| Shenvall |
I don't know. It seems pretty fair for encounter economy. You have a growing repertoire, but you only have 4 spell slots. You still have cantrips for combat casting, but 4 times in between daily preparations, the summoner can use those 4 slots to cast summon spells at the beginning of a fight. That's four encounters per day, that you can lead with a summon. So far in our playing, even before the playtest, I've found that our party rarely gets into more than 4 encounters per day. Assuming you keep your eidolon out, and there's no reason not to, thematically, it's intelligent, and has a mind, and likely feelings, so why not keep it out, you don't have to manifest it at the start of combat. Your first round of combat, you summon. After that, you use your Act Together action, to sustain and command your summons, while moving your eidolon, or attacking with your eidolon, then you decide how best to split those last 2 actions. While you can't dump spells and use your summons to attack, and your eidolon all in the same round due to action economy, you can still get a lot of fairly balanced combat done, manipulate the board into flanking positions to help out the party, and keep pressure on specific enemies.
Now I do imagine that some groups run encounter heavy, and so, perhaps a focus spell that can be gained as a class feat sometime around 6th level or higher, would be useful, a Focus spell that mimics the effects of a summoning spell in the summoners repertoire, that is of at least one spell level lower than the focus spell. (IE; at 9th level you have access to 5th level spells, so the focus spell would be a 5th level spell, and be able to cast a known summon spell at level 4 or lower.) That seems more balanced, than max level summons all the time, but honestly, it feels fair, and balanced with the 4 spell slot summons per day as is. The eidolon is already a potential powerhouse, given it's combat proficiencies, and the fact that it gains the effects of invested items. Handrwaps of Mighty Blows, an additional invested weapon, allowing potency, striking, and an extra property rune, not to mention the armor runes, then adding a summoned creature, and the Summoners own potential actions, and you're already looking at having more of an effect on the battlefield than most other character classes, and potentially the most consistent damage per round. By 7th level, that dragon eidolon is going to be making three hit multi attacks all of which will have have a potency rune, a striking rune, and two property rune effects, plus strength, and then using act together, you'll likely reposition your eidolon, while sustaining your summons, and having it take two more actions. That's a lot of steady every round damage, flanking, and more. If you could do that every single encounter, while never running out of your highest level summons, the class would be broken.