will explode into ricocheting/bouncing fire with piercing.
• Spiders - The spiders will quickly weave a web around the player and continue to do so as the player moves. The web will allow the player to quickly and freely move while any enemies or bosses caught in it are slowed down. The spiders will also have a chance to lay eggs as they move that will hatch into temporary smaller spiders that will swarm the enemy and inflict the acid venom debuff.
• Sanguine Bats - The Sanguine bats will have a chance of making a heart drop from an enemy when hit as well as decreasing the enemy's attack and defense by a certain amount.
• Pirates - Each Pirate will temporarily "steal" a weapon from your non-hotbar inventory and use it. Might make them pretty useful.
• Enchanted Daggers - Simple boost in speed and damage/Ideas Needed
• Twins - The Retinazers will brighter and more powerful lasers, while Spazmatism will become more aggressive and sometimes spew its signature cursed flames.
• Pygmies - Will restrain whipped enemies with poisonous vines that resemble Platera's vines. Normal enemies will be restrained while bosses will be slowed down variably. The duration on both regular enemies and bosses depends on how many pygmies are present.
• Desert Tiger - Pretty powerful already
• Deadly Spheres - Will temporarily orbit the player and form a force field around themselves individually that blocks any attack. However, they will phase on and off at unpredictable intervals and orbit at a set speed. Enemies that touch the fields will be damaged and enemies that are whipped will be hit with bolts of energy streaming from the fields.
• Ravens - The Ravens will become faster and more aggressive. On top of this, they will cast illusions of the player over themselves, temporarily confusing the focus of enemies. The enemy/boss will attack whatever is closest to them, whether it be the actual player or their illusion.
• UFOs - Simple boost in speed and damage.
• Tempest Tornados - Will spread out a bit and summon wind gusts to blow projectiles away.
• Stardust Dragon, Cell, and Terraprisma - They are already pretty powerful so I cant think of anything here honestly.

I like the concept of activating a special ability, but I feel like the ones in this post would be very broken (I read that you are rethinking special abilities so I won't talk much about current abilities), maybe increasing the life penalty even 40%/50% Or make this ability only last about 5s-7s to compensate for your considerable increase in damage.

Pd:For Stardust cells it could be that all the damage that their debuff was going to do over time is done immediately (removing the debuff)
And I think maybe if they add this mechanic, Even if it's with the mushroom BOI of dead cells

 

[BluuMoon3]

I like the concept of activating a special ability, but I feel like the ones in this post would be very broken (I read that you are rethinking special abilities so I won't talk much about current abilities), maybe increasing the life penalty even 40%/50% Or make this ability only last about 5s-7s to compensate for your considerable increase in damage.

Pd:For Stardust cells it could be that all the damage that their debuff was going to do over time is done immediately (removing the debuff)
And I think maybe if they add this mechanic, Even if it's with the mushroom BOI of dead cells

Which ones in particular were broken? Might help with my draft that Im working on

 

[Orchamut]

can't think of anything for star cell and terraprisma, but the ability for dragon could be that all of the segments split off from eachother and attack seperately, while reducing each segment's damage to what it would be if you only summoned the dragon once, which would also solve the issue of star dragon taking 3 seconds to kill some stupid green slime because it's targeting is utterly wack

The poor targeting is one of the only things that can give Terraprisma and Cell an edge over it though. It's a fair trade from what I've seen.

 

[OtherGeneric_User]

Which ones in particular were broken? Might help with my draft that Im working on

The sanguine bats: their damage even after the nerf I consider that it is still very good so I consider that lowering the enemy defense, but reducing their attack and having a probability of Dropping hearts I see it well.
The spider staff:I think just slowing down the bosses would be enough .
The Pirates: (I don't know if it's something you had planned but you ignored that detail), the weapons that the pirates steal, if they are a ranged weapon, will have to use ammunition and the same with the magician's weapons, And also that you do not benefit from the summoner's damage (because it would be practical like playing in multiplayer but the boss would not have a life buff, I agreed) And also if they use whips that they do not leave the tag.

The raven: The crows themselves have a great offensive capacity in terms of damage, that's why I think that increasing her attack speed even for a few moments would mean that instead of taking ¼ of the empress's life in a sun dance you would take away about ⅓ (with full ofensivo equipament)

And those would be the ones that I consider to be broken.