Piggy Knowles
2019-05-25, 02:40 PM
It’s been a while, but let’s make up for it quickly with a dual showcase!
INTRODUCTION
With more than a decade and a half of toying around with 3.5, I’ve accumulated a lot of spare builds and ideas. While I don’t have an active game going right now, I still like to pop open my builds folder and try to refine things. Recently I decided to make a dedicated effort to flesh out some of these builds into full write-ups, and reached out to some friends in the CO community who might be interested in doing the same. In the spirit of Tempest Stormwind’s Weekly Optimization Showcase (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?), I thought I’d showcase the end results here.
The goal is (usually) not to show off any fancy new TO trick, but to showcase effective, playable builds and spur discussion. While each of us has a different build philosophy, in general the intent is to create something that can be played in most groups from level 1 to level 20. Again, the goal is discussion, so feel free to discuss the build, talk about other options, make suggestions or tear it all to shreds. Also, feel free to use anything showcased here in any of your campaigns—and let us know how they work out if you do!
Right now the group consists of myself, the Viscount, Akal Saris, Venger and WhamBamSam, with a couple of other folks hopefully on their way. Typically one of us writes up the build concept and possibly a stub, the others share feedback on Discord or in some of the shared documents we have, and together we refine things until we’re happy with the final product. I’ll list the build’s main author whenever I showcase a particular build.
Buffsader (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?559259-Optimzation-Showcase-in-the-Playground-Buffsader) (ToB/Gish/Party Support)
The Utility Belt (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?560988-Optimzation-Showcase-in-the-Playground-The-Utility-Belt) (Psionics/Stealth/Utility)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless War Mind (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?569004-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-Eternal-Sunshine-of-the-Spotless-War-Mind) (ToB/Psionics/Melee Damage)
The Melding Pot (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?579458-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-The-Melding-Pot) (Incarnum/Utility)
That’s So Raven (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?581950-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-That%92s-So-Raven) (Gish/Ranged/Debuff)
Dancing in the Dark (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?582528-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-Dancing-in-the-Dark) (ToB/Stealth/Lock-down)
Gladys Knight and the Pips (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?583657-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-Gladys-Knight-and-the-Pips) (Arcane/Face/Utility)
Zen in the Art of Archery (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?584417-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-Zen-in-the-Art-of-Archery) (Ranged/Psionics)
This month we’re looking at two different takes on summoners. To start things off, here’s I Choose You!
https://media1.fdncms.com/orlando/imager/u/mobileteaserhuge/2511846/1391762620pokemongames.jpg
I Choose You!
I want to be the very best, like no one ever was...
BACKGROUND
Summoning is always a fun tactic, and one that gets a lot of love on the boards. There’s something really satisfying about calling up the biggest, nastiest creature from the depths of the lower planes to stand up and fight for you.
Some of our previous showcases have dabbled in a bit of summoning (such as the Utility Belt’s astral construct or Gladys Knight’s pips), but we haven’t done a full-on hardcore summoner yet. In general, though, this is well-plumbed territory, so there’s not a lot of need to do a full showcase. After all, anyone can pull up, say, Treantmonk’s excellent malconvoker guide and play one of the builds there more or less out of the box. But there are some interesting things that can be done with full summoners that aren’t quite so common. Together, we put together two takes on the classic summoner. We’ll showcase the Shadow separately in a bit, but to start things off, we've got a simple twist on a classic summoner: I Choose You!
“Play a druid” is often tossed at anyone who wants to play a summoner, and with good reason: with spontaneous summoning and 9th-level spells, plus a bevy of other excellent class features, druids always excel at this. They’re especially strong at low levels, with the summon nature’s ally line pulling in an excellent variety of beatsticks that can bite and claw their way through most encounters.
But while druids are great at summoning furry armies of death, half the fun of summoning lies in the utility of the spell. On that end, druids can sometimes lag behind a bit. There are some good utility options on the SNA line, especially if you are willing to get a bit creative, but they lack the sheer flexibility of the summon monster line, especially as you start getting into the higher level versions where spell-like abilities start coming into play. And that’s without even broaching the subject of the always controversial but incredibly powerful planar binding line. They’ve got some workarounds, and the robustness of the druid chassis means they’ll never be short-changed, but sometimes when you play a summoner you want a bit more, you know?
This build was an attempt to bring on full-on extraplanar summoning action without sacrificing any of the druid’s goodies. The goal was to end up with the best of both worlds: a full druid with all the bells and whistles, with all the power and flexibility of the higher level summon monster and planar binding line.
One final note: the power level on this build is a bit higher than I typically like to play in most games. The final build ends up with full druid casting, wild shape and animal companion, plus 8th-level arcane casting and access to powerful spells like planar binding and gate. As always, anything we showcase is intended to be for use in actual games at actual tables, but with a build like this, it’s important to scale yourself up or down depending on the rest of the party. You’ve got a lot of powerful tools with this one; use them but try not to abuse them.
THE BASICS
Race: Human. You’re going to want that bonus feat. Strongheart halfling works as well, though the extra skill points are nice; you’ve got some hefty skill requirements on this build. Also, if feat-granting magical locations are allowed, this works as pretty much any race.
Build Stub: Druid 7/Divine Disciple 1/Nar Demonbinder 1/Arcane Hierophant 10/Druid or Paragnostic Apostle +1
ACFs: Planar druid.
Alignment: CN, TN or NE all work here. I tend to prefer TN for divine summoners, but you’ve got some flexibility. (Also, see deity notes below!)
Deity: Usually I try to leave this bit open, but divine disciple specifically requires you to have a patron deity. You’ll need one with access to either the Portal or the Summoner domain. If you are restricted to Faerunian deities, I’m a fan of Shaundakul, the chaotic neutral god of travel, exploration and portals. In general the flavor fits well with what I envision for this build. It’s worth noting that divine disciple doesn’t actually have the same alignment and racial restrictions that a cleric does, so theoretically you could be a divine disciple of, say, Eilistraee despite not being a drow.
I Choose You!
Level
Class
Feats
Class Features
Spells Known
Notes (Click to Expand)
1st
Druid 1
Spell Focus (conjuration), Apprentice (philosopher or spellcaster)
Animal companion, nature sense, wild empathy
I’ve got to say, starting things off at low levels as a druid almost feels like cheating. This is a pretty standard druid opener, and it’s definitely a good one. You’re a bit squishy, but you have no real reason to ever get directly involved in combat at this level. Instead, let your riding dog do the fighting for you while you toss out entangle or impeding stones as the terrain permits.
The apprentice feat comes on to give you knowledge (religion) as a class skill, which will be required in order to allow you to qualify for divine disciple later. Of the pre-made apprenticeships in PHB2, both philosopher and spellcaster will give you access to knowledge (religion), while also providing a boost to either sense motive or spellcraft. Both options fit in well with the flavor of the build, so it’s entirely up to you which you’d prefer. You can also use Knowledge Devotion to gain access to the skill, though you won’t be able to take it as a feat until level 3. Educated also works, and will actually make things SIGNIFICANTLY easier (with Educated the skill requirements are an absolute breeze), but I didn’t include it here because the FR version of the feat requires an elf or half-elf.
