I'm playing with my fifth character (or, at least, the fifth to make it at least into his mid-20's), and I've finally discovered that Conjuration is the bomb. No worries anymore; if I walk into a tough encounter, I just conjure up a tough ally to fight for (or with) me. Right now, I'm at Level 22, my Conjuration skill is 89, and my Intelligence is 100. I have hotkeyed "Summon Daedroth" and "Summon Spider Deadra." The Daedroth seems to clobber the enemies much better than the Spider Deadra.

Which summoned creature is the most powerful ally I can possibly conjure? Which one should be my "go to" for the nastiest encounters?

And does my summoned ally get more powerful based on my Conjuration skill? For example, is the Deadroth I conjure with a skill of 89 better than the one I conjured with the minimum skill of 75? Or is a Daedroth a Daedroth, and I get the same one no matter the skill?

Never liked the Daedroth. I thought it was gonna be badass but it turned out to be slow and useless. What I like are Wraiths as they can′t be hurt with normal weapons. I made a thread on summons, check it out if you want

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1163730-favourite-summon/page__view__findpost__p__17101124__fromsearch__1

And no, your summon does not get stronger as you level up. If you can summon it, that′s how strong it will ever be.

Very interesting. Thank you very much.

The best and most popular summoning choices seem to be "Summon Clannfear," and "Summon Dremora Lord." I will make it a priority to get them.
Another one that intrigues me is "Summon Voracious Hunger," less popular though it may be.

Too bad I can't summon more than one at a time !! (Oh well. Can't have everything.)

(And I can hardly wait to see these spells in Skyrim.) :biggrin:

Glad you liked it. Feel free to post there too what summon you like

Strange you should mention that. For many, many character I always avoided the Daedroth in favor of the Clanfear. But for some reason my current character seems to prefer the Daedroth. It has great health, and the fire breathing is pretty helpful.

But in my opinion the best summons depends on the enemy. For example:

Daedroth is a great meat shield, which lots of health, shield, and decent attacks.

Clanfear is good for spell casters that run away. Very aggressive and can catch the necros and conjurers.

Storm Atronach is another great "meat" shield (more of a rock shield I guess). Particularly against Goblin Shaman that use shock spells - since the Storm Atronach is immune to those

Xivilai is good against Liches because of it's spell absorption

Dremora Lord is a great general purpose summons

Wraiths (Faded or Gloom) are good against several types of enemies. In particular enemies that don't have an Enchanted, Daedric or Silver weapon. It's fun to watch some warlord with an Ebony or Glass warhammer try to attack a Wraith and fail.

Liches are good for distraction. They don't attack fast, but there attacks are powerful. Unfortunately much of the time they just float around an mumble. But they do have spell reflection - which is good against spell casters. And like I said, when they do get around to attacking, the attacks can be powerful.

My fave general purpose 'go to' summon is the clannfear. They are crazy mean, nasty fast, attack in a heartbeat, reflect damage and not too expensive to cast. Ranged attack? Hell, with their speed, they ARE a ranged attack.

One of Buffy's primary panic buttons is a combo spell: Summon Spike the clannfear x 60 seconds + invisibility on self x 10 seconds. That 10 seconds gives her time to safely lead Spike to his dinner or gives her a moment to just think what to do next - which is sometimes just to cast another straight invisibility spell and let Spike do what he's good at. He may be scaly and some would call him ugly, but he is just the hero she needs and he is adorable to her. In fact, out of loyalty to him anymore, he is the only summon she will use. Here's some pics of Spike in action:

Before (Buffy's the little elf in black): http://i668.photobucket.com/albums/vv43/Acadian6/ScreenShot870.jpg
After (Take a bow, Spike): http://i668.photobucket.com/albums/vv43/Acadian6/ScreenShot871.jpg

He has routinely astonished her with what he can take down, especially if Buffy hides behind him, holding his tail and casting touch healing spells on him. :tongue:

Use Lich if you're protected against magic. Their area effect spells can kill you. But if you use them, watch it kill your enemies effortlessly.

Wraiths are also good for spellcasters, since they have a Silence spell.

Clannfears are homing missiles, superb reaction time (attacks immediately), and catches up to those annoying mages.

Frost Atronach can also be a meat shield, they can heal themselves.

I wonder why there is no "Summon Dread Zombie"

Apart all those (very interesting thread here) summoned creatures, I like the Xivilai just to see him cast a chameleon spell on himself before attacking :biggrin:

"Kyn and Valkyn!" - Dremora Lord

My man. I had an army of them once. I used the Bound Armor glitch. Yes I feel bad....not. It was fun.

I had 4 followers and myself, all geared out in Daedric Armor and Claymores, Summoning DL made it 6. We kicked some serious ass. It was great. After a big slaughter, we would go back to the crib for tea and crumpets by the fire, and tell dead baby jokes...Ah, the times we had.

I've used a few summon clannfear scrolls before (since my conjuration isn't yet up to that standard) and I have to say I really like them. They're quite tough and can run really fast.
Otherwise, as a distraction summon I like the traditional skeleton. They look so mean stalking towards your enemy! Plus I like summoning them whenever I face a skeleton, just to see a skeleton-on-skeleton fight. Who will win first?! :lmao:

Have to agree with the Clanfear -- the reflect damage alone that they have helps wear down the enemy - even if they didn't attack so fiercely the reflected damage is sometimes more than the total damage other summons inflict but they definitely do not just rely on that as they are some of the most aggressive attackers out of the summons as well.

It's also fun to watch a Xivilai summon a Clannfear.

A summoned Xivilai doesn't summon a Clannfear.

I like Dremora Lords, although I've never tried Clannfear so don't let me put you off them.

I've had them do it, but may be a Bashed Patch setting. I lose track of mods sometimes.

Never liked Daedroths in Oblivion, their lack of poison attacks makes me dislike them.

My favorite summon would have to be the Clannfear, probably not "the best" but I really love their speed, relentlessness and the damage reflection they have.

Savlian's already made the point of matching the summon to the enemy, but also consider your own character's gaps and fill them with the appropriate capabilities. To mangle an old saying "don't summon a dog if you can bark yourself".

I just had another Xivilai summoned with the Sanguine Rose summon a clannfear just a few minutes ago, so I am now 100% positive it will do so. And the UESPwiki backs me up: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Sanguine_Rose

It may be unique to the Sanguine Rose summoned Xivilai. Unfortunately my current character doesn't have a high enough Conjuration Level to test it out with just the Summon Xivilai spell.

Indeed. For example, Teresa cannot fight in melee, http://youtu.be/dMWxLZkbdtY

The UESP also says, on the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Daedra: "Summoned versions of creatures are unable to summon underlings."

Well, since I just saw it happen, and not for the first time, I think the info under Sanguine Rose must be correct.

Gosh, it seems pretty clear, to me at least. A summoning spell or scroll produces the form id for a summoned Xivlai which cannot summon a clannfear. Sanguine's Rose produces the form id for a normal Xivlai who can summon a clannfear.

Does that make sense?

:foodndrink:

Same with summoning Spriggans who also summon their own summon.

Did that make sense?

Yep! Thanks, I'm glad it's not just my game being weird.