Regarding your first statement: please judge the fights themselves.
My position is that a summoner requires more effort of a party.
I apologize. I wasn't trying to corner you on a judgment of the Summoner. From what I have seen, the combats are usually determined by die rolls (luck) and setup (both in builds, and maps).
If that is a fair statement, that would suggest (but not necessarily prove) that the Summoner and party are roughly equal in power.
And as far as effort, Pathfinder may have changed things (I have not yet seen their Bestiary critters in play), but the same could have been said about 3.5 critters in the same CR range. Some took more effort than others.
I went through a lot of variations with the eidolons, here are some conclusions:
Tentacles: your eidolon loves tentacles!
I really want some better rules on the reach part of size increases to an eidolon.
Go large! A bigger eidolon is a better eidolon.
Arms and simple weapons are almost as good as tentacles. Especially if you have more of them.
Separate initiative counts make it harder for the party.
High UMD + wand of cure xxx wounds + offensive eidolon, this could be very dangerous and will likely outperform the fighter.
Ok, i think we have the Summoner vs. Party situation pretty much covered,
i would like to see how the summoner fares, when working with the party. in our fights he was pretty much reduced to casting walls of fire. i think that will change a lot when he has other meat shields in addition to the eidolon and more allies to buff.
Things to analyse in this situation:
- does he outshine the other characters?
- is he just boring suppert with an attached pseudo meatshield or do the two roles mix well
- do the summoners actions take up a lot more time to manage ( esp. if he has summons on the field) than the other characters.