Nope. It's s cool npc class, but its not real viable as a pc.
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I believe I saw a build once where someone had a pretty cool combo using Brood Master and Teamwork feats, but I think at most levels of play this Archetype really is better as an NPC than a player character. The effectiveness of your multiple eidolons is always going to be fairly limited since they're splitting a single pool of resources.
I've been thinking about taking broodmaster and blood god disciple to make a melee summoner with support critters.
I would think having two Eidolons with half the power of a full Eidolon each would be pretty nice.
Trade power for being able to put another extra body on the field, and they're not exactly weak even at half strength.
I would think having two Eidolons with half the power of a full Eidolon each would be pretty nice.
Trade power for being able to put another extra body on the field, and they're not exactly weak even at half strength.
They are at higher levels. A 10-HD eidolon when facing CR 20 critters isn't even going to be a blip on their radar.
Brood Masters Require a high degree of Tactical Ability to use.
If you have a Good Party you can easily use them to increase the number of Flanking Attacks you can get.
I have a Brood Master whose Rogue and Fighter party Members have never been without a flank after level 6.
Life Link is replaced by both, and they both alter Merge Forms.
...Not to mention the eidolon :P
Evolutionist can be handy Though I recommend having multiple Eidolon sheets.
Evolutionist is the one where once per day they can change there Eidolon's Evolutions right?
@ Azaelas: Yep.
Now I am curious... Are Evolutionist and Broodmaster incompatible? Broodmaster has an addition for some of its abilities, mostly to clarify that they work with any/all in the brood. Otherwise though, they call them the same ability and don't actually note it as being different.
At any rate, having multiple eidolons for different purposes can indeed be handy. Dividing up their power hurts a fair bit in combat, but I expect you could make for some pretty sweet battlefield control with the right setup.
If evolutionist can be used with it, that would be great too, because you could always repurpose them whenever you want.
Mine was a Goblin Brood Master who alongside the Halfling Rogue as Mounts outside of Combat.
In combat we dismounted and the Rogue took his as a Flanking Buddy. Mine went to flank with the Fighter.
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It tends to get obfuscated due to the mass of text about the eidolon, but Summoners are often more effective in combat using their summon monster SLA than relying on their eidolon anyway. Going non-combat when designing a Broodmaster's brood simply means the Summoner will spam his SLA for fights, and pull out the highly skilled brood specialists for non-combat situations and leveraging the most use out of downtime.
Plus he can design them all like beautiful women and dress up like the most 'pimping mack daddy' spellcaster on the block... ;)
It really depends on the Party what is more powerful.
Rememeber that splitting the HD doesn't affect BAB, so it is mostly HP and feats you're short on. Here are some ideas to help get the most out of your brood:
- Haste: Summoners get Haste early at 4th level. A normal eidolon can only get one extra attack from Haste. A brood can get 2-4 extra attacks.
- False Life: An extra 10-15hp might help an eidolon stay in play, and multiple eidolons can hold more temporary hp than a single eidolon
- Combat Maneuvers: An eidolon which focuses on Grapple and Constrict often won't be able to use more than one natural weapon per round, so why not move those excess natural weapons to another eidolon?
- Wand Jockey: The Skilled evolution and a circlet of persuasion should allow even a low level eidolon to use wands pretty consistently. Pick up an Improved Familiar via the Eldritch feats too and you'll be buffing up and rejuvenating with the quickness.
- Surge: If an eidolon is a little short on evolution points you can still buff it up with an evolution surge, possibly delivered via wand by another eidolon
- Mount: A medium quadraped eidolon without much else going on could make a pretty decent mount for a PC with good Ride skills. Low HP shouldn't be as critical when you can cancel most attacks with a Ride check. If you carry a menacing weapon then you and your eidolons will get a +4 to hit when they flank (potentially +6 with the Outflank feat). You might have to use a dog/pony/mount spell as a mount at early levels though.
I haven't actually played a Broodmaster yet, but after thinking about this stuff a little I'd like to try. It seems like it could be fun. I think the Master Summoner is probably more powerful, but the Broodmaster looks playable to me and certainly has some interesting RP potential.
The Mount concept you stated only works if you are Small.
Increasing their AC also helps. If you can get your GM to allow you to Re-Slot Magical Items you can put Multiple AC and such onto them.
Nope. It's s cool npc class, but its not real viable as a pc.
Agreed.
Had a great NPC in Skull and Shackles who used his Brood as members of his crew... lot of fun to interact with and actually kinda cool to witness, but not really viable/survivable as a PC in the campaigns we run. Someone who is very good with eidolons and the rules surrounding them and loves role-play could have a lot of fun with this character as an 'add-on' party member, but that's about it.
Certainly pails in comparison to what a standard Summoner or a Master Summoner could do. A Synthesist as well I'm sure, but I don't generally mess with those.
It tends to get obfuscated due to the mass of text about the eidolon, but Summoners are often more effective in combat using their summon monster SLA than relying on their eidolon anyway. Going non-combat when designing a Broodmaster's brood simply means the Summoner will spam his SLA for fights, and pull out the highly skilled brood specialists for non-combat situations and leveraging the most use out of downtime.
Plus he can design them all like beautiful women and dress up like the most 'pimping mack daddy' spellcaster on the block... ;)
This seems to be the most practical way of looking at it... but even fromt his vantage, I find a Master Summoner with a single highly skilled eidolon and the ability to have multiple Summons out at once is a much more effective option.
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This seems to be the most practical way of looking at it... but even fromt his vantage, I find a Master Summoner with a single highly skilled eidolon and the ability to have multiple Summons out at once is a much more effective option.
Probably true for anything resembling a 'standard' game (whatever that may be...). The whole Broodmaster thing seems better for when you want to do multiple extended duration non-combat things at the same time. For a lot of in-adventure stuff the standard SLA's 1 minute per level will be enough to complete many non-combat actions anyway. A Broodmaster's brood could do well in a social or investigation style game though, or when trying to build stuff quickly (many hands making light work and all that), with the right sort of design.
For example, I kind of like the idea of a 'Fagin' type Broodmaster with his brood of small pick-pockets - a one-man thieves' guild!
Or a Broodmaster 'band leader' with the brood all designed as entertainers.
Or the aforementioned Broodmaster 'mack daddy' with his brood of socially designed eidolons for an intrigue-based game - instant entourage!
Or 'the boss' for any Profession or Craft based brood members so that the Summoner can just sit back and rake in the ca$h they make.
combining the broodmaster archetype with the blood god disciple archetype gives you pretty interesting options.