Equipment for a summoner cleric

[Darth_Versity]

Exactly what it says on the tin. Im making a lvl 10 dwarven cleric/thaumaturgist with a major in summoning (and a minor in giant smashing) and I'm trying to work out the best equipment.

I dont have Turn Undead (traded it for smite giants) so DMM equipment is not necessary, but what would you suggest to give more potent summons?

[Tvtyrant]

Greenbound and Augment summoning; though you would do better going into Malconvoker.

[Psyren]

Cleric Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=420.msg8435#msg8435) has great suggestions, though keep in mind they kind of expected you to hang onto TU :smalltongue:

[Jack_Simth]

Exactly what it says on the tin. Im making a lvl 10 dwarven cleric/thaumaturgist with a major in summoning (and a minor in giant smashing) and I'm trying to work out the best equipment.

I dont have Turn Undead (traded it for smite giants) so DMM equipment is not necessary, but what would you suggest to give more potent summons?
Metamagic rods of Extend, a Ring of Invisibility (Summoned critters attacking doesn't break your invisibility, you see), Pearls of Power, and rods of Quicken spell (for mass buffs, after you've got a few summons out).

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

What domains, feats, and other ACFs do you already have?

If you're using the Animal domain with Spontaneous Summoner, get a Ring of the Beast (CC), and both Greenbound Summoning (LEoF) and Versatile Spellcaster (RotD) are highly recommended.

If you're using the Summoner domain with the PH2 ACF to spontaneously cast those spells, Versatile Spellcaster (RotD) and Summon Elemental (CM) are highly recommended.

The Summon Undead line of spells is considerably strong, if you don't mind casting evil-tagged spells. Summon Undead V for four Troll Skeletons or Ogre Zombies makes for some extremely efficient meat shields and/or melee attackers, but not as good as Greenbound animals.

Get a Circlet of Rapid Casting (MIC), with an Enhancement bonus to Wisdom added to it (MIC) for the same price as a Periapt of Wisdom of the same bonus. Not exactly great for summoning, but you can cast a low-level crowd control such as Ice Slick (Frostburn), Hold Person, or Silence (on a point in space so no saving throws) as a swift action, or even cast Desecrate if you're using Summon Undead.

There are specific holy symbols in Complete Champion, get an Ehlonna's Brooch modified to include the Nature's Children effect in the sidebar, to give your Summon Monster and Summon Nature's Ally creatures +1 HP per HD, and gives you +1 CL when summoning animals.

There aren't all that many summoning-specific magic items. Just pick some generally useful items (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=187851) and you should be fine. Definitely get a Lesser Metamagic Rod of Extend, for Magic Vestment on your armor and shield every day. A standard Strand of Prayer Beads which has had the Bead of Smiting removed will only cost you 9,000 gp per DMG pricing, the Bead of Healing is extremely handy and the Bead of Karma will give you +4 caster level for your buffs each day. Be sure to cast Greater Resistance every day.

[Akal Saris]

C. mage or C. Arcane also has the ring of master summoning, which for 12K allows you to double summons' HPs at the cost of 1/2 duration, 3/day.

As the previous poster said, summoning-specific items are quite uncommon, so your best bet might simply be focusing on general utility items to help you do things besides summoning (like beating up giants).

[Nepenthe]

I'm a fan of mouthpick (LoM) spiked chains... solely for the mental image.

[Darth_Versity]

Cheers for the suggestions, I'd already seen the ring of mighty summons, but beyond that I hadn't found any real good summoner equipment. I guess just general cleric equipment will do (and a large giuant bane warhammer, for the fun of smacking them silly)

Current build
Dwarf Cleric 7/ Thaumaturgist 3
STR 16
DEX 10
CON 16
INT 10
WIS 16
CHA 6

ACF - Smite Giants
Domains - War, Summoning
Feats
Weapon Proficiency - Warhammer
Weapon Focus - Warhammer
Spell Focus (conjuration)
Touch of Healing
Augment Elemental
Augment Summoning
Summon Elemental

He basically summons an earth elemental (or several) and buffs the party as well as possible before moving into melee to assist everyone while using summon elemental to provide a flank buddy.

Outside of combat he checks for traps with summon elemental and keeps everyone healthy with touch of healing.

[Thespianus]

Can I suggest Spontaneous Domains instead of Touch of Healing? Healing is so much cheaper in the form of wands...

With Spontaneous Domains, you leave your slots open giving you the ability to cast either a Summoning domain spell or a War domain spell. It *should* still work with the Summon Elemental Reserve feat, IMHO, but your DM might think otherwise.

EDIT: Maybe it's hard to work into the build, though, given the levels the feats have to be taken at.

[Darrin]

Make sure you pick up some Golden Desert Honey (300 GP, Complete Mage p. 136). Since it's actually dried tree sap and thus vegetable matter, you can get a bunch of it via psionic minor creation (via the Hidden Talent feat, or a friendly neighborhood psion) or by summoning a djinn: pay another spellcaster 910 GP, djinn's major creation SLA creates 20 cubic feet of vegetable matter with a permanent duration.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

First of all, take the PH2 ACF to spontaneously cast your Summoner domain spells instead of spontaneously casting Cure spells.

Second, drop Touch of Healing and use Wands of Lesser Vigor to heal the party between encounters. Take Versatile Spellcaster from Races of the Dragon instead, which will make your Summoner domain spells available two levels earlier than normal. You don't necessarily want to actually use Versatile Spellcaster, but just having it with the PH2 ACF will allow you to go Cleric 5/ Thaumaturgist 5 starting out. At Cleric 5 you can spend two 3rd level spells to spontaneously cast the 4th level Summoner domain spell, Lesser Planar Ally, and meet that prerequisite two levels sooner. When using the Summon Elemental reserve feat you'll be able to count a higher level summoning spell available for determining the elemental's size and duration.

Be sure to get a Ghaele (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/ghaele.htm) for your planar cohort. Just look at all it can do.

[Thespianus]

The Versatile Spellcaster-"trick" for early access is fairly debatable, though, and I would check with my DM before I tried bringing that character to the table.

[Darth_Versity]

Me and my dm have an understanding, no debatable shennanigans and dont do anything over the top. Most early entry and some other things (DMM persist) fall into this category.

We're friends so he generally leaves it to my best judgement to decide what is acceptable and what isnt, and i dont see vertsatile spellcaster as an acceptable method.