Dusk Raven
2015-10-23, 03:54 PM
So, in-between hearing of the Summoner being a tad OP, and not caring for the flavor of APG classes as far as fitting them into my setting went, I wrote off the Summoner for some time. "Hey, I like summoning and all, but why a base class and not a Wizard archetype or PrC?"
Then I read about the Eidolon. And I saw how much customizability it had. In the middle of creating a pretty good facsimile of one of my own villain's monster form, I decided I was utterly in love with the Eidolon. Thus, I wanted to play a Summoner.
But in the process of admiring the Eidolon and trying to fit the summoner to my own setting, I began to focus less on the summoning aspect and almost exclusively on the Eidolon. In my mind, the Summoner became like a Persona-user from the Persona games. The Eidolon is a manifestation of their soul, their will to fight. It represents their inner self - or perhaps what they aspire to be. Thus, their abilities should focus on it. This is not a Druid's animal companion here - they are half, if not more, of a Summoner's fighting potential.
So, to that end, I aim to homebrew the Summoner to take away the unnecessary extras. Note that, given the Summoner's power, the removed features need not be replaced. Anyway, first to go is the Summon Monster as a spell-like ability. The number of uses per day you get it seems quite excessive... or it would if you could use it at the same time as your Eidolon. So obviously, it must go. Next is the spellcasting ability. I'm not particularly opposed to it - I can see how bonding with an Eidolon can give a humanoid some spellcasting ability, after all, so long as it's clear that the Eidolon causes the magical ability and not the other way around. I don't really know what I would replace it with, either, although I could see changing the spell list to focus more on support.
So, that's the short of it. Any suggestions for an Eidolon-exclusive Summoner variant? I should note that I looked through the Summoner Archetypes and found a few I liked but none that fit this role, so I'd like to try and fill that gap. And maybe even apply those changes to the Synthesist, too, since I loved the concept of that variant if not the execution. Maybe we can make it less broken, too...
Then I read about the Eidolon. And I saw how much customizability it had. In the middle of creating a pretty good facsimile of one of my own villain's monster form, I decided I was utterly in love with the Eidolon. Thus, I wanted to play a Summoner.
But in the process of admiring the Eidolon and trying to fit the summoner to my own setting, I began to focus less on the summoning aspect and almost exclusively on the Eidolon. In my mind, the Summoner became like a Persona-user from the Persona games. The Eidolon is a manifestation of their soul, their will to fight. It represents their inner self - or perhaps what they aspire to be. Thus, their abilities should focus on it. This is not a Druid's animal companion here - they are half, if not more, of a Summoner's fighting potential.
So, to that end, I aim to homebrew the Summoner to take away the unnecessary extras. Note that, given the Summoner's power, the removed features need not be replaced. Anyway, first to go is the Summon Monster as a spell-like ability. The number of uses per day you get it seems quite excessive... or it would if you could use it at the same time as your Eidolon. So obviously, it must go. Next is the spellcasting ability. I'm not particularly opposed to it - I can see how bonding with an Eidolon can give a humanoid some spellcasting ability, after all, so long as it's clear that the Eidolon causes the magical ability and not the other way around. I don't really know what I would replace it with, either, although I could see changing the spell list to focus more on support.
So, that's the short of it. Any suggestions for an Eidolon-exclusive Summoner variant? I should note that I looked through the Summoner Archetypes and found a few I liked but none that fit this role, so I'd like to try and fill that gap. And maybe even apply those changes to the Synthesist, too, since I loved the concept of that variant if not the execution. Maybe we can make it less broken, too...