I've collected all of them and I've only used 1 and that was also only because I thought "well all right, let's summon Mr. Yurgir cause throwing bombs around is fun".
I played the game blind, didn't check any guides or other playthroughs, so I had absolutely *no* idea when I would need those allies. Which made me "save them" for the dark hour. And the dark hour never came.
I'd like there to be some incredibly difficult battle, well-telegraphed as a "this is the hard part, go wild!". It would also be nice if summoning them didn't take away my team's actions, because at the start of the courtyard fight (and I suspect this is where you ought to use them?) I needed those more than any ally summoning to set up the battlefield and, well, win.
I really like the idea of gathering the allies in games and having more of them changing the flow of the encounters, making extremely difficult fights into bearable fights, or enabling different solutions that lead to better story outcomes (best! fights can be won/cheesed/outsmarted, but stuff like "if you saved X then Y can survive the fight" are always going to be rewarding).
I'm not sure if you can even summon any of them atop of the brain, because there was *no time* to even try doing it. Much less justifying such choice. I needed my team to move fast, get to the illithids on the brims, ignore the dragon and whatever was going on on the central arena, and get to channeling the crown. It was 4 turns to do it all and since I ran without haste potions, I needed all of those turns to get around, kill what needed dead, and get inside the portal.
The courtyard fight, like I said, I didn't even know if it was *the* time. And it wasn't difficult enough to convince me it was.
I felt it was a waste, basically, but could potentially be fixed easily by a few strategic buffs to encounters and maybe a line of dialogue to denote "yes, now!"
I think it has a potential to be *really* hype. I'd love to see it realized next time I play! Haha.
