I've heard that the summoned shield and sword are inferior to crafted versions.....
So! As being able to summon their own weapon and shield is one of the few things that makes KNOC unique, I thought it would be best to change those two spells so the summoned items are superior in some way different then the crafted items besides doing a little bit more damage per swing.
Summoned sword & shield:
- Sword deals a small amount of ethereal fire damage upon every strike (Similar to a fire kicker crystal)
- make the shield deal a small amount of ethereal fire damage upon every BLOCK, or give it a chance to deal a medium to just-a-little-bit-above-medium fire damage every block. I say a little bit above medium because blocking an attack isn't as likely as hitting something, and since it occurs less often - it should have more of a 'reward'.
OR
- make the sword apply a DoT upon every strike. Have it deal ethereal fire damage every tick.
- make the shield apply a DoT upon every block that stacks with the one the sword applies.
OR
- The sword can deal extra damage/apply a dot on a swing, and the shield can apply a minor healing over time effect to the KNOC when they block an attack, or the sword and shield can simply have a chance to apply these effects.
Reasoning behind choosing ethereal fire damage: The "Holy fires of God" and all that, as well as....no one really escapes holy wrath, so I think it should be ethereal because armor doesn't help against the wrath of a god.
Reasoning behind DoT/HoT effect: The sword deals damage, so either a DoT or kick damage type effect seems suitable. As a shield doesn't deal damage but protects against it (unless you shield bash, but I don't think that's possible), I thought applying a healing-over-time-effect would be suitable to aid said shield in protecting the KNOC.
I want to stress the fact that the ethereal fire DoT effect(s) are suggested to be ethereal and therefore must have slightly decreased base damage to compensate, because anything ethereal nearly automatically deals 'decent' damage.
*Disclaimer!* This suggestion comes from what I've seen on the wiki and from what people have said in-game. I have not leveled the school to 100 yet.
Edit: Of the summoned sword and shield could just be socketable somehow, but that seems too 'band-aid fix' or 'the easy way' to me....But still a possibility.