Hmm...just noticed this. Not sure if others have mentioned it, or if it's a boon or actually overpowered - thoughts?
Celestial template (ditto Fiendish in essence):
"Smite evil 1/day as a swift action (adds Cha bonus to attack rolls and damage bonus equal to HD against evil foes; smite persists until target is dead or the celestial creature rests).
- So, the template uses the new Pathfinder version of Smite, which of course makes sense. Only, the new Smite is a great deal more powerful than the old - all the more so for a Summons, which will likely be smiting until it vanishes.
Examples, more or less off the top of my head:
(1) Celestial Giant Octopus (Summon Monster 6): normally the octo gets a bite at +13 (1d8+5+poison) and eight tentacles at +11 (1d4+2+grab+constrict, reach 20). Smite won't boost the attack, but the damage goes through the roof - 1d8+17 for the bite, 1d4+14 for each of eight tentacles. Constrict damage is "usually equal to the creature's melee attack", and is normally 1d4+2, so presumably that also goes up to 1d4+14, until the foe dies.
For an Augmented summons, that's 1d8+19 and 8x 1d4+16, plus constricts.
(note that the Octopus has a land speed of 20; it has to hold its breath fighting ashore, but it has the Con to do that for a combat; especially if the summoner has Augment Summons)
(2) Improved Familiar Celestial Hawk: using the d20pfsrd stats (since the PF Bestiary doesn't have it yet), the hawk gets two talons at +5, for a measly 1d4-2 each. However, a familiar uses its owners hit dice "For the purpose of effects related to the number of hit dice". So at 3rd level (the lowest possible for the celestial hawk) the bird can smite at +5/+5 (1d4+1). By 10th it's doing 1d4+8 until the evil target falls. Interesting, but not as uber as the octopus.
(3) the Summoner...well, I haven't really looked into the Summoner, but I imagine this could be put to some use with the longer-term summons.
Of course, you might have to *tell* the octopus what to smite, which probably requires some expenditure of resources...still, it's a punchy upgrade to have it smiting right through a fight.
Overpowered, or just tasty?
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Yeah, good and evil really mess each other up these days.
It's powerful but not too game breaking. I'm not 100% sure if you can summon an octopus on land, even though it has a base move speed. There was some rule somewhere that what you summoned had to be able to survive, so no aquatic types on land. Not sure if that was Pathfinder, D&D 3.5, or just an FAQ somewhere though.
6th level spell, doesn't seem too powerful for something that can't attack someone under the affects of protection from good/evil and is dispel-able.
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The fun part is that celestial and fiendish animals can't smite each other, since the celestial and fiendish templates no longer change the animals alignment from neutral.
"What? It's a *nice* fiendish octopus, Mr. Paladin. It can smite you with the power of the Hell I called it from, but you can't smite it!"
Well, it's just once per day. Generally I have the summoned creature use the smite on the first enemy it sees, and then proceed normally. Unless the caster uses Speak with Animals, there really isn't a way to tell the creature to hold the smite.
Sure, but once per day is all you need for a one-fight summons.
No need to tell it to 'hold' the Smite, either: it persists until the smitee is dead or the summons 'rests' - which in the case of a summons, means vanishes. A Paladin doesn't lose his smite if he attacks someone else, does he?
So you only need to speak with the animal once, at most. Since it attacks to the best of its ability as per the spell, it's likely to try the smite straight off. If the target's evil/good, it's taking a fight-worth of smiting.
Other examples:
Summon Monster I: eagle goes from 1d4x3 to 1d4+1 x3 for combat: +3 damage per round
III: leopard goes from 1d6+3/1d3+3 x4 to 1d6+6/1d3+6 x4: +15 damage
IV: lion goes from 1d8+5/1d4+5 x4 to 1d8+10/1d4+10 x4: +25 damage
V: dire lion goes from 1d8+7/1d6+7 x4 to 1d8+15/1d6+15 x4: +40 damage
VI: giant octopus, as above, +108 damage per round, not including constriction
I dunno, seems pretty punchy to me, particularly for a druid (who can more easily direct animals) or a summoner. Non?
(I like the Paladin-smiting octopus)
On summoning octopodes/pi on land; separate discussion, but the octopus can survive on land, for a while anyway; it's not the same as summoning a rhino in midair - still useful, I suppose, if you're DMing and want to nerf it.
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No need to tell it to 'hold' the Smite, either: it persists until the smitee is dead or the summons 'rests' - which in the case of a summons, means vanishes. A Paladin doesn't lose his smite if he attacks someone else, does he?
Smite Evil effects only a single target, so if it is used on a minor flunky between the bad-guy and the party, it's pretty much wasted.
I dunno, seems pretty punchy to me, particularly for a druid (who can more easily direct animals) or a summoner. Non?
Druids don't get to add the celestial or fiendish template to their summons, so it's a moot point for them.
Summoner's do get the option to summon Celestial / Fiendish critters, but they don't have any special ability to communicate with their critters either, other than by Handle Animal, and there really isn't a 'Trick' for 'Don't Smite yet! Save it for the Lich!'
Aha, that kind of 'hold'. Yes, that's true.
Not such a major expenditure or loss to spend a summonses' Smite on a flunky, though. Particularly if you've a pack of smiting leopards to hand (1d4+1 of them at SM5, each doing +15 damage on their raking charges, +9 damage each each round thereafter...that's a whole lot of dead evil flunkies not to worry about)
Druids: of course; my mistake.
It's still a lot of extra damage over a combat, however you cut it. Obviously situational compared to the damage bonus from Augment Summons, but greater even for the SM1 eagle - far greater by the time you get to SM3, and in a different time zone thereafter. And AS is a top-notch feat.
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Summoner's do get the option to summon Celestial / Fiendish critters, but they don't have any special ability to communicate with their critters either, other than by Handle Animal, and there really isn't a 'Trick' for 'Don't Smite yet! Save it for the Lich!'
The great thing about the Summoner is that they can summon the creature 3 + cha mod times per day. This means that in a multi-enemy battle the Summoner can summon a monster, it smites, keeps killing it's target. When it's dead and the Lich is still there, he can summon another (dismissing the first as a result) with a fresh smite.
Alternatively he could just summon the monster close to the Lich and have it wail away there first.