I'll try to make this as brief as possible. We just started a new game where I actually get to play (I almost always DM). The DM is running pretty much nothing but Dungeon Crawl Classics with enough to get us from level 1 to 15 (we are currently level 2). The rest of the party consists of a Whisper Gnome Rogue, Human Fighter, Human Brass Dragon Shaman and a Dwarven Artificer. I'm playing a Human Cloistered Cleric. My concept is that as a teenager and being overly curious I found myself watching a dark ritual of an evil cult. They opened a gateway to the Far Realm at which point what reached out killed them all and touched me before the portal collapsed. It left me slightly deformed (gaining two flaws from Unearth Arcana) and a little mad. But for that brief moment I got a glimpse of what I thought was the origin of all the planes. I started studying and hearing whispers from beyond. I started whorshipping Mak Thum something or other (can't remember at the moment) a enity from the far realm. My belief is that by making sense of the Far Realm I can learn the secrets of the universe so to speak. Character wise I have the Madness, Summoning and Knowledge domains (the Knowledge domain was a bonus from Cloistered Cleric) and my current feats are Spell Focus (Conjuration), Augment Summoning, Entend Spell and Divine Metamagic (Extend Spell). My DM has allowed me to make my own summon monster lists and using the PHII option I spontaneously exchange from my Summoning Domain rather than Inflict Wounds (I'm Chaotic Neutral but my god is Chaotic Evil). Using the Summoning Circle article from Dragon and Unearth Arcana as guidelines I summon nothing but Anarchic Aberrations. The problem is I'm torn as to what to do for feats from this point on.
I considered Cloudly Conjuration which would look cool but the 1 round of sickening and cover I'm not sure would be worth it. I found a feat called Chaos Summoner which would makes my Summon Monster spells have a range of medium at no level cost, but since we are in dungeons a lot I'm not sure I need more than close range. I had this thought of taking Leadership and getting an aberration cohort. If I use Savage Species I could get something like an Attach, Ettercap, Drider or Umber Hulk as a cohort (using this book just to make the mechanics easy). Something I could use as a body guard when I summon and a strong arm (for Strength check mostly not combat) since no one in the party has a Strength above 16. Sure I could take Rapid Spell, but so far the 1 round of casting hasn't been an issue. Any suggestions? I have access to most WotC books and a decnt amount of third party stuff. Also see Kalivak's Journal in the Campaign Journal section of the boards for how thing have gone so far.
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I'll try to make this as brief as possible. We just started a new game where I actually get to play (I almost always DM). The DM is running pretty much nothing but Dungeon Crawl Classics with enough to get us from level 1 to 15 (we are currently level 2). The rest of the party consists of a Whisper Gnome Rogue, Human Fighter, Human Brass Dragon Shaman and a Dwarven Artificer. I'm playing a Human Cloistered Cleric. My concept is that as a teenager and being overly curious I found myself watching a dark ritual of an evil cult. They opened a gateway to the Far Realm at which point what reached out killed them all and touched me before the portal collapsed. It left me slightly deformed (gaining two flaws from Unearth Arcana) and a little mad. But for that brief moment I got a glimpse of what I thought was the origin of all the planes. I started studying and hearing whispers from beyond. I started whorshipping Mak Thum something or other (can't remember at the moment) a enity from the far realm. My belief is that by making sense of the Far Realm I can learn the secrets of the universe so to speak. Character wise I have the Madness, Summoning and Knowledge domains (the Knowledge domain was a bonus from Cloistered Cleric) and my current feats are Spell Focus (Conjuration), Augment Summoning, Entend Spell and Divine Metamagic (Extend Spell). My DM has allowed me to make my own summon monster lists and using the PHII option I spontaneously exchange from my Summoning Domain rather than Inflict Wounds (I'm Chaotic Neutral but my god is Chaotic Evil). Using the Summoning Circle article from Dragon and Unearth Arcana as guidelines I summon nothing but Anarchic Aberrations. The problem is I'm torn as to what to do for feats from this point on.
I considered Cloudly Conjuration which would look cool but the 1 round of sickening and cover I'm not sure would be worth it. I found a feat called Chaos Summoner which would makes my Summon Monster spells have a range of medium at no level cost, but since we are in...
A Buddy of mine used to run a summoner who drew creatures from "De Far Realms" into existence to to serve him in his summons. I am gonna try to get him to pop in and offer up some advice.
I think Leadership would be cool but thats cause its like one of my favorite feats
I think Frostburn has a feat that gives your summoned critters extra cold damage and such.
Maybe start taking some Extra Turning feats so you can eventually take Quicken Spell and Divine Metamagic (Quicken Spell) so you can get some Quickened summonings done at higher levels. I forget if you can Quicken a spell with a Full Round casting time; you might need Rapid Spell if you can't.
