SangoProduction
2020-11-02, 04:10 AM
I think the last spheres in review went really well, despite having a head ache at the end of it, having to come up with all the possible uses, and appropriately rate them. Now it's time for the Conjuration sphere and in contradiction to Illusion sphere, these are some of the most independent, non-interacting talents in the system. So much so that if you want most of them to work on more than one companion, you must take them more than once.
Ranking system:
(S) Superb: You always want this. It's awesome.
(G) Good: You would certainly not complain about having this, especially in the right builds / situations.
(B) Bad: While perhaps better than nothing, you are giving up something for it, so probably shouldn't without a good reason.
(N) No.
(C) Cheese: A talent so broken that it will be instantly banned if you use it as you could.
(I) Impossible: Can't be rated because it is just not defined enough to give a meaningful rating - it depends too much on DM ruling, or personal use. I'll just place it where I guess the average result would put it.
<Angle brackets> around a rating indicates situational usefulness, and how good it is in that favorable situation.
Summon (I): As a standard action, for a spell point, summon a custom creature, and then another spell point to keep it around for a minute/level. This custom creature comes with a base form, and 1 [form] or [type] talent. Really rather expensive, and and short term without investment. I can't say I like it. But depending on the form talent chosen, it could be good.
All custom creatures have HD scaling 3/4 as fast as your caster level, excluding temporary boosts. They also can be small, rather than medium with appropriate stat changes. D10 HD, and 2 skill points / HD, before int.
Have to say that on the whole, they did a pretty good job at giving each of the forms a "purpose." Even if those purposes are pretty weak.
Biped (G): Highest strength stat of the forms, with 2 natural attacks. It's your stock-standard combat form, capable of wielding weapons.
Orb (G): Here's your utility form. Lowest strength of the forms, and highest int, with the ability to hover at reasonable speed. While not true flight, if given a height boost (like someone throwing it), it can descend slowly, with equal horizontal movement. Pretty worthless in combat, if it isn't a mage companion.
Vermin (G): This is the only form with independently useful non-standard movement, in the form of a climb speed. Its combat use is limited with only 1 attack, and a low strength score, but you'll have a hard time finding a more suitable scout. Also, thanks to its abnormally high number of limbs, it can become a very damage-heavy natural attacker with investment.
Ooze (B-G): Highest strength stat, but gives up dex to have the highest con as well. (And it makes up for the loss of dex relative to Biped with equivalent natural armor.) Only 1 attack though, and though it can't be tripped, it also can't be given real weapons.
Quadruped (B-G): ...I guess this is supposed to be your mount form. At a slower speed than a horse, but still the highest speed of the forms. It is solidly middle of the road with strength, dex, and con, and a single attack. No arms means no real weapons to speak of.
Serpentine (B): Comes equipped with the highest base AC of all the forms. That's its only real stand-out trait, with a low strength and 2 attacks with no arms, though. Not to mention the slow speed.
Avian (B) You'd think the primary draw of an Avian would be its flight, but without fly-by attack, its fly speed is pretty worthless. And even with it, the abysmally slow fly speed means it's not really an option. 3 natural attacks, although 2 talons require flight.
Warrior (<S>): Give up natural attacks and multiattack (the latter potentially conflicting with Martial, ask your DM), in order to gain Battle Form x2, which means it comes equipped with martial weapons, or, if you have Martial archetype, could come with a martial tradition, which could include a proficiency with Greatswords, and more talents. Even if it does conflict with Martial, there are some good early-game considerations between the two, though Martial definitely wins past 4 HD.
Mage (<G-S>): Trades its BAB and hit dice out for the opportunity to gain a casting tradition, and mid-caster scaling, and HD spell points. It can get Implement Bearer (bonus caster levels) by giving up its natural attacks. That's pretty much a straight upgrade for your utility summons. (note: Its caster level will be roughly half of your Conjuration CL, between the 3/4 CL HD, and then the mid-caster based on that CL.)
Martial (<G-S>): For a combat companion, this is pretty great. Gives up a few of the ancillary benefits of being a companion to gain SoM talents. Can also give up their generally weak natural attacks to gain Battle Creature (real weapons). I wouldn't though, because of the Warrior archetype, unless it's incompatible. Combat talents will generally be able to at least pretend to give the defensive forms a reason to exist.
