Final Fantasy X - style summoner

[Eldonauran]

Dabbling with character creation, as I tend to do when bored, I have come across a concept I want to try and mimic in the Pathfinder game system. Drawing inspiration from Final Fantasy X, I want to create a character that has a pool of (summonable) creatures that are distinctly different from each other, that level up with the summoner, and stick around for more than just a handful of rounds. I've got a basic idea in mind, sort of a chassis for the concept, but perhaps the playground could offer a few ideas?

Important bits:
The character does NOT have to have the spellcasting abilities of Yuna. We are building a summoner from Spira, not just a Yuna-clone.
Bonus points if we can model the creatures after the Aeons from FFX.
Bonus points if we can diversify the abilities of each summon, giving them a unique role to play in battle and in the field.
Materials available are all 1st party Pathfinder sources, and assume variant rules like fractional BAB/Saves and variant multiclass are available. No 3rd party material at all.
Bonus points if the build is PFS legal, but this is not a requirement.

[Ashiel]

Spheres of Power (http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/) specializing very heavily in Conjuration is probably the easiest route. You can get a pretty large number of exotic critters of roughly the same strength but with different forms and flavors. You can even be like Yuna and get some nice healing magic if you branch out a little bit.

Nevermind, missed the no 3PP stuff.

[arkangel111]

is this a joke? summoner is a base class in PF. a newer version technically supersedes it, at least for pfs but even the new version is still a summoner from FF series. If I remember right there is either an archetype or a feat that lets you summon a creature with different evolutions each time. there is also a spell or feat that lets you augment your summons with evolutions, which you could easily fluff as new creatures entirely.

[Eldonauran]

No, this is not a joke. Perhaps you are not understanding what I am asking for. I want to recreate a summoner from Final Fantasy, as closely as possible with the 1st party ruleset. The "summoner" class really has nothing to do with it unless it can help fulfill the requirements. I would like the character to have the option of summoning a different" "Aeon" with distinctly different abilities to fulfill different roles as the options present themselves. Preferably, the "Aeon" could stick around for longer than just one battle at a time, to serve a role in the field as well. Eidolon, Phantoms, Animal Companions, Familiars, and others could serve as an "Aeon" as far as I am concerned.

If you think there are options for this, could you help narrow the search?

[Florian]

I don´t know FFX and base this on my knowledge of how earlier Summoners in the series worked, so I guess you want something like "Summon Bahamut" to place a new entity on the board that comes equipped with an unique power set and is more or less a character with very restricted abilities in its own right?

I guess the closest to it are the Shaman class using Wandering Hex to access a different set of powers and the Medium class, which can toggle between different roles based on spirit.

[T.G. Oskar]

I don´t know FFX and base this on my knowledge of how earlier Summoners in the series worked, so I guess you want something like "Summon Bahamut" to place a new entity on the board that comes equipped with an unique power set and is more or less a character with very restricted abilities in its own right?

Pretty much the OP's request.

FFX changed the conception of Summons in a big way. While most FF games have Summons be essentially super-strong AoE spells, X has the distinction of making them fully controllable. They replace your entire party and have somewhat unique abilities (each Summon can cast spells, usually related to their elemental focus, and gain specific abilities much like the other characters get). They also have their own "Limit Break" bar, which allows them to unleash their super-move (the power they tend to use on the other FF games; i.e., Ifrit and Hellfire, Shiva and Diamond Dust, etc.)

Thing is, the Summoner class is pretty much meant to reflect that, but focuses on ONE flexible summon instead of multiple ones. Archetypes can modify this, but only so far (i.e., Master Summoner makes your normal summons be a bit more powerful, while Broodmaster lets you have more than one Eidolon in play). From what I've seen, there's no archetype that works like the Summons in FFX (i.e., you can summon only ONE creature from each Summon Monster list, but you can spend your evolution points in each of the creatures you can summon in order to make them distinct), but if that kind of archetype existed, it'd be a spot-on archetype. Don't underestimate the effect of, say, a Celestial Bombardier Beetle with evolution points to make it hardier and better (I mean, Carbuncle as a summon is small and often not very focused on combat, save for FFV where it has the alternate, monstrous form), and most summon-able monsters have spellcasting lists and abilities of their own (Lillend comes to mind; in fact, it's a pretty scary expy for Siren if you could add Evolution points to it). That'd allow you to customize your list of summons, make bonds with them, and you could have each summon "join" as part of an extended quest; by 17th level, you'd get the equivalent of...well, not Bahamut, but the ultimate summon (Anima, KotR, Eden, Crusader...you name it).

