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So I've seen alot of people talk about how great summoning gets around SM3 onward. From what I've seen people find SM1-2 ackward, too short, and creatures lacking. Well I think I may have a build that helps not only makes these first few levels good, but possibly great. Now I'm by no means a master tactician, and I'm sure this has been suggested elsewhere, possibly many times before. With that said here I go.
To start your gonna need to play a human wizard (for the extra feat). Now the first thing you want is to pick up spell focus (conjuration) and augment summoning. In addition you pick up the conjuration specialization school.
Now try as I might, I've tried to find a good monster to summon on the SM1 list, and I keep coming back to the riding Dog. It has decent armor and HP for a 1st level character. On top of that with augment summoning, it'll reliably hit, and you get 2 chances to hit with it. In addition if you summon it on an enemies flank you've effectively buffed your fighter by +2. It's damage won't be too shabby at 1d6+6 (+4 from strength, +2 from smite evil), and it can trip on top of that.
By level 3 you can get SM2. Nothing on this list look particularly great. The wolf seems to be a straight up worse summons, but you can always do the summon d3 riding dogs instead. Now the problem with a d3 is that there's always the chance that you'll roll that 1 meaning that your wasting a level 2 slot on a level 1 spell. This is where your 3rd level feat comes into play. Superior summoning allows you to add a +1 to you summon monster total. This means that'll you'll get a minimum 2 dogs when you cast this spell. That's 2 dogs with 17 hps, and you can potentially put out 2d6+12 damage a turn with them. In addition you can now set up flanks all by yourself, and if you roll 4 dogs you can trap 2 targets at once.
Now the biggest issue I see is that I'm "wasting" a ton of feats to make a sub-optimal spell worth it. This might be true if these spells went out of style later, but they'll scale with you. Summoning 1d3+1 creatures just feels instantly better then 1d3, just because your guaranteed a better effect then a 1d3 alone (where 1/3 of the time you blew a higher level spell on a lower level ability).
From here you can progress down a normal wizard build, picking up feats you might have wanted earlier.
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The easiest way to make the early summon monster spells good is to just play a master summoner archetype summoner. Allows you to use summon monster 5+cha mod times per day right off the bat and gives you augment summoning for free at level 2. On top of all of this the duration is changed to a minute per level rather than a round per level and can be used as a standard action rather than a 1 round action. Since it is a spell-like ability it can also be used while restrained, and gagged even.
I think the riding dog has been erratta'd away.
Indeed, it's not a viable summon. It has been replaced by dog - summoned, which still is one of the best summon monster I but definately not better than those on the 2nd level list.
Summoning Eagles for summon monster I is quite a good option too actually, even though it doesn't benefit fully from augment summoning.
summon monster II is actually quite good if you look at it properly, it allows you to summon :
giant spiders that have a poison attack and a web ability, also immune to mind affecting effects
earth elemental that have tremor sense and a slam that is quite decent, and some elemental immunities
Giant Frog can be fun against small and tiny opponents with their 15' tongue, grab, swallow whole and scent
Lemure, seemingly weak, but it is resistant/immune to many kinds of damage, is mindless and can see in the dark, it makes for a good flanking buddy.
Hyena has scent and trip
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Augment Summoning is all you really need to make decent use of Summon 1 and 2. Summon 1 suffers from an unfortunate problem in that its duration is too short to get use out of it until Caster Level 3, but even at level 3 those Eagles and Dogs have some use. They won't hit often, but they do provide flanking. If they do hit, bonus! Having an animal of your alignment (really only relevant if it's Good or Evil, admittedly) may let you do a few things that you normally couldn't get an animal to do, too. A Good Dolphin isn't just going to leave you to drown, for example. Likewise a Good Dog (ha!) probably won't leave you in a burning building within what aid it can provide in 6 to 18 seconds; real life dogs sometimes intervene to help their owners in this fashion, after all. They're still Int 2 Animals, but Animals with an Alignment.
Summon 2 is frankly quite functional. Giant Frogs are decent for the reasons Remco mentioned. Earth Elementals are genuinely viable fighters for their level, hitting hard enough that the enemy legitimately has to ask "keep eating hits from a temporary foe, or do something about it?" Hyenas are vaguely decent combatants with high speed and, as Remco said, trip.
On top of this, you have situational value and flexibility. Very nice for Sorcs who Summon. Water Elementals can extinguish mundane fires if you can tell them to. Fire Elementals can start a fire, and do so with incredible movement speed. Most of the others on this list have occasional value too.
