Summoners

[Mokona]

Not quite accurate. The UA conjurer variants allow you to a) give up a familiar in exchange for the rapid casting ability, b) get Augment Summoning instead of Scribe Scroll as a bonus feat and other benefits in lieu of your standard wizard bonus feats, and c) give up your bonus spells per dayfor spontaneous summonings.

My conjurer uses the first one, and it is quite excellent.

What would a Shaper need to give up equal in power/cost to the UA conjurer's sacrifice in order to get "rapid summoning" for Astral Construct?

 

[XCorvis]

I'm confused, how to Clerics make good summoners when their alignment restricts what they can summon?

The Sanctuary spell and the Heighten Spell feat. It specifically mentions being able to summon while under the effects of the Sanctuary. Very useful, I managed to use it against my players recently.

 

[interwyrm]

Use invisibility, and maybe nondetection. Summoing creatures won't break your invisibility.

 

[farscapesg1]

It is possible to make a decent arcane summoner. You definitely need to take the Unearthed Arcana option of switching out Summon Familiar for the ability to cast Monster Summoning spells as a standard action. Augment Summoning is also a given requirement.

Depending on your campaign setting and the available sources, there are a few other options to help out. Dragon Magazine published some Greyhawk regional feats, one of which was Nexus Method which allows the caster to spontaneously convert any non-conjuration spell to a Summon Monster spell of the same level.

Frostburn has a feat called Beckon the Frozen that gives your summoned creatures the cold subtype and an additional 1d6 cold damage on attacks. The feat is very basic easy to convert to whatever energy type you want (I'm personally going to talk to my DM about a fire-based one since we are currently in Cauldron and it makes more sense).

There may be some more printed options that I am not aware of of course. If anyone else has any to point out, I would be interested for my character also.

There is also my custom Master Summoner prestige class of course Depending on your style of play it may need to be modified to your likeing, but at least it could be a start.

 

[farscapesg1]

What would a Shaper need to give up equal in power/cost to the UA conjurer's sacrifice in order to get "rapid summoning" for Astral Construct?

Well, the psion doesn't really have anything they can give up. I would say that since the UA considers the ability to cast the spells in 1 standard action equal to a feat (Summon Famliar, or Obtain Familiar in the Complete Arcane), then you could probably just create a psionic feat that would allow it.

 

[the Lorax]

Well, it has actually taken a while to get things to the point where the villian in question was needed. After playing around with a number of ideas, I went with a wizard/Cleric/Mystic Theurge. Its not the best build ever, but it really does improve the combat survivability of the character, I will post it here as soon as I finish up a few tweeks.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Are there any DMs out there that would allow Lost Empires of Faerun's Greenbound Summoning feat?

-Hyp.

 

[the Lorax]

So this is the build that I went with - I started the build by using Jamis Buck's random NPC generator to build the stats and such.

Wizard (Conjuration Specialist) 3, Cleric 3, Mystic Theurge 10
Size M (5 ft., 0 in. tall)
HD 3d4+3D8+10d4+32 (hp 96)
Init +9 (+5 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative)
Spd 30 ft.
AC 24 (+4 Wis,+4 Mage Armor, +1 Monk AC bonus, +5 Dex)
Attack Melee: +7/+2 (+8 Base, -1 Str)
Ranged: +13/+8 (+8 Base, +5 Dex) (Point Blank shot may apply)
Saves:
Fortitude: +11 (+7 Base, +2 Con, +2 Cloak)
Reflex: +12 (+5 Base, +5 Dex, +2 Cloak)
Will: +18 (+13 Base, +3 Wis, +2 Cloak)(+2 racial vs. spells and spell-like abilities)
AL CE
Str 8, Dex 20, Con 14, Int 22(24), Wis 16(18), Cha 15


Skills:
Concentration +20 (+18 Rank, +2 Con)
Craft (Alchemy) +22 (+15 Rank, +7 Int)
Diplomacy +17 (+15 Rank, +2 Chr)
Heal +19 (+15 Rank, +4 Wis)
Knowledge (Arcana) +24 (+18 Rank, +7 Int)
Knowledge (Dungeoneering) +23 (+15 Rank, +7 Int)
Knowledge (Religion) +19 (+12 Rank, +7 Int)
Knowledge (Nobility & Royalty) +16 (+9 Rank, +7 Int)
Knowledge (The Planes) +25 (+18 Rank, +7 Int)
Listen +14 (+10 Rank, +4 Wis)
Spellcraft +22 (+15 Rank, +7 Int)(+2 for Conjuration Spells)
Spot +4 (+4 Wis)
Tumble +12 (+7 Rank, +5 Dex)

Spell Focus (Conjuration), Point Blank Shot, Practiced Spellcaster [Wizard], Practiced Spellcaster [Cleric], Chaos Domain, Trickery Domain, [Augment Summoning], [Rapid Summoning], Improved Initiative, Beckon the Frozen
(Barred Schools: Illusion and Necromancy)

Possessions:
Headband of Intellect +2
Ring of Cold Resistance, minor
Slippers of Spider Climbing
Periapt of Wisdom +2
Cloak of Resistance +2
Heavy Crossbow +1, Thundering
Monk’s Belt

 

[shilsen]

Are there any DMs out there that would allow Lost Empires of Faerun's Greenbound Summoning feat?

-Hyp.

*rushes up, hits Hypersmurf with a hammer, throws a tarp over him and jumps on it*

Move along, folks! Nothing to see here. Just ... um, sitting on a tarp enjoying the weather.

*hits the tarp a few more times to stop it twitching*