Here is the run down for why I had to start this topic. Well first off I always play as a wizard (or a pretend necromancer), so for instance in Morrowind, I loved summoning multiple creatures to do the fighting for me (mostly undead guys, Bonelords and Ghosts etc.), while I would stand back and cast spells in the direction of the enemy (that's how I like to play). Let others do the fighting for me. Even still the enemy would break through sometimes and I'd end up pulling out an enchanted sword of some kind or the Staff of Magnus and have to hack and slash that enemy down while still casting spells (very fun) (even with the dice roll type of combat it was very fun). This wasn't the case in Oblivion. Again I played as a wizard, but this time you were limited to only being able too summon one, yes I say again, one creature.
My God that was awful. The battles were no where near as fun to me like they were in Morrowind, because for instance in Oblivion my one skeleton would die and then the monster or bandit would charge strait at me, and it was down to hand to hand fighting again and again and again. For me as a wizard, I hated it. Like here comes the rat again. Well at least it sounds like in Skyrim, the enemy will now behave differently than just charging you all of the time, so that is a very big plus. The best battle I've ever had in the Elder Scrolls series was a battle that took place inside of a house In the city of Mournhold, of the Tribunal expansion. (I usually try to play for real, I don't attack guards and the like for no reason). I don't remember the guys name I think it started with an O, but it was some crazy wizard guy's house. Earlier he had died in the street or pretended to die. So I went and broke into his house thinking he was dead (maybe he dropped a key, I don't remember) and I was promptly met by an Ogre and a Golden Saint and some other stuff. I think the dead wizard was in fact alive and he came rushing down the stairs to do battle. Now I was completely outmatched by him and his minions at the time but I summoned all my Skeletons and Bonelords, every summon spell I had and I fought them. However I levitated up into the corner of the room so nothing could reach me cause it was like a one hit kill from the ogre. My point is, I had like 8 creatures summoned, he had 4 or 5. Yes there was some game slowdown but still it was one of the funnest, most awesome battles I've ever had. I could never do that in Oblivion. Yes I understand about the frame rate and that was probably the reason for only letting you summon one creature, or that the game devs felt that it would be overpowering if more than one creature was allowed to be summoned. I get it. But at least let me summon three creatures out, even if I have to work to get to that point of having three out at a time, fine; at least its three creatures. Because at the end of the day its about choice and how the individual plays. Its about having fun. The Elder Scrolls series is not some online game where everything has to be balanced for every player etc. etc. Its about individual choice, Its about having fun and not being limited. Yes I will admit that I had Morrowind for the Xbox first and I did use the cheat codes for mana, health, and fatigue. I was younger then and I just wanted to have fun. And I did.
Now I'm not trying to sound rude or ungrateful, granted I did have fun for awhile with Oblivion because it was still a new game and the graphics were pretty sweet but there were a lot of things that seemed dumbed-down or too simplified for me to enjoy Oblivion for as long as I did Morrowind. (I'm not going to list all of them... well, the clothing situation for one was kind of bad... well especially the robes for wizards and I have to add that I did not like that there was not a full ebony helmet that covered your face like a mask). To me, Oblivion didn't have a soul attached to it, the way Morrowind did. That being said, Skyrim does seem vastly improved. The faces, for one, are way better than Oblivion's were. I'm very excited, the game looks amazing!

To end all end all. I hope that this time around the game makers allow you to at least be able to summon three creatures. I don't think that's too much to ask. I would also love the idea of being able too summon up to five creatures at a time to go with your Conjuration rank, from 1 creature at novice to 5 creatures at master. At the time I was completely annoyed/disgusted with Oblivion, of the fact that only one creature was allowed to be summoned at a time. It just wasn't fun. I was so irritated that I could not play the way I was used to playing like in Morrowind, that I could never really get into the game and enjoy it like I wanted too. All the things that they added or took away to/from oblivion I was fine with for the most part. They took away levitation, fine. I understand. Not being able to wear robes over armor... well... OK... I'll live with it. But not being able to summon more than one creature... now that's gone too far. But Today I love Oblivion and I play it regularly especially with all the great mods. I can't even look at Morrowind because it hurts my eyes LOL...So I really hope they put more than one creature summoned in Skyrim. Who's with me? PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!!!

