I'm going to be playing in Legacy of Fire and was thinking about playing a druid with a focus on summoning creatures, buffing spells, and terrain control. The APG comes out and the Dm for the adventure path recommends I take a look at the summoner. At first glance it sounds cool enough but, when I started to dig a little closer I find something missing. As I see it the Eidolon is all there is. A summoner basically sicks it on whoever and then sits back and does nothing. yes at 7th you can just hold and an action and dispel but it seems like the actual character is not doing much. Help me understand.
Nothing too explain!
Yep, you either have a pet or some SLA summon monsters. The pet seems a better option but you're right, after you set him on something, you eat popcorn and drink cola.
I'd recommend playing either the Druid or a Wizard because you'll have better spell options and a class that is easy to role-play.
The part I can't explain about the summoner is why anyone would ever want to play a conjurer again. While it's true that conjurers can conjure up other things like cloudkills or walls of iron, the Pathfinder conjurer has summoner's charm as one of his specialist abilities. This grants him a permanent summon monster at 20th level — while the summoner effectively has that at 1st level with his eidolon.
My point is that a conjurer should be the best at conjuring monsters to assist him (though he might take a prestige class to further specialize in this.) The idea of a base class that is not only better at summoning, but even has a higher BAB and HD than a conjurer would seem to leave the conjurer in the dust.
(I previously suggested that the summoner be made psionic — but then I wondered who would ever play a metacreative psion then.)
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Sit back and do nothing? Don't be silly... you can still cast spells, and in fact quite a few of the really good ones (Grease, Glitterdust, Stinking Cloud, Haste etc). You even get Haste one level earlier than the Wizard! Heck, you could craft a wand of Haste for only 3000 gp and keep your party perma-hasted.
And if you're really bored and out of spell slots, use a crossbow. It's not much but, hey, it's like giving your eidolon one more attack. And making it yourself rather than letting the eidolon do it is just more fun. :)
You can ride the eidolon as well, especially if you are small. If you want to go with that, a halfling makes a fine mounted archer with his bonus to dex and cha. You also get bonuses to ac when you are near your eidolon later on, so it helps to not just let it do all the work.
If you want the extra evolution points, take the half elf favored class bonus and select a weapon with reach and use it as a shield. You know, a Shield with 3-7 attacks a round.
Of course you will be spending at least half your time outside of combat, and thats where your summoner, with his high charisma, will be good for something. Mythical beasts have a lot of trouble asking the villagers for information or schmoozing with the nobility.
What they said. I played a summoner. It was awesome. Be a face for the party. In combat, your spells are amazing. Make your party awesome and let the mortals have their "victory," so sayith Treantmonk.
The problem is that you are looking at the summoner like he is a wizard. He is not. He gets 3/4 BAB and d8 hit die. He is a compotent melee or ranged fighter if you build him that way. I recomend a spear for reach and taking arcane strike at first level. Then you manuever arround the battlefield with your eidolon being his flanking buddy. Combined with the many good buffs you have, there is enough for you to do.
Edit: like a bard, do not pump his charisma up. You don't need it for the saves and you wont run out of SLA or anything else you use it for. Str and Dex are important stats for you, and should be just as high or higher than your charisma. A 14 cha will get you through.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but...Can't the conjurer use his 20th level Summoner's Charm to have multiple monsters summoned at once? Isn't that distinct from the Eidolon, if not superior? And, isn't a Conjurer's other spellcasting generally superior?
Also, a Conjurer isn't always the best 'Summoner.' They're the best at casting conjuration spells, summoning is only a subset. Monsters aren't the only thing that can be conjured.
