Opinions wanted on a custom prestige class.

[M.Handy]

I'm still a bit new to D&D, but I've been working on some classes and prestige classes to help myself learn and just to make the game "more mine."
To wit, I've created a dedicated summoner. Could anyone help me polish it, or tell me if it is under or over powered?

Prestige Class
Summoners fight, literally wielding the power of their enemies. A furious storm on the battlefield, Summoners slay, claiming the life of a foe only to unleash it against another opponent moments later. Druids and Rangers form their ranks, but a Summoner cannot truly claim to be either.
Possessing a reverence for nature and a familiarity with natural lands, Summoners enjoy extraordinary versatility. Though lacking healing magic, this class brings forth armies of powerful minions to devastate the battlefield with sheer offensive power.

Requirements
To qualify to become a Summoner, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Alignment: Any non-chaotic.
Charisma: at least 14.
Class: Must have at least 1 level of Ranger and 2 levels of Druid
Skills: Concentration 4 ranks, Handle Animal 4 rank.


Class Skills
The Summoner’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are: Concentration (Con), Craft (Int),
Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal, (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge, (Summoning) (Int),
Listen (Wis), Ride (Dex), Spellcraft, (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str),and Use Magic Device (Cha)

Skill Points at each level each level: 4 + Int modifier.

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Summoner.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Summoners gain no further weapon or armor proficiency.
A Summoner who wears prohibited armor or carries a prohibited shield is unable to cast druid spells or use any of her supernatural or spell-like class abilities while doing so and for 24 hours thereafter.
Her alignment does not restrict her from casting certain spells opposed to her moral or ethical beliefs. A Summoner takes one full turn to summon its creature, but the summoned creature may attack that turn.
In order to form a pact with a monster or other creature, the Summoner must be the one to strike the final blow and reduce its HP to 0. This can be either directly or via another summoned creature. The summoner then rolls 1d6 and adds her charisma modifier and Knowledge (Summoning) score. The difficulty of (total score required for) forming the pact is as follows:

Common animal: 9
Four-footed Beast::13
Undead: 15
Orc class: 18
Boss and Dragon:22

After forming a pact, the creature becomes part of a list of summonable creatures. In order to summon the creature again, the summoner must roll 1d10 + wisdom mod + Knowledge (Summoning). This total must equal or exceed the score for forming the original pact.
After being summoned, if the creature's HP is reduced to 0 it is destroyed permanently and may not be summoned again. The creature may be dismissed (de-summoned) as a free action, but only during the summoner's turn.
A summoned creature's stats are determined mainly by the strength of the Summoner and its creature class. They are calculated as follows:

Common animal -
HP = Summoner HP/2. AC = Summoner AC/2. All saves and bonuses are equal to those of the summoner.
Attack damage is calculated as 1d6+2.

Four-footed Beast: -
HP = Summoner HP. AC = Summoner AC/2. All saves and bonuses are equal to those of the summoner.
Attack damage is calculated as 1d6 + Summoner Attack Mod.

Undead -
HP = 1. AC = Summoner AC. All saves and bonuses are equal to those of the summoner.
Attack damage is calculated as 1d8 + Summoner Attack Mod + Summoner Attack Bonus.
A 1d6 is then rolled to see if the creature inflicts poison. Odd numbers inflict poison. Damage inflicted is equal to the Summoner's level. Fortitude Save = 15. Poison lasts for 4 rounds.

Orc class -
HP = Summoner HP + 1d6. AC = Summoner AC + Summoner's Level. Saves and bonuses equal those of the summoner.
Attack damage is calculated as 1d8 + Summoner Attack Mod + Summoner Base Attack Bonus.

Boss and Dragon -
HP = Summoner HP x 2 + 1d4. AC = Summoner AC + Summoner's Level + 1d4. Saves and bonuses equal those of the summoner. Attack damage is calculated as 2d8 + Summoner Attack Mod + Summoner Base Attack Bonus.

**When forming the pact with a monster, players may question the DM on keeping/inclusion of special abilities or weapons/armor which the creature might have.**

Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.




Table: The Summoner
Base Fort Ref Will
Level Attack Save Save Save Special
1st +0 +2 +0 +2 Ex-Companion
2nd +1 +3 +0 +3 Venom immunity
3rd +2 +3 +1 +3 Basic Summon
4th +3 +4 +1 +4 Improved Lore
5th +3 +4 +1 +4 Abominable Summon, Summoner's Spirit
6th +4 +5 +2 +5 Summon Monster VIII, Greater Ex-Companion
7th +5 +5 +2 +5 Summon Orc
8th +5 +6 +2 +6 Improved Mental Defense
9th +6 +6 +3 +7 Summon Boss


Ex-Companion (Su): An animal companion (if possessed,) automatically becomes a summonable creature at Level 1. This creature does not permanently die if its HP is reduced to 0 and may be summoned again. It's summoned stats remain whatever the animal companion's were when converted.

