Adam Teles's page

(And now, the ones I've played/made)

190. Screw you, I'm a Marilith (Using Synthesist, just playing a Marilith. Not even pretending to be a Summoner. Just a Marilith, all the time.)

191. Don't Make Me Angry (Sythesist, spends the vast majority of his/her time as a full caster in human form, relying on the Summon Monster class feature. When suitably upset, casts Summon Eidolon, transforming him or her into a murderbeast for 1 min/level)

192. Guidance from beyond (Master Summoner. Character's dead father has decided to stick around and teach him how to be a man. Eidolon has Skilled a bunch of times and no combat skills of note. Use Summon Monsters to fight)

The lacerating rapier is a sad joke, like most rogue related stuff.

The anvil trick is interesting, considering that an anvil weight was 200lbs so far. Looks like a dwarven mainly option.

Muleback cords are a hell of a drug, as is the Ant Haul spell. I had a Master Chemyst whose primary attack form was throwing anvils at people.

Side idea:

Hamatula Strike is a feat

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/hamatula-strike-combat

I would like Brawler to have some way of getting the ability to perform a grapple (or other combat maneuver) on a successful unarmed strike. I know there's a feat to do piercing with unarmed which lets you then get Hamatula strike, but I was thinking a more direct "Improved Grab" sort of feat or ability.

Wild idea for Brawlers to have something to call their own...

What if Brawlers just flat up don't provoke attacks of opportunity for performing combat maneuvers? I'm not talking about the Improved X feats that give +2 on top of that or the great X feats that then do more things, but what if we just say at X level they don't provoke. They'd still need improved whatever for the +2 and to qualify for greater, but this would mean that with no investment you can just reposition, drag, trip, disarm, whatever your opponent. I've found on fighters there's often times when you want to just take the AoO to perform a maneuver. Last game I was in, I took an AoO to trip an opponent (by intentionally moving through his threatened area first so that if his AoO hit I wouldn't lose my trip attempt), and I use bull rush plenty, and the allure of a class that can just do that no penalty seems really cool.

Another thing I'd REALLY like Brawlers to be able to do, either just by class features or by feat options, is hit foes into each other to damage them both.

Oh, man, what if "awesome blow" included other creatures as obstacles you could throw people at?

What I am actually proposing is that the brawler can take all the combat feats that she could've taken previously. Then she also has unique brawler-specific choices.

As to what is gained:

• greater diversity as more options are available to the brawler (both combat feats and "special" disciplines)
  
• a natural vehicle to present class specific options to the brawler (as opposed to feats), consider the number of rage powers available and how such a big list is implausible to offer as feats. Additionally it is a natural vehicle to offer supernatural/magical upgrades to the class (e.g. Elemental Rage rage power)
  
• rule locality, it is very easy to find rage power and rogue talents (etc) for their respective classes - they are all listed with their class; class-specific feats however aren't always as obvious to find

Brawler disciplines are not actually "new". It is a new name, but for a familiar class feature (rage powers, rogue talents, ninja tricks, oracle revelations, slayer talents, alchemist discoveries, magus...

While I like this idea in general, I don't think it works too well for Brawler.

While Arcanist and Witch are doing weird magicky things, Investigator is spending points, Alchemist is transmuting its body, and Barbarian is doing things that only work while raging, the Brawler here mostly would want his "Brawler Talents" to improve his combat maneuvers and melee fighting abilities... And the vast majority of these would be "You gain improved X as a bonus feat" or "You gain greater X as a bonus feat." Sure, there would be some other things in there as well, but I feel like you'd need to justify why these are things that /only/ a Brawler can pick up.

Personally, I loathe the Rogue Talent class feature. Half of them would work fine on any character as a bonus feat. What makes Rage Powers cool is that they only work when raging- they're not bonus feats, they modify a class feature you have. Alchemist Discoveries very often modify bombs, and when they don't they're either new spells or give you a weird magic mutagen that wouldn't make sense for anyone who wasn't an Alchemist.

So my challenge to you is coming up with... Lets say three "Brawler Talents" to start that would "make sense" as a brawler talent, but not be something that it feels like other people should be able to pick up by spending a feat. (And don't use Rogue Talents as an example, please: Most of them SHOULD be available as feats.)

Okay, but you should be comparing improved awesome blow to weapon mastery, or perfect self, or mighty rage.

Weapon mastery: one weapon increases its crit multiplier by 1 (useful only if you crit), you auto-confirm crits with that type of weapon (useful only if you threaten), and you can't be disarmed (big whoop). What % chance to crit does a fighter 20 have to crit against a CR 20 opponent? And if you do crit, you're doing 1 extra increment of weapon damage.

Perfect self: you become an outsider, so you're immune to humanoid-specific attacks (of which there are few, so you're basically immune to level 1 charm person and level 5 dominate person), and DR 10/chaotic (which is actually pretty useful).

Mighty Rage: Your raging Str/Con bonus increases by +2 and your raging Will save bonus increases by +1. Wow.

Could the brawler still use a little oomph for its capstone ability? Sure. But capstones really aren't that amazing, they're nice, but not supposed to be overwhelming.

I feel you are severely underselling Weapon Mastery. I can't speak for all fighters, but I've got a huge 'thing' about the Falchion, so I'm going to look at that... With one no-brainer feat, my range is 15-20 to crit... Which means 30% of all my attacks with Weapon mastery auto-crit for 1.5x the damage my crits did before. While I admit some fighters use different weapons, having 30% of all your attacks do x3 damage (as opposed to, against a foe you hit on a 10, 15% of your attacks do x2 damage) is a massive boost to output.

Monk gains DR 10. I'm going to say 90% of enemies just plain won't have a way to handle DR/Chaotic and so you're going to be taking 10 less damage from every attack always forever.

Mighty Rage is an effectively always on +1 to attack and +1.5 to damage, 20 temp HP, and +1 to will saves. It's not spectacular, but it's a rider to your other abilities, meaning you can combine it with everything else.

And I think THAT'S the real problem with Awesome Blow as a capstone.

Arcanist's capstone lets him get +2 to CL and DC of a spell. Bloodrager gets a quickened spell on top of its rage abilities. Investigator gets an extra 1d6 to things. Shaman gets all sorts of cool options. Skald improves its song. Swashbuckler gets what Fighter gets. Warpriest gets DR 10/-, which looks like it might be a standard action and thus not actually great, but I haven't really looked at Warpriest.

Finally, Slayer gets a save-or-die, which is just head and shoulders above what Brawler gets.

The issue with the Brawler's capstone isn't that it never does anything, but that it's a separate attack form that will almost never be as good as going for a Trip and then wailing on your opponent with a full attack- because even though you CAN awesome blow in a full attack, if it works it ends your full attack on that target.

