Summoning

Has anyone actually played at higher levels using EoM summoning? It appears to me that it'll suffer from the same problem D&D did; since you really want the obedient summonables (who wants to have to constantly deal with secondary domination spells or negotiation with something you pull out in the middle of a battle?) you really are going to be using the 1 CR/2 point version, and while that might be useful at the bottom end, its hard for me to picture a Level 12 EoM mage finding a CR 6 monster to justify the time it takes him to pop it out.

I tend to stick to sub 14th level.. my highest 'normal' EoM is 8th level. I did a couple 20th level write-ups just to see how nastily broken it can get. Lets just say that a 20th level EoM mage can pretty much mess your day up.

But regarding the usefullness of summons..
That may be due to your perception skewed by 3.x summoning duration times. IMO summoning is the ultimate customizable utility spell...

Wanna fly? climb a wall? check for guards? get an object from under a pool of acid? etc...

For in combat casting... depending on how liberal your GM is... Swarms are considered one critter by RAW and can be summoned. Using the same line of slippery slope thought, if swarms are summonable, why not Skirmishes or MOBs?

Tell me you can't think a 20th level mage can't make some combat use for a MOB...

Alternatively.. EoM summons are not always right next to you either.. so you don't really *need* an obediant summons.. having the angry beast show up on the other side of the enemy works just as well.

And then consider add-on effects. I have one character, currently on sabbatacal, whose primary focus was caling shadow constructs that were boosted with various enhancements. A 'Harrier' {ECS} construct with flaming weapons and an zone of 'Slow' centered on him could be really useful... the possibilities go far beyond the simple critters in the MM series.

YMMV

Another alternative is get your Diplomacy up and take the Summon Specialist feat. If you are building a Mage from scratch make diplomacy one of your class skills. Charisma is already helpful for a Mage so you should not have any trouble summoning something useful at any level.

Hope this helps,
William Holder

PS ~ Yes I did play a rather high level summoner in EoM... very nasty character. Don't forget to take the infuse spell to let you boost your Diplomacy check up before you cast for that extra push if you feel you need it.

So the takehome message I'm getting from this is that when dealing with a non-specialist, my perception of the combat usage at upper levels is basically right; that you either need to have some additional abilities to get value out of it, or not use them in combat.

Correct, non-specialist are on par with Core and Specialist can do more at the cost of a feat and some skill point expenditure.

Hope this helps,
William Holder