You’ve got access to spontaneous summon nature’s ally right from the jump, but at this point you usually have better things to do with your spells, since your summoned critters will only last for a single round. Still, good to keep in mind.
2nd
Druid 2
Woodland stride
Now that your summoned critters last an extra round, summoning is actually viable: you trade one full round of casting for two rounds of actions, and the fact that your animal companion is also acting helps mitigate that time. The wolf is probably your go-to combat option at this level.
3rd
Druid 3
Iron Will
Trackless step
And by now your summons are actually excellent, between the solid duration and access to 2nd-level spells. Crocodiles and hippogriffs are my favorite combat summons at this point, though the wolf continues to remain good.
Of course, crocodiles and hippogriffs aren’t the only thing that make 2nd-level spells good. You have a ton of good options here. Mass snake’s swiftness is just fantastic action economy: trade a standard action to give everyone, including the rest of your party, your animal companion and all your summoned friends, an extra attack. Summon swarm is really more akin to BFC/debuffing than summoning, but it’s on theme and hard to deal with for a lot of low level foes. Kelpstrand is a nasty little debuff for small or medium sized foes with a grapple check comparable to your crocodile’s. And finally, while in general I’ve avoided mentioning the conjure ice beast line because I think mostly SNA is better at low levels and SM is better at high levels, conjuring a large monstrous centipede is actually a pretty scary tactic thanks to the ice beast’s engulf ability.
Iron Will is solely for filling pre-reqs, as you should have an extremely high Will save even without it. If you have access to an Otyugh Hole, definitely ditch this in favor of spending some smelly time alone, and instead take something that will boost your summoning. There are a lot of good options. If Greenbound Summoning is allowed, you… probably STILL shouldn’t take it, because holy crap that feat is busted if allowed anywhere before level 9ish. Augment Summoning is solid and easy and you already have the pre-req, so I’d probably go with that. Ashbound is another very nice option (the duration boost in particular is great at low levels, and might even be worth the headache of a poorer skill progression to shuffle this in at first level), although it is cross-setting.
4th
Planar Druid 4
Resist extraplanar might
You’ve got a couple of reasons for taking the planar substitution level here. It’s downright essential for giving you knowledge (the planes) as a class skill, letting you meet nar demonbinder’s hefty standards. I also much prefer resist extraplanar might to resist nature’s lure; I don’t know about you, but I tend to run into outsiders far more often than I run into fey in most games I’ve played in. It helps that it’s very much on theme for your character, too: a portal-hopping extraplanar druid is just what this build is going for.
5th
Druid 5
Wild shape (1/day)
Welp, there it is: wild shape, one of the most powerful non-spellcasting abilities in all of third edition. Go ahead and spend as much time as possible flying around as a desmodu hunting bat. It’s a bit situational at this level, though; while it lasts for five hours, you only get it once a day, and you can’t cast spells while wild shaped yet, so right now it’s more about utility than anything else.
As for your spells, there are a lot of great options at this level. SNA gets some very nice utility with the thoqqua, which can tunnel through solid rock and leave a tunnel behind. Sleet storm is a very nice bit of battlefield control. You also get your first decent blasting spell at this level in call lightning, in case you want to do something other than just summon furry death.
6th
Druid 6
Natural Spell
Wild shape (2/day)
Welp, scratch everything I said last level about wild shape. Now thanks to Natural Spell, there’s basically no reason to ever stop being a desmodu hunting bat other than the odd looks you might get when you stop in town.
7th
Druid 7
Wild shape (3/day)
4th-level spells! First, a note on your summoning: you’ve got two stand-out options at this level. The giant crocodile is an absolute beast, and will likely be your go-to combat option unless you need something specific like flight. On the utility side, it’s hard to beat the unicorn, one of the few SNA options with spell-like abilities. Beyond your summoning, you have some other good choices. Heart of earth is a nice set-it-and-forget-it spell, letting you pull up stoneskin later in the day as needed. Not a bad panic button to have in your back pocket. Flame strike is actually really great as far as blasting goes: great range, decent area, and the ability to punch through fire resistance is very nice.
And finally, we have enhance wild shape. This one is huge. It lasts hours per level, so it’s another buff you don’t have to waste time casting mid-combat. It has a few potential options, but the most notable is access to extraordinary abilities from your form. Your desmodu hunting bat was already your best wild shape option, but now it also gives you blindsight over a very nice range all day long. And it only gets better as you gain access to more wild shape options. Definitely a keeper.
8th
Divine Disciple 1
Divine emissary, bonus domain
Divine disciple is a short and sweet Faerunian prestige class that gives you some special options from your patron deity. Most useful here is that it grants one of your patron’s domains. This is key to allow you to qualify for nar demonbinder, which requires knowledge of a summon monster spell. It’s also a great way to get some access to spells outside a druid’s typical purview in general.
Your choices for domains are portal and summoner. Portal domain won’t give you a ton in the way of summon monster access, but it’s enough to qualify, and it has some other very nice spells: dimension door, teleport, maze and gate are all great to have. Summoner also gets access to gate and opens up the planar ally line of spells. This will largely be outclassed by the planar binding you’re about to get access to, but it’s nice to have the full set. The big draw, though, is the +2 caster level on all summoning and calling spells. Ultimately it’s up to you: I prefer portal, and like the flavor of a planar druid devoted to Shaundakul, but both are good options.
Your other ability, divine emissary, is actually pretty neat too. This gives you telepathy, but only with outsiders that either share your alignment or also serve your deity. While your various alignment restrictions keep this from being as good as I’d like, it’s a nice way to nab some telepathic communication between you and some of your summoned or bound allies.
9th
Nar Demonbinder 1
Draconic Bloodline
Fiendish familiar, inimical casting
Lesser planar binding, magic circle against good, dimensional anchor, summon monster V
As great as the druid is at summoning, once you start hitting the mid-levels, it’s going to start feeling a bit inflexible compared to builds that have access to the summon monster and planar binding line. That’s where the nar demonbinder comes in. With heavily accelerated spontaneous casting, it provides all the tools you’ll need to be an effective arcane summoner without overly stalling your druid progression.
The bloodline feats from the Dragon Compendium are a great way for any spontaneous arcane caster to expand their spell list, adding a spell at every level. This has a nice side benefit of qualifying you for arcane hierophant, which requires 2nd-level arcane spells, since without it the nar demonbinder only has 4th- and 5th-level arcane spells at this point. I recommend Draconic Bloodline here. It gives you access to some spells that the druid ordinarily wouldn’t have access to or would otherwise get late, such as true seeing and mind blank.
For your nar demonbinder spells, you’ll pick up the trio necessary to become a competent binder: lesser planar binding, magic circle against good and dimensional anchor. Your inimical casting is a great tool, allowing you to use magic circle against good so that it affects any alignment. With these three spells alone you can start binding creatures during your downtime. My favorite LPB choice is the nightmare, which not only lets you travel in style, but also gives you access to early astral projection. You’ll also nab SMV, which has quite a few excellent summon options both in and out of combat.
Also, enjoy brief access to an imp or quasit familiar. You’ll only get to keep it for a level, so make sure to abuse its commune ability as much as possible in the meantime.