Assume for a moment our Brawler has Greater Trip. I don't think this is too much to assume. His class is actively built for it. On his first attack, he trips the target (their CMD is +4 if they have extra legs, rather than +5 per size category, and the Brawler gets +4 for greater trip, then upwards of +5 for a magic weapon and another +5 for maneuver training.) They land prone in front of him, he gets his bonus attack from Greater Trip, and then he proceeds to finish his full attack, with a +4 bonus for attacking a prone target. His AoO deals as much damage as awesome blow would, minus 1d6 for the target not hitting a wall, but then he gets +4 to hit on each of the following attacks.

Now, I think Awesome Blow is cool, but I feel like it'd be foolish for a Brawler to not take Greater Trip, and the idea of /not/ wanting to be as close to possible as a foe on a Brawler seems wrong... But there is Bull Rush if you need to move people, which you can, once again, get a +4 on from Greater Bull Rush and some points from maneuver training.

Here's my suggestion for Awesome Blow:

"Awesome Blow (Ex): When the Brawler performs a successful Bull Rush, the opponent takes damage as though the brawler had hit it with a wielded weapon or unarmed strike. If an obstacle prevents the completion of the opponent's move on a bull rush, the opponent and the obstacle each take that damage. The Brawler may choose not to move with the opponent, in which case the opponent falls prone at the end of his movement."

"Improved Awesome Blow: At 20th level, the brawler may perform Bull Rush maneuvers as attack actions rather than as standard actions, and motion made as part of a Bull Rush is not counted against the Brawler's movement for the turn. If an obstacle prevents the completion of the opponent's move, the opponent and the obstacle each take double the damage."

Still functionally very similar, but now it works on one of your pre-existing combat maneuvers rather than being one of its own, and it now allows you to literally punch enemies through walls (and knock them prone) or tackle them through walls (which doesn't knock them prone but allows you to continue your full attack.)

Could we add a scaling progression taking from 3.5 Tome of Battle's Warblade, where as you level you get to add Cha to more things?

The Warblade (off the top of my head) gets to add Int to Initiative, attack bonus on attacks of opportunity, Reflex saves, confirm crit rolls...

Could the Swashbuckler add Cha to Initiative (with 1 Panache in pool), Will saves (1 P in pool), Acrobatics checks, maybe AC while climbing or using Acrobatics in place of their Dex during those moments and not being treated as flat-footed?

I am 100% in support of this idea.

I don't understand anybody saying that Monk has the highest damage dice of any PC. Monk has the highest damage dice of any PC at level 16. At any level before that, a great many other PCs are packing 2d6 (or the mostly equivalent 1d12), even as early as level 1. And they're getting another +half strength to damage on single attacks. (Full attacks only exist at high levels when fighting another melee creature. Anyone else is either going to tumble or take the AoO so that you never get more than two attacks.) And Monks never get an increased threat range without spending feats.

From 1-3 a Monk or Brawler is using the equivalent of a club while a Warrior (and I do mean the NPC class) is using a Masterwork Longsword that gives +1 to hit and does 1d8 damage, 19-20/x2. The monk matches the d8 at level 4, but never overcomes the "19-20/x2" part, and if the Warrior's using a Greatsword (or my personal favorite weapon, the Falchion), then even at high levels it's hard to claim the monk has the best base damage. 2d10, 20/x2 may look better than 2d4, 17-20/x2, but with a high strength, weapon training, a magic weapon, and power attack it's pretty clear that the Falchion is the more damaging weapon at level 20.

Now, Flurry does help here on a full attack, but the penalty to hit at low levels and the fact that it only works on a full attack and the fact that Furious Focus exists means the Falchion guy still has a major attack bonus.

My suggestion: Let Brawler make two attacks as a standard action. This would mean that the thing they're supposed to be doing (attacking more often for less damage) would work all the time. And yeah, make enchanting an unarmed strike cost the same as enchanting a weapon.

Since the Awesome Blow is treated as though made with their weapon, the enhancement bonuses (including variable ones like Bane) and other attack roll modifiers (e.g. Weapon Focus) from the weapon count towards the CMB check. Are we taking those into account?

With sufficient bonuses you could easily land the hit.

+5 from a weapon, +2 from greater weapon focus... That'd overcome the -5 for Large, but that's still far from "easily" especially when things start getting bigger than Large.

I'm still trying to figure out how Swashbuckler can be considered a Gunslinger alternate when they don't even get proficiency in any firearms. But then; this is the only one of the advanced classes that I see no use for. There are far better ways to make a good swashbuckler than take levels in Swashbuckler. Just the basic Rogue is pretty damned good at it. Take four levels of Fighter with your Rogue and you should be able to swash your buckle to your heart's content and you don't have to go through the annoyance of tracking Grit/Panache points. As such I would think that a Figher-Rogue combination would be better Alternates for this concept.

Grit. The premise of this class is a melee character that uses Grit points. Compare panache to grit and you'll see how it works.

As for fighter/rogue being a good swashbuckler... I respectfully disagree. I've seen people try it, and I've never seen it be good.

Adam Teles did you add in the cumulative -5 penalty for each size category larger the creature is to the Brawler? I believe that further skews things against him.

Not in the numbers, but it's why I noted the sizes. Brijidine at 43 winds up being the lowest because even though there's a few 41s there, they're both large making them 46s vs Awesome Blow.

I suspect the brawler will also be fighting lower-CR foes, even when she's at level 20. So "I can't make use of this" is hyperbole and inaccurate. "Rarely works on the boss encounter" is accurate... and something I'm comfortable with.

Last year I finished up a years-long game that went from 1-18, and I have to say...

CMDs are /stupid/ at high levels. Even a character built to do nothing but perform combat maneuvers will have an incredibly difficult time succeeding against high level foes. Looking at Bestiary 2, lets go through the CMDs of foes at high CRs, meaning here 16+:

Bythos, CR 16, CMD 44, Large
Pleroma, CR 20, CMD 57, Large
Draconal, CR 20, CMD 51, Large
Star Archon, CR 19, CMD 42, Large
Brigidine, CR 17, CMD 43, Medium (Hey, something the Brawler has a not-horrendous chance against)
Astrademon, CR 16, CMD 41, Large
Olethrodaemon, CR 20, CMD 54, Gargantuan
Purrodaemon, CR 18, CMD 47, Large

As a side note, I haven't been noting which creatures here are immune to trip, but it's a lot of them.

Shemhazian, CR 16, CMD 48, Gargantuan
Vrolikai, CR 19, CMD 47, Large
Bdellavritra, CR 16, CMD 41, Large
Purgarus, CR 19, CMD 49, Large

And then there's a bunch of dragons... Not goign to list them all, but
CR 16, Huge, 47 is the low and CR 19, Gargantuan, 50 is the high

Rune Giant, CR 17, CMD 44, Gargantuan...
Adamantine Golem, CR 19, CMD 54, Huge

okay, I think I've made my point. At a +30 CMB, Awesome blow is less than 50% likely to work on any of these, with the "best" chance being against the CR 17 Brigidine, where he needs a 13. For comparison, if his favored combat maneuver is grapple (and mine always is), he has a +39 to grapple and can grab the biggest, baddest thing here on a 17. Awesome blow doesn't work against challenges even close to appropriate.

