Make it so that every 10 or 20 solid points into stregthens the Mage's summons (could go to Necros and Spellweavers as well) a tad, then at GM they get 1 extra follower slot? This would allow those that chose to summon Daemons to still be mounted, or to cast an extra EV. Even if the extra follower slot wasn't added, a buff to them would work wonders. You could even say that whatever the Mage's Summon Skill was, would be what the summons skills would be set at.
E.G. - 25% summoning skill translates to 25 Wrestling, Tactics, Anatomy, etc etc etc on the summons. You could even add some HP/Mana/Resists (not the skill, but the armor resists). After attempting a Barracoon spawn, with only 3-4 Dire Wolves on an EV, it goes down quickly without dispatching it's attackers. (this is NOT an actual translation of what I am after as this would render summons for non-Summoning Mages useless, maybe add an additional % like Discordance removes, but the general idea is there) You might could even lengthen the time limit each summon stays around, at GM (or Legendary if a scroll is put in-game) you could make the summon be a permanent familiar (much like the Necro's Summon Familiar spell), on all of the elementals. Not sure how that would work out with the EVs.
As an addon to this change, you could morph Arms Lore into Enhancement, and allow that skill to apply to ALL crafts. That might work better than having Arms Lore work for the Weapons/Armor and your proposed idea of Item ID working for Scribe.
Yes, this might be a dream, but a nifty dream at least.

Another idea to give something to dexers with this boost going to mages would be to allow Animal Lore to provide extra damage to beasts (no Human/Elf NPCs) akin to Tactics.
Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:2505, old post ID:15898