Puppet (G): This makes your utility summons essentially free to use. Combat summons gain much less as you're now using your actions to pretend your level is 3/4 of your caster level.
Aquatic (<G>): In an aquatic campaign, having a 20ft swim speed is probably pretty handy. Explicitly doesn't apply for Avian's fly speed, just to give them the bird.
Familiar (B-G): It gains half its normal HD. But reduces summon cost by 2. Presumably that includes the cost to keep it around without concentration. So, it's essentially a free summon now, but a very impotent summon. But it's free...minus the talent cost. I'd prefer a costly summon, as talents are more rare than spell points. Is less negative for non-combat summons.
Beast (B): They now have the intellect of a dog, rather than a dull human. They explicitly require Handle Animal to direct (an action economy cost), but at least gain some free training as per Handle Animal. In exchange, the companion gains a bonus [form] talent. Lacking intelligence is also a big deal for utility summons, unless they are just trap monkies.
Mindless (N-B): A combat companion losing all skills is no biggie, nor is only following simple commands, but losing all feats is pretty big. It's probably incompatible with things like Martial, Mage or Beast, though not explicitly. You could reconcile Beast and Mindless by saying it needs a Handle Animal just to follow simple commands, and has no tricks. The boost to HD is pretty cool, but I really don't think the extra 1/4 CL as HD is really going to be as impactful as feats.
Unwilling (N): If you really want that extra HD every 4 levels, just make it mindless. At least then it won't ever be actively detrimental.
Link (<S>): Telepathic links to all companions. Beyond great if you have scout summons. Still good for typical uses of telepathy.
Greater Summoning (G): Spending a spell point on summoning makes them last 10 min / level rather than just 1. It is especially beneficial when you are particularly low level, and running out of minutes in a scene. Its greater benefit is allowing creatures to persist for 1 hour/level with another talent.
Extra Companion (I): You basically get the base sphere again. Note that the only talents shared between the summons are the general talents.
Ranged Summoning (B): Summon at close range rather than adjacent to you. It might save the companion a whole move action! Best case scenario is that it grants one more full attack than normal each time it's summoned.
Mass Companions (B): Every GM's (and player's) worst nightmare: A bunch of summons at once. But ignoring the logistics, it's conceptually pretty cool. Just dump all the combat summons and go to town. No savings on the spell point department, just action economy, which means it's exclusively useful for combat. But it requires a bunch of companions before you can even begin to have any value from this, and they must all be relevant at that very moment. And it mustn't have been easy enough to see coming that you could already have them out.
Call the Departed (B): Resummon destroyed companions with 1/4 hp and a negative level. But for 1 more spell point. Pretty poor, all considered. Might be decentish as insurance if you're finding your scouts / utility just randomly dying.
Spell-Linked Companion (N-B): For a spell point, spread any spells you would cast on yourself to your companions as well. But they must essentially be adjacent to you.
Spell Conduit (N-B): Wow, this takes the talent-hunger of the sphere and ramps it up 5 fold. Where do you even get the other touch spells when you spent all your talents on this?
I'll take the form talents and break them down into their roles, and analyze them for their relevance in said roles.
Amorphous Creature (S): Lets you turn your Avian base form into a useful form, chosen at time of summoning (for a cost). Great for when you want a companion for different roles, but don't want to invest so many talents. Spell points are more plentiful than talents.
Boon Companion (<S>): Turns 3/4 casters into 19/20 casters, with regards to this one summon. That's very good when you need it. Especially if you're a Twin Soul Elementalist.
Willful Companion (G): Scaling Wisdom, and rolls Will saves an additional time, taking the highest result.
Altered Size (G): Go smaller and be harder to detect, or larger and be a "bigger" threat.
Quick Companion (B-G): Scaling bonus to Dexterity affects quite a deal of things. It's like the jack of all trades of stats. Master of none. It's best if you have an Amorphous Creature who takes on multiple roles that largely deal with Dexterity.
Magical Companion (B): Placed in generic category, as magic talents can fit any role. This talent doesn't make a companion particularly good or even decent at magic, and it's got few spell points. Save DCs would be trivial. Best case scenario for having a good return on investment is having a healer / buffer summon. But that's best handled as a dedicated Mage archetype companion.
