Melee Summoner and his Flank Buddy

[KaptainKrunch]

Now I'm just theorizing here, trying to make optimal builds that are a little... shall we say... Unconventional.

I'm sure someone has tried this before though, hence the reason I'm posting here to see if I can get any recommendations on this.

But the Summoner's main feature is his Eidolon. He can cast, sure, but he's more like a bard in this way, and plenty of Treantmonks out there suggest putting casting as a secondary feature for the Bard while focusing on something else...

And I suppose I could just take the Melee Bard from his guide and apply that to the Summoner, but could there be more to what a Summoner could do as a Melee Summoner?

Obviously I'd have to take a hit to Charisma and focus on buff spells (Get Enlarge Person, Haste, etc.) Probably go with a 14 or lower CHA and leave it there for Tomes to make up the rest. Make the highest stat be STR, maybe dump Wisdom and even Intelligence...

What are your thoughts on this? Specifically are there any feats you would especially recommend for the Melee Summoner?

[Marthian]

There was a summoner guide on Giantip I believ that had a variety of builds. One of them was a dragon mount melee character, where the summoner rides the eidolon and charges with a lance.

My summoner has a 17 str and he's going into combat stabbing things with a lance at 10 hp and decent ac at level 1.

[KaptainKrunch]

Hmm... A mounted summoner is definitely interesting.

I'm kind of looking at things right now though and I discovered the Team Work feats that could work great...

If you both take Precise Strike, you're both doing an extra 1d6 damage against targets that are affected by precision damage.

And the Flank teamwork feat increases the Flank Bonus to +4.

Not too bad by itself, and both you and the Eidolon can take the feats pretty easily. I'm going to look into the implications of a level dip into Rogue too... Isn't there a feat that allows the Eidolon to continue progression for up to 4 levels of a multiclass dip or something?

[ShadowcatX]

KaptainKrunch wrote:

But the Summoner's main feature is his Eidolon. He can cast, sure, but he's more like a bard in this way,

This is extremely incorrect. The bard gets support spells that help win fights, the summoner gets spells that ends fights.

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and plenty of Treantmonks out there suggest putting casting as a secondary feature for the Bard while focusing on something else...

And I suppose I could just take the Melee Bard from his guide and apply that to the Summoner, but could there be more to what a Summoner could do as a Melee Summoner?

Yes, because a bard can be good at multiple things, like skills or melee. After all, its much easy to melee when you know for a fact that you'll have inspire courage up whenever you need it. A melee summoner will be a poor melee combatant compared to a bard. After all, summoner gets 0 abilities to make him better as a melee combatant.

The best melee summoner is the synthesist, but since you want your flank buddy that doesn't really sound optimal for you.

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Obviously I'd have to take a hit to Charisma and focus on buff spells (Get Enlarge Person, Haste, etc.) Probably go with a 14 or lower CHA and leave it there for Tomes to make up the rest. Make the highest stat be STR, maybe dump Wisdom and even Intelligence...

What are your thoughts on this? Specifically are there any feats you would especially recommend for the Melee Summoner?

If I was going to do this, I wouldn't go the melee damage route, think about melee control instead. Look up treantmonk's guide to bards and look at his crowd controller, brandishing about a whip for trips and disarms and dazzling display. I'd go that route.

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Not too bad by itself, and both you and the Eidolon can take the feats pretty easily. I'm going to look into the implications of a level dip into Rogue too... Isn't there a feat that allows the Eidolon to continue progression for up to 4 levels of a multiclass dip or something?

Nope. That feat specifically only includes animal companions and familiars.

IF you do go mounted combat that'll eat up your low level feats, once you get to having free feats, look into the eldritch heritage (orc bloodline). Its great for high charisma meleers.