10th
Arcane Hierophant 1
Companion familiar, ignore arcane spell failure, wild shape, wild shape (large)
Summon monster IV, plane shift
And now, with everything in place, you can start your progression of arcane hierophant. It was a pain to qualify for, but this is absolutely the perfect prestige class here. It progresses every single necessary aspect of the build in one neat little package: both arcane and divine spells, wild shape, your animal companion and even to some degree your familiar all improve here.
Speaking of that latter bit, you will have to bid your quasit or imp goodbye once you take a level in this class. Sorry, friend, we hardly knew ye. But what that means in turn is that you know apply all your familiar bonuses to your animal companion. There are a lot of nice goodies here, such as increased natural armor, the ability to communicate with you and with other animals and eventually some decent spell resistance, but far and away the most important aspect here is the increased Int. Since your druid levels provide quite a few bonus hit die for your companion, that increased Intelligence opens the door for feats and skills that a normal animal companion could never dream of taking.
As far as spellcasting goes, you now hit 5th-level spells as a druid as well, so enjoy two of the best druid spells around: wall of thorns and flesh to salt. The former is absolutely incredible BFC, some of the best on the whole druid list, while the latter is easily one of the best combo damage + save-or-dies for its level on any list (medium range, untyped damage with no save to reduce, plus a nasty save-or-die rider attached). And on the nar demonbinder side, go ahead and grab plane shift, which functions both as useful utility and as yet another nasty little save-or-lose in a pinch. Because it’s a touch spell, you can even have your companion familiar deliver it. Yay action economy!
Also, since arcane hierophant stacks with your druid levels for determining your wild shape, you now have access to large forms. I’m still a fan of just sticking it out with the desmodu hunting bat, but if you decide you really want to mix it up in melee, I’m particularly a fan of the cave triceratops at this level for its access to trample.
11th
Arcane Hierophant 2
Favored enemy +4
Planar binding
Lesser planar binding was nice, but now you’ve got access to the full version, so enjoy it. Binding choices at this level range from the interesting (such as the gray slaad, with a low enough Charisma to be an easy bind and some interesting SLAs) to the downright broken (the trumpet archon with its 14th-level cleric casting and the glabrezu come to mind). You also get access to true seeing at this level thanks to your bloodline, a couple of levels earlier than a druid would ordinarily get it.
And again, I prefer the defensive wild shape forms, but if you get bored raining down summoned critters from the sky, the smilodon is a very nice offensive wild shape form.
12th
Arcane Hierophant 3
Rashemi Elemental Summoning
Wild shape (4/day)
Dispel good, summon monster VI
As good as your monster summoning is, let’s not forget that summon nature’s ally is still quite potent as well. It typically remains the best option for beatsticks, whereas the SM list tends to focus more on defenses and utility. Anyhow, in addition to some very potent offensive animals, you also get huge elementals at this level. And hell, while we’re making the most of them, let’s go all the way and take Rashemi Elemental Summoning, effectively turning your air elementals into dual purpose blasting+summoning spells and adding some very nice buffs to your earth elementals. Other nice druid spells at this level include scalding mud, a surprisingly nasty bit of BFC for trapping and damaging foes while your airborne summons harry them from above.
Not that SMVI is any slouch either. While SNA mostly still outclasses it as far as summoning beatsticks goes, the bralani and janni both have some excellent utility and the monstrous spider can web gargantuan foes.
13th
Arcane Hierophant 4
Channel animal 2/day, wild shape (Tiny)
Summon monster VII
Tiny forms via wild shape can certainly come in handy, especially since you largely want to use wild shape for defenses and mobility rather than offense. You’re probably a lot less noticeable as a tiny bird than a bat with a six foot wingspan.
And with access to SMVII, you’ve got quite a few nice utility options. I’m a fan of summoning a babau or avoral and instructing it to ready actions to counter any opposing spell every round. The avoral also has true seeing and tongues always on, a fear aura and decent healing thanks to its lay on hands ability. The bone devil is nice for its access to major image and wall of ice at will on top of its decent combat chassis. The djinni gives you major creation and some other neat (if niche) options.
14th
Arcane Hierophant 5
Wild shape (plant)
Spell resistance, banishment, blasphemy
With 7th-level druid spells coming online, your SNA catches back up with SM. There are some seriously powerful brute options here, but of particular note is your access to greater elementals to abuse alongside Rashemi Elemental Summoning. And there are quite a lot of other goodies on the druid list at this level: greater scrying (summoners are especially well-disposed to scry and die tactics, in my experience), heal, control weather and mass flesh to salt can all be absolute gamechangers. You also get a few nice spells on your nar demonbinder side, the most notable being blasphemy. Inimical blasphemy is downright brutal against low-hit die foes.
And plant forms via wild shape come online here as well. The kelp angler is a bit slow when out of water, but if you’re willing to pop a use of enhance wild shape, it’s pretty incredible defensively: straight immunity to bludgeoning damage, regeneration, some decent elemental resistances/immunities and blindsight in a huge range. If you’d prefer to stay with a flying form (and I certainly wouldn’t blame you for that one), you also get access to the legendary eagle at this level.
15th
Arcane Hierophant 6
Dragon Wild Shape
Channel plant 1/day
Greater planar binding
And now it’s time to dig a bit deeper into your draconic bloodline with Dragon Wild Shape. There are really no bad options with this: at a minimum, it generally means maintaining a flying form but adding on speech without requiring a pearl of speech, plus blindsense and some handy immunities. I’m particularly a fan of the deep dragon, for its huge flexibility in movement (it has all four movement modes!), constant truesight and humanoid form for when you want to head into town without freaking out the locals. The shadow dragon is also very nice as well thanks to concealment in anything less than full daylight, plus immunity to energy drain and a very nasty breath weapon.
And you complete your nar demonbinder casting at this level, finishing with greater planar binding. Entire tomes have been written on how powerful this spell is; even without abuse, it’s extremely potent and can give you access to everything from a death slaad to a pit fiend. You also get mind blank at this level thanks to your draconic bloodline. This might be the best defensive buff in the game, lasting all day functionally providing straight up immunity to two whole schools of magic, and it’s something that druids ordinarily don’t have access to.
16th
Arcane Hierophant 7
Wild shape (5/day)
Even though you won’t gain any new spells on your nar demonbinder side, arcane hierophant is still worth progressing to its full ten levels, since it keeps up all of your important build animals and continues to boost your NDB caster level and companion familiar.
With 8th-level druid spells coming online, there are a few good options (my favorite of which is frostfell, which has a great duration, freezes enemies as though with flesh to ice and provides some decent BFC to boot). On the summoning side, SNAVIII might look like a slim list, but the roc is a very potent outdoor summon thanks to Flyby Attack, Snatch and a +37 grapple modifier. Really, if there’s anything more satisfying than having a bird with an 80’ wingspan swoop down, snatch a foe off the ground and then fling them away while hundreds of feet in the air, I’m not sure what it is.
17th
Arcane Hierophant 8
Channel animal 4/day, wild shape (Huge)
Two words define this level: dire tortoise. In general I rarely recommend leaving dragon form (especially since the deep dragon can in turn take humanoid form from there), but if there’s anything to tempt you away, it’s the dire tortoise. It’s such a fantastic form, with absolutely mammoth defenses and the incomparable ability to always get a surprise round. This thing is just insanely good. The only reason I don’t recommend always being in this form is that in my experience, permanently being huge sized can be really awkward, but otherwise there are very few drawbacks.