Capable Companion (N-B): Spending a feat-equivalent (a talent) to give a feat to a single companion that's optimistically 3/4 your level is rarely a good trade-off.
I am probably inflating the actual rating, as these are rated for their use as combat-focused form talents, rather than their general use as a magical talent.
Natural Aspect (<S+>): Nothing useful here, except for Pounce. But Pounce is so useful to any natural attack-based companion that it must go up top.
Powerful Companion (<S>): Scaling bonus to strength. So it's scaling bonuses to attack and damage, which really keeps this companion competitive despite lagging behind at 3/4 HD. And it is of course multiplied in effect by the number of attacks you make.
Spell Warded Companion (<S>): First of all, gives a chance to ignore antimagic field. Second, if you face offensive casters, this is cool.
Elemental Creature(<G-S>): Adds 1d3 elemental damage to all natural attacks. Great with many attacks.
Roguish Creature (<G-S>): 1d6 sneak attack damage. So it's better damage than Elemental Creature, but is situational and more things are immune. So it makes sense.
Raging Companion (G-S): +4 to Strength and Con. For a limited duration per day. But yeah. Pretty cool.
Thorned Companion (G): Armor spikes as natural weapons, but only count as natural weapons if beneficial. So it works even if you trade them out. Also doesn't take up a limb to gain. No point taking it twice.
Bestial (<G>): Assuming you didn't trade out your natural attacks, but still want to just do more damage (and have more limbs available), this is pretty much a go-to choice.
Battle Creature (<G>): This is only good if you can essentially trade your natural weapons for the first (but preferably second) version, else you can get the same number of damage dice as extra attacks taking instances of the Bestial talent. Note: It may give proficiency, but not neccesarily the ability to wield weapons (such as when your summon doesn't have arms).
Web Spinner (G): Touch attack to entangle. Ranged touch attack though. So not as fantastic for most companions. It also basically requires a feat in order use effectively.
Fortified Companion (G): Scaling constitution increase, which itself grants scaling health. Can be pretty vital if you're companion's going to the front line, with 3/4 the HD of the rest of the party. Also influences the save DCs of some of the other form talents.
Extra Limbs (B-G): Eh... It enables yet more investment into natural attacks, but if you've used up all your limbs, and still do not have enough, you might want to try another route. But it is an option.
Draconic Creature (B-G): At this point, I'd normally go off about how Destruction sphere is just plain better (and spending the talent there than here probably is), but...companions can only be mid-casters, at best. So: it's a cool-down based attack with decent AoE. It's not the worst, and not totally inconsequential when you get to use it. Unless you already invested into natural attack spam. But this is less investment than that.
Shocking Creature (B): You know Draconic Creature? Yeah, this is that, but with no range, no AoE, and requires a touch attack, but hey! At least it doesn't have a save for half. And you can apply it for free on a successful grapple....and then they get to save for half.
Stinking Companion (B-G): Best choice is Nauseating Spray. 15 ft cone with DC...scaling off of HD...but also Constitution! But even if they fail the save, you might need to use it yet again on the next round!
Muensterous Companion (B): Cheese Body for DR 5/Slashing can be ...oh, that's the damage type that is most often used, and is associated with the best weapons? Well darn. If the DCs of the abilities are based on your Conjuration DC, then it's less trash than it would be otherwise.
Monstrous Attacks (<B>): Aside from trying to stat-kill with Poison, none of these are particularly worth mentioning.
Magic Attacks (B): Helps overcome the most lenient of DR. Spending small amounts of gold on magic items > spending talents.
Infectious Creature (N-B): Decent effect, potentially, as explained here (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?569404-I-can-t-decide-which-disease-is-the-best-to-use&highlight=Disease). But literally gets 1 chance to apply every 24 hours. At least it gets to attempt applying to an unlimited number of creatures.
Armored Companion (N-B): Gain an armor bonus. Scales pretty quickly, all considered, but starts out basically useless. And even by HD 5, it's only equivalent of an chain shirt. HD 9 is Chainmail. And not until HD 15 is it equivalent to unenchanted full plate. If it weren't specifically an armor bonus, but a bonus to AC, it would be acceptable.