But again, no such archetype. A bit of a missed opportunity, because the inspiration is clearly there; in fact, note that the Summoner's "pet" is called an Eidolon, which is the second-most used name for FF's summoned creatures (the no. 1 spot going to Esper, with Aeon and Guardian Force as runners-up).

[Buufreak]

I fully understand the dislike of using 3rd party or homebrew, and that you are wanting to make this as close as possible to summoners like Yuna and Dona. That said, have you checked out the Final Fantasy D20 website? Its all homebrew, but its a very well put together recreation IMO.

[Red Fel]

Okay. If what you're asking for is "can I have a Summoner who summons one of a pre-set list of Eidolons instead of just the one," the answer is "yes, but with caveats."

For example, the Evolutionist (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/summoner/archetypes/paizo-summoner-archetypes/evolutionist) archetype is all about swapping evolutions on your Eidolon. By level 12, you get a 1/day Transmogrify SLA for no cost. Basically, if you designate certain load-outs for your Eidolon's evolutions (e.g. this combination is "Ifrit," this combination is "Ramuh") you can swap them out once a day. The catch is that you can't change the base form (e.g. quadruped, serpentine, etc.).

The Morphic Savant (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/summoner/archetypes/paizo-summoner-archetypes/morphic-savant-summoner-archetype) archetype goes the other direction. You can change between the three base forms, but each has its own fixed attributes, and each has 1 fewer evolution and skill point. So you're basically locking in three different Eidolons instead of one, one for each base form. It's not a full army of Eidolons, they're not freely adjustable, and they must all be Chaos-flavored, but it gets you your choice of three, and you can change that choice on a daily basis.

Keep in mind also that (1) Summoners can use the Transmogrify spell, even without the Evolutionist archetype, that lets them reassign evolutions, and (2) one of the subtypes available to a Morphic Savant (if using Unchained rules) is the Protean subtype, which gains the Change Shape ability of the Protean subtype at level 20.

[Eldonauran]

I fully understand the dislike of using 3rd party or homebrew, and that you are wanting to make this as close as possible to summoners like Yuna and Dona. That said, have you checked out the Final Fantasy D20 website? Its all homebrew, but its a very well put together recreation IMO.
It's not a dislike of 3rd party or homebrew material. It is just not an option as no one at our gaming table (myself included) is interested in learning another complete subset of mechanics that govern magic. We have yet to use all of the 1st party material at our disposal even after years of playing, and branching into 3rd party stuff is just not something we want to do.


The Morphic Savant archetype goes the other direction. You can change between the three base forms, but each has its own fixed attributes, and each has 1 fewer evolution and skill point. So you're basically locking in three different Eidolons instead of one, one for each base form. It's not a full army of Eidolons, they're not freely adjustable, and they must all be Chaos-flavored, but it gets you your choice of three, and you can change that choice on a daily basis.
This is good material. Thank you, Red Fel. That gives me an entirely different base class to consider than what I was originally going after.

[Kaouse]

Just beg your GM to allow you to use the FFd20 Summoner (http://www.finalfantasyd20.com/classes/base-classes/summoner/), since FFd20 is mostly compatible with Pathfinder. I know you said no 3PP, but there's literally no better way to play a Final Fantasy Summoner...than the Final Fantasy Summoner.

[Eldonauran]

Just beg your GM to allow you to use the FFd20 Summoner (http://www.finalfantasyd20.com/classes/base-classes/summoner/), since FFd20 is mostly compatible with Pathfinder. I know you said no 3PP, but there's literally no better way to play a Final Fantasy Summoner...than the Final Fantasy Summoner.
Oh, there will be no 'begging'. The character is highly unlikely to ever actually see play. I am merely toying with the mechanics available to see how close I can get. So far, I've managed to get fairly close. Druid 17 / Spiritualist 3

Chocobo Mount (Axebeak: Animal Companion/Mount) [Via eldritch heritage sylvan bloodline]
Valefor (Roc: Phantom Animal) [Totem Spiritualist] *stacks with actual druid levels*
Ifirit, Shiva, Ixion, Anima (Elemental Eidolons) [Elemental Ally Druid]
Bahamut (Tauric Eidolon) [VMC Summoner]

I've also managed to get a Wasp familiar (from the feat of same name). At this point, I am just tweaking the feats/abilities that I have access to in order to make them match more closely to the abilities the Aeons have. I won't get perfect, but thematically, I have just about succeed.

An interesting thing about how the 'summoning' works... Eidolons & Phantoms don't play well with each other. You can only have one or the other out at a time. This helps with the knee jerk reaction even I experienced when I realize the potential of all of them being out at once. You can have the Familiar, the Mount, and ONE of the others out at once. Works for me.

Just need to work on my UMD in order to make use of scrolls/wands to rapidly summon when needed (for limited durations).