18th
Arcane Hierophant 9
Extraordinary Concentration
,Wild shape (elemental 1/day)
And with access to 9th-level spells, you can do… well, anything, I guess. In addition to the unparalleled shapechange, you can also prepare gate once a day thanks to your access to the portal or summoner domain. And on the summoning side, you get access to summon elemental monolith. This is the big daddy of all summoning spells, only held back by its concentration requirement… which is exactly why you also pick up Extraordinary Concentration at this level.
You also get elemental wild shape, which is mostly impressive for its movement modes, though in general I still find the dragon forms to be superior if you don’t specifically need access to earth glide.
19th
Arcane Hierophant 10
Channel plant 2/day
Go ahead and finish out arcane hierophant. It was a good run. Not much else to comment on here beyond getting another 9th-level slot (which is, you know, really really good).
20th
Druid 8
Wild shape (6/day, elemental 2/day)
With arcane hierophant completed, you can really do just about anything you want for this last level. The simplest option is to just finish out with a final level of druid, which lets you finish things off with 18 effective druid levels for purposes of wild shape and animal companion, not to mention yet another 9th-level spell slot. But there is also a really compelling case to be made for paragnostic apostle for fast healing on your summoned critters. You can also just take the second level of nar demonbinder as well; you’ve already got 9ths on your druid side, and the iron sign means you won’t need to muck about with circles when you bind.
1: Comprehend languagesD
2: DarkvisionD
3: Protection from elementsD
4: FearD, lesser planar binding, magic circle against good, summon monster IV, dimensional anchor
5: Mind fogD, summon monster V, plane shift, dispel good, spell resistance
6: True seeingD, planar binding, summon monster VI, banishment
7: VisionD, summon monster VII, blasphemy
8: Mind blankD, greater planar binding
DBonus spell known from Draconic Bloodline.
Wisdom and Charisma are your everything, as they drive your spellcasting and the required checks for planar binding. You also have some complex skill requirements that will take careful juggling and either a 12 Int as a human or a 14 Int as a non-human. Luckily, Strength and Dexterity are fairly irrelevant for you, as you generally aren’t going to be touching combat and you have wild shape to make up for your poor physical abilities.
SAMPLE STAT ARRAYS:
28-point buy: Str 8/Dex 10/Con 12/Int 12/Wis 16/Cha 15
32-point buy: Str 8/Dex 10/Con 14/Int 12/Wis 16/Cha 16
There are some hefty skill requirements to keep in mind. The most arduous by far is that nar demonbinder requires 10 ranks in knowledge (the planes), a skill that will largely be cross-class for you except for level 4, when it briefly becomes a class skill as a planar druid. Close on its heels will be the knowledge (arcana) requirement for arcane hierophant, as knowledge (arcana) isn’t available for you as a class skill until you pick up levels in divine disciple and nar demonbinder.
In addition to those two big ones, you’ll also need 5 ranks in diplomacy and 8 in knowledge (religion) in order to qualify for divine disciple, 5 ranks in intimidate and 2 ranks in sense motive for nar demonbinder, 8 ranks in knowledge (nature) for arcane hierophant, 15 ranks in knowledge (nature) for Dragon Wild Shape and 15 ranks in concentration for Extraordinary Concentration. These other requirements shouldn’t be quite as hair-pulling as the first two, but they still represent a significant investment. A human with 12 Int can pull it all off with some very careful skill expenditure.
Note that if your DM was nice and permitted you to take Educated instead of Apprentice, all of this changes. Having all knowledge skills as class skills instead of having to painstakingly invest in (arcana) and (the planes) while cross-class makes things significantly easier, and a human with 10 Int should have no trouble pulling it all off.
BUILD SUMMARY
By the time you’re done, you’ll cast as a 19th-level druid and wild shape as an 18th-level druid. You’ll also have full nar demonbinder spellcasting (plus some extras from your bloodline, of which the highlight is probably mind blank), giving you powerful 8th-level arcane spells on top of that, and your animal companion will be treated as though you have 18 levels in druid and 11 in sorcerer or wizard.
As a summoner, you’ll have full druidic summoning (meaning the full summon nature’s ally and conjure ice beast lines), further boosted by Rashemi Elemental Summoning. You’ll also have a decent bit of monster summoning, with spontaneous casting of summon monster IV-VII. You have all three planar binding spells, plus the associated necessary spells to successfully bind an extraplanar being. You’ll even have gate and, if you chose the summoner domain over the portal domain, you also end up with the planar ally line, too. And you’ll have Extraordinary Concentration for summon elemental monolith shenanigans.
And while it’s not a summon, your companion familiar is also an excellent ally, and will outstrip what a druid ordinarily gets. You’re basically trading away two effective druid levels for also giving your companion the benefits of a level 11 wizard familiar. I didn’t go into detail on the ideal companion familiar at each level, because I think that’s going to be very campaign dependent. Even a lowly riding dog will end up with one that has +12 HD, +18 natural armor, +6 to Strength and Dex, an Intelligence of 11, spell resistance of 25, improved evasion, the ability to speak both with you and with other animals of its kind and the ability to deliver touch spells for you. Certainly if your campaign is one where walking around with a huge or gargantuan animal companion won’t raise any eyebrows, then go for it: why not, say, have your whole party ride around on a dire elephant companion familiar, and use your impressive 22 HD and above average intelligence well by taking Martial Study feats for access to 6th-level maneuvers ?
VARIANTS
If you don’t mind incorporating cross-setting material, you can drop divine disciple entirely and nab the Touch of Summoning feat to meet nar demonbinder’s summon monster pre-req. That opens you up to a number of options, such as Druid 7/Nar Demonbinder 2/Arcane Hierophant 10/Druid +2 (or fill in the last levels however you’d like). While you won’t have room for Touch of Summoning on top of the current feat layout without access to an Otyugh Hole or flaws, the fact that you no longer require knowledge (religion) for divine disciple means you can get away with dropping your Apprentice feat.
Also, if you’re going with the Touch of Summoning route, it’s worth talking to your DM about arcane hierophant qualification. This build sidesteps the issue of whether 4th-level arcane spells qualify you for arcane hierophant by taking Draconic Bloodline, which gives you access to 2nd-level arcane spells (which by any reading should qualify). However, if this is a non-issue, you could even use Touch of Summoning to go Druid 7/Nar Demonbinder 1/Arcane Hierophant 10 and only drop a single level of druid progression.
With flaws or Otyugh Hole access (or both), you have a couple of feats to spare. Anything that boosts summoning is always going to be appreciated. Augment Summoning is rarely going to go amiss, nor is Ashbound (especially at low levels), though the latter is cross-setting. Greenbound Summoning is absolutely incredible, but also makes a good case for being outright broken, especially if you take it any time before you’d have native access to wall of thorns. I would only take it in high-op settings, or at least delay it until higher levels.
Also, I mentioned this in the write-up, but the final level is extremely flexible. Druid is nice because it progresses wild shape and animal companion, but at that point you already have 9th-level spells on your druid side and 8th-level spells on your nar demonbinder side, so really the world is your oyster.
