[3.5] Summon Monster Tech

[Matamane]

I need some help with a character who uses Summon Monster as his main ability. I'm looking for feats, new monster lists and hopefully a prestige class or two. Any info helps.

[Akal Saris]

Summoning is easily my favorite part of 3.5, so I wish you the best of luck with the character!

Here's 2 of the best guides around:

Practical Demon-keeping (Advice on every evil outsider and where it could fit into Summon Monster)

Mastering the Malconvoker (Advice on the excellent PrC from Complete Scoundrel, also has links to about 4 more guides, but the wizards board is down so I can't really link those)

Basically, my advice is to follow the advice in Mastering the Malconvoker, then go through the Demon-keeping guide and ask your DM if you can research and summon some of the more awesome stuff in that guide.

[Matamane]

I saw the Dual Plane Summons Psi-Spell feat, and it sent me going in a good direction.

Whenever you cast any summon monster spell, you can simultaneously manifest an astral construct power and apply its benefits to the summoned creature.

So the way I see it, I can use Boost Construct to give my summoned creatures massive boosts while taking advantage of the Augment Construct feat.

How does the constructor prestige class interact with this? This feat was written between Psionics and Expanded Psionics, so I'm at a loss. If you have a clue how it would work tell me.

[Akal Saris]

Sorry Matamane - I'm not as familiar with psionics as summoning. Though it does make me wonder if that can be combined with the binder's summon monster through one vestige and psionics ability through another vestige :D

[Matamane]

Its not as good as I had hoped.

[Akal Saris]

Maybe keep it in the back of your head for a gestalt game though :)

Do you mind typing out the feat's description and prereqs? I'd like to see if there are any cool builds to be done with it, and I could use the practice with psionics :)

[Gnorman]

Oh man buddy sit back and let me open up a can of knowledge - I happen to believe that my knowledge of Summon Monster spells and summoners is second only to Treantmonklvl20 (and perhaps mxyzplk).

Psionics summoning is generally a bit subpar - especially when Complete Psionic gets involved, and really limits your construct potential. Dual Plane Summoning is a pretty obscure feat (Dragon #313, Mind Flayer Magic) and not all that powerful - though I do like being able to give my summons Pounce or Blindsight or a high deflection bonus, it's not entirely necessary to being a good summoner. It's a minor benefit, especially when you consider the dual-progression hoops you'd have to jump through to get it.

For a summoner, you're going to need to decide a couple of things. First, do you want to be a cleric or a wizard? The cleric will have superior just about everything - hit dice, saves, proficiencies, BAB, and if you're going to be concentrating on Summon Monster spells, Treantmonklvl20's age-old advice for wizards ("Every time you cast a spell on the cleric list, you're a chump for that round") will definitely apply. BUT! Wizards have the advantage of Unearthed Arcana Alternate Class Features - of which Rapid Spell is an absolute must. Gets summoning down to a standard action, which really opens a wide world of potential for you in terms of tactical positioning and quickened spells.

I lean towards Wizard, because I love being a battlefield controller as a sideline to my summoning, laying down Solid Fogs, Stinking Clouds, Glitterdusts, and Webs.

My ideal build for a summoner will be Focused Specialist Conjurer 3 (dropping Evocation, Necromancy, and one other, either Enchantment or Illusion depending on your tastes and party makeup) / Master Specialist 2 (Complete Mage) / Malconvoker 9 (Complete Scoundrel) / Master Specialist +2 / Paragnostic Apostle 4. Plenty of knowledge skills, plenty of spells, and you're a summoner extraordinaire. Paragnostic Apostle nets you Fast Healing on all your summons and a great list of other potential benefits (great class, really) while Master Specialist 4 will grant your summons your CL in temporary HP - nothing special, but a nice boost and it's not like you lose anything over staying straight Conjurer. Any Malconvoker levels past 5 will be concentrating on binding, not summoning, so if you want to get out of the class early, do so by all means and take Thamaturgist or Archmage or Master Specialist all the way up to 10 if you desire. Just make sure you get to level 5 - Infernal Legion is your moneymaker.