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I'm thinking of playing a druid soon for a new campaign and am considering the augment summoning feat. However, the prerequisite is Spell Focus (conjuration) (unless Pathfinder Beta changes that!). Does anyone have a list of druid conjuration spells that require a saving throw? Is the spell focus worth it for a druid?
I'm thinking of playing a druid soon for a new campaign and am considering the augment summoning feat. However, the prerequisite is Spell Focus (conjuration) (unless Pathfinder Beta changes that!). Does anyone have a list of druid conjuration spells that require a saving throw? Is the spell focus worth it for a druid?
I don't have the list you're looking for, but having played several druids, I can tell you that regardless of the usefulness of spell focus on its own, I find augment summoning well worth the extra feat slot. I would be surprised if the beta changed the preqreq, as the augment summoning feat is generally considered (in my circles) as a must-have for any summoning focused character. Removing the prereq makes it an almost automatic choice for any druid/wizard/cleric who uses summons even some of the time.
Case in point. My wizard's cohort is a druid 4. We just started the 3rd adventure in RotRL and are fighting monsters that tend to hit very hard, but have low ACs/CR. On 3 separate occasions last night, the extra 4 hps her wolf summons received from augment summoning made the difference between getting dropped in one hit, or sticking around that extra round for another trip attempt/flanking bonus. The extra +4 strength make a large difference in damage with claw/claw/bite summons and bite/claw/claw+improved grab/rake/rake kitties.
Spell Focus-conjuration also helps with one of the druid's weaknesses: undead. Cure spells have a Will save for half damage, and are Conjuration (healing) spells. And undead have good Will Saves, and they usually have more hit dice than their CR, so their Will Saves are pretty high, so that little +1 will come in handy.
Are there any baleful teleport-like spells for druids in the Spell Compendium? Those would also be conjuration spells, right?
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Here's a list of Druid conjuration spells from the SRD. Several would require saves.
Create Water
Creeping Doom
Cure Critical Wounds
Cure Critical Wounds, Mass
Cure Light Wounds
Cure Light Wounds, Mass
Cure Minor Wounds
Cure Moderate Wounds
Cure Moderate Wounds, Mass
Cure Serious Wounds
Cure Serious Wounds, Mass
Delay Poison
Elemental Swarm
Fire Seeds
Fog Cloud
Heal
Insect Plague
Neutralize Poison
Obscuring Mist
Regenerate
Remove Disease
Restoration, Lesser
Shambler
Sleet Storm
Storm of Vengeance
Summon Nature's Ally I
Summon Nature's Ally II
Summon Nature's Ally III
Summon Nature's Ally IV
Summon Nature's Ally IX
Summon Nature's Ally V
Summon Nature's Ally VI
Summon Nature's Ally VII
Summon Nature's Ally VIII
Summon Swarm
Transport via Plants
Tree Stride
Wall of Stone
Wall of Thorns
Word of Recall
-Jack
Spell Focus(Conjuration) is worth it to the druid purely as a pre-requisite for Augment Summoning. Augment adds a lot to summoned minions, something druids have lots of.
as an aside... they knew that spell focus (conj) was a subpar feat when they made it a prereq for augment summoning, that is one of the reasons why AS is a realy good feat.
There are very few druid conjuration spells that require saves. In my Core-only campaign, I think there is one (though I cannot recall it right now).
That said, Augment Summoning is probably still worth it. Augment Summoning is that good, if you find yourself summoning nature's allies pretty much every battle. I have regretted not taking it for my current character. That said, I still plan not to take it as Spell Focus is entirely useless for a Druid in a core-only campaign, and will simply accept that the summoned beasties will die that much sooner... or see if I can find a magic item to provide a similar effect.
Do they have a quasi-metamagic rod of Augment Summoning?
If not, they should.
As augment summoning reads "Each creature you conjure with any 'summon' spell", I would say yes, your swarm gets the str/con boost. However since the summon swarm spell itself has no saving throw Spell Focus would not apply.