Today (finally) I playtested the summoner and the witch. The group was composed of: Elf summoner5, Human witch5, Half-orc cavalier5, Half-elf oracle5, and a halfling rogue4wiz1.
The summoner had an angel-like eidolon with wings, energy attack, increased strength and int. Used a +1 greatsword(via feats) and leather armor. The player like most of the class, but didn't like the fact the the class has only 2 skills/lvl and none social skills. He bought it cross-class anyway (although pissed).
The witch had the classical black cat, and she chose the charm and evil eye hexes. The player was pleased with the class.
I was DMing.
I won't go in detail about the others.
At the start, I placed some social challenges in a village and the cavalier was the one to rule in that. The summoner tried but was not comparable to the cavalier. The witch charm hex went very useful and she had a lot of fun using it.
Later, I placed some scouting/spying. Needless to say that the big winged creature of the summoner was not very efficient for the job. The rogue and his monkey familiar did the task perfectly.
Then finally, some combat. Two Basilisks against the party. The rogue got petrified right away the cavalier mount was unlucky and became stone too. The witch did some good damage with lightning bolt, and the cavalier dropped from the mount and charged at one basilisk, challenging it. The summoner buffed the eidolon that charged as well.
The battle didn't last long. The Cavalier and the witch did most of the damage. The oracle healed them after the fight.
Another battle: some gargoyles. Mostly just the eidolon fought them, but had to get back a couple of times for healing. The others used ranged attacks. (the witch was out of lightning). The summoner tried a couple of lantern archons, but their attacks didn't hit a lot an the damage was negligible.
Some traps and puzzles: rogue job. The witch had some good knowledge skills that were useful.
Final battle: An evil cavalier and black dragon wyrmlings. The cavaliers challenged each other and charged. the wymlings swarmed the place, attacking everyone. The summoner tried the summon SLA but was interrupted by the dragons. The rogue just walked around flanking and dealing lots of damage. The eidolon did fine protecting the casters from the heavy damage. The witch gave the edge to our cavlier with evil eye on the other. The oracle did some buffing and healing.
The battle ended with the summoner and the cavalier heavily damaged, but alive.
Conclusions:
Summoner: The player liked the mechanics and flavor of the class. His own character was a bit weak, but he didn't expect otherwise. He hated the skill selection and lack of skills (I must agree with him). He also didn't like the fact that he was unable to do an int or cha based eidolon. He was really amused designing his eidolon.
I din't had any trouble handling the summoner in the game. His summons didn't influence the encounters more than any other spell. His spells were most to support, and his eidolon had considerable power, but not as useful or powerful as the rogue and the cavalier. Flying helped a lot though.
Witch: Lots of fun! She had only two hexes but they were very useful. the spell list is good and flavor too. The familiar tough, made the player fearful, and she suggested that a witch's familiar should be able to talk to anyone.
I didn't have any trouble with the witch, her damaging power vanished quickly but she kept the hexes. I would suggest some alternatives for the witch's familiar. It should a bit weirder that the normal(I liked the talking idea) and a bit tougher.
Nice job. The more I see summoner playtests, the more I am in agreement that the number of skillpoints needs to be increased. . Having more skillpoints to take advantage of all the knowledge skills would be helpful, and go a long way towards giving the class something to fall back on if the eidolon is temporarily unavailable. At first I disagreed that social skills were needed, but on second thought, a charismatic person who specializes in getting others to fight for them would logically use all tools available to him to do so; therefore, I would have to agree that diplomacy (but probably not any of the others) should be a class skill.
Summoner: The player liked the mechanics and flavor of the class. His own character was a bit weak, but he didn't expect otherwise. He hated the skill selection and lack of skills (I must agree with him). He also didn't like the fact that he was unable to do an int or cha based eidolon. He was really amused designing his eidolon.
I din't had any trouble handling the summoner in the game. His summons didn't influence the encounters more than any other spell. His spells were most to support, and his eidolon had considerable power, but not as useful or powerful as the rogue and the cavalier. Flying helped a lot though.
I agree with this from playtesting myself, and I think most people will build monsters, and they really are pretty balanced, its when the eidolon gets min/maxed with alot of gear and armor that it can get too much, luckily Jason has said he's addressing eidolon gear issues.
I really like the Summon Monster SLA after play, though feel they should be limited to remove nova potential, like maybe having only having a number equal to your Cha mod going, or just a max of three or something, in those numbers, even with the eidolon and good player can keep the game moving sweetly, and even a novice gets a rhythm going quickly.