Venom Immunity (Ex): At the 2nd level, a summoner gains immunity to all poisons.

Basic Summon (Su): Starting at the 3rd level, a Summoner may form pacts with and summon four footed animals that are not bosses. This includes normal animals, beasts, and any other such living opponent.

Improved Lore (Ex): At the 4th level, a Sumomner gains a +2 bonus to Concentration, Handle Animal, Survival, and Ride.

Abominable Summon (Su): At the 5th level, a summoner gains the ability to form pacts with and summon all non-boss undead creatures. These summons retain the original vulnerabilities and strengths as the original creature

Summoner's Spirit (Ex): At the 5th level, a summoner may choose the feat Augment Summoning or a +3 bonus to Knowledge (Summoning)

Summon Monster V (Su): Conjuration (Summoning) At level 6, bring forth one or more summoned creatures, no two of which can be more than 30 ft. apart.
You can summon one creature from the 5th-level list, 1d3 creatures of the same kind from the 4th-level list, or 1d4+1 creatures of the same kind from a lower level list.

Greater Ex-Companion (Ex): At level 6, the HP of the former animal companion increases by 2d6+1 and its AC increases by 5.

Summon Orc (Su): At level 7, a Summoner may form pacts with and summon two-footed creatures including trolls, orcs, and humans that are not bosses.

Improved Mental Defense (Ex): At the 8th level, a Summoner may choose Force of will or Closed Mind as a bonus feat,even if not possessing the proper prerequisites for that feat.

Summon Boss (Su): At level 9, a Summoner may form pacts with and summon dragons, bosses, and other such legendary beasts.

 

[kitcik]

So you give up spell progression to gain this.

Seems like you would lose a lot of versatility.

Then, you would slowly build up a nice hoard, only to have it wiped out by an opposing caster at which point you would become useless to your party while you build again from scratch.

Seems like you should add some spell progression, but limit the number of dudes in your hoard.

 

[the Jester]

Requirements
To qualify to become a Summoner, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Alignment: Any non-chaotic.
Charisma: at least 14.
Class: Must have at least 1 level of Ranger and 2 levels of Druid
Skills: Concentration 4 ranks, Handle Animal 4 rank.

Prestige class requirements should never include ability scores or specific class levels. I'd replace them with "must have an animal companion" and a feat or two related to animal stuff. Also, I'd increase the Handle Animal ranks to 7 (to put a bottom level of 5 for entry into this class).

Other than that, this guy seems kind of weak. Between the "must strike the final blow" clause, the "make a check" clause, the "destroyed permanently" clause, etc. it looks like it would be hard to get pacts made in the first place.

Also, for what looks like a druid class, it seems weird that you'd be making pacts with undead easier than orcs.

There are already other prestige classes focused on summoning; you might look at those for inspiration. Right now, a straight druid using some summon nature's ally spells looks much better to me, with the exception of when this guy gets some arch-devil or dragon bauss or something wrapped around his finger, at which point this guy becomes completely broken.

 

[Dandu]

Is the Summon Monster V ability at-will or what?

How is a creature summoned? Does it require expended spell slots, or does it just happen? If the former, what spell slots? If the latter, how do you prevent someone from doing this repeatedly until he's flooded a town with his army of darkness?

 

[M.Handy]

How is a creature summoned? Does it require expended spell slots, or does it just happen? If the former, what spell slots? If the latter, how do you prevent someone from doing this repeatedly until he's flooded a town with his army of darkness?

You know, I'm torn between answering with "Good point." or "Bwhahahahahaha!!!" I think I'll take the former and see what I can do to fix it.

Prestige class requirements should never include ability scores or specific class levels. I'd replace them with "must have an animal companion" and a feat or two related to animal stuff. Also, I'd increase the Handle Animal ranks to 7 (to put a bottom level of 5 for entry into this class).

Sounds good. I'l also tweak the "Permanent kill" clause.

Seems like you should add some spell progression, but limit the number of dudes in your hoard.

Will do.

I will continue to wok on this. I also noticed that Thaumaturgist is a summoner prestige, which may make Summoner superfluous... I'll think about it.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Might I suggest you read through The Summoner's Handbook and discover if the things you want to do, can't already be done?

Note all the links provided.

I'd like to point out, there is hardly any connection between Summoning and the Ranger base class.

 

[cjosephs1s]

Summoning of the dead like you are proposing sounds like a evil cleric thing to me. Or it could be a powerful arcane type prestige class. This sounds like nothing a Druid or ranger would do at least in my opinion(unless they were evil)

Another offshoot of this that i've read about somewhere is Demon/Devil Summoning through rituals and magic (no idea where I read this but not from a WotC source) which was really cool but really dangerous.