***
And that’s that! Please let us know what you think in the comments, and what you’d like to see for future showcases!
INTRODUCTION
With more than a decade and a half of toying around with 3.5, I’ve accumulated a lot of spare builds and ideas. While I don’t have an active game going right now, I still like to pop open my builds folder and try to refine things. Recently I decided to make a dedicated effort to flesh out some of these builds into full write-ups, and reached out to some friends in the CO community who might be interested in doing the same. In the spirit of Tempest Stormwind’s Weekly Optimization Showcase (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?), I thought I’d showcase the end results here.
The goal is (usually) not to show off any fancy new TO trick, but to showcase effective, playable builds and spur discussion. While each of us has a different build philosophy, in general the intent is to create something that can be played in most groups from level 1 to level 20. Again, the goal is discussion, so feel free to discuss the build, talk about other options, make suggestions or tear it all to shreds. Also, feel free to use anything showcased here in any of your campaigns—and let us know how they work out if you do!
Right now the group consists of myself, the Viscount, Akal Saris, Venger and WhamBamSam, with a couple of other folks hopefully on their way. Typically one of us writes up the build concept and possibly a stub, the others share feedback on Discord or in some of the shared documents we have, and together we refine things until we’re happy with the final product. I’ll list the build’s main author whenever I showcase a particular build.
Buffsader (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?559259-Optimzation-Showcase-in-the-Playground-Buffsader) (ToB/Gish/Party Support)
The Utility Belt (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?560988-Optimzation-Showcase-in-the-Playground-The-Utility-Belt) (Psionics/Stealth/Utility)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless War Mind (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?569004-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-Eternal-Sunshine-of-the-Spotless-War-Mind) (ToB/Psionics/Melee Damage)
The Melding Pot (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?579458-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-The-Melding-Pot) (Incarnum/Utility)
That’s So Raven (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?581950-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-That%92s-So-Raven) (Gish/Ranged/Debuff)
Dancing in the Dark (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?582528-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-Dancing-in-the-Dark) (ToB/Stealth/Lock-down)
Gladys Knight and the Pips (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?583657-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-Gladys-Knight-and-the-Pips) (Arcane/Face/Utility)
Zen in the Art of Archery (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?584417-Optimization-Showcase-in-the-Playground-Zen-in-the-Art-of-Archery) (Ranged/Psionics)
This month we’re looking at two different takes on summoners. To start things off, here’s I Choose You!
https://media1.fdncms.com/orlando/imager/u/mobileteaserhuge/2511846/1391762620pokemongames.jpg
I Choose You!
I want to be the very best, like no one ever was...
BACKGROUND
Summoning is always a fun tactic, and one that gets a lot of love on the boards. There’s something really satisfying about calling up the biggest, nastiest creature from the depths of the lower planes to stand up and fight for you.
Some of our previous showcases have dabbled in a bit of summoning (such as the Utility Belt’s astral construct or Gladys Knight’s pips), but we haven’t done a full-on hardcore summoner yet. In general, though, this is well-plumbed territory, so there’s not a lot of need to do a full showcase. After all, anyone can pull up, say, Treantmonk’s excellent malconvoker guide and play one of the builds there more or less out of the box. But there are some interesting things that can be done with full summoners that aren’t quite so common. Together, we put together two takes on the classic summoner. We’ll showcase the Shadow separately in a bit, but to start things off, we've got a simple twist on a classic summoner: I Choose You!
“Play a druid” is often tossed at anyone who wants to play a summoner, and with good reason: with spontaneous summoning and 9th-level spells, plus a bevy of other excellent class features, druids always excel at this. They’re especially strong at low levels, with the summon nature’s ally line pulling in an excellent variety of beatsticks that can bite and claw their way through most encounters.
But while druids are great at summoning furry armies of death, half the fun of summoning lies in the utility of the spell. On that end, druids can sometimes lag behind a bit. There are some good utility options on the SNA line, especially if you are willing to get a bit creative, but they lack the sheer flexibility of the summon monster line, especially as you start getting into the higher level versions where spell-like abilities start coming into play. And that’s without even broaching the subject of the always controversial but incredibly powerful planar binding line. They’ve got some workarounds, and the robustness of the druid chassis means they’ll never be short-changed, but sometimes when you play a summoner you want a bit more, you know?
This build was an attempt to bring on full-on extraplanar summoning action without sacrificing any of the druid’s goodies. The goal was to end up with the best of both worlds: a full druid with all the bells and whistles, with all the power and flexibility of the higher level summon monster and planar binding line.
One final note: the power level on this build is a bit higher than I typically like to play in most games. The final build ends up with full druid casting, wild shape and animal companion, plus 8th-level arcane casting and access to powerful spells like planar binding and gate. As always, anything we showcase is intended to be for use in actual games at actual tables, but with a build like this, it’s important to scale yourself up or down depending on the rest of the party. You’ve got a lot of powerful tools with this one; use them but try not to abuse them.
THE BASICS
Race: Human. You’re going to want that bonus feat. Strongheart halfling works as well, though the extra skill points are nice; you’ve got some hefty skill requirements on this build. Also, if feat-granting magical locations are allowed, this works as pretty much any race.
Build Stub: Druid 7/Divine Disciple 1/Nar Demonbinder 1/Arcane Hierophant 10/Druid or Paragnostic Apostle +1
ACFs: Planar druid.
Alignment: CN, TN or NE all work here. I tend to prefer TN for divine summoners, but you’ve got some flexibility. (Also, see deity notes below!)
Deity: Usually I try to leave this bit open, but divine disciple specifically requires you to have a patron deity. You’ll need one with access to either the Portal or the Summoner domain. If you are restricted to Faerunian deities, I’m a fan of Shaundakul, the chaotic neutral god of travel, exploration and portals. In general the flavor fits well with what I envision for this build. It’s worth noting that divine disciple doesn’t actually have the same alignment and racial restrictions that a cleric does, so theoretically you could be a divine disciple of, say, Eilistraee despite not being a drow.
I Choose You!
Level
Class
Feats
Class Features
Spells Known
Notes (Click to Expand)
1st
Druid 1
Spell Focus (conjuration), Apprentice (philosopher or spellcaster)
Animal companion, nature sense, wild empathy
I’ve got to say, starting things off at low levels as a druid almost feels like cheating. This is a pretty standard druid opener, and it’s definitely a good one. You’re a bit squishy, but you have no real reason to ever get directly involved in combat at this level. Instead, let your riding dog do the fighting for you while you toss out entangle or impeding stones as the terrain permits.
The apprentice feat comes on to give you knowledge (religion) as a class skill, which will be required in order to allow you to qualify for divine disciple later. Of the pre-made apprenticeships in PHB2, both philosopher and spellcaster will give you access to knowledge (religion), while also providing a boost to either sense motive or spellcraft. Both options fit in well with the flavor of the build, so it’s entirely up to you which you’d prefer. You can also use Knowledge Devotion to gain access to the skill, though you won’t be able to take it as a feat until level 3. Educated also works, and will actually make things SIGNIFICANTLY easier (with Educated the skill requirements are an absolute breeze), but I didn’t include it here because the FR version of the feat requires an elf or half-elf.
You’ve got access to spontaneous summon nature’s ally right from the jump, but at this point you usually have better things to do with your spells, since your summoned critters will only last for a single round. Still, good to keep in mind.