Ravenous Creature (N): Pure meme. Nothing more. It didn't even try and pretend to have relevant damage, with a minimum of 0d6. Even ignoring the fact that inside the companion is the safest place for an enemy. And that's ignoring the fact that grappling is basically impossible by the time you have even note-worthy damage on it.
Resistant Creature (N): Just take Protection sphere's Energy Resistance. Get to adjust which one it is with every cast, and affect more than just this creature.
Shield Bearer (N): Hey, here's an idea for you: Spend 5 bloody gold on a stupid shield! Saved you a talent!
Sanguine Creature (N-): Not a single useful choice of abilities. This wouldn't even be N rating if you got all 3.
Aligned Form (N-): Smite as a paladin. Cool.....once per day. Oh.
Explosive Companion (N-): Deal a destructive blast on companion death. This is far too reliant on being in a high-lethality game to get any value from it. And if you are in a game where you would get value from it, you probably would prefer them to target your companion than you.
Skillful Companion (S): +3 int, +1 skill / hit die, and 3 class skills of your choice. Any skill monkey would die to get to use a feat in such a fashion.
Trapbreaking Companion: Adds 1/2 HD to both Perception (to find traps) and Disable Device checks, and can disable magic traps. Does a very particular thing, and does it quite well.
Sage Companion (G): Grants scaling amounts of int, which grants scaling amounts of skill points.
Shadow Creature (<G>): A substantial boost to stealth, but you basically can't use it for combat any more. Amorphous Creature doesn't help with this.
Camouflaged Companion (<G>): If stealth is the companion's role, this is cool, granting one skill point per level, plus a tiny circumstance bonus to stealth.
Transformative (B): Disguise as a standard action, and class skill. A relatively unused skill, and with no bonus when doing so. Picking up Illusion or Alteration sphere would achieve essentially the same result but with a massive bonus.
Avian Creature (G-S): Quickly scaling flight speed, which can be made perfect maneuverability if it's made magical....but considering summons auto- "wink out" in anti-magic fields, then you're losing nothing.
Water Being (<G>): In an aquatic campaign...
Mount (G): Explicitly lets you travel with it while earth gliding (though not explicitly "any rider"). But even ignoring that interesting tidbit, Conjuration sphere has a bunch of very fast talents. Mounts are especially useful when you have good uses for your full round action.
Earth Creature (G): Really hard to look at this in a vacuum and not compare it to Earth Elemental form from Alteration sphere. But trying my best: burrow speed and tremorsense does add some versatility to its movement, and light protection from ambush.
Crafting Companion (<G>): If you like to craft, and your game has down time...this companion can just go ahead and pick up item crafting feats and make stuff you need. Actually, so long as you have it in the background, it can craft without downtime, so long as there's a decent amount of time going on in the campaign. The mage archetype makes it more capable of picking up crafting feats on its own. It will definitely take a fair few levels before this investment actually pays for itself. But there aren't many other ways to turn talents into Item Creation feats.
Animal Form (B-G): Gains a good load of scaling land speed. But the speed scales at the same rate as Avian Creature, while still being restricted to the ground. And scent, I guess.
Superior Senses (B): God, just the thought of how talent-hungry this is boggles the mind. But if you really invest into it, it can potentially give your companion versatility. Makes it easier for a scout summon to do its job.
Extreme Situations (N-): These are such niche immunities that either the entire party is already given a quest item that grants those immunities, or it won't come up.
Climbing Companion(N--): So, you chose to give very limited, and slow climb speed rather than perfect and fast fly speed??? Why though?
No companion may have more than 1 different type talent. But they otherwise count as form talents. Despite changing creature type, it retains the (extraplanar) subtype. They also gain no other benefits of being the type, except as stated.
Ooze Companion (G): Can squeeze and resist crits, and engulf instantly pins creatures unless they save, simply by moving on top of them. No apparent mention of synergy with Ravenous Creature.
Constructed (B): Gains some defenses, including immunity to breathing. Meh. I wouldn't say it's worth the talents.
Fey Companion (N-B): Gains DR and minor boosts to specific types of saves. Not too much utility in this. Willful Companion does it better...a lot better.
Undead Creature (N): Becomes undead, and with a second talent, gains undead immunities, which are much more generous than plant immunities. But again. Do you care enough to give such stuff to your companion?