At an effective 7 strength for carrying capacity my DervishBuckler has

Darkcloth studded leather

Scimitar

Darkwood light crossbow

10 bolts

2 wands (clw and shield)

2 potions

For everything else, there's a rank in handle animal and a pack animal.

Don't forget a Handy Haversack. Once you've got a Haversack (or even Muleback Cords) carrying capacity stops being a problem.

So, to tie all this discussion back into the Swashbuckler, do people think that all Magus's Dervish Dancing is due to Dex-To-Damage being a really strong option overall, or just a really strong option for that class due to specific circumstances (one-handed, high crit, dex-based)?

In my group, we have a feat called "Immaculate Form." It's +Dex to damage instead of Str with any finessable weapon. So far, we've had a number of characters with it, including a Magus, and we've found that the characters it's best on are characters who would be practically unplayable without it. It helps TWF rangers and rogues, it allows Magi to do competitive damage, and it lets Monks (already buffed into a class we call Martial Artist) stand aside other martial characters...

... What it DOESN'T do is let any of these guys come close to the Paladins, Barbarians, or Psychic Warrior as far as raw "ruin someone's face" ability goes. While they're spending two feats on Weapon Finesse and Immaculate Form, the other front-line guys have Power Attack and Furious Focus. Sure, they can then go into Piranha Strike, but it's -1/+2 is just not comparable to the -0/+3 of the PA and FF.

We have some melee characters who are considered "problems" due to their capabilities and powers. Not one of them is the result of someone using Dex to damage instead of strength.

Having DMed for magi, I have to say... the ones without Dervish Dance, Magi trying to use strength, feel /underpowered/ compared to anyone with a two-handed weapon. They have lower AC (because no heavy armor), hit less often, and, at least at low levels, their spells fail a /lot./

My only problem with Brawler's Strike as written is that I wish it could be flavored such that it didn't need to be an Su ability. It feels really, really out of place at Su.

How about something like "A Brawler's unarmed strikes ignore damage reduction equal to half his level (rounded down)" and let him not worry about what sort of DR the target has?

I'd like to bring up the elephant in the room again... This class is being built to be between Fighter and Monk but... Fighter and Monk (especially Monk) are both notorious for being underpowered. There's a lot of cool ideas here, but none of them overcome the sizable point that this class is /incredibly weak./ It keeps most of the monk's problems, loses some of the Monk's random coolness, and all it's really getting from being a Fighter is a few points to hit and AC.

What this class needs is a serious re-evalution of what Monk and Fighter's main problems are and some features that plug those holes.

Monk's main issues are that it gives up two-handed weapons, shields, and armor, and its class features only bring it back to "slightly worse than" the damage and AC of just using those. It compares poorly to Warrior in many aspects. The one thing it has going for it is a bunch of abilities that help keep it alive- All good saves, spell resistance, self-healing, that sort of thing.

Fighter's issue, which the monk also has, is that combat maneuvers just don't compare to spells after a point, and the job of being the big guy in front doesn't work if you can't reliably get and hold aggro. Fighter also lacks options other than "Hit target with my weapon" as often as not, because while few things are outright immune to combat manuevers, CMD scales insanely with size such that even the best at combat maneuvers need natural twenties to deal with things that have two size categories on them.

So what do I suggest for fixes here?

A) More AC. Adding Wis to AC while in light armor would help a lot, and Swordsage in 3.5 proved that this is fine. Alternatively, letting them gain Con as Natural Armor. The point is, they currently have similar AC to Monks which is just... not enough.

B) Better chance at using maneuvers against larger foes. New special ability: "The Bigger They Are (Ex): The Brawler knows how to undermine the defenses of even the largest creatures. Large and Larger creatures don't gain a size bonus to CMD against a Brawler's Maneuvers and add only half their strength bonus."

By my count, that brings the Tarrasque's CMD down to 43, still very respectable at high levels, but something doable by a high level character. For comparison, its AC is only 40.

C) More damage options. My suggestion, as a feat or a class feature.
"Full Body Press
When you make an unarmed strike, if you have nothing in either hand, you may put your full force into it. Increase the damage dice by one size category, and you may treat your unarmed strike as a two-handed weapon for all purposes. You may not use this ability in conjuncture with a Flurry."

This allows them to push for Power Attack and gives them a better option for a standard action attack.

D) Combat Expertise. Swashbuckler has that thing where it doesn't need Int for Combat Expertise. Brawler needs that, too, along with any feat with Combat Expertise as a prerequisite. We've got a guy here whose whole schtick is Maneuvers, but he doesn't actually GET any if he doesn't have at least 13 intelligence, an ability score that none of his class features actually use. (That said: Maybe give it Int to AC, if this is supposed to be a studied, Batman-esque Martial Artist rather than the spiritual Monk.) The Monk's ability to ignore Combat Expertise and still have Maneuvers is one of the best things it has going for it.

E) Skills. One of fighter's main problems is that if he doesn't have anything to hit, he doesn't have anything to DO. Stealth would be a great skill for this guy (see: Batman-esque), as would Knowledge (Local) and Heal, the two skills used to know human anatomy. Perform would be great as well, giving us the idea of professional fighter of some sort.

F) Evasion, a good will save, and/or upping Brawler to a d12 hit die would go a long way toward helping this guy be the guy who stands in front and doesn't go down. With trip and grapple he can actually monopolize enemy attention pretty well (see comment C), so this could be made into a guy who can actually tank, something fighters and monks have been hoping to do and failing to do since forever.

So, just to show what I think is a more "appropriate" power level, here's a link to the Martial Artist class me and my friends made for an E6 game. It's eternally a work in progress, but it's ideas.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RXNkNzZBhOLVfrZhgmGH5jsy1351q8AoA4VwA01 yHxw/edit#

(Apologies for not reading thread before I comment)

I love most of the changes to the Swashbuckler. The releveling of the abilities and the addition of more cha-based ones are wonderful, but there's a few major problems still.

-Being able to qualify for Combat Expertise doesn't fix the problem of not qualifying for everything it's required for. Swashbuckler's finesse should say "...as a prerequisite for Combat Expertise and for feats with Combat Expertise as a prerequisite."

-Gunslingers get Dex to damage. Swashbucklers get level to damage that functions sort of like sneak attack. While level to damage is better at high levels, the fact that it doesn't multiply is annoying, and it stacks with the feat that gives Dex to damage when wielding a Scimitar, meaning an optimized Swashbuckler MUST wield a Scimitar. Swashbucklers should just get Dexterity to damage instead of Strength, perhaps at the expense of that +level to damage. They'd do a bit less overall at high levels, but they'd never lose it and they crit enough that 2x Dex is often better than their level even after their Dex stops being so. (And lets face it, you can have Dex equal to or greater than your level through level 5 pretty easily). Maybe then still be able to spend the panache point to get bonus damage on an attack, and have that be the +level.

