Help! Making a level 2 character for Carrion Crown. Master Summoner or Paladin / Oracle?


Carrion Crown

Lantern Lodge

Hi all, I need some help making a character for a Carrion Crown game.

We start at lv 2 and a 20 point buy.
Game setting is shifted from Golarion to 3.5's Eberron, but the story is about the same. We can use 3.5's Eberron materials, pending DM's ruling.

I am thinking about making a Gnome Master Summoner or a Human Paladin/Oracle. While I am fairly certain I can get my Paladin right, I am kinda worry about making a Master Summoner.

Given that we start at lv 2, is a Master Summoner viable at low levels?
Should I multi-class into say Oracle of Lore?

Any Advice and Suggestions is greatly appreciated. Thanks!


Master summoner is decent at level 2. You have your Eidolon, who is still relevant, and one summon. Probably a dog or bird.

At level 3, you'll have 1d4 birds. Something like 9 times per day.

Master Summoner is quite possibly the most powerful class in the game.

Lantern Lodge

Humm.... I think my worry comes from the fact the Master Summoners looks so... fragile.

I was thinking about getting a level in Oracle of Lore at my 4th level, for the Mastery that allows me to use my Cha in place of Dex. Viable?

Also Carrion Crown's title/cover suggests there is a lot of ghosts/undead in the adventure. Can a Master Summoner survive in such an adventure? Won't my summons have a hard time fighting undead?


Stay in back as a master summoner. Focus on wands and such, with a high UMD. Use battlefield control spells like Grease and Create Pit.

If you are a Good aligned dude, you can summon Celestial creatures, which all have Smite Evil.

An Empyreal Knight can do a little bit of summoning as well.

They give up quite a bit for it, but eventually turn into an Angel.

And for what it's worth, the designer of the Empyreal Knight originally gave the language for free, not at the cost of Divine Grace. Divine Grace was meant to be in, but the editors changed that for some reason.

Lantern Lodge

Cheapy wrote:
Stay in back as a master summoner.

Humm.... I guess I am still kinda traumatized by the game where my Gnome Sorcerer was strangled and gagged from behind.

BTW, given that animal summons does not understand languages, does that mean that if I can't get them to say... do non-lethal damage to a enemy/npc?

Do I have to use the handle animal skill to control summoned animals in battle?

And what is anyone's take on multi-classing for a Master Summoner? Viable? or deathtrap ideal?

Sorry if this starts to feel like a how to play a summoner thread!
I guess I want a solid suggestion on which of the 2 classes I should play in an adventure path like Carrion Crown.
And Thanks in advance for any ideals!


Go with the Master Summoner...and unless your GM insists for the purposes of completeness (which I totally understand), don't even bother statting out your eidolon, as you will never summon it. Why would you? By leaving your eidolon wherever it is that you found him, you can continue to do what a Master Summoner excels at: Flooding the battlefield with disposable fodder. I know the creatures on the Summon 1 list seem like weak tea, but just remember that you can summon ALOT of them, and that you only have to survive one more level before you start being able to summon elementals...or even more of the things from the Summon 1 list. You get Augment Summon for free, so you should take Superior Summon at the earliest opportunity.

Trust me, a Master Summoner is frightfully easy to play, if you don't mind the paperwork (prep your monsters in advance, your gaming group will thank you), and if you don't mind having longer turns than everyone else.

Lantern Lodge

Should there be anything else I should keep an eye out for? Other Feats, spells, or classes to multi-class into?


gnomes can speak with animals once per day as a race ability. i thin there is a way to crank this up somewhere, but that would let you direct your little animal minions however you desire.

Dark Archive

Cleric 1 isn't bad if you want to multi; your summon ability is a level behind, but sacred summons + your already-standard action summons let's you continually swarm the board with beasties. You also get 2 domain abilities and save benefits.

As to stats, you don't need more than 14 Cha as a summoner; make him an archer or support caster as you want, let the beasts do the work. Pump con and Dex pretty well, dump int and/or Str. You'll still be the most powerful character in the party (more likely than not).

