[4E] Summoning

[Aron Times]

The closest I've gotten to using summoned creatures in 4E was when I used Flaming Sphere as a wizard. Back then, there were no rules for summoning; the PHB had pseudo-summoning conjurations that gave the fluff of summoning minus the crunch.

Anyway, I was going through the Compendium when I decided to give summoning powers a look. Here's what I've observed:

1. Invokers summon angels, druids summon animals, wizards summon elementals, and artificers summon constructs.

2. The wizard has the most number of summoning powers. They get one at each daily attack power level and each utility power level.

3. Druid summons get instinctive actions, which is basically a free action that they get if the druid doesn't command them on his turn. Instinctive attacks are usually "attack the last enemy I attacked" type of actions.

4. The artificer summoning fluff has the artificer animating various constructs instead of actually summoning them, but otherwise use the same crunch as other classes' summons.

5. Some artificer summons animate an actual magic item, such as Dancing Weapon (see above).

I could go on, but I guess I'll get to the point. Has anyone played with the summoning rules for 4E, and if so, how powerful are they?

[Kylarra]

Druid summons are pretty nice. Not quite the equivalent of another character, but if you can get them into a situation where their instinctive actions are always beneficial to you (my particular choice is the fire beetle, but our defenders have fire resistance), then it's well worth the action economy.