[PF] Making Summoner Fill A Niche

[Volos]

I'm a DM running a campaign with a small group. There are plenty of gamers in my area, but they have trouble meeting up on the one day I have avaliable for gaming. As a result I've lost a couple of players and need to fill a niche. Both the rogue and fighter have dissapeared, leaving a sizable power gap in the party. The one player I have found to join is only interested in playing a Summoner. I'm fine with this, but I need him to work with the current group I have. Details are as follows.

Boris, the fighter, was carrying the group through both roleplay and combat. He nudged the party toward subtle hints or plot hooks to keep things running. The figher was also secretly a wizard casting Disintegrate using his greatsword as a material focus. Somehow he has also been casting Shield Other or Provoke by having such abysmal Charisma.

Miro, the rogue, was providing tactical support in combat and was the group's general skillmonkey. His shyness was a source of curiosity between the other players. And as the lockpick with legs, he got the party into (and out of) more places then they could count. Without his quick thinking (and quicker fingers) the campaign would have started with a total party arrest rather than a daring escape.

So what I need is a general build idea for a Summoner that allows him to not only partially fill the dual roles of Combat Engine and Skill Mongerl; but gives him some fun options. I was initially figuring that he could have an Eidolon that would max out its more Rogue-ish skills but would have a large number of attacks. We are level three at current. He wants a quadruped base form for his Eidolon. While he has yet to give me any details as to the form of the Eidolon, he says he wants to get into breath weapon or web powers later on. The other members of the party are a Dirge Bard who is a great skirmisher and expert spellcaster for a partial arcane, and a Halfling Alchemist who bombs everything in sight but is learning to use his infusions to good effect.

[grarrrg]

...Both the rogue and fighter have dissapeared, leaving a sizable power gap in the party. The one player I have found to join is only interested in playing a Summoner.
...
So what I need is a general build idea for a Summoner that allows him to not only partially fill the dual roles of Combat Engine and Skill Mongerl;...We are level three at current.....he says he wants to get into breath weapon or web powers later on. The other members of the party are a Dirge Bard who is a great skirmisher and expert spellcaster for a partial arcane, and a Halfling Alchemist who bombs everything in sight but is learning to use his infusions to good effect.

The party as a whole looks fairly Arcane heavy, but he says Summoner, then Summoner it is...
Well, it's fairly easy to make the Eidolon the Skill mongrel, but there is no way to get it Trapfinding, that is, the ability to Disarm Magical traps.
The alternative is to have the Summoner take a quick 1 level dip somewhere and HE Disarm the Traps and have the Eidolon do everything else, but that will also weaken/delay the Eidolon.
Hmmm... It would also be handy to make the Summoner Melee-ready...

How about, Summoner 2/Oracle (Seeker (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/oracle/archetypes/paizo---oracle-archetypes/seeker-oracle)) 1, with the Lore (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/oracle/mysteries/paizo---oracle-mysteries/lore) Mystery, taking the Sidestep Secret Revelation. This uses CHA instead of DEX for AC and Reflex Saves. This lets your Summoner skimp on DEX, so he can focus more on STR/CON/CHA (Point Buy or Rolls?).

As for the Eidolon, Breath Weapon is a bad investment, 4 Evo-points means you can use it ONCE per day. 6 Evo-points is 3/day.
For Race, either Half-Elf, for Summoner Favored bonus, or Human for an automatic +1 Skill every level along with normal Favored bonus.

[doko239]

Suggest that he look into the Synthesist archetype. It makes all this much easier.

What level is the group? I highly doubt that your Fighter/Wizard was casting Disintegrate at 3rd level, unless you've been very lenient with the shenanigans :smallbiggrin:

[deuxhero]

You don't need to disable traps unless you are playing a published modual. It's like tracking.


If you really want to make him fit the niche, have him dismiss his pet, throw some Summon Monster goons, command them to walk down the hallway and clear the traps that way.

Alternately, if you are up for Homebrewish stuff, Pazio doesn't think Trapfinding is that big an ability, allowing you to trade it for a bonus feat or some bonus class skills with the two "seeker" archetypes. Let him or his pet grab it as a feat or evolution.

[stack]

Depending on level, the evolution spells can give an instant +8 to any skill the eidolon has by temporarily granting evolution points. Also a way to make the breath weapon useable, since you don't tie-up points for an entire level.

[Barstro]

As much as I like Summoners, I don't see how one could replace a Fighter and Rogue.

A quad with bite, trip, and reach can do a decent job of locking down the enemies while other members do damage. If the alchemist is able to use his bombs in a more of a debuffing role, then a multi-claw eidolon could do more damage. I agree with a prior post that breath is not worth the cost.

The downside of Summoner (and Synthesist) is that many of the rules contradict or are just plain wrong. However, this does give you, as DM, the ability to help that player be what both of you want for the game by using limited houserules.

You might want to take a look at Broodmaster and Master Summoner. They don't fit my play style because I like powerful Eidolons, but can allow for more multi-tasking.

[stack]

Replacing the fighter is easy. Replacing the rogue is a matter of how often you have locks and traps. Many games have so few that you can do without (this is entirely under the DMs control). May limit your sneaky options somewhat, but its not a dealbreaker. Spells can cover a multitude of deficiencies.

[Volos]

@grarrrg: I like the way you think sir, I like the way you think. :smallamused: A single level dip would keep his Eidolon from being too I-get-a-Fighter-as-class-feature-ish. Being less MAD would help him greatly, as his sheet stands so far he was dumping more Stats then he could afford. I hadn't noticed the limited nature of the Breath Weapon evolution, so thank you for pointing that out as well.


Suggest that he look into the Synthesist archetype. It makes all this much easier.

What level is the group? I highly doubt that your Fighter/Wizard was casting Disintegrate at 3rd level, unless you've been very lenient with the shenanigans :smallbiggrin:

The campaign I'm running is uber-urban, not my choice really... the players were given the general idea of a few adventure paths and they chose the one that has them saving a city from the darkness. As such, this new player has been informed that being a druid (his regular) is going to be pretty much impossible. He's also more familiar with 3.5 than Pathfinder. So I offered him the Synthesist, showing him how it's like Wild Shaping and having an Animal Companion all wrapped up into one neat little temp-hp package.

He didn't buy it.

Also, my fighter wasn't really casting Disintergrate, he was just doing so much extra damage over the HP of the foes that I was houseruling a system for his greatsword to destroy corpses... and loot... and the general five foot raidus of where the body once stood... basically everything. Doing sixty damage at level one kinda does that sort of thing. (Alchemist Fire covered Greatsword combinded with Inspire Courage, and Moment of Greatness with a Crit for max damage using Power Attack :smalleek:)

@deuxhero: But I am running a published module. From the DM reviews, player reviews, and the podcasts I'm listening to; removing the traps in this next part of the adventure ruins the adventure. But I don't want to just hand the players a DMPC. I have one in the wings who is currently within the circle of roleplay focus, just in case. Homebrewish doesn't bother me too much, but I was looking for a more RAW option. I like the idea of using his Summon Monster X as Disable Trap Y. It's a strategy my old Malconvoker from 3.5 used quite a bit. "I hate you, so run down this hallway and touch everything. Thanks. :smallbiggrin:"

@stack: Oooh! I hadn't even seen those! Thank you good sir! My player will be happy to hear that, at later levels, he can make good use of those spells. Random temp evolutions, why isn't this a class I give to my BBEG?