You could try to go into the abberant heritage feats from Lords of Madness
You could try to go into the abberant heritage feats from Lords of Madness
Yeah I looked at those, but it is definately an investment. Most of them are based on how many of the feats you have and you really need 4 or more to make the benefits nice. I mean Darkvision out to 5ft per feat isn't very helpful IMHO. But they are on my list of options still.
I think Frostburn has a feat that gives your summoned critters extra cold damage and such.
Maybe start taking some Extra Turning feats so you can eventually take Quicken Spell and Divine Metamagic (Quicken Spell) so you can get some Quickened summonings done at higher levels. I forget if you can Quicken a spell with a Full Round casting time; you might need Rapid Spell if you can't.
My Frostburn book should show up any day so I'll take a look. The creatures I summon are suppossed to be from the far realm so I'm not sure cold works. But then again if you think of it as a place kind of like the cold reaches of space then it might work, but its a little of a stretch.
Yeah Extra Turning and then another metamagic feat (Rapid, Empower, Maximize are all options) then Divine Metamagic to go with it was considered as well.
I'm not sure I'm going for uber summoner as much as things that add extra flavor to the character while still being somewhat useful.
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You may want to look at Complete Mage, there's a metamagic feat that allows you to 'cast' a 3rd level spell (or lower) on a creature that you summon, as you summon it. You summon it, and it gains the benefit of any one of your 3rd level or lower spells upon being summoned. It doesn't make the summoning spell higher level, it just expends the spell you cast on it. Imbued summmoning i think was the name of it.
I have a summoner as one of my characters, and he uses it to regularly summon leskylors with displacement. :)
You may want to look at Complete Mage, there's a metamagic feat that allows you to 'cast' a 3rd level spell (or lower) on a creature that you summon, as you summon it. You summon it, and it gains the benefit of any one of your 3rd level or lower spells upon being summoned. It doesn't make the summoning spell higher level, it just expends the spell you cast on it. Imbued summmoning i think was the name of it.
I have a summoner as one of my characters, and he uses it to regularly summon leskylors with displacement. :)
Yeah I've been looking at that one too. I think it's from PHII though. I think it works better for wizards or sorcerers since they have better buff spells. As a Cleric I'm not sure I have as many spells that would be benificial to add. I'll have to look through my spell like again.
Imbue Silence on your Summon, and have it go after the enemy spellcaster ;)
Imbue Silence on your Summon, and have it grapple the enemy spellcaster!
That is just cruel...Imbue Silence on your Summon, and have it go after the enemy spellcaster ;)Imbue Silence on your Summon, and have it grapple the enemy spellcaster!
Can you imbue creations, like black tentacles??? Or just summonings?
Imbue Silence on your Summon, and have it go after the enemy spellcaster ;)
Sadly after reading the feat again it only allows you to apply spell with a range of touch so Silence can't be added. Looking through my spell options, it looks like Shield of Faith and Aid are the main spells from the PHB that can be added. If you take into account the Spell Compendium book it adds a couple of more spells like maybe adding vigor so you summoned creature gains fast healing. Still not sure if it's worth it.
If you're a divine spellcaster who likes summoning, I would think that the Mystic Theurge (5-level PrC, DMG) would be right up your alley. A Malconvoker (9-level PrC, C.Scoundrel) would also be viable.
One can also put together a slightly scary summoner build with Cleric/Thaumaturge/Malconvoker, plus the feats which the others have named already.
Someone obssessed with the Far Realms, eh? That almost begs for the Alienist Prestige Class. And/or the 3.5 Pseudonatural Template!
I actually had a cult in one of my homebrew campaigns that I NEVER got to finish.... :( They worshipped a horrible, blind gargantuan worm-like being from the far realms, and at the climax of the adventure the PCs would be present as the creature was drawn to our plane, and would have to fight it and several cultists (mostly rogues). The creature could "bestow" the pseudonatural template on its followers with a simple touch. God, it would have been cool to see the looks on their faces as the simple cultists mutated and grew in power right before their eyes...
Someone obssessed with the Far Realms, eh? That almost begs for the Alienist Prestige Class. And/or the 3.5 Pseudonatural Template!
I actually had a cult in one of my homebrew campaigns that I NEVER got to finish.... :( They worshipped a horrible, blind gargantuan worm-like being from the far realms, and at the climax of the adventure the PCs would be present as the creature was drawn to our plane, and would have to fight it and several cultists (mostly rogues). The creature could "bestow" the pseudonatural template on its followers with a simple touch. God, it would have been cool to see the looks on their faces as the simple cultists mutated and grew in power right before their eyes...