-Charmed Life is cool, and I love it flavorfully, but how many saves do we make in a day? If this was just "Swashbucklers add their charisma bonus as a luck bonus to all saving throws" would it really be too good, when Swashbuckler's got two bad saves?

-Superior Feint should either be an attack action or last until the end of your next turn. As is, it does nothing for the swashbuckler unless you also Riposte that round.

-Why can't I be a swashbuckler with a Bludgeoning weapon? Is the reason 100% flavor-based? I've seen plenty of Swashbuckler-types in fiction fight with a wooden cane when they didn't have their sword handy and do so spectacularly. Sure, the cane is a less effective weapon, but getting dex to hit with it and being able to parry with it is an old standard. Similarly, the idea that I should need a feat to use a slashing weapon seems unnecesarry. It's not as though slashing weapons are "stronger" than piercing weapons mechanically. They're just different.

Is this class going to become like the spellthief from 3.5?

Gods, I hope not. As cool as Spellthief is flavorfully, it's painfully useless in most situations.

It definitely needs to be specified whether Arcanist applies Metamagic at the time of preparation of the time of casting, and that they can only apply metamagic at that point.

The arcanist will gain access to a wellspring of magic, an arcane reservoir. Calling upon this reservoir, the arcanist can create magic effects. As the arcanist gains levels, she learns new ways to spend this magic (selecting from a large list of features, like a rogue selects rogue talents).

Sweet, they're using, well, something similar to the idea I suggested. here's hoping it's Cha-based instead of int-based.

Adam Teles wrote:

You bring up the idea of a Genius, but our geniuses historically aren't people who have something special other than intelligence...

I respectfully disagree. Leonardo Da Vinci was both a genius and a natural talent. If he were a spellcaster (as I'm pretty sure he'd be if magic was real! =D), he would be perfectly represented by the Arcanist, I think. Well, at least the Arcanist idealized by Nildayre. :)

See, my issue here, I think, is that I see that natural talent as being... a giant intelligence score. Leonardo Da Vinci was really smart and also really smart. With Arcanist, we're trying to attribute this "above and beyond" as some sort of innate magic, but because that doesn't have an analog in real life, we've just got someone who's above and beyond by virtue of a high int. Also, I think you could reasonably have a "genius" in any class. One could be a "Genius" wizard, understanding magic better than any other, but one could also be a "Genius" bard who wrote and performed wonderful unique songs (see: Freddy Mercury, Paul McCartney), or even a "Genius" Fighter who knew a great many different combat styles and managed to combine them in ways noone else had.

It sounds like a more appropriate feel would be sort of what the Bard always is: someone who feels the magic and understands it and yes they have to learn and practice but they control it with a mix of both logical understanding and internal feeling.

If I could influence the class, I would dump the blood pool concept. Instead, I would add a series of abilities surrounding the motif of magical genius. Allow the arcanist more control over the effects of his or her spells. Let them change things like area, range and duration and element type. They already look to be focused on fluidity, embrace it, and separate them thematically from the sorcerer and wizard.

When I first read this, I thought it was a great idea, and it definitely /feels/ like one, but the more I looked it over and thought about implementation, the more I realize you're talking about something already in the game: Metamagic feats. Now, maybe what you're saying here is "they should get bonus metamagic feats and be able to play with them better than Sorcerer or Wizard can," in which case that's a valid idea, but what I'm seeing here is just "metamagic master." And my problem with this, and even your whole concept the more I read, is that it really DOES seem to be the wizard.

You bring up the idea of a Genius, but our geniuses historically aren't people who have something special other than intelligence... They're just those guys who maxed out intelligence. If we were to randomize ability scores like real life sort of gives, we're talking about 0.08% of people, the guys packing that 20 intelligence at level one. (Note that this is only 0.46% of elves, which encourages the belief that elves are the masters of arcane)

I don't think the idea of the natural genius is a good one, because plenty of Wizards with high int would have that, and it's just that their study lets them learn this knowledge.

Flavorwise, I think our best example in cultures are Harry Potter and Luke Skywalker, and even these are poor ones. The Arcanist, at least the one presented, is someone who has natural magic within but who, unlike our X-Men Sorcerers, it doesn't explode out of. They're characters who have to /understand/ what they are in order to properly maximize their capabilities.

Really, I think what we need most of all is an example. Harry Potter, for all his hard work and study, plays like a spontaneous caster.

...And a good example just came to me.

I don't know who even remembers this show, but I used to watch Charmed pretty regularly. It starred three 'witches.' They had innate magical talent, and they each had some powers that they could just 'do' whenever they wanted (Precognition, telekinetics, etc), but then they also had their book. And when they wanted to do something else, they went to the book and the book told them how to do it and they read and tinkered and recited and did their spell... But the only things they could do without the book were their handful of personal powers.

THIS could be a good direction for the spellcasting to take, and I've actually got a pretty crazy notion for how it might work, which would help really make it feel between sorcerer and wizard and help alleviate some of the issues of straight up merging them...

Two sets of spell slots

One set would be the "Combat" set. These would be a number of spells known and spells per day, all spontaneous, that just worked like a sorcerer's. It'd have fewer spells known and spells per day than a sorcerer, though not by too much. This would just be their magic. Maybe 1 known per level less than sorcerer, one or two less per day. This is flavorfully just "your powers, this is what your magic lets you do."

And then the other set uses a spellbook. And maybe it's prepared, giving you one or two prepared slots per level on the side, but what I'm actually thinking is to not even fill the slots. Let it, a few times per day, spend lets say 3 full round actions, or maybe 1 minute to just cast a spell out of the book. You wouldn't be able to "silver bullet" enemies without friends acting as road blocks because of significantly increased casting times, but what you COULD do is say "You know what we need right now? Knock" and then cast Knock right out of the book. Maybe this isn't even slots, because when you're talking noncombat spells the spell level isn't so important. Maybe you just have a book and X times a day you can spend 1 minute to cast a spell directly from the book, and it doesn't matter what the spell is. And you'd also get scribe scroll for free, representing the ability to prepare spells from your book ahead of time but not as well as a wizard does it.

The result of this is a character who, in combat, plays like a slightly weaker sorcerer, but then manages to swiss-army-knife other encounters better than a Wizard because the person's innately magical and can come up with answers on the fly as long as she's made sure they're in her book.

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A second, simpler option, would be to have its casting work /mostly/ like a wizard, but give it "Spontaneous Spells" like a Cleric or Druid have, but instead of spontaneously casting Cure/Inflict/Summon, you get to choose what spells you can spontaneously cast as you level up, creating a character who can prepare all sorts of utility spells and then when combat happens say "Screw it, fireball" because they were secretly a sorcerer the whole time.

