After a poster mentioned that one level in oracle of lore can get you CHA to AC and Ref instead of Dex it got me thinking about taking the dip for a Synthesist summoner.
First I have a couple of rules questions:
-Would this work at all? I'm assuming that since you retain your Cha and abilities nothing stops you from using the sidestep secret mystery when fused, but I know there's a lot of argument about what's going on with the synthesist.
- Could you effectively ignore some of the curses, namely clouded vision, deaf, and lame? You "perceive through [the eidolon's] senses" (UM 80) so I'd think your own bad eyes or ears wouldn't matter, and similarly if you're riding around in a ghost eidolon thing your legs don't matter probably.
The other big question- is it worth it? You lose casting (though the CL can be made up for with some money), a point of BAB about 2/3 of the time, an evolution point, an eidolon Str and Dex point about half the time, 2 eidolon AC again about half the time, and the rest of the slowed summoner stuff that I don't feel like picking out. The gains change depending on what you're doing with the eidolon, but your Cha should pretty much always be above the eidolon's Dex, and using the evolutions to feed into your Cha for casting now also benefits AC and Ref. Plus your summoner isn't quite as squishy without the eidolon. Just for an example at level 20 a biped eidolon would have 20 base Dex, while the summoner should probably have 26-30 base Cha (including an inherent bonus). I'm not positive, but I think there's going to be a 3-4 point gap pretty much over the summoner's entire career and it could be a good bit bigger if you use evolutions to feed into Cha or size up the eidolon.
If you're going to do something like that, don't forget Osyluth Guile. When fighting defensively, it allows you to add your Charisma bonus as a dodge bonus to your AC against an opponent you specify.
Also, having a high Charisma + UMD means you can simply use a Ring of Revelations to get access to Sidestep Secret.
SunsetPsychosis wrote: If you're going to do something like that, don't forget Osyluth Guile. When fighting defensively, it allows you to add your Charisma bonus as a dodge bonus to your AC against an opponent you specify.
Also, having a high Charisma + UMD means you can simply use a Ring of Revelations to get access to Sidestep Secret.
Thanks for pointing out that feat.
There's a considerable amount of argument around using umd and the ring without oracle levels. If you can then it's 100% better than the actual dip, yes, but let's assume that you can't for this thread. As a note to future posters, please try to avoid getting into long arguments about the ring.
For the record my own opinion is that it's probably not worth the level since as a synthesist you already have massive AC and you lose a fair amount of other things. The exception would be if your DM is trying to hammer you when you aren't fused, as a lot of people suggest against synthesists who tank their physical stats.
Look at what else a dip in Oracle would give you, though. First, you can utilize the entire divine spell list in spell trigger items without a UMD check. You can use a couple 1st level divine spells. You gain the ability to take the Extra Revelation feat for something like Lore Keeper or Focused Trance. And it's possible that the ring may allow you a Revelation outside your mystery if you're using UMD with actual oracle levels, opening up things like Cinder Dance, Gaze of Flames, Water Sight, Fluid Nature, Dance of Blades, Skill at Arms, etc.
I tried this and it was... massively unfun. Nigh unhittable, hit really hard, had crazy saves... it was like playing god vs. appropriate encounters.
If thats your thing, this works really well.
To clarify something with UMD, if I were a synthesist x/oracle 1 with a ring of revelations with some revelation that's level dependent- let's go with armor of bone- how does this work exactly? If I were to roll a UMD 33, so my effective oracle level for the bones mystery is 13, would the armor of bone power be useable 13 hours a day and provide all the benefits that a level 13 oracle would get out of it (+6 armor and DR 5/bludgeoning in this case)? As far as I can tell that's what happens, but I've never really paid close attention to UMD before.
EDIT: Also can your effective level exceed your character level, and if it can, can it break 20 before epic?
EDIT2: On second though, since you're using UMD to emulate the mystery feature and not the revelation in question, would that mean that your effective oracle level is zero for the revelation?
I wish they'd print a boon companion equivalent for eidolons, but another part of me realizes how that could be a very dumb thing.
Krispy: Our group also tends to heavily upscale the enemies we fight, since all the players like to tweak, so it should wash. There's also a decent chance this idea will only see play on the DM side, if it does at all. At this point it's in the "just thinking about it" zone.
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