Summon 1 is the odd one out in that its duration is just too short at caster levels 1 and 2, and starts to become obsolete by level 4, giving it a one level sweet-spot where it's notably good. After that, it's mostly used for setting up cheap flanking or situational uses for the animal in question.
Summon 2 however is fine as is. I would have no problem whatsoever building a Sorc 4 who has Summon 2 as their only spell of the Sorc Spell Level 2 list.
Slightly off-topic, but just yesterday I was thinking about a house rule/tweak that would fix this without being overpowered:
Simply change the duration of the Summon spells to concentration + 1 round/level.
Could make a huge difference to low-level non-Summoner, and won't mean a thing at higher levels. I think I will use this in any future games I run.
Slightly off-topic, but just yesterday I was thinking about a house rule/tweak that would fix this without being overpowered:
Simply change the duration of the Summon spells to concentration + 1 round/level.
Could make a huge difference to low-level non-Summoner, and won't mean a thing at higher levels. I think I will use this in any future games I run.
Or 5 rounds +1 round per 2/levels, honestly I do not like duration of 'concentration' (+X) because it is too easy to do, people will invariably have summons in place before battle starts which is a very significant advantage, and it is as silly as casting cantrips for an hour without breaking a sweat, or taking 20 to search a room all the time..
Or 5 rounds +1 round per 2/levels, honestly I do not like duration of 'concentration' (+X) because [1]it is too easy to do, people will invariably have summons in place before battle starts which [2]is a very significant advantage
I can understand your concern, but I don't think either [1] or [2] are entirely true.
[1]: Maintaining your concentration is a standard action each turn. It precludes casting other spells, so if you Summon before you know combat is imminent and your party rogue starts taking 20 on Perception checks you won't get into combat before your Light runs out and it can't be renewed without losing the Summon, your Detect Magic runs out and can't be renewed, etc. Also there are many forms of disturbance that will mandate a Concentration check, so if the GM thinks this is being abused, it is easy for him/her to disrupt the tactic.
[2]: If you Summon ahead of time, you lose the insta-flank aspect of the Summon, and it will also be less useful as a battlefield control, since it will have to move out/into battle with the rest of the party. And good luck giving low-level summons (low int, no language) precise instructions without investing in Animal Handling.
If you just wanted a meatshield, Mount would have been a better choice.
Also, it is meant to be a significant boost over current wording (at low levels).
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Where I now realize I might have been to quick to speak, was in saying that it wouldn't be a significant boost at higher levels. It could significantly boost the utility of some monsters summoned for their SLAs and special abilities, but I think that would mostly be out-of-combat and thus not be unbalancing. Concentration is a female canine in breeding condition (a pox on the 'Murkans and their silly morality necessitating such circumscription)!
it is as silly as casting cantrips for an hour without breaking a sweat, or taking 20 to search a room all the time
Fits the flavor of the game perfectly, then ;-)
Augment Summoning is all you really need to make decent use of Summon 1 and 2.
This. Agree.
What about making a conjurer wizard, taking spell focus and spell specialization at level 1? Then take augment at level 3 and superior summoning at level 5?
By first level, your summon monster spell lasts 4 rounds. By third level, it lasts 6 rounds and has +4 str and con. At 4th level, you get to move spell spec to monster summon 2. At that point, your monster summon 1 still lasts 6 rounds (due to level and specialist summon duration) & monster summon 2 now lasts 8 rounds, and all of them have +4 str and con.
By 5th level, add one more round on durations, and superior summon lets you use monster summoning 2 to summon d3+1 critters from the summon 1 power level for 9 rounds, all at +4 str and +4 con.
As you keep leveling up, keep shifting your specialization at even levels to keep your top summon at +2 level for the duration.
Are there any feats that let you reduce metamagic costs by 1, and also let you shift which spell you bolster (in the way spell specialization shifts)? If so, you could pick up extend spell as your wizard feat at 5th and add duration there. Too bad magical lineage trait cant just be "summon monster" and apply to all of them. But you could pick it for summon monster 8, and get extend for free on that at level 15, and then use your capstone power to make your summon monster 9 perma. :)
Anyway, just random thoughts.
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My big complaint about SM1 at 1st level is the 1 round duration. My sorcerer just took it as a known spell when advancing to level 3, though.
