Summoner Variant - Gestalt

[Chronologist]

The premise is simple. Rather than have your Eidolon fight in combat for you, what if the Summoner literally fused with an Extraplanar creature and gained abilities? Here is how it would work.

1) The Eidolon can be summoned as a full-round action that provokes an attack of opportunity.
2) When creating the Eidolon, the summoner uses his own attributes as the base attributes for the fusion, now called the Gestalt. The summoner gains the Armor bonus to AC from the Eidolon, the Str and Dex bonuses, and the bonus Evolutions depending on which type of Eidolon it is. He does not gain any skill points or feats.
3) The Gestalt has a set number of Evolution points, just like a normal Eidolon, however, it gains an additional evolution point at every odd level the summoner has, with a total 10 extra Evolution points at 19th level.
4) Once per day, in a ritual that takes 1 hour, the Summoner can cast the Transmogrify spell, changing his Gestalt's abilities.
5) The Summoner loses all other class features that function with his Eidolon, including Life Bond.
6) While in Gestalt form, the summoner can use his Summon Monster class feature normally.

This variant seems to have a couple of advantages and disadvantages to it.

Advantages
- Possible higher stats for Eidolon
- Reduces number of magical items needed to outfit the Summoner and Eidolon
- Allows for summons at the same time as the Eidolon
- Grants racial abilities and feats of Summoner to the Eidolon
- More Evolution points, increasing overall power of the Gestalt over a normal Eidolon.

Disadvantages
- Reduces skill set of Eidolon
- Potentially lower stats for Eidolon
- Loss of many of the Summoner's good support class features
- Lowers total hit points of Eidolon, since the Summoner can't sacrifice her own hit points to protect Eidolon
- Summoner has to choose between fighting or casting, effectively, loses a full set of action each turn.

I think this option is balanced, probably underpowered even. Personally, I want to explore this as an alternative to the standard summoner. I'd welcome feedback and possible alternate class features to compensate for the many dead levels created by this variant. I am considering giving this variant short-range teleport and, at high levels, Quicken Spell without adjustment a limited number of times per day.

 

[Mojo_Rat]

number 6 breaks it into the probably two strong category. my lvl 9 summoner buffed had 30 ac could fully control a battlefield when my eidolon was not in place despite being specced for mounted combat if I could fuse evolutions etc in and have my full summoning it would probably make things over powered.

 

[Chronologist]

Okay, I could understand that. Besides, the point of this alternate for the summoner is to reduce the number of attacks they get, not increase them with summons. On the other hand, being able to summon monsters while your Eidolon was out was one of the main abilities of the summoner in the playtest, and I know a lot of DMs who houserule the ability in.

Does the Gestalt part break the game? Getting extra Evolution points, but reducing class features and actions seems a fair trade to me. Also, when the Eidolon dies, the summoner dies too, though I might put in a class feature around 8th or 9th level that lets the Eidolon disappear for 24 hours in return for saving the Summoner from death.

Concerning your mounted summoner, if you were a Gestalt style it would function differently. Instead of riding your Quadruped summon, you would essentially BECOME it. Every time you'd summon a creature or casted a spell, you're giving up a turn of attacks.

I made a trial Eidolon with this method, a 4-claw level 7 Eidolon with Reach and extra Str and Dex. Even with the Summoner's good physical stats the Gestalt performed at about the same levels as the two-weapon-fighting 3.5 Soulknife in the party (who was far from optimized, mind you). The summons made little impact because of their low HP and damage, mostly they showed up for a round or two and were promptly eaten by the monsters. The big disadvantage was having low HP compared to a standard summoner/Eidolon, and after about 4 rounds I was nearly dead, even with an AC of 26 and around 60 HP. The other fighters lasted far longer, and I had to get the Cleric to heal me, as well as using valuable potions and spells on myself.

Thanks for the comments, I look forward to more.