perhaps different summons could do different stuff?



daedra
scamps could be ordered to create distractions or steal important stuff (such as keys from behind a locked gate or a guards pocket. charging up would give a herne instead of a scamp at no extra magika (as the stronger herne is less stealthlike due to having hooves)


daedroths would terrify you enemy's more and act like a juggernaught .

winged twilights would fly, distracting enemies with hit and run tactics and chase dragons

dremora would fight like an average human but with more courage and health. they could use human things like levers, seige equipment and stuff. charging the spell up would give the possibility of a slightly higher rank

xivilai would be great at defence. they should be able to hold of many lesser enemies well whilst put on a narrow path such as a bridge or a corridor in a dungeon so long as they have enough room to swing their claymore .

clanfears would be very fast and agile and able to catch up to any opponent and jump over obstacles . they would not play defensive at all (think of an attack dog)

spider daedra would be aggressive and stealthy (and hopefully have a wallwalking ability) (think of the aliens from the "alien" movies)

dremora archer spell is needed


id like more daedra, but those are just the ones that stand out to me. you should be able to have conversations with them too.



undead

zombies would not be summoned from thin air- instead they should be created by using the "reanimate" spell on dead people.

skeletons should be created by using "reanimate" on a pile of bones. if different bones are used a different skeleton will be made.

ghosts, wraiths and banshees would be made by using a "summon spirit" spell in a certain areas. better ghosts come depending on the area, luck and skill.


there should only be three spells related to summoning undead (not including "turn undead")

lesser reanimate (zombies,smaller skeletons)

greater reanimate (more powerfull spirits inside people to make zombies and larger skeletons possibly including mammoths and dragons)

summon spirit (ghosts,wraiths,banshees- you could probably get a spirit inside of you to boost attributes- every kind of spectre except for nether liches )

and "dispell" should work against undead depending on the magnitude

Me likey...

I don't like the locational undead spell, but the dremora archer spell is a must.

Though instead of dremora I'd perfer golden saints and dark seduccers.

There should definitely be a far greater variety of Daedra. ALL of those we have encountered should be present, AND capable of being summoned, as well as new representatives of the Lesser Daedra allied with any Daedric Princes whose allies and servants we have not yet seen or encounted (Sanguine's, for instance).

Also, there should be the ability for longer summons, AND, through performance of certain rituals, Permanent summons.

Would like daedra and undead to have a chance of making the enemies run away in fear, but more so on the civilian and bandits than the toughened soldiers.

I like these ideas, but I want to be able to summon different kinds of Wraiths and stuff, not just have one spell that depends on skill and location.

and luck- think about it, you could call a wraith to you at level 30 conjuration- or you could call a ghost to fight a xivilai <_<

I like the animate-dead proposal. It feels more interactive with the environment.
There are game design issues to take into account for that, and there are other games which have have handled it well which may be referenced. In particular, if you reanimate every dead body you find, soon you have a massive mob following you wherever you go. Which might sound awesome to have an undead army, but due to the easy supply of dead bodies (mostly created by the slain foes of your undead army,) this army grows exponentially and makes the game too easy.
One of the Rogue-like games out there got around this problem by making undead too unintelligent to be able to use staircases, thus limiting a zombie/skeleton to a single dungeon level. More to the Elderscrolls' design might be to have a reanimation only last for a short duration before the corpse falls back to the floor.

Fully agree with the Deadra part, but with the skeletons, it would become less Summoning and more Necromancy. :shrug:

They might not exist anymore, CoC Sheogorath might have had different ideas.

i think it would be cool if you could summon more than one at a time

I really like the summons in Oblivion. The only thing I would change is animations: the undead should rise from the ground, Daedra should come out of portals to Oblivion, etc. Options to summon animals in a sort of Beastmaster fashion would be cool, too -- hawks flying down from the sky, wolves and bears running into the fight... You know.

How would any of this work in a house? You got me. And BGS has said time and again that they're vastly improving spell animations, so I'm not concerned.

yea, but that those sound like a good idea

oh- and you should be able to have a conversation with what you summon

The Undead idea would be cool as an addition, cast a spell on a skull and send it flying at your opponents.