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I really do think the casting as presented is too good. The math's been done by others, and I can think of a fix that would appease me that would fit the flavor better- Eliminate one prepared slot per spell level per day, automatically give them the bloodline spell of the appropriate level in place of that slot, prepared instead of just learned. This, of course, doesn't mesh with my "no bloodline" idea, but with my idea I'd then make it a specialized slot where they have to prepare something with the appropriate Descriptor, or Summon Monster. (Why Summon Monster? Because it doesn't get its descriptor until you actually cast it, and it easily accesses 8 descriptors.) Of course, if I was doing a total rebuild, I'd probably find someone to help me with the numbers on my charmed-style casting to make it work.

Has anyone suggested something like Magus Arcana, where they can choose abilities? Like they could choose a familiar, have something like the Concentration arcana, improve/expand their blood focus, stuff like that.

Yes

Of course it's overpowered. It's a mashup of Wizard and Sorcerer, both of which are overpowered. Is it overpowered when compared with the Wizard? I think so, but the jury's still out. There's a lot of discussion on that in the Arcanist dedicated thread.

Shouldn't this apply to ALL these classes? That Level X (hybrid) counts as level X in both of the classes it comes from?

I'm okay with doubling up on names for classes and archetypes. Confusion happens, but Brawler, Skald, and Swashbuckler are the /right/ names and anything else is less right, even if the names were already used for Archetypes.

I actively dislike the name Arcanist because it ALSO means Bard, Wizard, Sorcerer, Witch, Summoner, and Magus. I accept that they're running low on words that mean the same thing here, but this class doesn't feel any more of an Arcanist than a Wizard or Sorcerer. I'd like something stranger and more flavorful. like... Thaumaturge. Can I vote we rename it Thaumaturge?

My second big complaint is Hunter. It's a good name, but the class features really don't support it. Hunter feels like less of a Hunter than Ranger does, which is an issue. Something like "Predator" might make more sense, as it's animal focused. Or, with such a high focus on fighting alongside animal companion, "Beastmaster" could work here, with perhaps some more animal companion tweaks.

Finally, I don't get Investigator. It's a good name I just... don't understand why an Investigator is a guy who makes potions and shanks people. At all. Can someone please explain it to me?

The others are good, with special shoutout to Swashbuckler, which had to exist and definitely feels like a Swashbuckler. I love Bloodrager, too. I'm not sure what the complaints about it are.

Larkas, for all the ideas I brought forth I didn't even touch the spellcasting method... But I think you're right. It has major issues and seems like it's just going to be too good in a lot of aspects.

They... wait, what? **Double checks, checks alternate features** The hell? Well, okay, weird. I thought they at least had it as an alt feature. Learn something new every day.

would there be a way to pick up a second (or more) arcane focus choices at later levels? only a single descriptor could be much more restrictive than an entire school depending on your choice.

I don't see why not. let's add it to my Arcane Talent list.

"Additional Focus: Choose a spell descriptor other than your Arcane Focus. For the purposes of Arcanist class features, this descriptor also counts as your Arcane Focus. When you would learn a new spell of your Arcane Focus descriptor, you may instead learn a spell with this descriptor."

"Double Focus: (Prerequisite: Additional focus) If you cast a spell that shares both your Arcane Focus and Additional Focus descriptors (such as choosing Chaotic and Evil and using Summon Monster to summon a Succubus), increase the DC and Caster Level by 1."

Far as I can tell, these still count as the base class. They're listed as Alternate Classes and prevent you from multiclassing with the base classes. That is, a Bloodrager counts as both Sorcerer Archetype and a Barbarian Archetype, so anything that counts Sorcerer or Barbarian level would recognize bloodrager level and yes, Tiefling, Aasimar, and the four elemental races should then treat their charisma score as 2 points higher for all bloodrager class abilities.

LazarX wrote:

The thing is Adam... would you like to suggest HOW it should progress along the path you have in mind? It's easy to knock something, what's your alternative?

I am excited to answer in place of Adam. So, no bloodline stuff and no bonus feats. Alternate ideas:

1.
Make all new bloodline/magic school surrogates. I would like to see some stuff that gives these mages a nice level-1 throwaway power so they are not as lame at level 1. Nothing fancy; just 1d6+something damage done one way or another a few times per day. And then some more powers later on. If you want everything to be powered by the same pool of points then that seems fine too. A boring solution (and potentially time consuming to design) but something tried and true.

2.
Some kind of magical transformationy thingy. Something like the alchemist's mutagen ability but more magical. The wizard-like knowledge allows the arcanist to draw out bizarre new abilities from her blood for a limited period of time. These could function like eidolon advancements and be applied directly to the caster to give each one a unique "arcane form". Different bloodlines can allow for different lists of "evolutions". Maybe some evolutions should explicitly be more "wizardy" and give a caster level bonus to a specific school. Perhaps the caster would have to give up some schools of magic or even all schools but one when in this form.

3. [doubles as silencing "too much versatility" haters]
Maybe you can reduce the number of spells that the arcanist can ready and instead give her a selection of powers that are powered by spells instead. Things as general as "elemental blasts" that do caster levels of d6 damage in some way(s) [a level one spell slot could give a touch attach capping in damage at 5d6 while higher spells slots allow for higher d6 caps and different area of effect options]. This is something like powered up witches Hex that consumes spell resources. Wanna take this pro-tier? Maybe each power can have a kind of "cantrip"...

1 is an interesting idea, and I got mine done while you were posting. We want something that feels like both at the same time while being neither.

2 is actually a really cool idea, but compare to Bloodrager. Magical power that transforms you into a badass seems to be its bread and butter, though maybe a focus on more defensive/weird ones would work. While the bloodrager gets things like reach and wings, maybe the arcanist would get precognition, telekinetics, at-will energy blasts, a breath weapon... Really anything that Dragonfire Adept or Warlock would've gotten would work here... But I do worry that this is too similar to just having Sorcerer Bloodlines. They get claws and wings and such, too.

3 I'm actually a huge fan of. Give them a few spells but then give them things like the old Dragon Breath and Draconic Heritage feats that let you expend spells to do other interesting effects. I used to love Draconic Breath, because "turn any spell into 2d6 fire damage per spell level in a cone" really allowed me to ignore damage dealing spells and get more utility. If we put that in here in one form or another, well, I'd vote for it.

The thing is Adam... would you like to suggest HOW it should progress along the path you have in mind? It's easy to knock something, what's your alternative?

Well, Lazar, that's fair. Here's a skeleton of the sort of thing I'd suggest. Obviously it'd need work. This is more a question of being cool and interesting than balance to me at the moment.

First off, scrub the whole "Special" column. No Blood Focus. No Scribe Scroll. No bonus feats. Cantrips can stay.

Spellbook and casting stay, but she no longer gets bloodline spells because she no longer has a bloodline.

At first level, the Arcanist gains

"Arcane Focus (Ex): While Wizards exhaustively study the eight schools of magic and Sorcerers follow their blood, Arcanists take hints from their magical heritage to direct their study. At 1st level, an Arcanist chooses a spell descriptor (such as Fire or Evil.) At 1st level and whenever she learns a new level of spells, she adds one Sorcerer/Wizard spell with the chosen descriptor to her spellbook of a level she can cast. She may choose to learn a Summon Monster spell in place of a spell of her descriptor."

