Apologies if discussion of this has already taken place and my Search Fu is weak. I run a couple of different PF games, each campaign features a somewhat optimized Summoners. One of my players, insists that the following is perfectly legal in, say the 2nd round of combat. Note that the Eidolon is not present:
Summoner delays initiative until after his earth elementals.
3 small earth elementals summoned the previous round attack the Bad Guys.
Summoner now goes, using SLA to throw out a NEW batch of small earth elements, he gets 2 this time let's say. This immediately ends the previous Summon spells and these new dudes now get their action.
2 NEW small earth elementals now lay into the Bad Guys.
From what I can gather per the RAW, this looks perfectly fine, though my DM sense is that it is abusive and I can see that it annoys my other players (who are waiting patiently for their chance to "swing at a bad guy"). Your thoughts on the legality, any FAQ that I may have missed, etc.?
And my second question regarding Summon Monsters, this one could also apply to Summon Nature's Ally. Is it possible, when summoning more than one creature, to have them appear in different areas/squares as long as the locations are all otherwise legal and within range? I have always thought that it should work in the same fashion as summoning a singleton and that the additional creatures would be beside the first creature in in the group, but I can't find evidence to the contrary.
Perhaps it's just me but there's very little that is elegant about the Summoner rules, but I suppose that's my opinion and probably one not shared by many others. Thanks in advance for the replies.
I'm pretty sure it is assumed that while summons act on the summoner's initiative, they only act once per round, even if "swapped out". This sound like one of those "use your brain" situations.
This one isn't the summoner's fault. You could attempt the same cheese with a quickened spell or rod.
Its perfectly legal. Similar is possible with master summoner who can do this and have an eidolon out.
Though I suppose it isn't that bad. The summoner is burning a standard and a limited use ability to do this. There are cheesier things. I've revised my opinion on this.
Just to clarify, both instances are via his SLA.
I'm not overly concerned with how powerful it is or ins't. I simply want to know if it has been FAQd or is demonstrably incorrect that our group just isn't seeing. It makes for a really, really long turn for the Summoner to the considerable annoyance of most of the other players.
I do appreciate your responses though.