The cleric 1 should not be taken till 8th btw; when you start standard-action summoning Summon Monster IV with a lesser meta magic empower wand (1, 3, or 4 lantern archons almost every time, btw).

Lantern Lodge

skrahen wrote:
gnomes can speak with animals once per day as a race ability. i thin there is a way to crank this up somewhere, but that would let you direct your little animal minions however you desire.

I remember now! Its call Extra Gnome Magic. It adds 3 more used of Gnome Magic abilities. Thanks!

Thalin wrote:
The cleric 1 should not be taken till 8th btw; when you start standard-action summoning Summon Monster IV with a lesser meta magic empower wand (1, 3, or 4 lantern archons almost every time, btw).

You can use a spell-like ability with Metamagic Rods??? I thought those only affect actual spells? Can you clarify?

Lantern Lodge

Thalin wrote:

Cleric 1 isn't bad if you want to multi; your summon ability is a level behind, but sacred summons + your already-standard action summons let's you continually swarm the board with beasties. You also get 2 domain abilities and save benefits.

As to stats, you don't need more than 14 Cha as a summoner; make him an archer or support caster as you want, let the beasts do the work. Pump con and Dex pretty well, dump int and/or Str. You'll still be the most powerful character in the party (more likely than not).

The cleric 1 should not be taken till 8th btw; when you start standard-action summoning Summon Monster IV with a lesser meta magic empower wand (1, 3, or 4 lantern archons almost every time, btw).

Sorry for the extra post.

I don't fully understand why Sacred Summons should be taken.
It only makes a summon a standard action, which for a summoner via his spell-like summon is already a standard action.

Are you talking about a normal summoner? Cos I am looking a Master summoner here...

Liberty's Edge

I've seen a large focus on the summoner on this board, so I decided to support the other option the OP asked about. Paladin/Oracle of Lore rocks this campaign. Sids-step secret allows you to do something I seldom ever recommend, dump dex. Sword & board, light armor and 18 charisma left my paladin oracle sporting a AC of 20 for the first adventure. The sticky wicket with this build is your choice for 1st level oracle spells. Choose what you really will use long term rather than what might help in the short term, otherwise you'll be stuck with spells you never use. The beastly part about this build is how usefull positive energy is throughout the entire campaign. Divine Servant Archetype allows for some extra spells from a domain as well as some unique abilities for your divine bond. Hospitaler adds separate pool for your channeling (so you don't burn 2 lay on hands for channeling), albeat at a 3 lvl loss equivalent. Divine bond from the divine servant can offset this loss by 1d6 so you still have a respectable channeler. Once you receive divine grace, you GM will hate you. +4 fort, +8 reflex, +4 Will, is exactly what you'll love about your character going forward. Just my 2 cents, but as I'm playing an Oracle of Lore 1/ Paladin 6 currently in the campaign I thought you'd like a little perspective on how fun it can be. Though, with the release of the ninja, i've been sorely tempted to dip for 2 levels to get Charisma based Ki for use with the really cool base ninja ki abilities (hello extra attack) and the Forgotten Trick. I'm probably not calling it the correct name, but essentially for 2 Ki points you'd get to use any basic ninja trick for a number of rounds equal to your Cha modifier. But to do that you'd lose out on 1 of the best abilities of this build, 1 per week greater planar ally with no cost.
Other feats great for this build
Greater Mercy - Target unaffected by your Mercy receives 1d6 extra healing
Ultimate Mercy - Raise Dead, with out the costly material components
Unsanctioned Knowledge - take advantage of really high DC
Quickend Channel
"?????"feat - Allows you to use a channel to use breath of Life.
Extra Revelation - Focused Trance - +20 to knowledge checks

Lantern Lodge

Thanks for the input Zephyre! I was thinking about the Paladin/Oracle build.

I am thinking Lamed for the curse and dropping dex to 7, and playing as an older paladin for flavor. Good saves and all make it a simple and viable build for RP.

Just one question, what is Divine Servant? I can't seem to find it... whose class archetype is this?

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