Plant Creature (N): Grant plant immunities for 2 talents...Do you care enough about those immunities on your companion, to spend 2 talents?
Planar creature (N-): Wow. So many choices. None of them good.
Ranking system:
(S) Superb: You always want this. It's awesome.
(G) Good: You would certainly not complain about having this, especially in the right builds / situations.
(B) Bad: While perhaps better than nothing, you are giving up something for it, so probably shouldn't without a good reason.
(N) No.
(C) Cheese: A talent so broken that it will be instantly banned if you use it as you could.
(I) Impossible: Can't be rated because it is just not defined enough to give a meaningful rating - it depends too much on DM ruling, or personal use. I'll just place it where I guess the average result would put it.
<Angle brackets> around a rating indicates situational usefulness, and how good it is in that favorable situation.
Summon (I): As a standard action, for a spell point, summon a custom creature, and then another spell point to keep it around for a minute/level. This custom creature comes with a base form, and 1 [form] or [type] talent. Really rather expensive, and and short term without investment. I can't say I like it. But depending on the form talent chosen, it could be good.
All custom creatures have HD scaling 3/4 as fast as your caster level, excluding temporary boosts. They also can be small, rather than medium with appropriate stat changes. D10 HD, and 2 skill points / HD, before int.
Have to say that on the whole, they did a pretty good job at giving each of the forms a "purpose." Even if those purposes are pretty weak.
Biped (G): Highest strength stat of the forms, with 2 natural attacks. It's your stock-standard combat form, capable of wielding weapons.
Orb (G): Here's your utility form. Lowest strength of the forms, and highest int, with the ability to hover at reasonable speed. While not true flight, if given a height boost (like someone throwing it), it can descend slowly, with equal horizontal movement. Pretty worthless in combat, if it isn't a mage companion.
Vermin (G): This is the only form with independently useful non-standard movement, in the form of a climb speed. Its combat use is limited with only 1 attack, and a low strength score, but you'll have a hard time finding a more suitable scout. Also, thanks to its abnormally high number of limbs, it can become a very damage-heavy natural attacker with investment.
Ooze (B-G): Highest strength stat, but gives up dex to have the highest con as well. (And it makes up for the loss of dex relative to Biped with equivalent natural armor.) Only 1 attack though, and though it can't be tripped, it also can't be given real weapons.
Quadruped (B-G): ...I guess this is supposed to be your mount form. At a slower speed than a horse, but still the highest speed of the forms. It is solidly middle of the road with strength, dex, and con, and a single attack. No arms means no real weapons to speak of.
Serpentine (B): Comes equipped with the highest base AC of all the forms. That's its only real stand-out trait, with a low strength and 2 attacks with no arms, though. Not to mention the slow speed.
Avian (B) You'd think the primary draw of an Avian would be its flight, but without fly-by attack, its fly speed is pretty worthless. And even with it, the abysmally slow fly speed means it's not really an option. 3 natural attacks, although 2 talons require flight.
Warrior (<S>): Give up natural attacks and multiattack (the latter potentially conflicting with Martial, ask your DM), in order to gain Battle Form x2, which means it comes equipped with martial weapons, or, if you have Martial archetype, could come with a martial tradition, which could include a proficiency with Greatswords, and more talents. Even if it does conflict with Martial, there are some good early-game considerations between the two, though Martial definitely wins past 4 HD.
Mage (<G-S>): Trades its BAB and hit dice out for the opportunity to gain a casting tradition, and mid-caster scaling, and HD spell points. It can get Implement Bearer (bonus caster levels) by giving up its natural attacks. That's pretty much a straight upgrade for your utility summons. (note: Its caster level will be roughly half of your Conjuration CL, between the 3/4 CL HD, and then the mid-caster based on that CL.)
Martial (<G-S>): For a combat companion, this is pretty great. Gives up a few of the ancillary benefits of being a companion to gain SoM talents. Can also give up their generally weak natural attacks to gain Battle Creature (real weapons). I wouldn't though, because of the Warrior archetype, unless it's incompatible. Combat talents will generally be able to at least pretend to give the defensive forms a reason to exist.
Puppet (G): This makes your utility summons essentially free to use. Combat summons gain much less as you're now using your actions to pretend your level is 3/4 of your caster level.
