Still trying to refine the summoner. I know, some of you love it the way it is. Great, more power to you, have great fun with it!
I just don't like it myself. So, I've been working on alternate versions and trying refine it some until I'm happy with it. I posted some alternate ideas that tried to work within the APG version awhile back and put them up over at Pathfinder DB.
This is a complete rewrite (Well, a moderate to heavy rewrite). I'd like some feedback, if you don't mind. Constructive criticism appreciated, spewing of bile for no other sake than starting a flame war would not be appreciated. :)
So, this is an idea I've seen floated around on the boards for awhile now, and I've been working on it and I'm finally ready to show it and get feedback. Basically, it's a summoner class with a split focus, similar to how the ranger chooses a fighting style. The idea is, either you're very very good at summoning creatures, or you've got a nifty buddy who's an eidelon.
I'm only going to put up the altered bits, to save time. Unless specified, the APG data is the same as for this class.
EDIT: Posting the class in the next post.
Summoner's follow one of two paths, the path of the Beckoner, and the path of the Caller. A Beckoner hones his ability to beckon creatures, both supernatural and natural, to his side. A Caller, instead, focuses on calling forth a permanent companion called an Eidelon to stay by his side, a constant boon companion that eventually grows so close that the Caller shares a single soul with the entity.
Role: Summoners spend much of their time exploring the arcane arts alongside their eidolons or summoned creatures. While their power comes from within, they rely heavily on their summoned companions in dangerous situations. While a caller and his eidolon function as individuals, their true power lies in what they can accomplish together. A beckoner's true power lies in the strength of his companions, and the versatility and stamina of those summoned creatures.
Summoner's Path: At first level a Summoner chooses a Path. The Path of the Beckoner, or the Path of the Caller. This path choice has a profound effect on the nacent summoner's powers, and cannot be undone after being made.
If the summoner chooses the Path of the Beckoner, he forgoes the benefits of a constant companion. Instead, he focuses on his summoning ability, using it to summon more varied and powerful creatures to do his beck and call.
If the summoner chooses the Path of the Caller, he calls a permanent boon companion to his side. This companion grows in power alongside the summoner, their souls merging over time until the two become two bodies with one shared soul.
Throughout the remainder of the class specifications, individual powers will be discussed based on the choice made. The term Beckoner indicates a Path of the Beckoner, and indicates these class abilities are given to those who have chosen this path. The term Caller refers to a summoner who has formed a bond with a specific outsider, an eidelon. If an ability is listed without either of these tags, the ability is common to both paths (such as the spells and cantrip abilities above).
Throughout the class description, certain abilities may refer to a summoner's 'Specially Summoned Creature'. This refers to either the summoner's eidelon (be it summoned via ritual or spell), or the summoner's summoned creatures via his spell-like ability, depending on the path he chose.
Augment Summoning: At first level, a summoner gains the Augment Summoning feat as a bonus feat. It applies to any spell with the word Summon in it (including Summon Eidelon or Summon Nature's Ally), as well as the Summon Creature spell-like ability (if the summoner follows the Beckoner's path). It does not apply to the eidelon if it is summoned via the 1 minute ritual.
Eidolon (Caller) (Su): A summoner begins play with the ability to summon to his side a powerful outsider called an eidolon. The eidolon forms a link with the summoner, who, forever after, summons this creature into a body of the summoner's design. The summoner channels the outsider's soul into a construct body. This body is formed of ectoplasm and fueled by the eidelon's spirit. Because the body is only a construct inhabited by the eidelon's spirit, if the construct is destroyed or banished, the eidelon is unharmed and may be resummoned.
An eidolon has the same alignment as the summoner that calls it and can speak all of his languages. Eidolons are treated as summoned creatures, except that they are not sent back to their home plane until reduced to a number of negative hit points equal to or greater than their Constitution score. In addition, due to its tie to its
summoner, an eidolon can touch and attack creatures warded by protection from evil and similar effects that prevent contact with summoned creatures.
A summoner can summon his eidolon in a ritual that takes 1 minute to perform. When summoned in this way, the eidolon hit points are unchanged from the last time it was summoned. The only exception to this is if the eidolon was slain, in which case it returns with half its normal hit points. The eidolon does not heal naturally by resting, his body is a construct. However, magical healing, as well as certain summoner abilities, can heal the eidelon normally. The eidolon remains until dismissed by the summoner (a standard action). If the eidolon is sent back to its home plane due to death, it cannot be summoned again until the following day. The eidolon cannot be sent back to its home plane by means of dispel magic, but spells such as dismissal and banishment work normally. If the summoner is killed, his eidolon is immediately banished.
