Does Astral Construct compare favorably to Summon Monster?

[Ellrin]

I'm looking at making a character based pretty nearly entirely around summoning (and buffing those summons), and I was curious how well a psionic character could pull it off. Seems like at least two levels of Psion with the metacreativity discipline are basically necessary to make astral constructs as versatile and/or powerful as possible, but even then, and even with feats like Boost Construct and Advanced Construct, I'm having a hard time pinning down how the potential versatility and power of astral constructs would compare to a summoner or sorcerer focused on summoning at similar levels—or maybe even compared to T1s. I'd be interested in hearing what others think of how they compare at early, mid, and late levels, and if there are any other tricks to increasing utility/power that I'm unaware of.

[RoboEmperor]

Astral Construct has been errata'd to a maximum of 1 at a time.

[Psyren]

Astral Construct has been errata'd to a maximum of 1 at a time.

That's indeed the case in 3.5, but DSP consciously chose not to port that rule into Pathfinder.

[RoboEmperor]

That's indeed the case in 3.5, but DSP consciously chose not to port that rule into Pathfinder.

I am blind to the pathfinder tag in topic posts for some reason @_@. Not once do I ever notice it before I post something.

Sorry!

[Ellrin]

So you can have multiple astral construct manifestations going at the same time, just like summon monster spells, which is good, but... how do astral constructs actually compare with the selection of monsters you can get?

[Psyren]

They're generally better at melee (especially grappling), particularly due to their potential size and the raft of immunities that constructs get.

Summons meanwhile tend to have more utility due to all the SLAs you can get access to from a single SM spell.

The nice thing about AC though is that you only need one power to get them all, rather than 9 spells.

[Calthropstu]

Astral construct beats out summons in some ways, underperforms in others.
Advantages:
Better melee combat feats available (whirlwind, great cleave, etc)
Higher dirability (nice dr, better ac great hp)
Better combinations of feats/abilities.
On the spot versatility... you can make selections to adapt the constructs as needed.
1 hour per level utility. If you have the feat, you can keep them out very long, using them outside of combat.
Construct traits shouldn't be underestimated.
Shaping. You can shape the construct however you like... so shaping it like a boat and giving a swim speed...
No alignment type.
Higher attack bonus... will hit consistently.

Disadvantages:
Very few psi like abilities. You can give them an energy bolt, but otherwise not much use - especially outside of combat.
No intelligence.
Horrible saves.
Their dr is easy to overcome.
Lower damage.
But the biggest disadvantage is you can't split them. Unlike summons, you can't say "I'll summon 1d3 6th lvl constructs for the 7th lvl price."

[RoboEmperor]

Summon Monster: Superior to Astral Construct. If you want a better summoner, you go summon monster.
Astral Construct: Different, but good enough. You will pull your weight in a party.

So you pick based on what YOU like. Both are playable, but summon monster is superior.