Aquatic (<G>): In an aquatic campaign, having a 20ft swim speed is probably pretty handy. Explicitly doesn't apply for Avian's fly speed, just to give them the bird.
Familiar (B-G): It gains half its normal HD. But reduces summon cost by 2. Presumably that includes the cost to keep it around without concentration. So, it's essentially a free summon now, but a very impotent summon. But it's free...minus the talent cost. I'd prefer a costly summon, as talents are more rare than spell points. Is less negative for non-combat summons.
Beast (B): They now have the intellect of a dog, rather than a dull human. They explicitly require Handle Animal to direct (an action economy cost), but at least gain some free training as per Handle Animal. In exchange, the companion gains a bonus [form] talent. Lacking intelligence is also a big deal for utility summons, unless they are just trap monkies.
Mindless (N-B): A combat companion losing all skills is no biggie, nor is only following simple commands, but losing all feats is pretty big. It's probably incompatible with things like Martial, Mage or Beast, though not explicitly. You could reconcile Beast and Mindless by saying it needs a Handle Animal just to follow simple commands, and has no tricks. The boost to HD is pretty cool, but I really don't think the extra 1/4 CL as HD is really going to be as impactful as feats.
Unwilling (N): If you really want that extra HD every 4 levels, just make it mindless. At least then it won't ever be actively detrimental.
Link (<S>): Telepathic links to all companions. Beyond great if you have scout summons. Still good for typical uses of telepathy.
Greater Summoning (G): Spending a spell point on summoning makes them last 10 min / level rather than just 1. It is especially beneficial when you are particularly low level, and running out of minutes in a scene. Its greater benefit is allowing creatures to persist for 1 hour/level with another talent.
Extra Companion (I): You basically get the base sphere again. Note that the only talents shared between the summons are the general talents.
Ranged Summoning (B): Summon at close range rather than adjacent to you. It might save the companion a whole move action! Best case scenario is that it grants one more full attack than normal each time it's summoned.
Mass Companions (B): Every GM's (and player's) worst nightmare: A bunch of summons at once. But ignoring the logistics, it's conceptually pretty cool. Just dump all the combat summons and go to town. No savings on the spell point department, just action economy, which means it's exclusively useful for combat. But it requires a bunch of companions before you can even begin to have any value from this, and they must all be relevant at that very moment. And it mustn't have been easy enough to see coming that you could already have them out.
Call the Departed (B): Resummon destroyed companions with 1/4 hp and a negative level. But for 1 more spell point. Pretty poor, all considered. Might be decentish as insurance if you're finding your scouts / utility just randomly dying.
Spell-Linked Companion (N-B): For a spell point, spread any spells you would cast on yourself to your companions as well. But they must essentially be adjacent to you.
Spell Conduit (N-B): Wow, this takes the talent-hunger of the sphere and ramps it up 5 fold. Where do you even get the other touch spells when you spent all your talents on this?
I'll take the form talents and break them down into their roles, and analyze them for their relevance in said roles.
Amorphous Creature (S): Lets you turn your Avian base form into a useful form, chosen at time of summoning (for a cost). Great for when you want a companion for different roles, but don't want to invest so many talents. Spell points are more plentiful than talents.
Boon Companion (<S>): Turns 3/4 casters into 19/20 casters, with regards to this one summon. That's very good when you need it. Especially if you're a Twin Soul Elementalist.
Willful Companion (G): Scaling Wisdom, and rolls Will saves an additional time, taking the highest result.
Altered Size (G): Go smaller and be harder to detect, or larger and be a "bigger" threat.
Quick Companion (B-G): Scaling bonus to Dexterity affects quite a deal of things. It's like the jack of all trades of stats. Master of none. It's best if you have an Amorphous Creature who takes on multiple roles that largely deal with Dexterity.
Magical Companion (B): Placed in generic category, as magic talents can fit any role. This talent doesn't make a companion particularly good or even decent at magic, and it's got few spell points. Save DCs would be trivial. Best case scenario for having a good return on investment is having a healer / buffer summon. But that's best handled as a dedicated Mage archetype companion.
Capable Companion (N-B): Spending a feat-equivalent (a talent) to give a feat to a single companion that's optimistically 3/4 your level is rarely a good trade-off.