The eidolon takes a form shaped by the summoner’s desires. The eidolon’s Hit Dice, saving throws, skills, feats, and abilities are tied to the summoner’s class level and increase as the summoner gains levels. In addition, each eidolon receives a pool of evolution points, based on the summoner’s class level, that can be used to give the eidolon different abilities and powers. Whenever the summoner gains a level, he must decide how these points are spent, and they are set until he gains another level of summoner. The summoner must spend all evolution points at each leveling, the eidelon, in essence, must have it's construct body reformed as if it were being built for the first time. This requires banishing and resummoning the eidelon via the standard 1 minute ritual.
The eidolon’s physical appearance is up to the summoner, but it always appears as some sort of fantastical creature. This control is not fine enough to make the eidolon appear like a specific creature (although the eidelon may look like a class of creature, for example, a cockatrice or a dragon or a human). The eidolon also bears a glowing rune that is identical to a rune that appears on the summoner’s forehead as long as the eidolon is summoned. While this rune can be hidden through mundane means (such as the disguise skill), it cannot be concealed through magic that changes appearance, such as alter self or polymorph (although invisibility does conceal it as long as the spell lasts).
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Summon Creature I (Beckoner) (Sp): Starting at 1st level, a summoner can cast summon monster or summon nature's ally I as a spell-like ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + his Charisma modifier. He can cast this spell as a standard action and the creatures remain for 10 minutes per level (instead of 1 round per level). At 3rd level, and every 2 levels thereafter, the power of this ability increases by one spell level, allowing him to summon more powerful creatures (to a maximum of summon IX at 17th level). At 19th level, this ability can be used as gate or summon IX. If used as gate, the summoner must pay any required material components.
Using this special ability is taxing to a summoner's magic, and he cannot have more than one summon or gate spell active in this way at one time. If this ability is used again, any existing summon or gate immediately ends. These summon spells are considered to be part of his spell list for the purposes of spell trigger and spell completion items. In addition, he can expend uses of this ability to fufill the construction requirements of any magic item he creates, so long as he can use this ability to cast the required spell.
Additionally, the summoner may spontaneously convert any spell he knows to either Summon Monster or Summon Nature's Ally of an appropriate level. A Beckoner adds Summon Nature's Ally at the appropriate level to his spells list (For example, he gains Summon Nature's Ally III at the same time he gains Summon Monster III). He does not need to know either spell to spontaneously convert and cast them. When using this ability to spontaneously convert spells to summon, the spells act like normally cast summon spells (including using the summoner's enduring class ability). When casting Summon Monster or Summon Nature's Ally as an actual spell, they do not count against the summoner's limit of one at a time for this spell-like ability.
Enduring Summon (Su): Starting at first level, whenever a summoner casts a spell with the word Summon in it, the duration of the spell is increased from rounds to minutes. Thus, a 3rd level summoner who cast Summon Monster 1 would have his summon last 3 minutes. This applies only to spells cast by the summoner, and does not apply to spell-like abilities, activation items, or the eidelon if the summoner has one (unless the summoner is using the Summon Eidelon spell as a cast spell, in which case the duration of the spell is in minutes).
Bond Senses (Su): This ability works with either the eidelon, or with any creature summoned via the beckoner's spell like ability.
Shield Ally (Ex): This ability works with either the eidelon, or with any creature summoned via the beckoner's spell like ability.
Bonus Feat (Beckoner) (Ex): At 4th level, and every 4 levels thereafter, the summoner gains a bonus feat from the following list of feats. He does not need to meet most prerequisites (only those noted below).
Many of these feats allow the summoner to take on some of the traits of the creatures he summons, be it enhanced senses, natural attacks, or others. While he does not need to meet all the listed prerequisites, he must still posess the ability to use the feat (for example, a summoner without claws could not select the eldritch claws feat). Additionally, if a feat lists a BAB requirement (such as 6+ for example), the summoner must have that BAB, or have that many levels in this class (for example, rending claws requires a BAB of 6+, and thus cannot be taken at 5th level unless the summoner has multiclassed and has a BAB of 6+, however a 10th level summoner could take a feat that required an 8+ BAB). Finally, if a feat has another feat as a prerequisite, and that feat is on the list of bonus feats, the summoner must have that feat already (although it does not need to have been taken as a bonus feat, if he meets the prerequisites for it normally and takes it as a regular feat, it counts).