2nd
Druid 2
Woodland stride
Now that your summoned critters last an extra round, summoning is actually viable: you trade one full round of casting for two rounds of actions, and the fact that your animal companion is also acting helps mitigate that time. The wolf is probably your go-to combat option at this level.
3rd
Druid 3
Iron Will
Trackless step
And by now your summons are actually excellent, between the solid duration and access to 2nd-level spells. Crocodiles and hippogriffs are my favorite combat summons at this point, though the wolf continues to remain good.
Of course, crocodiles and hippogriffs aren’t the only thing that make 2nd-level spells good. You have a ton of good options here. Mass snake’s swiftness is just fantastic action economy: trade a standard action to give everyone, including the rest of your party, your animal companion and all your summoned friends, an extra attack. Summon swarm is really more akin to BFC/debuffing than summoning, but it’s on theme and hard to deal with for a lot of low level foes. Kelpstrand is a nasty little debuff for small or medium sized foes with a grapple check comparable to your crocodile’s. And finally, while in general I’ve avoided mentioning the conjure ice beast line because I think mostly SNA is better at low levels and SM is better at high levels, conjuring a large monstrous centipede is actually a pretty scary tactic thanks to the ice beast’s engulf ability.
Iron Will is solely for filling pre-reqs, as you should have an extremely high Will save even without it. If you have access to an Otyugh Hole, definitely ditch this in favor of spending some smelly time alone, and instead take something that will boost your summoning. There are a lot of good options. If Greenbound Summoning is allowed, you… probably STILL shouldn’t take it, because holy crap that feat is busted if allowed anywhere before level 9ish. Augment Summoning is solid and easy and you already have the pre-req, so I’d probably go with that. Ashbound is another very nice option (the duration boost in particular is great at low levels, and might even be worth the headache of a poorer skill progression to shuffle this in at first level), although it is cross-setting.
4th
Planar Druid 4
Resist extraplanar might
You’ve got a couple of reasons for taking the planar substitution level here. It’s downright essential for giving you knowledge (the planes) as a class skill, letting you meet nar demonbinder’s hefty standards. I also much prefer resist extraplanar might to resist nature’s lure; I don’t know about you, but I tend to run into outsiders far more often than I run into fey in most games I’ve played in. It helps that it’s very much on theme for your character, too: a portal-hopping extraplanar druid is just what this build is going for.
5th
Druid 5
Wild shape (1/day)
Welp, there it is: wild shape, one of the most powerful non-spellcasting abilities in all of third edition. Go ahead and spend as much time as possible flying around as a desmodu hunting bat. It’s a bit situational at this level, though; while it lasts for five hours, you only get it once a day, and you can’t cast spells while wild shaped yet, so right now it’s more about utility than anything else.
As for your spells, there are a lot of great options at this level. SNA gets some very nice utility with the thoqqua, which can tunnel through solid rock and leave a tunnel behind. Sleet storm is a very nice bit of battlefield control. You also get your first decent blasting spell at this level in call lightning, in case you want to do something other than just summon furry death.
6th
Druid 6
Natural Spell
Wild shape (2/day)
Welp, scratch everything I said last level about wild shape. Now thanks to Natural Spell, there’s basically no reason to ever stop being a desmodu hunting bat other than the odd looks you might get when you stop in town.
7th
Druid 7
Wild shape (3/day)
4th-level spells! First, a note on your summoning: you’ve got two stand-out options at this level. The giant crocodile is an absolute beast, and will likely be your go-to combat option unless you need something specific like flight. On the utility side, it’s hard to beat the unicorn, one of the few SNA options with spell-like abilities. Beyond your summoning, you have some other good choices. Heart of earth is a nice set-it-and-forget-it spell, letting you pull up stoneskin later in the day as needed. Not a bad panic button to have in your back pocket. Flame strike is actually really great as far as blasting goes: great range, decent area, and the ability to punch through fire resistance is very nice.
And finally, we have enhance wild shape. This one is huge. It lasts hours per level, so it’s another buff you don’t have to waste time casting mid-combat. It has a few potential options, but the most notable is access to extraordinary abilities from your form. Your desmodu hunting bat was already your best wild shape option, but now it also gives you blindsight over a very nice range all day long. And it only gets better as you gain access to more wild shape options. Definitely a keeper.
8th
Divine Disciple 1
Divine emissary, bonus domain
Divine disciple is a short and sweet Faerunian prestige class that gives you some special options from your patron deity. Most useful here is that it grants one of your patron’s domains. This is key to allow you to qualify for nar demonbinder, which requires knowledge of a summon monster spell. It’s also a great way to get some access to spells outside a druid’s typical purview in general.
Your choices for domains are portal and summoner. Portal domain won’t give you a ton in the way of summon monster access, but it’s enough to qualify, and it has some other very nice spells: dimension door, teleport, maze and gate are all great to have. Summoner also gets access to gate and opens up the planar ally line of spells. This will largely be outclassed by the planar binding you’re about to get access to, but it’s nice to have the full set. The big draw, though, is the +2 caster level on all summoning and calling spells. Ultimately it’s up to you: I prefer portal, and like the flavor of a planar druid devoted to Shaundakul, but both are good options.
Your other ability, divine emissary, is actually pretty neat too. This gives you telepathy, but only with outsiders that either share your alignment or also serve your deity. While your various alignment restrictions keep this from being as good as I’d like, it’s a nice way to nab some telepathic communication between you and some of your summoned or bound allies.
9th
Nar Demonbinder 1
Draconic Bloodline
Fiendish familiar, inimical casting
Lesser planar binding, magic circle against good, dimensional anchor, summon monster V
As great as the druid is at summoning, once you start hitting the mid-levels, it’s going to start feeling a bit inflexible compared to builds that have access to the summon monster and planar binding line. That’s where the nar demonbinder comes in. With heavily accelerated spontaneous casting, it provides all the tools you’ll need to be an effective arcane summoner without overly stalling your druid progression.
The bloodline feats from the Dragon Compendium are a great way for any spontaneous arcane caster to expand their spell list, adding a spell at every level. This has a nice side benefit of qualifying you for arcane hierophant, which requires 2nd-level arcane spells, since without it the nar demonbinder only has 4th- and 5th-level arcane spells at this point. I recommend Draconic Bloodline here. It gives you access to some spells that the druid ordinarily wouldn’t have access to or would otherwise get late, such as true seeing and mind blank.
For your nar demonbinder spells, you’ll pick up the trio necessary to become a competent binder: lesser planar binding, magic circle against good and dimensional anchor. Your inimical casting is a great tool, allowing you to use magic circle against good so that it affects any alignment. With these three spells alone you can start binding creatures during your downtime. My favorite LPB choice is the nightmare, which not only lets you travel in style, but also gives you access to early astral projection. You’ll also nab SMV, which has quite a few excellent summon options both in and out of combat.
Also, enjoy brief access to an imp or quasit familiar. You’ll only get to keep it for a level, so make sure to abuse its commune ability as much as possible in the meantime.
