Malforian's page

I think optimizers/anyone interested in efficiency love familiars, so getting a full BAB, d10 hit die class that gets a familiar no fuss is quite exciting. The sharing of combat feats makes it an even more resource efficient class, made all the better by Pathfinder's extensive teamwork options. Lemeres was right to point out dirty trick tactics, as they get really busted with a familiar to tag team. I'd also look at the ability to form an attack of opportunity duo like the hunter can by sharing the teamwork feats paired opportunist and broken wing gambit. This will allow either of you to draw in an attack to win 2 AoO's thanks to paired opportunist awarding one of you an AoO when the other one gets one against a target you both threaten. I think reach AoO tactics is one of the best, if not the best melee styles to build around, so having a readymade partner to achieve them with is just fantastic. In this way, the familiar becomes like extra reach, expanding the area with which you threaten AoO's, and widening your defensive capabilities to protect squishier PC's.

I would also make sure to max out UMD so that your familiar can wield wands effectively and buff you. That's action economy many martial classes dream about. Action economy is probably the biggest draw to the whole archetype to begin with. Optimizers are nuts about it.

Oh and definitely go for Improved Familiar. Whether you want a combat buddy or a skill-monkey/wand guy it's perfect and adds a lot of power to an already great class feature.

I would think about forgoing the tentacle and simply roleplaying long arms as very bendy and slim with multiple joints or something of the sort. The natural attack cap gets filled up pretty quickly as cnetarian mentioned.

Other than that it's really not hard to optimize a synthesist. Just role with a half-elf for the favored class bonus and pick up a couple of extra evolution feats if you want and you can make something scary powerful.

claws+grab+rake is an awesome way to stack damage for sure. If you're not super attached to the biped form then the serpentine form can add some more fun to this with constrict and the final embrace feat tree. This really busts grappling open if you want to look for ways to push your damage potential without falling back on pounce builds. If you want to make swallow hole a major part of the build at level nine I would consider getting the pull evolution on whatever attack you've given reach. You can get this effect by taking a five foot step after your reach attack but I really like the flavor it adds to the visual of a big mouthed monster pulling things closer and gobbling them up.

Synthesist 20 is probably your best bet, but consider a one level dip of monk. Improved Unarmed Strike can be made very potent with the feat monastic legacy, a monk's robe and the size increases of the eidolon. The free feat helps if you want to focus on grappling, or any other combat manuever really. What I like the most from the dip is the AC bonus. You're not armored when you put on your eidolon suit anyways, so it stays relevant. Because you get all of your eidolon's physical stats you're free to make your wisdom and charisma as high as possible. There's definitely roleplaying potential there as well with a young monk expelled from his studies because of his newfound link to some horrible beast.