Making a Summoner, Need Advice

[5w337x7007h]

My soon-to-be former character is going to be retired (may commit suicide), because of her failure to protect a town from enemies she should be able to walk all over.

So I want to replace the character with a Caster. I was looking at a Sorcerer, or maybe a Summoner.

Background is going to follow a backstory that I haven't used in quite a while. It involves a girl being enslaved by an Ogre Mage and used as his apprentice and vessel for his children. A paladin discovers knowledge of the girl and valiantly charges in to slay the Ogre and save her. He manages to get away with her in tow and (Plot Twist) after setting up camp for rest, she kills him in his sleep with his own weapon. After that she wanders, gathering power to build an empire in the name of her dead owner.

Using what knowledge she gathered of Thassilonian history she is looking to use a group of adventurers to claim a lost city as her own. Underhanded and damned evil, she'll make ends meet however she can, even at the cost of party members, though she'll do her best to make it look accidental or at the hands of someone else.

[Extra Anchovies]

We'll need to know A) the rest of your party and B) what exactly you want help with.

[5w337x7007h]

We'll need to know A) the rest of your party and B) what exactly you want help with.

Sorry, for being non-descript about the rest of the party. So far we've got an Monk Archer, a rogue, a witch, and an Elemental Sorc (that isn't always here). We need a tank, but at every attempt to build one, I've ended up dying because of party disorganization.

My current attempt is a successful failure. I built what I was hoping for, but when she's raging her resistances make her impossible to buff, debuff, control, or heal by friend or foe.

I need to build a character that can be a tank and caster, which would imply I need to play a Summoner. We deal with Giants regularly and it becomes a problem because my GM is really good at following NPC strategy, exploiting the party's disorganization.

Whatever the case, I need advice on building a Summoner. Where should I start, I know the Eidolon should be large, buffing and spells can clearly come from my summoner, but what should I do for feats, spells, and should I go for a Biped, Quadruped, or Serpentine base? Something to make mince meat of enemies, even if it's one at a time.

[Dimcair]

Conjuration Wizard sounds right. Cast invisibility on yourself, summon some minions and then proceed buffing your people appropriately. Just a normal God Wizard pretty much.

At least I had a lot of fun with it, till my group decided that they rather get hit by the enemies attack themselves as my summons took up too much time (they frequently provoked aoos to clear the path for the party -.-) (And yes, they died soon thereafter).

But if you can build a proper tank it is then your job to organize the party. Its something everybody has to struggle with.
Example A: As the above mentioned Wizard I cast a resist fire spell on the warrior during a in fight situation with a dragon, and told him to distract said dragon. He: "Okay, I'll sneak around this rock so he wont see me coming" (while the rogue and the cleric are getting roasted he wastes the perfectly good buff on him to not do what he would naturally do best......peasant...)

If you can get around that and you are comfortable playing a tank-style character why not do that?

[5w337x7007h]

When I think "TANK" I think of a character that wades out in front, getting support from the casters, flanking with the rogue, and ranged support from the archer. It's not all about fighting though anyways.

So I'm going to build a Summoner, So I can be tank and caster, if push comes to shove. Besides that, the witch isn't a that good at her job. She hasn't once used any of her key abilities that I've seen.

If there's any advice on how I should build my summoner, I'd greatly appreciate it. I enjoy being successful in a campaign, and self-sufficiency seems to be the only way to really survive in this one.

[icefractal]

Summoner is indeed quite good at tanking. I'd say there are three ways to go:
1) Use Summons to tank. In which case maybe be a Master Summoner and use your Eidolon for utility instead of combat. Against book-standard enemies, this works great, and it provides the most tanking power since you can send in reinforcements whenever one goes down.
2) Use the Eidolon to tank. Disadvantage is that you actually care if the Eidolon is damaged. Advantage is that the Eidolon can be optimized more than a Summon, so if the DM is optimizing the foes you'll be better able to keep up.
3) Synthesist. In general, this isn't as good as the above, since you lose action economy and you put yourself in (some) danger while tanking. However, with just one body to worry about, you can be a stronger tank than either of the above. Useful in a high-op game where Summons become ineffective.

So how much the foes are optimized is an important factor. The other factor is not making the other players hate you for monopolizing all the combat time. Some groups don't have a problem with the Summoner's action advantage, some get annoyed.

If your group is the latter, I'm going to controversially recommend the first option. Controversially because it's generally the strongest, especially if using Master Summoner, but I think with the right strategy it overshadows people the least while still providing the power you need.
1) Only summon 1-2 things at a time. Even if you go MS, hold off on the hordes unless you really need to. Focus on single strong creatures instead of quantity. Evolved Summon Monster is nice for this.
2) Don't have the Eidolon attack things. Use it for utility, or as a mount.

Result is that you're not swamping the field with a half-dozen actions, and your power is harder to directly compare with a non-Summoner - avoiding the "Eidolon is strictly better than the Fighter, makes the latter feel small in the pants" issue.

[5w337x7007h]

I'm gonna go with an Unchained Summoner idea. what would you guys recommend for eidolon evolutions, and a subtype?