[Note: The descriptors are acid, air, chaotic, cold, curse, darkness, death, disease, earth, electricity, emotion, evil, fear, fire, force, good, language-dependent, lawful, light, mind-affecting, pain, poison, shadow, sonic, and water.]

"Arcane Heritage (Su): At 1st level, the arcanist learns to harness the power of her magical heritage to push the boundaries of her magic. An Arcanist gets a number of Arcane points each day equal to 3 + her charisma modifier (minimum 1). She may expend Arcane points in the following ways.
- Expend an Arcane point as free action to add +1 to the caster level and save DC of a spell of with her Arcane Focus descriptor as she casts it.
- Expend an Arcane point as a free action to cast a cantrip from her spellbook, even if she hasn't prepared it.
- Expend an arcane point as a standard action to fire a ray at a target within 30 feet. This ray deals fire damage equal to 1d6+ your arcanist level. If your Arcane Focus descriptor is an Energy or Elemental type, this instead deals damage of that energy type or that elemental's associated energy type (for example, if your descriptor is Water or Cold, this ray does Cold damage)"

[Notes: Yes, charisma. Clerics have to deal with a Wis/Cha split and they're fine. Also, I know the ray there is better than sorcerer bloodline 1st tend to be, but those bloodline rays are very weak and quickly become something you never use, so I wanted this to scale a bit better]

Then, every two or three levels (lets say three. This IS a full caster after all), give

"Arcane Talent: At 3rd level, the Arcanist gains one Arcane Talent. She gains an additional talent for every 3 levels of Arcanist attained after 3rd level. An arcanist cannot select an individual talent more than once."

An then we get a talent list... Here's my sample list.

"Eldritch Heritage: Select one sorcerer bloodline. This bloodline cannot be a bloodline you already have. You gain the first-level bloodline power for the selected bloodline. For purposes of using that power, treat your sorcerer level as equal to your arcanist level – 2. You do not gain any of the other bloodline abilities."

"Improved Elemental Ray: When you use an Arcane Point to fire a ray, that ray deals an additional 1d6 points of damage of its energy type.”

“Preferred Spell: Choose a spell you know with your Arcane Focus descriptor. You may expend an arcane point and a spell of the same level or higher to spontaneously cast that spell. If the spell sacrificed was higher level, this spell is Heightened to that same level.You may take this Talent multiple times. Each time you do, choose a different spell.”

“Arcane Defense: You gain a +3 bonus on saving throws against spells with your Arcane Focus descriptor.”

“Countermastery: When you successfully identify a spell being cast that has your Arcane Focus descriptor, you may spend an arcane point as an immediate action to counterspell it by casting a spell with the same descriptor of the same level or higher. (It need not be the same spell)”

“Inherent Understanding: You may expend an Arcane Point before rolling a spellcraft check to gain a +5 insight bonus to that check.”

“Eldritch Heritage II: (Prerequisite: Eldritch heritage, level 6). You gain the 3rd-level power of the bloodline you selected with the Eldritch Heritage talent. For purposes of using that power, treat your sorcerer level as equal to your arcanist level – 2. You do not gain any of the other bloodline abilities.

“Eldritch Heritage III: (Prerequisites: Eldritch Heritage, Eldritch heritage II, level 12), blah blah level 9 power blah blah”

“Spell Focus: You gain Spell Focus as a bonus feat.”

“Forceful Ray: When you use an Arcane Point to fire a ray, if that ray deals damage, you may make a free trip attempt or a free bull rush attempt against the target, using your Arcanist level as your BAB and your charisma modifier as your strength modifier.”

“Inherited Spell: Choose a spell from the Cleric or Druid spell list with your Arcane Focus descriptor. Add that spell to your spellbook and your spell list. You must spend an Arcane Point to cast that spell.”

“Amiable Heritage: You gain a +3 bonus on skill checks made to interact with, know about, or understand creatures who have your Arcane Focus descriptor as a subtype.”

“Family Bonds: Whenever you cast a Summon Monster spell with your Arcane Focus descriptor, you may spend an arcane point to reduce the casting time to a standard action.”

“Scribe Scroll: You gain scribe scroll as a bonus feat.”

The Capstone, School Supremacy, would stay the same, except work for Descriptor rather than school.

And then there’d be an “Extra Arcane Heritage” feat for +2 arcane points.

So, why did I focus on Descriptor rather than school here? Because of what makes a sorcerer and what makes a wizard and what would work between. Wizards study and learn and specialize in a school, much like a college major, where their focus is based on how things intrinsically ‘work.’ An Evoker understands how to make fire come and explode, but is less learned on the subject of fire elementals. Sorcerers are about Bloodline, they get powers innately and work with that, and they tend to be latched onto a theme. Bloodline Arcana often focuses on descriptors or subtypes, and I wanted to latch onto the idea that the Arcanist would still have a focus of study, but it wouldn’t quite be just “the bloodline” and it wouldn’t be the studied school. An Arcanist understands “I have Evil heritage from my demonic great great grandaddy”, and so he focuses on things that resonate with that (likely Conjuration (Summoning) [Evil] spells), but doesn’t really learn about conjuration as a whole, and he isn’t so demonic (without eldritch heritage) that he’ll just have claws or whatever.

I would just say that while I like all the other classes (even the Brawler which is woefully underpowered), I absolutely loathe the Arcanist. While all the others feel like "I want to do this, lets make it halfway between two classes instead of an AT or a totally new class", this feels like "The editors say we need a sorcerer/wizard hybrid. Lets make something."

Sorcerer and Wizard are ALREADY just a few steps away from each other, and the compromises here aren't good ones in any case.

-The strange spellcasting method doesn't make this between Sorcerer and Wizard. It just makes this do silly things, granting insane versatility. Yes, it's at the slower sorcerer progression, but it still feels overall better than wizard or sorc for most purposes... But more importantly it's clunky and annoying. It feels like a shoehorned compromise rather than an interesting method of casting in its own right. A preferable answer would be for it to cast like a sorcerer mostly, but be able to prepare one slot per level with something else (anything else, perhaps! Don't even need a spellbook?) at the start of the day.

-Bloodline Focus is clunky as well, and compromises two things that didn't need to be compromised. The reduced bloodline abilities in exchange for being able to just buff spells instead is odd, and considering most bloodlines I feel it will usually result in just not using bloodline abilities. One of my big issues with this is that most of my favorite bloodline powers are passives, and using a standard action to activate them for a few rounds. I think this would make a lot more sense if you just sort of "got" a sorcerer bloodline, but at reduced level... But even then, it has this whole "On the fence" feel rather than feeling like its own class. If anything, Arcanist shouldn't have ANY bloodline powers, and should instead have something like "Arcane Talents" that it can take every few levels.

