Hey, I love pathfinder and the world of Golarion in general, what I've seen so far (especially diggin' the gnomes). I'm a big fan of playing clerics, in those few games I play rather than Dm. A house rule I introduced awhile ago with some great success was the idea of religion specific animals that can be summoned. If anyone's watched or better read the Naruto manga/anime I've drawn my inspiration from the summoning in that. In D&D i have a Summoning Domain, and you get you god's specific animal added to the list, and bonuses for using that animal. For example I use a bull as Cord's when I (rarely) use the base gods, a red muscular bull, with Cord's symbol branded on its brow and copper horns. At low level i.e. Summon Monster II its a bull calf or something along those lines.
Now that i have the premise established, I'll get to my point. What animal's would be associated with the major Gods of Golarion's pantheon, or even elementals and other summonables if absolutely no animal suits. Any suggestions/ideas?
Thanks, hopefully in advance.
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I really loved your idea, but i don´t have one of my own.
I aways tried to create new animals (like horned rabbits, giant butterflies, winter swans, dire bulls and winged wolfs) so we could really expand and diversificate the lists, but on summoned monsters i only used more templates than fiendish or celestial (like elemental creatures, so i could make Fire Eagles, Air Tigers, Earth Turtles and Ice Lizards for a slighty oriental campaing).
As much as I love this concept, I haven't got around to playing a summoner as of yet. I have, however, had many an NPC who's pulled some really odd things out of a summon monster spell. Draconic dire rats... fiendish ice paraelementals... half-fang dragon kobold fighters... Good times all around.
A handy little guide from the November '02 issue of Dragon broke it down like this:
Summon Monster I - Less than CR 1
Summon Monster II - CR 1
Summon Monster III - CR 2
Summon Monster IV - CR 3
Summon Monster V - CR 4-5
Summon Monster VI - CR 6-7
Summon Monster VII - CR 8-9
Summon Monster VIII - CR 10-11
Summon Monster IX - CR 12-13
So let's say that an evil cleric of Norgorber wanted to customize his summon monster I spell, a fiendish stirge or a ravenous (Dragon Compendium) zombie wolf might show up on his new list, while an elven cleric of Erastil might summon a celestial elf (Warrior 1) armed with a longbow. It's really only limited by the guidelines, what you can come up with, and what the DM lets you do.
Thanks Warforged-Goblin, that's very useful. Oh and thanks Windbit, I'm sure I can work in a few types of psychadelic butterfly-esque creatures to the list, as well as the night monarch.
As always more suggestions are welcomed. Especially for Sarenrae, I'm big fan of hers, but I'm having trouble fixing an idea, I was thinking lion but its too, overt, if you ken what I mean. I want more regular animals, just blessed/cursed and enhanced. i.e. a great green badger of Gozreh!
Maybe a sun turtle...
Let me see what I can do to help...
Abadar - Lawful Neutral and the god of cities, wealth, merchants, and law, the axiomatic template (Planar Handbook) is a nice fit. It only bumps the CR if applied to a creature with more than 3 HD, so an axiomatic dog or owl, or even a formain worker, would be fine for SM I. At later levels, a gold dragon of appropriate age could be swapped in. Finally, for your summon monster IV, a kolyarut seems the natural choice.
Erastil - As I said before, a celestial humanoid or aasimar archer makes a great SM I substitution. James has made mention of Old Deadeye's herald being a stag, but IMHO, a hunting dog makes far more sense. A celestial (or even half-celestial) hound (use the dire wolf stats) would be great for higher levels.
Desna is covered in Pathfinder 2.
Gozreh - A force of nature, I'd suggest a water genasi (Player's Guide to Faerun or Monsters of Faerun) or water mephling (Planar Handbook), both warrior 1, for 1st level. At higher level, the woodling template (MM3) or one of the water element template (Planar Handbook) work just as well.
Sarenrae - The celestial, half-celestial, fire element (Planar Handbook), and vivacious templates (Planar Handbook) are all great additions to the summon monster list. I'd add one to a fire pelt (RotL Player's Guide) to play up the fire angle. Maybe a unicorn or some other "healing" creature at higher levels.
Shelyn - Uh... How about the half-Fey template (Fiend Folio) or some "pretty" creatures; pixies, nymphs, etc...
Check out the Solaric template from Green Ronin's Advanced Bestiary. Great for creatures blessed by a sun god, without said creature being extraplanar in origin.