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Subject says it all, really. Has anybody else considered it? For roleplay purposes, I (and the other players in my group) are all taking Leadership in our Kingmaker game. In my case, I'm recruiting a family member to give a cushy position to in our fledgling government.
Considering we have no wizard (group composition is Human Fighter, Half-Orc Ranger, Gnome Sorcerer, Gnome Bard, Elf Cleric) and especially nobody interested in crafting, I figured relatively cheap access to custom magic items would be a boon to all of us.
The reason I want summoner is that I like the idea of a summoner/eidolon pair who focus their talents around a workshop, with the medium sized eidolon with the higher strength smithing the actual items, which the Gnome summoner then enchants.
Using 20-point buy, I can start with these stats:
Str 8-2
Dex 10
Con 12+2
Int 17
Wis 12
Cha 14+2
I put the level 4 bump into intelligence for 18 intelligence. Feats taken are Skill Focus (Spellcraft) at level 1, Magical Aptitude at level 3, and Craft Magical Arms and Armor at level 5, with other item creation feats following thereafter.
At level 5 (party will be level 7) his bonus to Spellcraft will be:
+4 Intelligence
+5 Ranks
+3 Trained Class Skill
+3 Skill Focus
+2 Magical Aptitude
+17 total should be plenty to reliably make some level appropriate items for the party.
The Eidolon will (as soon as it's able) take Master Craftsman, then Craft Wondrous Item, then Cooperative Crafting. With the Ability Increase and Skilled evolutions it could create magical items on its own, albeit limited to Wondrous Items and it wouldn't be as good as the Summoner. Or for the really difficult jobs, it could aid the summoner for +2 to his skill when they work as a team, also reducing the time needed by half.
Of course this is far from optimal for combat. The Eidolon would have some limited power, and the Summoner would be limited heavily by his unusual spell selection, which would be tailored toward crafting useful items.
When the pair do decide to leave the workshop, they'll definitely need to be cautious, but I'm curious what others think of the idea.
(Edit: I intend my eidolon to look similar to the Nu enemy from Chrono Trigger, possibly with 4 arms (evolution pool allowing))
I don't have the APG at my fingertips, but can an Eidolon be played as a humanoid crafting character? There's nothing wrong with using a Summoner with all the feats geared to crafting, but I seriously doubt the GM is going to let you use the Eidolon, even Skilled, as a cohort-to-a-cohort, so to speak.
I would drop the Summoner as a crafter, just because a pure Wizard is going to have a spellbook with all the 0-level spells to begin with, and be able to change out his spells daily for different crafts - Wands, Wondrous Items, or Arms & Armor. An Universalist would be ideal for crafting, but a Transmuter is quite acceptable (choose your opposition schools wisely). A Wizard gets Scribe Scroll for free, so if you keep him buried in parchments and ink he has something to do on his "off day".
Don't forget a crafter's bread-and-butter is time and gold pieces. So you're going to need a stable base of operations to set up the forge & crafting building. One craft skill should be Bowmaking or Jewelry, with Armorsmith or Weaponsmith for the other, just to keep the GM happy and make sure you don't have the usual "rent-a-crafter" problems with coming up with the raw materials. YOU should be taking Cooperative Crafting along with the most important Craft feat (Wondrous Items or MAA - your choice, buffs or damage) to shorten the time for crafting. Some of those higher utility/buffs (Helm of Teleporation) take months to craft, and your level is always going to be higher than your cohort's, so you are going to be the "primary" crafter most of the time.