-Bonus feats. This is the easiest thing to get rid of to make something more interesting or to do something interesting with.

Also, this class could really use some strange features going up. Something that makes it feel like its own man. I really think Blood Focus and the bonus feats need to just /go away/ in exchange for a Talent list like some of the other classes have. Or even keep them with a number of "Blood" points per day, but give them more unique things to do with them the way Monks, Investigators, Swashbucklers, and everyone else with points per day gets a sizable list.

All in all: I'd like to see this class be taken further from Sorcerer or Wizard, and I'd like to feel like it /does/ something that makes it its own class.

I really think Martial Maneuvers would work better if there was a list of feats you could get with it, instead of any combat feat. It would work more like monk bonus feats, and it would be easier to allow it to ignore pre-request (so that you don't need combat expertise and int 13 for a brawler to get improved trip out of it), and at higher levels you could expand the list, also like a monk's bonus feat list.

So very much this. With this feature, the class no longer requires Combat Expertise to do its thing, it can use Martial Maneuvers to decide to have Improved Trip/Disarm/Whatver without needing intelligence. As is, this is one of the more MAD classes. Requires 13 Int for Combat Expertise, uses Strength to attack and damage, and as a front-line warrior with light armor, it needs both huge dex and huge con to not die.

Also, as a DM, there is nothing more annoying than a character who can, in combat, choose any X from any splatbook. It takes forever for them to decide, and they always have the perfect silver bullet at any moment that I didn't even know existed because that "+10 to hit werewolves with silver rockingchairs on a tuesday in december" feat was in some obscure pathfinder companion book that my local store never even ordered.

Brawler looks bad to me, overall, in part for the same reason Monks are bad and in part because fighters aren't particularly good, either. I think this class would be a good opportunity to fix the issues in both, instead of making them worse.

Monk's main problem is that it spends a lot of class features making up for a lack of weapons and armor, and none of these are actually as good as a Warrior wielding a weapon and wearing armor. Brawler, being directly compared to Fighter, gets this worse. At level 1, a Brawler has a weapon that does 1d6, 20/x2, while a fighter is generally packing 2d6, 19-20/x2 OR has 1d8, 19-20/x2 and a shield. His armor is probably Medium (becuase level 1), but a shield can help make up for the low AC there.

Jumping ahead to 4th level when the Brawler picks up +1 AC, the Brawler's AC is 10+Dex+4 (chain shirt) +1 AC bonus... Whereas the Fighter has 10+dex+9 (full plate) and potentially +2 shield. If he has a shield, he's swinging for 1d8, same as the Brawler, but has a higher threat range. If he's shieldless, he's going in for 2d6+strength and a half. Even if the Brawler is full-attacking and thus flurrying, the brawler's getting 2d6+twice strength, at a -2 penalty... So if he maxes strength and has gotten a magic item early, he's taking -2 to hit for +3 damage if and only if he can full attack. And he's still got half the critical threat range.

This doesn't get much better for the Brawler at higher levels. Magic swords are cheaper than amulets of natural armor, and the Brawler's AC never gets comparable to the Fighter's. So what does the Brawler get instead? Maneuver training is comparable to Weapon Training, except Weapon Training applies to a number of combat maneuvers already, and some fighter archetypes let you trade features for more.

Toe to toe with a fighter, the Brawler really has nothing going for him other than Martial Maneuvers letting him change his feats on the fly, but a fighter will be just getting feats in greater quantity. Good Reflex saves and +2 skill points per level are not enough to save this class...

...So what do I think it needs?

-If the class must have light armor and no shield, give it AC to compensate. This class doesn't reward high dexterity at ALL, so it feels weird that it penalizes armor. I suggest letting it add Wisdom to Armor class while wearing light or no armor, on top of the AC bonus, like Swordsage used to do. Alternatively, give it an active defense: Let it use its strength or con to AC as it actively blocks, parries, and knocks aside incoming blows.

-Two Weapon Fighting is a joke. It's a penalty to hit and only works on a full attack. The Brawler either needs Pounce or the ability to attack twice as a standard in order to make this reasonable. Alternatively: Let him go in with a full body attack (like a tackle) and treat his unarmed strikes as a two-handed weapon.

-I like maneuver training, but it needs more than just a bonus. Perhaps allow combining maneuvers (for example: let the Brawler get a free Trip attempt when he Bull Rushes, or if he successfulyl disarms someone let him get a free attack with the disarmed weapon as though he were proficient), or making maneuvers work as riders on successful attacks (like a wolf's trip or a tiger's grab.) Eidolons can get both of these abilities, I think a PC specializing in maneuvers should have the option as well.

-Damage reduction. If you're gonna tell me this guy is standing in front of the armored dudes in light armor and punching them in the face, I expect him to be tough as nails. And I don't mean dinky Barbarian DR, I mean like DR/- equal to half Brawler level.

I understand that you don't want to overshadow Monk too badly with this class, but keep in mind that Monk is really, really bad and try to compare it to fighter not in what abilities it says it gets, but what those abilities can actually do for it. Being able to punch a man for 1d8 damage is not a relevant ability when the alternative was cutting a man for 2d6.

The link is Extraordinary, not Supernatural, and explicit in what it does. If someone successfully disguised themselves as you, they could make Handle Animal checks as normal to control your companion. They wouldn't get the bonus of the Link ability, though, because they don't know your animal as well as you.

I don't know from giving everyone the Advanced template (who DOES that?) but I've played Summoner in 25 point buy games, and my Eidolon was still a complete badass that made the party fighter unhappy about his life choices.

My suggestion on the armor issue is this:

Replace "Natural Armor" in the Eidolon statistics with "Armor." Nat Armor and Armor, mechanically, have almost no differences, except for one main one: They don't stack with each other. By replacing instances of Nat Armor with Armor it would force the summoner to choose between equipping it with armor or not, and note that, up until the highest levels, level appropriate Full Plate would still be better AC than the nat armor.

Keep the Evolution as Improved Natural Armor, so that it stacks with anything. So a level 20 Summoner's Eidolon would have a max of +24 AC from Armor and Evolutions, whether he wore armor or not... But when the Full Plate is no longer useful at high levels, the Eidolon can instead go around wearing +1 Heavy Fortification Adamantine armor, relying on the AC bonus it gets inherently and being able to use armor for special armor abilities.

This does have the unfortunate benefit of making the Eidolon immune to the Mage Armor spell, though, but I'm not sure how important that is.

----------------------------------------------------

As for the Cursed Item issue, let's take it to the other extreme...

An Eidolon that has Cursed Equipment cannot be dismissed because it's stuck to the equipment. If your Eidolon would die while wearing cursed equipment, you are left with a cursed item attached to a semi-amorphous corpse. The Eidolon may not be dismissed until the equipment is removed (via a Remove Curse spell or similar method), at which point, if its HP is below 0-Con, it is automatically dismissed as normal.

