Making the most of Chained Summoner - without ANY cheese whatsoever

[GrayDeath]

You are reading correctly, I actually got the AOK to paly "the Monstrosity people used to say PF was less balanced than 3.5" in an actual Game.

We are starting at Level 6, and it is expected to take 6-8 Sessions, where the end of each Session is a levelup.

Now, since I never actually played the CLass after the Playtest, I am asking the Forum to help me achieve the following:


1.: Maximum amount of Power

with

2.: avoiding any arguable RAW arguments

and ideally

3.: Without needing too much effort at actual Play (so avopiding things that need to be done extra every day, or certain "can only be done under circumstance Epsilon on tuesdays, but then wins the game" stuff.


So to sum it up: I want to enjoy playing a ridiculously powerful class, and rubbing it in, without relying on anything that can be argued against.

(and in case people say "dont play with that goal" or "youll ruin other players fun": All 3 players will optimize heavily (one, as always, going for an Elven Wizard or Sorcerer, the third....no Idea), and the DM said "as long as its RAW without shutting off half your brain, go for it, but NOTHING semiinfinite or Cheddar!", so yeah...^^)


Open Ressources:

All Core Books, all Advanced Books, NOTHING else.

[icefractal]

For raw power, Master Summoner is of course the best archetype.

If you don't mind more work statting up your summons, Evolved Summon Monster is pretty handy, giving a variety of bonuses that can be decided at casting time. I say if because personally, deciding what evolution configurations made sense for which creatures and making all the stats for those got really old after a while.

Taking it twice allows you to give a summoned creature Shared Evolution and Skilled (or any 1p Evolution) and then transfer the latter to you. Instant +8 skill, climbing, gills, energy resistance, scent, or swimming on demand.

Summon Evil/Neutral/Good Monster (depending which you qualify for) add a bunch of options to your list. Summon Evil Monster, in particular, adds Petitioners. Isn't that a template, you ask? Yes, yes it is. They lose most features (including HD) but keep their size, form, and ability scores. Also they have 2HD worth of skills. So that's potentially a lot of versatility. And even leaving that aside, Hunted Petitioners are rather tanky with DR 5/- and fast healing.

Expanded Summon Monster is another good option for expanding your choices.

Versatile Summon Monsters allows you to replace Celestial/Fiendish/etc with a variety of elemental templates that are in many cases better. A fun trick (if you're not going Master Summoner) is to combine this with the Story Summoner archetype, which gives every creature you summon a random alignment template that you can then replace with something better.

Tigers are a very strong choice when they become available, and remain good for many levels.
Lanterns Archons are handy when in cramped quarters. Somewhat useful even at higher levels because they have touch attacks doing untyped damage.

Also, I found this list from when I played a Summoner. This only covers what was available when I made it, there are a lot more at higher levels:

Acid Arrow (CL 6) – Ooze Mephit
Aid (CL 6) – Hound Archon
Arcane Lock (CL 6) – Schir
Bestow Curse (DC 16, CL 6) - Aghash
Blur (CL 6) – Air Mephit
Charm Person (DC 15, CL 8) – Satyr
Chill Metal (DC 14, CL 6) – Ice Mephit
Commune (CL 12) – Silvanshee
Detect Chaos (CL 2) – Arbiter
Detect Evil (CL 6) – Hound Archon
Detect Good (CL 6) – Cacodaemon
Detect Law (CL 6) – Voidworm
Ember Storm (DC 14, CL 6) – Smoke Mephit
Entangle (DC 13, CL 9) – Grig
Expeditious Retreat (CL 6) – Schir
Fear (DC 18, CL 8) – Satyr
Feather Fall (CL 6) – Tripurasura
Glitterdust (DC 14, CL 6) – Salt Mephit
Grease (DC 12, CL 8) – Zebub
Gust of Wind (CL 6) – Air Mephit
Heat Metal (DC 14, CL 6) – Fire Mephit
Hide from Undead (DC 14, CL 3) – Nosoi
Inflict Light Wounds (DC 10, CL 6) – Augur
Lesser Shadow Evocation (DC 16, CL 4) – Shae
Levitate (CL 6) – Tripurasura
Lightning Bolt (DC 15, CL 6) – Lightning Mephit
Locate Object (CL 6) – Tripurasura
Magic Circle against Evil (CL 6) – Hound Archon
Magic Missile (CL 6) – Ice Mephit
Make Whole (CL 2) – Arbiter
Minor Image (DC 15, CL 6) – Aghash
Obscuring Mist (CL 6) – Voidworm
Passwall (CL 4) – Spring-Heeled Jack
Protection from Chaos (CL 2) – Arbiter
Protection from Good (CL 6) – Schir
Pyrotechnics (DC 14, CL 9) – Grig
Reduce Person (DC 15, CL 6) – Atomie
Scorching Ray (CL 6) – Fire Mephit
See Invisibility (CL 6) – Schir
Shatter (DC 10, CL 1) – Pugwampi
Shocking Grasp (CL 6) – Lightning Mephit
Shrink Item (CL 6) – Atomie
Sleep (DC 15, CL 8) – Satyr
Soften Earth and Stone (CL 6) – Earth Mephit
Sound Burst (DC 14, CL 3) – Nosoi
Speak with Animals (CL 6) – Atomie
Speak with Dead (CL 12) – Nosoi
Spider Climb (CL 6) – Tripurasura
Stinking Cloud (DC 15, CL 6) – Ooze Mephit
Suggestion (DC 17, CL 8) – Satyr
Ventriloquism (DC 14, CL 7) – Brownie
Whispering Wind (CL 8) – Zebub
Wind Wall (CL 6) – Dust Mephit

[GrayDeath]

Thank you, thats a lot of food for thought.

Still open for and welcoming of further input!

[Alexvrahr]

There's multiple ways to make a powerful summoner without touching questionable rules.

An eidolon with a lot of arms (a 'Kali') can wield a lot of weapons to turn enemies into pincushions, salami or whatever. Ranged weapons make it easier to get a full attack off, or for melee a pouncing quadruped works.

A summoner can cast battlefield control spells. A big, hefty eidolon (or carefully selected summons) can push people around one way or another. Fill the created pit with enemies. Or have them grapple the enemy and drag them across a wall of fire repeatedly (easiest if your eidolon is fire-resistant or immune to fire, or with summons likewise).

A half-elf summoner using their alternate FCB, especially with their racial archetype can get a lot of evolution points for their eidolon. Their racial archetype gets summon nature's ally rather than summon monster which is a decrease in power there, consider that before taking it.

Or you can focus on the summons as above of course. A master summoner's eidolon won't be combat-effective, but with a few instances of the skilled evolution it can sneak, wave wands with UMD, etc.

[GrayDeath]

Hmmm, so the only options anyone fond are stick the Eidolon into the bag but summon more disposable minions, or max the Eiidolon but suffer summoningwise?

How about something that does both?

A slight boost of the Summon Monster SLA and say 1 extra Evo Point per 3-4 Levelsish?

[GrayDeath]

OK, thread closed.

The DM changed his mind regarding the theme (less than 10 days before we start, ugh), and while still open to optimize up the wazoo without cheese (even with some extras for weaker classes, originally OP Classes are now out...) and I`ll ask my question for help in another thread.

Still thankful for all the help I got!