The Alienist PrC was orginarly what gave me my concept and I had always planned to go into it. IT's a lack luster PrC as written and I have a thread on here about some changes I wanted to make to it. The problem is that since I already summon aberrations the pseudo template seems a little uneeded. Granted I guess a psuedo aberration would be one strange sight to see. It's still early enough in the game to have to decide but going straight Cleric the whole way almost seemed easier with roughly the same affect if I choose the right feats. Still on the fence about the whole thing I guess.
It's not THAT weak. If taken, you could use your feats on OTHER things...IIRC, it gives full caster level progression, too. I think it's cool flavor-wise. What changes were you recommending earlier? I'm curious.
It's not THAT weak. If taken, you could use your feats on OTHER things...IIRC, it gives full caster level progression, too. I think it's cool flavor-wise. What changes were you recommending earlier? I'm curious.
I made it more to suit my character concept. Here's the thread.
http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/community/gaming/dnd/archives/alienist PrCFromCOmpleteArcane
I'm not computer savey so I couldn't make a real ink. ;)
It's not THAT weak. If taken, you could use your feats on OTHER things...IIRC, it gives full caster level progression, too. I think it's cool flavor-wise. What changes were you recommending earlier? I'm curious.I made it more to suit my character concept. Here's the thread.
http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/community/gaming/dnd/archives/alienist PrCFromCOmpleteArcane
I'm not computer savey so I couldn't make a real ink. ;)
That seems balanced, I would definitely allow that in my campaigns. I was thinking it might also be cool if, at 10th level as a nice little cap, the alienist would acquire the pseudonatural template with no level adjustment. Whattaya think?
P.S. I'm not computer savvy either, I also don't know how to make a real link! ;)
That seems balanced, I would definitely allow that in my campaigns. I was thinking it might also be cool if, at 10th level as a nice little cap, the alienist would acquire the pseudonatural template with no level adjustment. Whattaya think?P.S. I'm not computer savvy either, I also don't know how to make a real link! ;)
That would be nice but not sure if that would unbalance the PrC at that point. I would have to look at the template benefits again and how other PrCs handle adding templates when they reach 10th level. It would be interesting visually.
Well I think I have finally decided. I'm going to pick up Cloudly Conjuration at 3rd. When I hit 6th level I'll switch to my modified ALienist PrC. Also at that level I will pick up Leadership and a Umberhulk cohort (it will be level 4 per the Umberhulk level progression in Savage Species). It will be a gift from my god as I have committed more to him by taking the PrC. That will keep me set for a while. Still not sure what to do for feats after that as of yet. I think I'll see which way the campaign goes and the character players out. If I end up using my summoning to summon multiple creatures from lower lists a lot then Empower spell of Maximize spell might be good (either the regular versions or the Sudden versions). I have a long time before I get there to decide.
For those interested here is what my first two levels of Summon Monster list looks like.
Summon Monster I
Anarchic Abroa (from Fantasy Bestiary)
Anarchic Neogi Spawn (Monster Manual II)
Anarchic War Worm (Dungeon Denizens)
Summon Monster II
Anarchic Broodling Kython (Book of Vile Darkness)
Anarchic Goblin Snake (Patherfinder #1)
Anarchic Howler Wasp (Monster Manual IV)
I think Frostburn has a feat that gives your summoned critters extra cold damage and such.
Maybe start taking some Extra Turning feats so you can eventually take Quicken Spell and Divine Metamagic (Quicken Spell) so you can get some Quickened summonings done at higher levels. I forget if you can Quicken a spell with a Full Round casting time; you might need Rapid Spell if you can't.
Ok I just got my Frostburn book in the mail. The feat is called Beckon the Frozen. What I can't understand is why everyone wouldn't take it because there is little drawbacks. Here is the feat description.
Beckon the Frozen: When you summon a creature or creatures using any summon spell, you can opt to summon a version of the creature from an extraplanar frostfell. If you do so, the summoned creature gains the cold subtype, and its ntural attacks deal an additional 1d6 points of cold damage. Creatures with the fire subtype can never be enhanced with the cold subtype in this manner.
If I read this right anything I summon gets the cold subtype and does an extra 1d6 of cold damage. I can choose not to do at the time of casting if I want. So I cold summon an Anarchic War Worm which would be a tiny abberration with the outsider and cold subtypes and it would do an additional 1d6 of cold damage. The only reason I could see not to add this feat is if you are fighting something that uses fire which would do an additional 50% damage to it.
To me it sort of fits my concept since I picture the far realm as a crazy chaotic everchanging void of space, so cold type is not a far stretch. Am I thinking about this right?