He-he-he... Well if anyone took the time to read my long-winded post, I thank you very much. I could not sit by and let Skyrim be release on 11.11.11 without saying something on the subject of summoning. At the end of the day. The games that Bethesda makes are some of the best RPGs I've ever played, and I've played a lot.

Thanks, M

Where is the "I want creatures to stay summoned for as long a time as in Oblivion" option ? I just had to go with "I don′t care" since I couldn′t find it.

Yes... so sorry. It was overlooked. I have corrected the poll

There are so many who claim that they don′t want an "I win" button yet they want the same summoning system as in Morrowind in a game with magicka that regenerates itself in combat.

Heck even 5 people voted for...

There should be a time limit that increases with your lvl for creatures summoned, but once I achieve the rank of Master in Conjuration, my creatures should be able to stay summoned permenently, until they die in combat or until I dispel them.

You even know what that would mean ? It would mean a Master in Conjuration would be able to keep summoning more and more creatures with their regenerating magicka, to be able to charge into a fight with like 40 summoned creatures behind them... even more assuming ones PC or console could handle it.


I didn′t like it 100% in Oblivion but I′d not like to have it as overpowered as it was in Morrowind, I don′t like easy wins.

I don't find any of the answers in the poll fit my opinion

There wasn't an "Other, please explainn" option.

You're right... I have corrected...

a system should be implemented whereby you can choose to have more than one summon at a time, but each summon past the first would render both of a lesser, equal ability. So you could have five very weak skellybobs, or one or two of considerably more strength. It would then make choosing how many to summon (obviously there would need to be a limit) a tactical decision, instead of being based on how many you can summon.

Yes, I know what that would mean. That is why I think there needs to be some sort of cap on how many creatures you can summon, too an extent. Especially since I don't think the consoles would be able to handle a ton of creatures running around on screen. Just not summon 1 for God sake. Summon at least 3, I say. That way, for instance if only 3 or so creatures could (hypothetically) be summoned permanently after becoming a master, at least until they die or are dispelled, it would not be so overpowered, whereas to have 40 summoned creatures, which is unrealistic in my opinion, causing a ruckus is absurd.

Of course someone will always love the idea of having 40 summoned creatures. I would really like it to go back to the way Morrowind was because of how I played. My character was never maxed out with buffs. He was always relatively weak and I never used enchantments on my clothes. My creatures defended me and if the enemy broke through, I was doomed, (Well not always), but I can see how it would be cheap and provide easy wins for others.

Why do you have to bring up the M vs. OB war? People need to stop doing this!!

[ ]-This poll is on topic and fair.
[x]-This poll is just another person trying to make Morrowind look better by using a poll. Sadly, the OP doesn't realize how old and pointless the M vs O battle is.

Other, you should be able to summon your 1/2 of your character level + 1/4 of your conjuration level worth of monsters.

So if you're level 37 with a conjuration score of 70, you would be able to summon (.5*27)+(.25*70) = 36 levels worth of creatures.

That could be a single minataur lord, a couple of werewolves, or a half dozen skeletons.

I kind of like that idea. I would enjoy it, if it was like that in Skyrim. Yes, I agree there would need to be some kind of limit to the amount of creatures summoned. Just don't limit me to one. Lol...

I agree completely, this is a discussion of how conjuration should work in Skyrim, there is no reason why it should include a debate as to which of the two is a better game. Debating the two games might have relevance here if the question is which game had a better approach to conjuration, but which is a better name as a whole is not something that needs to be discussed here, and I will not answer that question.

In any case, I kind of like the idea of increasing the amount of summoned creatures the player can have at one time based on the level of one's conjuration skill, though kept within a reasonable limit for the sake of balance and performance. And I'd say that you should be able to summon fewer of stronger creatures than weaker creatures, so you don't have three of the most powerful creatures running around at the same time. This might even mean that players might still have a reason to consider using weaker summon spells even when they can use stronger ones.

As to the duration of conjuration spells, I actually like the idea I think I saw in another thread of having them be permanent until the creature is killed or banished, but that as long as a summon spell is active, it slowly drains your magicka, with the speed at which it drains increasing with stronger spells. There should also be an option to banish creatures that you've summoned. This way, your summons can last as long as you need them or can keep them alive, if you have enough magicka, but it doesn't make it so you can just cast the spell and not have to worry anymore until the creature dies since you have to make sure it doesn't drain all your magicka (And if you run out of magicka when summoning spells are active, they should automatically wear off.)