I am probably inflating the actual rating, as these are rated for their use as combat-focused form talents, rather than their general use as a magical talent.
Natural Aspect (<S+>): Nothing useful here, except for Pounce. But Pounce is so useful to any natural attack-based companion that it must go up top.
Powerful Companion (<S>): Scaling bonus to strength. So it's scaling bonuses to attack and damage, which really keeps this companion competitive despite lagging behind at 3/4 HD. And it is of course multiplied in effect by the number of attacks you make.
Spell Warded Companion (<S>): First of all, gives a chance to ignore antimagic field. Second, if you face offensive casters, this is cool.
Elemental Creature(<G-S>): Adds 1d3 elemental damage to all natural attacks. Great with many attacks.
Roguish Creature (<G-S>): 1d6 sneak attack damage. So it's better damage than Elemental Creature, but is situational and more things are immune. So it makes sense.
Raging Companion (G-S): +4 to Strength and Con. For a limited duration per day. But yeah. Pretty cool.
Thorned Companion (G): Armor spikes as natural weapons, but only count as natural weapons if beneficial. So it works even if you trade them out. Also doesn't take up a limb to gain. No point taking it twice.
Bestial (<G>): Assuming you didn't trade out your natural attacks, but still want to just do more damage (and have more limbs available), this is pretty much a go-to choice.
Battle Creature (<G>): This is only good if you can essentially trade your natural weapons for the first (but preferably second) version, else you can get the same number of damage dice as extra attacks taking instances of the Bestial talent. Note: It may give proficiency, but not neccesarily the ability to wield weapons (such as when your summon doesn't have arms).
Web Spinner (G): Touch attack to entangle. Ranged touch attack though. So not as fantastic for most companions. It also basically requires a feat in order use effectively.
Fortified Companion (G): Scaling constitution increase, which itself grants scaling health. Can be pretty vital if you're companion's going to the front line, with 3/4 the HD of the rest of the party. Also influences the save DCs of some of the other form talents.
Extra Limbs (B-G): Eh... It enables yet more investment into natural attacks, but if you've used up all your limbs, and still do not have enough, you might want to try another route. But it is an option.
Draconic Creature (B-G): At this point, I'd normally go off about how Destruction sphere is just plain better (and spending the talent there than here probably is), but...companions can only be mid-casters, at best. So: it's a cool-down based attack with decent AoE. It's not the worst, and not totally inconsequential when you get to use it. Unless you already invested into natural attack spam. But this is less investment than that.
Shocking Creature (B): You know Draconic Creature? Yeah, this is that, but with no range, no AoE, and requires a touch attack, but hey! At least it doesn't have a save for half. And you can apply it for free on a successful grapple....and then they get to save for half.
Stinking Companion (B-G): Best choice is Nauseating Spray. 15 ft cone with DC...scaling off of HD...but also Constitution! But even if they fail the save, you might need to use it yet again on the next round!
Muensterous Companion (B): Cheese Body for DR 5/Slashing can be ...oh, that's the damage type that is most often used, and is associated with the best weapons? Well darn. If the DCs of the abilities are based on your Conjuration DC, then it's less trash than it would be otherwise.
Monstrous Attacks (<B>): Aside from trying to stat-kill with Poison, none of these are particularly worth mentioning.
Magic Attacks (B): Helps overcome the most lenient of DR. Spending small amounts of gold on magic items > spending talents.
Infectious Creature (N-B): Decent effect, potentially, as explained here (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?569404-I-can-t-decide-which-disease-is-the-best-to-use&highlight=Disease). But literally gets 1 chance to apply every 24 hours. At least it gets to attempt applying to an unlimited number of creatures.
Armored Companion (N-B): Gain an armor bonus. Scales pretty quickly, all considered, but starts out basically useless. And even by HD 5, it's only equivalent of an chain shirt. HD 9 is Chainmail. And not until HD 15 is it equivalent to unenchanted full plate. If it weren't specifically an armor bonus, but a bonus to AC, it would be acceptable.
Ravenous Creature (N): Pure meme. Nothing more. It didn't even try and pretend to have relevant damage, with a minimum of 0d6. Even ignoring the fact that inside the companion is the safest place for an enemy. And that's ignoring the fact that grappling is basically impossible by the time you have even note-worthy damage on it.