Even if the only thing a 1st level summoned monster can do is provide a flank to give the party fighter or barbarian a +2 to hit for 3 rounds, that's still worth a level 1 spell slot. Throw a rogue into the mix so the summoned flanker is giving out sneak attacks, and have the summoned flanker aid the PC attack instead of making their own attack, and all of a sudden that 1st level spell will still be useful when I'm level 10, even without Augment Summoning.
But it still kinda sucks at level 1, because it only lasts the one round.
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Worth noting that some GMs may understandably ask how you're convincing a Summoned, Intelligence 2, Animal to not follow its normal fighting knowledge in favor of Aid Another behavior. It has your alignment, and it knows how to fight quite well (there are no shortage of nature documentaries showing animals know about flanking, taking a long-term approach to wearing a target down, when and where to strike, etc., so they can follow basic tactics)... but it remains an Int 2 creature that has no specific history of working with humanoids before.
I would always expect an animal to know to flank. I would however raise an eye at Aid Another declarations and ask "How are you convincing it to do that?" There are valid answers, of course. It's just that you may indeed require some kind of answer handy.
Summon monster I is great....for setting off traps.
SM 1 has celestial Eagle. And maybe Riding Dog. I checked just a week ago and it was still there... (I do hope they nerfed it, it was unfair that only SNA was nerfed to Dog.)
SM II gives Elementals. Lightning Elemental can get CRAZY combat maneuver bonuses against anyone using metal items or made of metal. The +10 and +3 totally stack! And iirc so does the +2 for charging!
As for "animals"... they're fiendish/celestial creatures, and thus magical beasts with at least Int 3. They can follow basic combat commands just fine...
#$^$%&$@&@# 5th printing gave summon monster I just the dog.
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As for "animals"... they're fiendish/celestial creatures, and thus magical beasts with at least Int 3. They can follow basic combat commands just fine...
I don't think this is correct? It's my understanding this was the case in D&D 3.5, but it doesn't seem to be so in Pathfinder. The Celestial template at the very least makes no mention of increasing Intelligence or adding a Language. Most stat sheets I've seen for summoned animals maintain Int 2.
Edit, responding to general sentiments: Don't be surprised, regarding the removal of the Riding Dog. The Riding Dog's stats are the tiniest bit short of being on par with Summon Monster II choices.
This still leaves the eagle, which will be swinging at (presuming you have a flank set up) +5/+5/+5 for 1d4+2/1d4+2/1d4+2 (or +3 with Smite Evil). That's on top of it providing flanking for someone. I feel having something like that around for 2 or 3 rounds compares fairly well with a 2d4+2 Magic Missile or a single Grease casting. Expecting the eagle to solo an encounter is unrealistic; expecting that eagle, coming from a level 1 spell, to contribute some damage, improve hit rates, and restrict the enemy's formation/movement options, is more sane and not a bad result at all.
You simply can't expect a Summon, even with Augment helping it, to equal a martial PC of equal level. It's not reasonable, it won't happen, and it would be lame if it did. That celestial dog is there to either bodyguard you or help the party's front line be even more awesome, and that's enough.
If you really want to make use of SM1-2 you should dip into one level crossblooded sorc with two bloodlines that buff summoned monsters. One of those should be grove born, it's the best.
As for "animals"... they're fiendish/celestial creatures, and thus magical beasts with at least Int 3. They can follow basic combat commands just fine...I don't think this is correct? It's my understanding this was the case in D&D 3.5, but it doesn't seem to be so in Pathfinder. The Celestial template at the very least makes no mention of increasing Intelligence or adding a Language. Most stat sheets I've seen for summoned animals maintain Int 2.
Huh, you're right.
Magical Beast
Magical beasts are similar to animals but can have Intelligence scores higher than 2 (in which case the magical beast knows at least one language, but can't necessarily speak). Magical beasts usually have supernatural or extraordinary abilities, but are sometimes merely bizarre in appearance or habits. A magical beast has the following features.
• d10 Hit Die.
• Base attack bonus equal to total Hit Dice (fast progression).
• Good Fortitude and Reflex saves.
• Skill points equal to 2 + Int modifier (minimum 1) per Hit Die. The following are class skills for magical beasts: Acrobatics, Climb, Fly, Perception, Stealth, Swim.
Traits: A magical beast possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature's entry).
• Darkvision 60 feet.
• Low-light vision.
• Proficient with its natural weapons only.
• Proficient with no armor.
• Magical beasts breathe, eat, and sleep
They "can" have.