What limits what kind of creatures you can summon should be your conjuration skill, not your level. Why would you want it otherwise? Or would you say that other schools should be like that too? If that were the case, then it would seem rather pointless to try to raise your magicka skills quickly as even if you get them high enough to cast high level spells, you're still going to find you can't cast them due to your current level not being high enough.

This is a profound issue in my opinion. All I want do, is to be able to summon more than one creature. You could not do this in OB. That is why there must be an M vs. OB war.

They could make them work like the persistent spells in Dragon Age.

Instead of spells that either you cast and they last a certain amount of time, or spells that you cast and they constantly drain magicka, you would cast a spell and its magicka cost would be subtracted from your max magicka pool.

So if you've got a max magicka reserve of 240 and you cast a spell reflection (60 magicka) and summon an imp (40 magicka), those effects would last until you dismissed them (or the imp was killed) but your maximum magicka would now be 140 while those spells are active.

That's interesting I never knew you could summon more then one creature in morrowind. I usually use the summons to refill Azura's Star. Would I like an option to summon more then one creature maybe but if it's implemented also have the Enemy Mages be able to do it as well.

In Morrowind I had enchanted rings with constant hungers, a constant levitation deadric tower shield, and amulets enchanted with area effect damages!.. I always had those rings equipped... whenever guards tried to kill me I would levitate far above them, while casting my amulets effect and watching my minions take care of 'em... I miss that ability in Oblivion...

Thank you. And further more, never mind the poll or the M vs. O battle. I'm not trying to make Morrowind look better. All I'm saying is that I had more fun with Morrowind at the time, than I did Oblivion, because of how I played. Today I play Oblivion and still have fun. However, I cannot even go back and play Morrowind because of the combat system and the graphics (yes I know there are mods but I have no time for that) (well I've played M for a little while when I hook up my old Xbox) but ugh...the dice roll situation with swinging a weapon is just to much now. And the patterns of the NPCs in OB are ten times better than the stale, none movement of some of the Morrowind characters. But I will say Morrowind had better robes Hows that for M vs. O. Thank you for your post

My my... I did not realize how touchy people seem to be about this M vs. OB war. I am new to this, so I have no idea. Yes I agree that this discussion does not need to be about which game is better, but needs to be about conjuration: summoning in Skyrim. I am deleting the last Poll question.

I do not want people coming to this board and only talking about how there needs to be no M vs. OB war questions and how its old news, blah blah blah. I thank you for making me realize that the last question is unimportant to the main topic. My main entry is more about how I used to play as far as summoning goes and what I had fun doing, not about which title is better. Yes there are a few comments about what Marrowind and Oblivion did and didn't have but I think it's fair since I'm new to the forum world and they are only my opinions in the end.

You are correct. I did not realize how old and pointless the M vs. O battle is. Well I do now. All I want are your guy's opinions on summoning more than 1 creature or summoning in general, thank you. I do not want this topic to go into an age old, pointless debate. Where nothing creative happens and only woulda, coulda, shoulda exists.

One way to handle it is to make summoning with boith hands having the same summons spell create perm summons...

And then have perm summons give you both perks and penalties.... so sommoners can depend on thier minions but HAVE TO if they summon all that many perm at the same time.

I am hoping you can summon a familiar.Hopefully it would be permanent and perhaps give a small boost to magicka or boosts your magicka regen

Oh look another Morrowind VS Oblivion thread in disguise. I see right through your plan, mister.

Here is my two cents. Summons should last as long as you hold onto the spell (Faiding out slowly after you remove, so you can switch and switch back real quick.) tapping the spell, well your summon is out will direct it to attack or move to your target. Holding the spell will drain your mana to empower your summon giving them boosted damage and regenerating health. If your summon dies you can re summon them by clicking the spell. This system lets you have two summons out at a time ,one for each hand, and puts you in a more active role in controlling them.

Nope. No plan. All I want is your opinions about summoning. What I wrote in my post are my opinions, likes and dislikes. Yes it seems to favor Morrowind more but that is because of the context of the time when I first played those games and my impressions of them, and I don't want people talking about them. Jeez what a shame, now I have to spend more time explaining myself than talking about summoning. I will rewrite my entire post if I have too... Now it's just going to be more and more curmudgeons about weather or not this is another M vs. O thread in disguise... "sigh"... the last thing I wanted was this topic to give the wrong impression.