Has anyone played a Summoner for more than a couple of sessions?

[DumbPaladin]

I'd love to hear some feedback from someone who's actually played this class, as I'm considering it. Actual experience playing a summoner in various scenarios could be helpful in preventing me from making some serious mistakes in building a character ... and truth be told, I'm concerned about a couple of the class's mechanics and wondering if they make the character extremely vulnerable or not.

Thanks!

 

[thundershot]

I haven't, but the reason is that the eidolons are too much paperwork.

 

[Particle_Man]

I would treat the Eidolon as a cohort that changes stats once per character level (which, conveniently, is when your Summoner also changes stats). If you are comfortable with running 2 characters you should be fine. Also, since the eidolon's presence cuts down on some of the Summoner's options, one can basically "hide" the summoner during combat and play the eidolon.

And if you are a summoner fan, I assume you are ok with the extra work of running lots of summoned creatures (for when your eidolon is not around).

Another roleplay option is to treat the eidolon as the main character, forced to do the bidding of this arrogant smelly summoner!

 

[Mojo_Rat]

mine lasted 6 sessions in a lvl 9 game. sadly a Pc activated an item from the story while I was separated and being assaulted by the main BBEG. half the party was blinded and my backup suddenly vanished. I learned a few good things though.

firtst by this level the base summoning is pretty strong. you could play the char entirely without the eidolon at this point.

second from reading various threads. go for a mix of survive and damage for your eidolon. don't build a glass canon. if your eidolon uses manufactured weapons the chance of stat block errors. if tour eidolon seems broken you probably made a math error. if your group uses 3.5 material chance of issues rises

read everything carefully and hero labs hes

 

[DumbPaladin]

@Mojo Rat: Did you use anything to beef up your non-eidolon summons? Summoner spells, Augment Summoning?

 

[pawsplay]

Learn the cover rules and the threatened area rules very well. This will help the summoner stay safe, and you will get some good tactics for moving your summoned creatures into position against foes with reach. One important thing to remember is that cover nullifies AoOs.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Though I haven't (yet) played one, from what I've read, it's less like playing two characters and more like playing one and a half. Your summoner in general will be doing little more then hiding and throwing out buffs while, in combat at least, the eidolon will be doing most of the heavy lifting. While the summoner does technically havel 3/4ths BAB, it has far more reasons to not make itself a target then the other way around.

 

[Mojo_Rat]

no I didn't. when I made the character I picked ti to be a fae knight on my mystic flying pegataur the summoner let's me do this so I had feats for mounted combat and casting in armor. I had the arcane weapon feat but no PA yet. I had found at lvl 8 the hound archon struggled a little his attack bonus at +9 was struggling vs some of the buffed bad guys. however the key is several of the lvl 5 summons and up have ALOT of powers that don't use attacks.

the large air elemental can hold 16 medium creatures and flies 100 feat a move.18 reflex save or their sucked up. the brailna think I spelled it wrong gets 2 lightning bolts and 2 cure serious a day blur and mirror image blur etc. I think all the elementals give great tactical advantages.

if I had specced to play lime this rather than be for Ed into it due to the eidolon dieng that day I'd have been ALOT stronger. summoners are amazing support characters with a strong side of control.

 

[Set]

I've played on in a Kingmaker PBP for a few levels now (over the course of several months, PBP play being a bit slower than average).

The Eidolon, being an NPC, only gets 1/2 it's HD worth of hit points. At first level, he'll have four hit points, plus whatever he gets for his Con bonus. If you've played a Druid before, you'll probably be a bit surprised at this squishiness. Take Toughness for it's bonus Feat, if you want to use it (and, unlike a Druid companion, animal barding to boost it's AC is not an option).

Life Link is garbage at lower levels. The Eidolon doesn't die until -10 to -13 hit points, and you can't use the power until it's about to die. At first level, you might only have ten hit points, and if the Eidolon is at -12, you can spend all 10 of your hit points to save booboo from death and leave him stabilized at -2. It's *far* more effective to just let him die and stick to SLAs for the rest of the day.

In fact, at lower levels, the SLAs are pretty freaking amazing, particularly in combination with Spell Focus (conjuration) and Augment Summoning (which you can have at 1st level, if human).

I found grease and mage armor to be useful spells at 1st level. Grease is almost always useful at low levels, and mage armor is occasionally useful to buff up the Eidolon's weak defense.

Since, between 1st and 3rd levels, the Eidolon has died within the first rounds of almost every combat, it's very useful to have monster cards or quickie stat blocks handy for whatever flavor of (possibly augmented) eagles and dogs and whatnot you'll be summoning with the SLA. Slowing down the game while you figure out the stats for a celestial augmented fire beetle will earn you no friends.

The Summoner himself, once he's gotten his grease spells and daze cantrips out of the way, is not a terrible combatant, and can provide some crossbow bolts or even reach attacks with a longspear.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

The Eidolon, being an NPC, only gets 1/2 it's HD worth of hit points. At first level, he'll have four hit points, plus whatever he gets for his Con bonus. If you've played a Druid before, you'll probably be a bit surprised at this squishiness. Take Toughness for it's bonus Feat, if you want to use it (and, unlike a Druid companion, animal barding to boost it's AC is not an option).

Only if you are using Pathfinder Society rules.

I am not disparaging those rules, mind, but not everyone uses them.

I seem to recall Eidolons getting 5.5 per hit die, on a d10, but that may have been with an evolution.

No one has played a Summoner in my game yet, though Alchemist, Witch, Inquisitor, and Cavalier have all seen play.... All in one party. The Inquisitor and the Witch are played by a married couple, they seem to be having a good deal of fun playing freinemies.

The Auld Grump