Build for a Final Fantasyesque Summoner?

[Scorpions__]

My player wants to play a summoner something like those in Final Fantasy, in a new campaign.

Specifically she wants:
About ten different summons or less.
Maybe elementally themed.


She also wants to be able to hold her own in melee if she has too.






DM[F]R

[Tvtyrant]

PF Summoner with Elemental Summon reserve feat for an endless army of summons for free+Eidolon+all of the summon monster spells.

[Amnestic]

Maybe a Binder with Vestige Summoner (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=171823) prestige class?

[Acanous]

a Malconvoker gets some pretty cool summons, with that whole "Talk to your summons as you summon them" flavor that FF seems to have. Summons demons and devils mostly, but you can still summon elementals.

[TwylyghT]

PF Summoner would indeed seem the best base. Perhaps tweaking the Evolutionist variant to allow the Mutate Eidolon to instead let them have x preset variants of thier eidolon where x is class level/2 or so?

Now a alternate way to approach this could be with psionics and the Astral Construct powers. As they are adaptable on the fly anyway, you could easily figure out a few preset constructs to represent your "Aeons", then name them and fluff them up to fit the abilities. An Ardent for example should be able to do well enough if your going for a focused approach, and they are fair combatants straight up if pressured.

[agahii]

Psion with astral construct, so that the summons are unique, and you are still a psion for when you don't want a summon.

Edit: Damn ninjas

[Tvtyrant]

Or Incarnum Construct in a Sapphire Hierarch build for teleporting ability.

[Kantolin]

A FFX style summer-ner?

A FFIV style caller?

Or a FFXII style... um, summoner?

For the former, most of the above suggestions are probably most wise. Pathfinder Eidolon is probably the most close to the summer-ner... and also is probably most close to the FFXII style summoner too.

FFIV style callers, however, are probably best done with refluffed either warmages or blaster psions, as FF4(through 9) style summons are basically themselves blasts.

...thank you, Jecht, for the handy name. ^_^

[deuxhero]

Warmage 20 with spell thematics


Dones!

[Endarire]

What about a Psion (Shaper) for verstaile 'summons?'

[Kefkafreak]

Maybe a Binder with Vestige Summoner (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=171823) prestige class?

That's sounds more like Persona than Final Fantasy.

[TwylyghT]

FFIV style callers, however, are probably best done with refluffed either warmages or blaster psions, as FF4(through 9) style summons are basically themselves blasts.

I was having a simular thought myself, only about FFT. Sorcerer/Wizard could do it too, sorta. The sheer total field coverage is hard to do at a rational cost though.

Ifrit = Widened Sculpted Fireball?
Moogle = Reached Mass Cure X wounds?

and so forth, all the MMing makes them late bloomers just from waiting on slots, but we can call the first dozen levels or so "grinding jp"

[DMVerdandi]

Archivist 15/Thaumaturgist 5
Use the academic priest feat from dragonlance campaign setting.

Instead of simply using summon monster for random summons, Use the variant in the DMG that summons a specific monster for each level of summon monster.

1. Chocobo (huge chicken)

2.Valefor (celestial eagle)

3.Sylph (air elemental)

4. Fenrir (Fiendish Dire wolf)

so on and so forth.
Using planar ally for shiva, ifrit, ramuh, and such.

[Amnestic]

That's sounds more like Persona than Final Fantasy.

Perhaps, though with the nature of Final Fantasy summons changing over the years, game to game, I don't think it's so important to perfectly recreate one game's example. As someone else said, arguably a Warmage with Spell Thematics makes a decent FF-esque summoner.

[Psyren]

Warmage 20 with spell thematics


Dones!

THIS. We're all forgetting that FF "Summoners" are glorified blasters.

Shugenja might be an even better fit.

[Scorpions__]

Those are all good ideas, I wonder how balanced the Vestige Summoner is, that's an idea that really intrigues me.








DM[F]R