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Any experienced PFS players have any advice between a summon heavy Wizard (probably divination: forgsight specialization for the initiative bonus and story, that picks up Augment Summoning at 1st) and a Master Summoner? I have a game tomorrow evening and I cannot pick by myself. The Wizard has more versatility when planning ahead, but do you really get to plan ahead that much? Meanwhile, is the Mast Summoner's Eidolon worth having? Can part of the loss be caught up with Boon Companion? Enough thinking out loud. Any advice?
I can only say that the eidolon's main benefit in my opinion is that you can as Summoner make up how your companion(s) look like what no usual summoning would allow to that extension
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Most GMs and players will groan when you show up with a Master Summoner. If that is your thing and you like annoying the others at the table by takng the most time with all your creatures during combat, then go for it.
Generally, in PFS play a well rounded PC works better than a specialist since you never know who will be at the table.
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@Don Walker: I forgot to mention I'll be playing with our home group 99% of the time. We decided to do PFS during the summer as people tend to be absent more because of vacations and the like. I'm also our primary DM and have been for about 12 years, so I can handle multiple creatures very quickly in combat. Quicker than some of our players can handle one.
@Will Johnson: I have a relatively boring desk job with no internet access, so at any point I have about 50 well developed characters in my head :)
Thanks much for the replies, but I'm looking for a more mechanical comparison of the classes. For instance, with level capped at 12ish, will the wizard ever catch up with the summoner's sheer casting power? Will the Wizard's higher DC's make him a better controller in the long run? Will the summons hold up well to PFS challenges?
Just mechanical stuff, as I wanna pick the one that will be the most useful.
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Well, though I generally agree with Don (I did groan at my VC when he brought his Master summoner to a table I was running) if you're going to play a Master Summoner, the best thing you can do is be prepared. Keep a finite list of creatures you're going to summon and have stat blocks ready. Since they're all going to be identical, you can roll attacks en masse and mitigate the problems Don mentioned. And yeah, well rounded in society is huge. People love my bard despite his having no direct benefit in combat because of his mass of skills and all the PA I get them :P.
As for the instant question, I can't really say. I've played a summoner wizard in a home game and he worked well but not in PFS.
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Yeah, I dislike added combatants as much as the next GM, so I already have my summons listed and ready for both classes (depending on which I take). Shouldn't be much of a problem with time consumption. I probably won't need to summon more than one at a time. The summoner seems more useful in combat (9x summons/day plus 3 spells/day at level 1). But the wizard will have a much higher initiative and about 7 skills, where as the summoner will likely have 2.
The biggest things to consider if you're thinking master summoner is action economy as well as being considerate of the other players.
I know you've address this, but,
A master summoner can easily overtake combats and render the rest of the party useless depending on the number of monsters you summon in at a given time, combine that with not having monster stats prepped ahead of time and what was once a good fun game is not a slog through combat and your friends are going to be bored as your monster are doing all the work
While the monster doing all the work may seem like an awesome idea as no one gets hit which means no one dies, but that also means that no one else really gets to do anything.
In regards to the Eidoleon, as a master summoner the eidoleon is merely window dressing in a combat, turn that into your skills monkey if that's the class direction you decide to go.
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I am playing with a set home group of Two-handed fighter, Ranged skill based rogue, and swapping between an Oracle or Witch. So melee is thin, but so is any sort of buffing, hence the want for summoning/buffing. The Oracle is in melee once in a while, mostly for healing.
Basically I want a class that can give support and summon a flanker or some damage if need be. I could always go regular summoner but I feel that would compete too much with the Fighter. I also leaned towards a blasting sorcerer that could toss out a summon if needed. But If scrolls are common and caster items are available, than a wizard is the most versatile.
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I don't mind Master Summoners any more than I mind other classes with pets. Which is to say, If your pet combat trained riding dog gets in my way one more time, I'm going to bull rush him out of it!
I love playing the Barbarian who has to get a reach weapon because there's a dog and a bear in the way whenever he wants to charge. And don't even mention the pony. :(
But seriously, if you're going to play a pet class, you need to be on your game. You get (at least) twice as many actions per turn as everyone else, so you need to be twice as prepared.