Resistant Creature (N): Just take Protection sphere's Energy Resistance. Get to adjust which one it is with every cast, and affect more than just this creature.
Shield Bearer (N): Hey, here's an idea for you: Spend 5 bloody gold on a stupid shield! Saved you a talent!
Sanguine Creature (N-): Not a single useful choice of abilities. This wouldn't even be N rating if you got all 3.
Aligned Form (N-): Smite as a paladin. Cool.....once per day. Oh.
Explosive Companion (N-): Deal a destructive blast on companion death. This is far too reliant on being in a high-lethality game to get any value from it. And if you are in a game where you would get value from it, you probably would prefer them to target your companion than you.
Skillful Companion (S): +3 int, +1 skill / hit die, and 3 class skills of your choice. Any skill monkey would die to get to use a feat in such a fashion.
Trapbreaking Companion: Adds 1/2 HD to both Perception (to find traps) and Disable Device checks, and can disable magic traps. Does a very particular thing, and does it quite well.
Sage Companion (G): Grants scaling amounts of int, which grants scaling amounts of skill points.
Shadow Creature (<G>): A substantial boost to stealth, but you basically can't use it for combat any more. Amorphous Creature doesn't help with this.
Camouflaged Companion (<G>): If stealth is the companion's role, this is cool, granting one skill point per level, plus a tiny circumstance bonus to stealth.
Transformative (B): Disguise as a standard action, and class skill. A relatively unused skill, and with no bonus when doing so. Picking up Illusion or Alteration sphere would achieve essentially the same result but with a massive bonus.
Avian Creature (G-S): Quickly scaling flight speed, which can be made perfect maneuverability if it's made magical....but considering summons auto- "wink out" in anti-magic fields, then you're losing nothing.
Water Being (<G>): In an aquatic campaign...
Mount (G): Explicitly lets you travel with it while earth gliding (though not explicitly "any rider"). But even ignoring that interesting tidbit, Conjuration sphere has a bunch of very fast talents. Mounts are especially useful when you have good uses for your full round action.
Earth Creature (G): Really hard to look at this in a vacuum and not compare it to Earth Elemental form from Alteration sphere. But trying my best: burrow speed and tremorsense does add some versatility to its movement, and light protection from ambush.
Crafting Companion (<G>): If you like to craft, and your game has down time...this companion can just go ahead and pick up item crafting feats and make stuff you need. Actually, so long as you have it in the background, it can craft without downtime, so long as there's a decent amount of time going on in the campaign. The mage archetype makes it more capable of picking up crafting feats on its own. It will definitely take a fair few levels before this investment actually pays for itself. But there aren't many other ways to turn talents into Item Creation feats.
Animal Form (B-G): Gains a good load of scaling land speed. But the speed scales at the same rate as Avian Creature, while still being restricted to the ground. And scent, I guess.
Superior Senses (B): God, just the thought of how talent-hungry this is boggles the mind. But if you really invest into it, it can potentially give your companion versatility. Makes it easier for a scout summon to do its job.
Extreme Situations (N-): These are such niche immunities that either the entire party is already given a quest item that grants those immunities, or it won't come up.
Climbing Companion(N--): So, you chose to give very limited, and slow climb speed rather than perfect and fast fly speed??? Why though?
No companion may have more than 1 different type talent. But they otherwise count as form talents. Despite changing creature type, it retains the (extraplanar) subtype. They also gain no other benefits of being the type, except as stated.
Ooze Companion (G): Can squeeze and resist crits, and engulf instantly pins creatures unless they save, simply by moving on top of them. No apparent mention of synergy with Ravenous Creature.
Constructed (B): Gains some defenses, including immunity to breathing. Meh. I wouldn't say it's worth the talents.
Fey Companion (N-B): Gains DR and minor boosts to specific types of saves. Not too much utility in this. Willful Companion does it better...a lot better.
Undead Creature (N): Becomes undead, and with a second talent, gains undead immunities, which are much more generous than plant immunities. But again. Do you care enough to give such stuff to your companion?
Plant Creature (N): Grant plant immunities for 2 talents...Do you care enough about those immunities on your companion, to spend 2 talents?
Planar creature (N-): Wow. So many choices. None of them good.