Low to mid level Elemental summoner. Effective?

[Albions_Angel]

So the current elemental companion thread has me thinking. Most games I play lie in the level 1-12 range.

Is there any way to make an effective elemental summoner for 3.5. Someone that focuses on summoning, taming, binding, something like that. Elementals. Elementals are fun.

If there are ways to do that, what classes/feats/spells are best? And when does it come online as a concept?

[Bullet06320]

there's always the summon elemental reserve feat

starting with summon monster III you can start summoning elementals

Rashemi Elemental Summoning feat to make certain elementals better

[Zombimode]

There is also the Water Devotion feat that allows the summoning of water elementals. Like most devotion feats, it scales with character level.

[paranoidbox]

Augment Summoning and Augment Elemental might be right up your alley if you pretty much just summon Elementals.

There's also quite a few nice feats in the Netbook of Feats that improve summoning, such as Menagerie and Summoning Concentration (not sure if that's the correct name, but you'll find it if you look for it). Although I'm not sure how much weight the NBoF holds, I never see it mentioned anywhere, so I'm guessing a lot of people just discount it?

[Grod_The_Giant]

A level 1 Desert Wind boost, Distracting Embers, summons a small fire elemental for a round, though I don't think it actually does anything.

paranoidbox- The NBoF, which I've never heard of, is third-party and thus usually assumed to be off the table. It's also on D&DWiki, which is... neither well-liked or well-trusted 'round these parts.

[Pluto!]

So the current elemental companion thread has me thinking. Most games I play lie in the level 1-12 range.

Is there any way to make an effective elemental summoner for 3.5. Someone that focuses on summoning, taming, binding, something like that. Elementals. Elementals are fun.

If there are ways to do that, what classes/feats/spells are best? And when does it come online as a concept?

Summon Nature's Ally's accelerated Elemental summoning progression, Elemental Companion and Summon Elemental make Druid the most Elemental-y Elemental Summoner. Alternatively, Archivist, if you can game Spirit Binding (or Spirit Ally, if you don't use the 3.5 update) into your spellbook.

[Fizban]

Summoning elementals for combat via spells is absolutely terrible until SNA 5 for Large, though you can summon Smalls for utility at SNA2. Summon Monster is terrible for elementals since they're delayed for no reason.

Summon Elemental and Water Devotion have been mentioned as alternate low level sources for elementals. Rashemi Elemental Summoning has been mentioned for improvement, and is extremely powerful. The Demented One had a nice homebrew feat among the list here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?11032-Many-Many-MORE-Feats!-Peach), or open the spoiler. Note that it won't stack with Augment Summoning, but is easier to get and has other benefits.
Elementalist
You are well-studied in the ways of elementals*.
Requirements: Knowledge (The Planes) 8 ranks, True Neutra; alignment
Benefit: You get a +2 insight bonus on all Charisma checks made to influence elementals. Whenever you summon or call an elemental, it gets a +4 enhancement bonus to Strength, Constitution, and Charisma for the duration of the spell. Finally, you may conduct a sylvan ritual, lasting 1 hour and requiring 100 gp worth of expensive material components, to summon a small elemental of any type, which serves you for a number of hours equal to half your Knowledge (The Planes) check, made at the height of the ritual.
Fey Heritage+Fey Legacy has among it's benefits SNA 5 1/day, can be taken by any character.

1st level spells Animate Fire and Animate Water transmute and control a Small elemental of that type for up to 1 round/level with concentration, while Summon Elementite Swarm is a solid DoT spell (potentially X or die with water elementites) at 4th, and Summon Greater Elemental lets you grab those a level early if you're willing to concentrate at 6th. These are all Druid spells.

If you want to focus on one powerful elemental rather than summoning based on the situation, the Bonded Summoner PrC from Miniatures Handbook is pretty solid. You lose a lot of casting over time but your elemental companion scales much faster than others, while the persistence and possible control you might have over it's choice of feats are significant advantages and it's easily replaceable if lost. As an arcanist with reduced spellcasting you'll be terrible at summoning spells, but you've still got plenty of buffs and can use tricks like Deliver Touch Spells+Scalding Touch (like Chill Touch, but with 9d6 damage per touch instead of 1d6) for massive damage.

There are some other elemental summoning/binding PrCs, but frankly I don't think they're any good. At least not for actually summoning elementals.

Base classes, Druid wins by a landslide. Druids have the earliest access to elementals with their 1st level animate spells, followed by SNA2+ and spontaneous SNA, you can trade your animal companion for an elemental companion (not as good as Bonded Summoner but no lost casting of course), and take as few or as many feats as you want. An elemental domain cleric might sound like a good idea, but you can only control elementals with half your hit dice via rebuke/command, when elementals rely on inflated hit dice to remain relevant, and clerics have to use Summon Monster instead of SNA.

For gear, consider the X Elemental Power weapon ability from DMG2. The weapon has to already be +1 and Energy first, but the summoning is cheap to add on so you only pay 18,000 for a Large Elemental 1/day-and it comes with a +1 Energy weapon you can swing around. Nice to have for a Bonded Summoner who won't be able to cast summons worth noting, Druids can buff and bash and might appreciate having a backup (it's a lot cheaper than Pearl of Power 5th). Pricing gets worse past large but if you could convince your DM to add say +1/rank to your energy damage you could still get your money's worth and you can't really afford more than a +3 weapon until after 12th unless you skimp on other gear anyway.

[nedz]

There is also the Water Devotion feat that allows the summoning of water elementals. Like most devotion feats, it scales with character level.

Not since the Errata. For some reason this is the only devotion feat which you cannot power by means of Turn Undead - post Errata. This means you can do this once per day per feat slot spent.

Is it worth mentioning the Fire domain granted power which allows you to Rebuke / Command / Bolster Fire elementals ?
You just need a source for them - another summoner perhaps ?

[Bullet06320]

There's also quite a few nice feats in the Netbook of Feats that improve summoning, such as Menagerie and Summoning Concentration (not sure if that's the correct name, but you'll find it if you look for it). Although I'm not sure how much weight the NBoF holds, I never see it mentioned anywhere, so I'm guessing a lot of people just discount it?



The NBoF, which I've never heard of, is third-party and thus usually assumed to be off the table. It's also on D&DWiki, which is... neither well-liked or well-trusted 'round these parts.

D&DWiki is one source I usually stay away from myself, but always looking for new material at my table,(I have a huge 3rd party library), those 2 feats don't seem too broken for a summonor build

[Pluto!]

Dandwiki hosts a lot of d20 OGL material that originated elsewhere. Now that the Grand OGL Wiki is down, it's the most concise reference on some of those old materials.

Summoning Concentration seems like a great feat without readily-apparent abuses out of line with the cost of a feat slot.

Menagerie seems very powerful but inelegant.

I'd comfortably run the Summoning Concentration, but not Menagerie in my games. SC doesn't seem great for this character archetype though, because Summon Elemental already exists for utility purposes at even lower resource cost, and because low-level elementals aren't great, so extending durations for combat purposes won't be helpful for elementals.