I agree that some package deals would be cool. If not just to help players who are new decide quicker at character creation. I know that when I sit down to make something like this it is quick but when I have a new player, some not all, they can take hours to decide on a single trait.

New players? To hell with them. It'd be INVALUABLE to a DM wanting to use Summoners as enemies.

Tell that to the cleric. There are some good options in simple weapons Heavy mace, spear and long spear come to mind as do crossbows for range and damage

And Clerics don't really become useful in melee until they start casting buffs on themselves.

Problem:

Birds have wings and legs, but no hands. So you'd have to start with the Serpent form, which gives a bite and a tail slap... Now, some birds DO bute, but I've never heard of a bird with a tail slap.

Except where does it say the Eidolon has free will and isn't just entirely your slave like most summoned monsters are? I'd imagine a great many evil summoners would "abuse" their eidolon, if only as flavor.

The Eidolon is tough enough it doesn't need anything more added to the package.

Maybe not for FREE, but perhaps as a prepackaged evolution set?

A "Lesser Demon" set, for example, that gives DR 5/Good, Elec Res, and natural attacks that count as Chaotic, Evil, and then later on a "Greater Demon" set that gives DR 10/Good, Elec and Poison Immunity, Fire/Cold/Acid res, etc etc.

I think a lot of fun could be done with some pre-packaged Eidolons, sets that cost 5 evolution points but give a variety of useful features that, if purchased seperately, would cost more than 5.

I was thinking on Insectile forms, but I realized that pretty much all of them are quadrapeds. Bugs have at least 4 legs and they usually have some sort of bite attack. Which is what quadrapeds get. Even the particularly weird ones, like Praying Mantises, still have 4 legs and a bite, so for a mantis, I'd spend my 3 evolution points on Limbs (Arms) and Pincers. Or for a spider, I'd buy Poison and Climb and declare the extra legs with "fluff" because, well... By Eidolon rules, the fastest creature in the universe is the Centipede.

I agree that Summoner should only be a d6 HP. Let's think about this...

The level 1 Eidolon, as said, will have 13 HP. This is comparable to the front line characters. And then the Summoner has about 10. With Life Link, this means that a level 1 Eidolon/Summoner combo, assuming the Summoner is in a good defensive position, has 23 HP. Now, I know, you can just attack the summoner, but a smart summoner will make that difficult for you.

Let's say this again: Focusing just on the Eidolon, it takes 36 HP of damage to kill it. Now, granted, the Eidolon is still taken out of the combat at 14 points of damage, but why is it necessary to consider Life Link in the Summoner's HP calculation? The Eidolon has plenty of HP and a solid enough Con that it's not going to be just randomly dying too much... And even if it does, it comes back at the start of the next DAY. The Fighter and Barbarian don't get the benefit of being "expendable."

Now, as far as the HD and BAB making the Summoner competent in melee, such as a mounted warrior...

...No, it doesn't. As someone who has been playing Bards since 3.0 was new, I can safely tell you that 3/4 BAB and Light Armor does not make you competent in melee unless your other class features aid it. A level 10 Summoner can gain 2 evolutions, and more at higher levels, but other than that, the only way to not be hilariously bad in melee with this class is to dump all your feats into combat skills. This may feel viable, but after a certain point, my years of Bard experience have told me that unless you've turned yourself into some sort of crazy trip-monkey with massive dex and the ability to use dex on your CMB, casting Grease is almost always better than attacking a foe who actually poses a threat. (Against kobolds, go nuts with your pointed stick.)

If the Summoner is supposed to be melee competent, it needs a higher Aspect pool and it needs to happen earlier. If the Summoner is not supposed to be melee competent, drop its HD to d6 and BAB to 1/2 HD.

If you DO want Summoners to be melee competent, I propose this:
Give the Summoner bardic weapon proficiency. Longsword is a solid weapon, as is Rapier, and there's something perfect about someone with a giant wolf using a Whip.

I figured out Flight's problem. Why is Flight super powerful on an Eidolon? The same reason it's super powerful on an Animal Companion or a Paladin's Special Mount, an effect that is nearly completely negated by a Small creature with flying.

A Medium Eidolon with Flight allows a Halfling Summoner to take Ride and various Mounted feats to fly as soon as he gains access to the flying summon. While an Avian summon who is medium sized would allow this instantly, a Small one would only afford it to Tiny casters and Summoners willing to learn Reduce Person (which is, in my experience, not a particularly useful spell.)

Nothing that ANY summoner can use Reduce Person to fly on his mount as of 5th level, and any can fly on his mount whenever he wants as of 6th, I can't imagine its overpowered to let already-small summoners do this at first.

On top of this, a level one druid can get...

Starting Statistics: Size Small; Speed 10 ft., fly 80 ft. (average); AC +1 natural armor; Attack bite (1d4), 2 talons (1d4); Ability Scores Str 10, Dex 15, Con 12, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 6; Special Qualities low-light vision.

Compare to my
Starting Statistics: Size SMALL*, Speed 30ft., Fly 30 ft (average); AC +2 natural armor, Saves: Fort Bad, Ref Good, Will Good, Attack 2 Claws (Talons) 1d3, Ability Scores Str 8, Dex 18, Con 11, Int 7, Wis 10, Cha 11; Free Evolutions Limbs (legs), Flight*, Claws, + 3 Evolution Points

The Avian has a significantly better AC, yes, but is doing about 2 less damage per attack and has a significantly slower fly speed. HP is about the same and, assuming one Evolution Point is spent to even out the attacks with a +bite, that's 2 Evolution points left over.

Is the Avian better/worse than the Animal Companion? With those 2 EVs, I'd put it at a bit better... But aren't Eidolons SUPPOSED to be better than animal companions, to make up for the fact that the Summoner sans Eidolon is significantly weaker than the Druid sans Animal Companion?

What would be any benefit of multiple heads (without bite attacks)? Bonus to Perception checks? Rolling multiple Perception checks?

Ettin has +1 head and +4 Perception

I'd say +4 bonus on perception checks and the ability to take the Breath Weapon, Bite, and Gore evolutions multiple times. Also the ability to talk and chew gum at the same time.

On a side note, I feel like Bite and Gore should be mutually exclusive. Not only can I not think of anything natural that does both (horns are usually on herbivores, wheras a strong bite is a carnivore trait), but how are you supposed to bite someone when your forehead is pressed to them?

Except you can only summon it once per day. So yes, Morphic 5 would potentially let you use two breath weapons in one day, more than a minute apart... But that's about it.

I actually really like this Morphic idea... But I think it needs to be changed...

Morphic 2
Every time you take this evolution you gain 1 evolution point in a special "Morphic pool.". Your Eidolon may reassign these evolution points to any Evolution as a Full Round action, with the following exceptions.
-Morphic points may not be used on evolutions with a Daily limit.
-Morphic points may not be spent on Skilled, Resistance, or Immunity. (Maybe some others, too.)
Your Morphic Pool may not exceed 1/4 your Summoner level.