The list of bonus feats a summoner chooses from are : Aspect of the Beast, Diehard, Ectoplasmic Spell, Eldritch Claws, Endurance, Fleet, Ironhide, Keen Scent, Razortusk, Rending Claws, Run, Toughness
Maker’s Call (Su): This ability works with either the eidelon, or a creature summoned via SLA.
Transposition (Su): This ability works with either the eidelon, or a creature summoned via the SLA.
Aspect (Caller) (Su): Same as base ability in APG
Greater Shield Ally (Su): This ability works with either the eidelon or a creature summoned via SLA.
Life Bond (Caller) (Su): Same as base ability in APG
Greater Transposition (Beckoner) (Su): At 14th level, a summoner's ties with his specially summoned creatures is so strong, that the summoned creatures will protect him from death itself. So long as at least one of his special summons is alive, if the summoner takes damage that would kill him, the summoned creature transposes positions with the summoner. The summoned creature then takes the damage instead, and the summoner is transported to the summoned creature's former position. If the summoner has more than one creature summoned using his special summon ability, the closest creature transposes with him.
This ability does not affect spells like baleful polymorph, flesh to stone, or imprisonment, or other spells that do not cause actual damage.
Merge Forms (Caller) (Su): Same as the base ability in the APG.
Aspect of the Beckoned (Beckoner) (Su): The summoner, at 16th level, has grown so close to those summons, that he can take on their aspect.
This ability functions like the druid wildshape ability, except the summoner can only take on the aspect of creatures on the Summon Nature's Ally or Summon Monster summoning list. Use the summoner's level as his effective druid level for determining what polymorph spell equivalents he uses.
This ability is usable 1 minute per level of summoner per day. These minutes do not need to be used all at once, but must be used in 1 minute intervals. While taking on the aspect of the beckoned, the summoner's gear merges into his new body, as per normal with the polymorph spells.
The summoner may cast summoner spells normally while taking on the aspect of the beckoned. Any spell components must be in his gear, and are used as if he had full access to them.
Twin Eidolon (Caller) (Su): Same as the base ability in the APG.
True Summoning (Beckoner) (Su): At 20th level, the beckoner has mastered the art of summoning. He may use his spell-like ability to summon creatures as an at-will ability. He may still only have one special summon active at a time, but his summoned creature's no longer return after their time expires, they stay until dismissed by the summoner, or until they die. If the summoner dies, his summoned creatures are immediately banished.
Next up, Eidelon changes.
Eidolons
Armor Bonus: The number noted here is the eidolon’s base total armor bonus. This bonus may be split between an armor bonus and a natural armor bonus, as decided by the summoner. This number is modified by the eidolon’s base form and some options available through its evolution pool.
An eidelon's default body type is a physically stable ectoplasmic construct. This gives the eidelon enhanced armor capabilities, but it also makes the body hard for the eidelon to anchor it's spirit to. This means the eidelon requires a connection to the summoner for the eidelon to be able to remain anchored to his construct body. Armor interferes with this link, and thus precludes the eidelon from wearing armor.
Alternately, a summoner may have crafted a spiritually stable body. Such a construct body has a much stronger spiritual matrix, and allows the eidelon to anchor it's spirit without the need for the link to the summoner.
This has a downside though. As is often the case, spiritual strength often comes at the expense of physical strength. If the eidelon has a spiritually stable body, halve the armor bonus granted to the eidelon (round down), and halve the natural armor granted by the base form, as well as the armor granted by any evolutions the eidelon has (for example, a spiritually stable construct body gains +1 armor bonus at 2nd level, +2 at 5th, +3 at 7th, and so on). All such armor from the armor bonus and evolutions are treated as Natural Armor in this case, not armor bonus. Any armor purchased for the eidelon must be purchased using the rules for exotic armors (unless the eidelon is a humanoid biped). A quadruped eidelon can use the rules for barding instead.
Whenever the eidelon's evolution pool can normally be changed, the summoner may change from a spirtually stable body to a physically stable body, or vice versa.
Max. Attacks: As noted before, the eidelon's body is not a natural body, it is instead an ectoplasmic construct formed by the will and mind of the summoner for the eidelon to anchor it's spirit to. This has some unfortunate side effects for the eidelon. The eidelon does not, generally, have as good a control over this body as it would have if it were a natural body for the eidelon.
