I'm planning on making a synthesist for PFS. Having never done so, does anyone have any advice as far as evolutions and feats? Also, is it better to use a weapon(s) or natural attacks? Thanks!
Biped so you can still cast spells. Things that upgrade strength, give tripping abilities, increase your size, increase your reach, and/or give you extra arms/attacks are good evolutions. I suggest ability increase strength and the bite evolution. Also considered racial skill focus for significant skills such perception, sense motive, etc. A half elf has a racial favored class bonus alternative 1/4 evolution points per level. Also if you want to deal good damage I suggest going natural attacks then weapons. However remember you can do both with your synthesist. Another thing to keep in mind is that a lot of your ac's stack.
How would a base form stop you from casting? It's dependent on whether you have arms or not I believe. I was thinking quadruped for pounce craziness.
How would a base form stop you from casting? It's dependent on whether you have arms or not I believe. I was thinking quadruped for pounce craziness.
You're right in the sense it requires arms. the Quadraped doesn't have arms and has two less strength. That and they don't gain the benefit of reach when it comes to increased size.
Ah I see what you mean now. Is it more effective to go large size with natural weapons then? Or would swinging a large size greatsword be a better option?
One of the players in my Kingmaker campaign is playing a synthesist. He plays a quadruped. For a while, he took the arms evolution so that he could cast his self-heal spells. Eventually, I made a homebrew feat that allowed him to bypass the somatic component while fused, much like the feat that Druids can take to do the same thing while wild shaped. You might discuss this with your DM, as you give up a feat to do so.
Reach is nice, but the ability to take pounce as a 1 point evolution has been a big difference for him. The ability to charge and make a full attack can be very useful, especially as your strength increases and you multiple smaller attacks start doing more damage.
The players recently leveled to 9 and he's made some changes, but prior to that, for levels 7 and 8, he had the following evolutions:
1 point - Pounce, Improved Natural Armor, Claws (legs), Improved Damage (claws), rend
2 point - Improved Attribute (str) and Energy Attacks (fire).
He could honestly drop Improved Attribute and Rend and have 3 more points. He takes a lot of damage, has a very impressive AC, and, during the recent Kingmaker module we finished, did a lot of damage.
I've had to change tactics to accommodate for his character. Even if your DM didn't allow you to take a feat to bypass the somatic requirement of your spells, you could take the arms evolution, add claws to those limbs as well, and have 5 natural attacks (bite, arm claws, leg claws).
The biped is nice, for sure, but after seeing the quadruped in action, both before and after my homebrew feat, I was quite impressed...especially with pounce. That's been big in a lot of fights.
One of the players in my Kingmaker campaign is playing a synthesist. He plays a quadruped. For a while, he took the arms evolution so that he could cast his self-heal spells. Eventually, I made a homebrew feat that allowed him to bypass the somatic component while fused, much like the feat that Druids can take to do the same thing while wild shaped. You might discuss this with your DM, as you give up a feat to do so.
Reach is nice, but the ability to take pounce as a 1 point evolution has been a big difference for him. The ability to charge and make a full attack can be very useful, especially as your strength increases and you multiple smaller attacks start doing more damage.
The players recently leveled to 9 and he's made some changes, but prior to that, for levels 7 and 8, he had the following evolutions:
1 point - Pounce, Improved Natural Armor, Claws (legs), Improved Damage (claws), rend
2 point - Improved Attribute (str) and Energy Attacks (fire).He could honestly drop Improved Attribute and Rend and have 3 more points. He takes a lot of damage, has a very impressive AC, and, during the recent Kingmaker module we finished, did a lot of damage.
I've had to change tactics to accommodate for his character. Even if your DM didn't allow you to take a feat to bypass the somatic requirement of your spells, you could take the arms evolution, add claws to those limbs as well, and have 5 natural attacks (bite, arm claws, leg claws).
The biped is nice, for sure, but after seeing the quadruped in action, both before and after my homebrew feat, I was quite impressed...especially with pounce. That's been big in a lot of fights.
pounce isn't really that required if your reach is 15 feet though if not 20. Considering that he could be spending points in other places then catching up on arms and strength. Besides having reach helps you generate more attacks.
Ah I see what you mean now. Is it more effective to go large size with natural weapons then? Or would swinging a large size greatsword be a better option?
Natural weapons 1d4+STRx2 over 2d6+STR that and it gives you access to rend and damage bonuses basically double. That and you need an evolution to grab a weapon which you could be buying bite. You should eventually grab weapons, just not early game.
I decided to go regular summoner, as I'm playing PFS and synthesist will most likely confuse and outmatch many other characters.
I decided to go regular summoner, as I'm playing PFS and synthesist will most likely confuse and outmatch many other characters.
Pardon me while I laugh hysterically in this corner here.
I decided to go regular summoner, as I'm playing PFS and synthesist will most likely confuse and outmatch many other characters.Pardon me while I laugh hysterically in this corner here.
I agree with tark the regular summoner is better.
Haha I know it is, but if its two separate entities, than people have a harder time complaining. With a single entity, new players especially can see it as over powered. Divide and conquer and all that.
Haha I know it is, but if its two separate entities, than people have a harder time complaining. With a single entity, new players especially can see it as over powered. Divide and conquer and all that.
Play a british master summoner with improved init. reaction trait, and superior summons. At level three you can summon riding dogs and really let the hounds out.
pounce isn't really that required if your reach is 15 feet though if not 20. Considering that he could be spending points in other places then catching up on arms and strength. Besides having reach helps you generate more attacks.
May be. I can't speak to that because I haven't seen a biped synthesist in action. I CAN speak to how effective his has been. Although not optimized to squeeze every last bit of juice out of it, the character has been more than effective as a member of 15 point buy, 5 player group facing a majority of the Kingmaker 6 player conversion found elsewhere on this message board.
He asked for advice, I gave it based on my experience as a DM dealing with a Synthesist through 3 modules and almost 10 levels. He was free to do with it as he pleased. But hey, he's going with a normal summoner, so best of luck to him. I'd like to see one in action.
Nope, while it should happen soon, Summon Nature's ally got the dog errata and summon monster has not. Summoning riding dogs is still insane through level 7, where you start flooding with lantern archons.
It was done on the most recent errata, from last week.
At least my latest copy (V5) of the core rules has dogs for both summon monster and summon natures ally.