10th
Arcane Hierophant 1
Companion familiar, ignore arcane spell failure, wild shape, wild shape (large)
Summon monster IV, plane shift
And now, with everything in place, you can start your progression of arcane hierophant. It was a pain to qualify for, but this is absolutely the perfect prestige class here. It progresses every single necessary aspect of the build in one neat little package: both arcane and divine spells, wild shape, your animal companion and even to some degree your familiar all improve here.
Speaking of that latter bit, you will have to bid your quasit or imp goodbye once you take a level in this class. Sorry, friend, we hardly knew ye. But what that means in turn is that you know apply all your familiar bonuses to your animal companion. There are a lot of nice goodies here, such as increased natural armor, the ability to communicate with you and with other animals and eventually some decent spell resistance, but far and away the most important aspect here is the increased Int. Since your druid levels provide quite a few bonus hit die for your companion, that increased Intelligence opens the door for feats and skills that a normal animal companion could never dream of taking.
As far as spellcasting goes, you now hit 5th-level spells as a druid as well, so enjoy two of the best druid spells around: wall of thorns and flesh to salt. The former is absolutely incredible BFC, some of the best on the whole druid list, while the latter is easily one of the best combo damage + save-or-dies for its level on any list (medium range, untyped damage with no save to reduce, plus a nasty save-or-die rider attached). And on the nar demonbinder side, go ahead and grab plane shift, which functions both as useful utility and as yet another nasty little save-or-lose in a pinch. Because it’s a touch spell, you can even have your companion familiar deliver it. Yay action economy!
Also, since arcane hierophant stacks with your druid levels for determining your wild shape, you now have access to large forms. I’m still a fan of just sticking it out with the desmodu hunting bat, but if you decide you really want to mix it up in melee, I’m particularly a fan of the cave triceratops at this level for its access to trample.
11th
Arcane Hierophant 2
Favored enemy +4
Planar binding
Lesser planar binding was nice, but now you’ve got access to the full version, so enjoy it. Binding choices at this level range from the interesting (such as the gray slaad, with a low enough Charisma to be an easy bind and some interesting SLAs) to the downright broken (the trumpet archon with its 14th-level cleric casting and the glabrezu come to mind). You also get access to true seeing at this level thanks to your bloodline, a couple of levels earlier than a druid would ordinarily get it.
And again, I prefer the defensive wild shape forms, but if you get bored raining down summoned critters from the sky, the smilodon is a very nice offensive wild shape form.
12th
Arcane Hierophant 3
Rashemi Elemental Summoning
Wild shape (4/day)
Dispel good, summon monster VI
As good as your monster summoning is, let’s not forget that summon nature’s ally is still quite potent as well. It typically remains the best option for beatsticks, whereas the SM list tends to focus more on defenses and utility. Anyhow, in addition to some very potent offensive animals, you also get huge elementals at this level. And hell, while we’re making the most of them, let’s go all the way and take Rashemi Elemental Summoning, effectively turning your air elementals into dual purpose blasting+summoning spells and adding some very nice buffs to your earth elementals. Other nice druid spells at this level include scalding mud, a surprisingly nasty bit of BFC for trapping and damaging foes while your airborne summons harry them from above.
Not that SMVI is any slouch either. While SNA mostly still outclasses it as far as summoning beatsticks goes, the bralani and janni both have some excellent utility and the monstrous spider can web gargantuan foes.
13th
Arcane Hierophant 4
Channel animal 2/day, wild shape (Tiny)
Summon monster VII
Tiny forms via wild shape can certainly come in handy, especially since you largely want to use wild shape for defenses and mobility rather than offense. You’re probably a lot less noticeable as a tiny bird than a bat with a six foot wingspan.
And with access to SMVII, you’ve got quite a few nice utility options. I’m a fan of summoning a babau or avoral and instructing it to ready actions to counter any opposing spell every round. The avoral also has true seeing and tongues always on, a fear aura and decent healing thanks to its lay on hands ability. The bone devil is nice for its access to major image and wall of ice at will on top of its decent combat chassis. The djinni gives you major creation and some other neat (if niche) options.
14th
Arcane Hierophant 5
Wild shape (plant)
Spell resistance, banishment, blasphemy
With 7th-level druid spells coming online, your SNA catches back up with SM. There are some seriously powerful brute options here, but of particular note is your access to greater elementals to abuse alongside Rashemi Elemental Summoning. And there are quite a lot of other goodies on the druid list at this level: greater scrying (summoners are especially well-disposed to scry and die tactics, in my experience), heal, control weather and mass flesh to salt can all be absolute gamechangers. You also get a few nice spells on your nar demonbinder side, the most notable being blasphemy. Inimical blasphemy is downright brutal against low-hit die foes.
And plant forms via wild shape come online here as well. The kelp angler is a bit slow when out of water, but if you’re willing to pop a use of enhance wild shape, it’s pretty incredible defensively: straight immunity to bludgeoning damage, regeneration, some decent elemental resistances/immunities and blindsight in a huge range. If you’d prefer to stay with a flying form (and I certainly wouldn’t blame you for that one), you also get access to the legendary eagle at this level.
15th
Arcane Hierophant 6
Dragon Wild Shape
Channel plant 1/day
Greater planar binding
And now it’s time to dig a bit deeper into your draconic bloodline with Dragon Wild Shape. There are really no bad options with this: at a minimum, it generally means maintaining a flying form but adding on speech without requiring a pearl of speech, plus blindsense and some handy immunities. I’m particularly a fan of the deep dragon, for its huge flexibility in movement (it has all four movement modes!), constant truesight and humanoid form for when you want to head into town without freaking out the locals. The shadow dragon is also very nice as well thanks to concealment in anything less than full daylight, plus immunity to energy drain and a very nasty breath weapon.
And you complete your nar demonbinder casting at this level, finishing with greater planar binding. Entire tomes have been written on how powerful this spell is; even without abuse, it’s extremely potent and can give you access to everything from a death slaad to a pit fiend. You also get mind blank at this level thanks to your draconic bloodline. This might be the best defensive buff in the game, lasting all day functionally providing straight up immunity to two whole schools of magic, and it’s something that druids ordinarily don’t have access to.
16th
Arcane Hierophant 7
Wild shape (5/day)
Even though you won’t gain any new spells on your nar demonbinder side, arcane hierophant is still worth progressing to its full ten levels, since it keeps up all of your important build animals and continues to boost your NDB caster level and companion familiar.
With 8th-level druid spells coming online, there are a few good options (my favorite of which is frostfell, which has a great duration, freezes enemies as though with flesh to ice and provides some decent BFC to boot). On the summoning side, SNAVIII might look like a slim list, but the roc is a very potent outdoor summon thanks to Flyby Attack, Snatch and a +37 grapple modifier. Really, if there’s anything more satisfying than having a bird with an 80’ wingspan swoop down, snatch a foe off the ground and then fling them away while hundreds of feet in the air, I’m not sure what it is.
17th
Arcane Hierophant 8
Channel animal 4/day, wild shape (Huge)
Two words define this level: dire tortoise. In general I rarely recommend leaving dragon form (especially since the deep dragon can in turn take humanoid form from there), but if there’s anything to tempt you away, it’s the dire tortoise. It’s such a fantastic form, with absolutely mammoth defenses and the incomparable ability to always get a surprise round. This thing is just insanely good. The only reason I don’t recommend always being in this form is that in my experience, permanently being huge sized can be really awkward, but otherwise there are very few drawbacks.