This column indicates the maximum number of attacks that the eidolon is allowed to make as a full-round attack action at a given level. As the summoner grows in level, his ability to craft the eidelon's body is refined, and the eidelon can make additional attacks per round.
This limit is an absolute limit on attacks, and represents the ability of the eidelon to control his construct body in a stressful combat situation. The eidelon may posess as many natural attacks or manufactured weapon attacks as the summoner wishes (and his evolution pool allows!), but the eidelon can only make up to his limit in attacks per round. For example, if an eidelon with four attacks had four arms, four legs, 2 sets of claws, two great swords, four daggers, a bite, and a tail slap, the eidelon could make any combination of attacks that added up to four. This could be four dagger attacks, two great sword attacks and two claw attacks, four claw attacks, or any other combination of four attacks. The eidelon treats any manufactured weapon it has proficiency with as if it were a primary natural attack when calculating BAB, and any weapon it does not have proficiency with as a secondary natural attack (note that the secondary natural attack penalties stack with the non-proficiency penalties).
Magic Items: A special note must be made of magical items. An eidelon's construct body is not a natural body, and thus it is normally not effected by worn magical items in the way they are intended. However, as the summoner progresses and continues to refine his craft of making the eidelon's ectoplasmic body, this body begins to resemble a living body sufficiently that an eidelon can benefit from magical items. A summoner may assign a number of magical item slots equal to ½ his level (rounded down).
In order to use a magical item in a slot, the eidelon must possess an evolution that allows that slot. For example, to wear a ring, the eidelon must have the limbs (arms) evolution, or the tentacle evolution. To wear bracers, the eidelon must have a pair of tentacles or the limbs (arms) evolution. The GM is the final arbiter of what slots a summoner may apply to his eidelon.
Ok, that's it. I still have some mods to do to the evolutions, but it's mostly just little things.
Haha it is interesting that we had similar ideas at almost the same time. Obviously I would have done/did things different, but I do like what you have here. Things I would change:
1- Augment Summoning. I don't think the Callers should get this ability. Just give the eidolon the stats you want it to have from the get go, and don't add one more calculation.
2- I wouldn't give the beckoners the same shifting capabilities as the druids. Level -3 maybe, or even better build an archetype around the shifting capability.
3- I wouldn't lengthen the duration of all the beckoner's summons, just the SLA.
Any other differences I have are more a mater of style than any issues with balance. I really like the idea of having two different kinds of summoner.
Haha it is interesting that we had similar ideas at almost the same time. Obviously I would have done/did things different, but I do like what you have here. Things I would change:
1- Augment Summoning. I don't think the Callers should get this ability. Just give the eidolon the stats you want it to have from the get go, and don't add one more calculation.
2- I wouldn't give the beckoners the same shifting capabilities as the druids. Level -3 maybe, or even better build an archetype around the shifting capability.
3- I wouldn't lengthen the duration of all the beckoner's summons, just the SLA.
Any other differences I have are more a mater of style than any issues with balance. I really like the idea of having two different kinds of summoner.
Well,
The caller's are still summoners, and since they have access to the summon monster spells, it's almost a required feat, and I hate those. Any feat you have to have should be a class ability (IMHO).As to the shifting ability, I thought it was a pretty toned down version fo the druid ability. At 16th level, when they get it, effective druid level is really a moot point. The Druid maxes out what he can do on a wildshape at level 12, so making them level 13 effective druids is the same as leaving them effective level 16. Plus they can only do it for 16-20 minutes a day (druids would be up to 7 or 8 hours by that time).
I went back and forth on the lengthening of the summons. Honestly 10 minutes per level on the SLA is kind of needed if it's replacing the eidelon. As to the minute per level for the spells, I guess I just wanted the summoner to be a summoner, and have advantages over a specialist wizard.
I still don't like how the SLA is limited to one use at the time. I know it lasts longer, but I would gladly give up the 10 min/lvl duration so that I could use it more than once.
I still don't like how the SLA is limited to one use at the time. I know it lasts longer, but I would gladly give up the 10 min/lvl duration so that I could use it more than once.
You sort of still do get it, sort of. Notice that the standard summons are now 1 min/level instead of 1 round/level. And those are not limited to the one at a time. So, you get the same benefit, but it costs you a spell.