I'm currently playing a level 2 Hobgoblin fighter based primarily around throwing axes. He's dead set on reestablishing his peoples former kingdom and plot willing he'll be 'manifesting' aspects of the Great Kahn (a hobgoblin God-king) in that he'll be taking Synergist levels. The fluff has the DM's ok but I'm having some mild difficulty crunching down feats and what I should have set up for when he makes this shift.
I intend to start throwing levels in Synergist in at 7.
He's sitting at:
STR - 17
DEX - 17
CON - 17
INT - 13
WIS - 11
CHA - 12
Feats are: Quickdraw, Two Weapon Fighting (DM allows it for the purpose of 'throwing' as well as melee), Combat Reflexes.
The Synergist aspects are going to be geared on using the Eidolon as armor, bonus HP and combat skill amplification. The idea is for him to remain Medium sized and gain evolutions condusive to him keeping his equipment. I'm not considering him as a legitimate spellcaster.
My main questions are:
With six levels of fighter to work with what feats should I be focusing on?
His STR/DEX/CON are going to take the Eidolon's, however is there a way to minimize the penalties I'd be incurring?
With physical stats like that, your actually going to experience a big drop at level 1 with the synthesist (I am assuming you mean the synthesist archetype for the summoner). Your ac will also take a likely significant drip, since your armor wont be valid anymore, you would be relying on your eidolons natural armor bonuses, which at 1st level isnt comparable to what a 7th level character ought to have.
You are going to be pretty unhappy with the lower physical stats from eidolon... bipedal has decent str, but without a few levels you wont be able to increase stats to "acceptable" levels.
You will also be rocking a 3/4 BAB when fused, so the 6 levels of fighter are a bit wasted as well... having said that, my standpoint is not a roleplay centric one and am not suggesting you should do anything else, just making you aware of what you are up against.
He still keeps his BAB for the 6 levels in fighter while fused. Not sure what you mean by wasted....
I'm aware that the game mechanic issues are going to be an issue until I get a few levels in. I'm looking at it as short term penalties for overall longterm bonuses in that I'll be getting more attacks, customizable resistances, modes of movement, etc. without taking up item slots. The extra HP and overall Evolutions to build off should compensate somewhat seeing as it's effectively 1d8+CON + d10+CON / level.
I'll look into that, the party is a bit alchemist heavy (2 atm) but they do look versatile. I'll admit I'm a bit biased/set on the Synergist as it'll mesh well with the RP aspects I'm trying to set in motion. But if it'll completely cripple the character I'll seriously reconsider.
I may ask the DM if some additional spellcasting penalties might be in store for tweeking the rules on edilons (using the Summoner's PHYs stats).
New question:
Would dropping the ability to cast spells OR limit the summons/day feasibly be a balance for this? While keeping the spellcraft/UMD class skill?
What sort of limitations would warrant the trade off?
He still keeps his BAB for the 6 levels in fighter while fused. Not sure what you mean by wasted....You are going to be pretty unhappy with the lower physical stats from eidolon... bipedal has decent str, but without a few levels you wont be able to increase stats to "acceptable" levels.
You will also be rocking a 3/4 BAB when fused, so the 6 levels of fighter are a bit wasted as well... having said that, my standpoint is not a roleplay centric one and am not suggesting you should do anything else, just making you aware of what you are up against.
What he means is this
While fused with his eidolon, the synthesist uses the eidolon's physical ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution), but retains his own mental ability scores (Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma). The synthesist gains the eidolon's hit points as temporary hit points. When these hit points reach 0, the eidolon is sent back to its home plane. The synthesist uses the eidolon's base attack bonus, and gains the eidolon's armor and natural armor bonuses and modifiers to ability scores. The synthesist also gains access to the eidolon's special abilities and the eidolon's evolutions. The synthesist is still limited to the eidolon's maximum number of natural attacks. The eidolon has no skills or feats of its own. The eidolon must be at least the same size as the synthesist.
The synthesist is an attrocious mutliclasser. At 7th level you will have a base attack bonus of 1 when fused. This might well shut off several feats that have a bab requirement, reduce the effectiveness of feats like power attack, and cuts out a big chunk of what you get from your fighter. Seriously OP, dont do this. There are better ways to represent this theme that dont cripple your character. Particularly if 3rd party material is available.
This is no longer true. It has long since been dealt with.That doesn't mean, however, that...
I had forgotten about that faq. I guess I dismissed it since a synthesist seems like a really bad multiclass candidate. However I stand by the fact that this is not a good idea.
That doesn't mean, however, that multi-classing into synthesist at 7th level is a good idea, far far from it, especially with those stats. Such a character will not be merely suboptimal, they'll very likely find it difficult to contribute at all.The mention of third party material is interesting, there's actually a class by Necromancers of the Northwest that specifically does what the OP wants, summoning up the spirits of ancient champions to gain power from them. I'd encourage the OP to persue that avenue if it is allowed.
There is also the super genius games Godling class which also comes in the form of a prestige class, that allows for divinely inspired flavors, including shape shifting.
Thank you all very much for the input. I'll be searching up some of the 3rd party material suggested for a fit that's a bit more snug to the character concept. It's Pathfinder at it's core but the DM has been really good about allowing wiggle room provided we don't go about breaking the game and have solid RP characterization behind it, so I have a few levels to convince him.