18th
Arcane Hierophant 9
Extraordinary Concentration
,Wild shape (elemental 1/day)
And with access to 9th-level spells, you can do… well, anything, I guess. In addition to the unparalleled shapechange, you can also prepare gate once a day thanks to your access to the portal or summoner domain. And on the summoning side, you get access to summon elemental monolith. This is the big daddy of all summoning spells, only held back by its concentration requirement… which is exactly why you also pick up Extraordinary Concentration at this level.
You also get elemental wild shape, which is mostly impressive for its movement modes, though in general I still find the dragon forms to be superior if you don’t specifically need access to earth glide.
19th
Arcane Hierophant 10
Channel plant 2/day
Go ahead and finish out arcane hierophant. It was a good run. Not much else to comment on here beyond getting another 9th-level slot (which is, you know, really really good).
20th
Druid 8
Wild shape (6/day, elemental 2/day)
With arcane hierophant completed, you can really do just about anything you want for this last level. The simplest option is to just finish out with a final level of druid, which lets you finish things off with 18 effective druid levels for purposes of wild shape and animal companion, not to mention yet another 9th-level spell slot. But there is also a really compelling case to be made for paragnostic apostle for fast healing on your summoned critters. You can also just take the second level of nar demonbinder as well; you’ve already got 9ths on your druid side, and the iron sign means you won’t need to muck about with circles when you bind.
1: Comprehend languagesD
2: DarkvisionD
3: Protection from elementsD
4: FearD, lesser planar binding, magic circle against good, summon monster IV, dimensional anchor
5: Mind fogD, summon monster V, plane shift, dispel good, spell resistance
6: True seeingD, planar binding, summon monster VI, banishment
7: VisionD, summon monster VII, blasphemy
8: Mind blankD, greater planar binding
DBonus spell known from Draconic Bloodline.
Wisdom and Charisma are your everything, as they drive your spellcasting and the required checks for planar binding. You also have some complex skill requirements that will take careful juggling and either a 12 Int as a human or a 14 Int as a non-human. Luckily, Strength and Dexterity are fairly irrelevant for you, as you generally aren’t going to be touching combat and you have wild shape to make up for your poor physical abilities.
SAMPLE STAT ARRAYS:
28-point buy: Str 8/Dex 10/Con 12/Int 12/Wis 16/Cha 15
32-point buy: Str 8/Dex 10/Con 14/Int 12/Wis 16/Cha 16
There are some hefty skill requirements to keep in mind. The most arduous by far is that nar demonbinder requires 10 ranks in knowledge (the planes), a skill that will largely be cross-class for you except for level 4, when it briefly becomes a class skill as a planar druid. Close on its heels will be the knowledge (arcana) requirement for arcane hierophant, as knowledge (arcana) isn’t available for you as a class skill until you pick up levels in divine disciple and nar demonbinder.
In addition to those two big ones, you’ll also need 5 ranks in diplomacy and 8 in knowledge (religion) in order to qualify for divine disciple, 5 ranks in intimidate and 2 ranks in sense motive for nar demonbinder, 8 ranks in knowledge (nature) for arcane hierophant, 15 ranks in knowledge (nature) for Dragon Wild Shape and 15 ranks in concentration for Extraordinary Concentration. These other requirements shouldn’t be quite as hair-pulling as the first two, but they still represent a significant investment. A human with 12 Int can pull it all off with some very careful skill expenditure.
Note that if your DM was nice and permitted you to take Educated instead of Apprentice, all of this changes. Having all knowledge skills as class skills instead of having to painstakingly invest in (arcana) and (the planes) while cross-class makes things significantly easier, and a human with 10 Int should have no trouble pulling it all off.
BUILD SUMMARY
By the time you’re done, you’ll cast as a 19th-level druid and wild shape as an 18th-level druid. You’ll also have full nar demonbinder spellcasting (plus some extras from your bloodline, of which the highlight is probably mind blank), giving you powerful 8th-level arcane spells on top of that, and your animal companion will be treated as though you have 18 levels in druid and 11 in sorcerer or wizard.
As a summoner, you’ll have full druidic summoning (meaning the full summon nature’s ally and conjure ice beast lines), further boosted by Rashemi Elemental Summoning. You’ll also have a decent bit of monster summoning, with spontaneous casting of summon monster IV-VII. You have all three planar binding spells, plus the associated necessary spells to successfully bind an extraplanar being. You’ll even have gate and, if you chose the summoner domain over the portal domain, you also end up with the planar ally line, too. And you’ll have Extraordinary Concentration for summon elemental monolith shenanigans.
And while it’s not a summon, your companion familiar is also an excellent ally, and will outstrip what a druid ordinarily gets. You’re basically trading away two effective druid levels for also giving your companion the benefits of a level 11 wizard familiar. I didn’t go into detail on the ideal companion familiar at each level, because I think that’s going to be very campaign dependent. Even a lowly riding dog will end up with one that has +12 HD, +18 natural armor, +6 to Strength and Dex, an Intelligence of 11, spell resistance of 25, improved evasion, the ability to speak both with you and with other animals of its kind and the ability to deliver touch spells for you. Certainly if your campaign is one where walking around with a huge or gargantuan animal companion won’t raise any eyebrows, then go for it: why not, say, have your whole party ride around on a dire elephant companion familiar, and use your impressive 22 HD and above average intelligence well by taking Martial Study feats for access to 6th-level maneuvers ?
VARIANTS
If you don’t mind incorporating cross-setting material, you can drop divine disciple entirely and nab the Touch of Summoning feat to meet nar demonbinder’s summon monster pre-req. That opens you up to a number of options, such as Druid 7/Nar Demonbinder 2/Arcane Hierophant 10/Druid +2 (or fill in the last levels however you’d like). While you won’t have room for Touch of Summoning on top of the current feat layout without access to an Otyugh Hole or flaws, the fact that you no longer require knowledge (religion) for divine disciple means you can get away with dropping your Apprentice feat.
Also, if you’re going with the Touch of Summoning route, it’s worth talking to your DM about arcane hierophant qualification. This build sidesteps the issue of whether 4th-level arcane spells qualify you for arcane hierophant by taking Draconic Bloodline, which gives you access to 2nd-level arcane spells (which by any reading should qualify). However, if this is a non-issue, you could even use Touch of Summoning to go Druid 7/Nar Demonbinder 1/Arcane Hierophant 10 and only drop a single level of druid progression.
With flaws or Otyugh Hole access (or both), you have a couple of feats to spare. Anything that boosts summoning is always going to be appreciated. Augment Summoning is rarely going to go amiss, nor is Ashbound (especially at low levels), though the latter is cross-setting. Greenbound Summoning is absolutely incredible, but also makes a good case for being outright broken, especially if you take it any time before you’d have native access to wall of thorns. I would only take it in high-op settings, or at least delay it until higher levels.
Also, I mentioned this in the write-up, but the final level is extremely flexible. Druid is nice because it progresses wild shape and animal companion, but at that point you already have 9th-level spells on your druid side and 8th-level spells on your nar demonbinder side, so really the world is your oyster.
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And that’s that! Please let us know what you think in the comments, and what you’d like to see for future showcases!