Hello, I'm new to optimisation and I have till Saturday to create a character. I've decided on the master summoner because it lets perform a load of tasks which are fairly useful and I plan to just use my eidolon for skills.
We're starting at level six and the party is fairly optimised, one player is doing 75 damage a round with attack rolls of up to 40 and another is building one capable of dealing 110 damage a round. I'm new to optimisation so this sort of damage is massive to me. Anyway, we're starting at level 6 and we're allowed one free template of up to CR 2 (not vampire/lich) so I have chosen ghost except being a good, native outsider without rejuvenation or incorporeality. I've chosen ghost because as a charisma based caster I get 40 extra HP, +8 deflection bonus to AC and also I get a bunch of cool supernatural SLA's.
Quote
STR: 6
DEX: 19
CON: - (originally 10)
INT: 11
WIS: 11
CHA: 26
HP: 78
Initiative: +4
AC: 22
Touch AC: 22
Flat Footed: 10
BAB: +4
Fort Save: +2
Ref save: +6
Will save: +5
CMB: +2
CMD: +16
feats:
Spell Focus (Conjuration)
Augment Summoning
Superior Summoning
Hover - for 50% miss chance
As you can understand, the build is optimised enough in the sense that it isn't completely rubbish but compared to the other players it is almost not optimised at all. I want to increase my AC, possibly through increasing dexterity and am completely opening to changing things about the build. Thanks in advance.
Worth noting is that getting Cha as Deflection to AC is a function of being incorporeal.
Master Summoners that have time to prepare are certainly powerful, though their turns can take quite some time to command all of their critters. They also don't particularly benefit from having very high ability scores, as they rely on their summoned critters which have set stats to do the work. In fact, in a game that's meant for supernatural PCs, the summons might struggle against DR and such. You do get some spells with save DCs even as a summoner, but another caster might use the pimped out Cha better.
Just some food for thought. I'm curious what templates the other players took. Is Half-Celestial allowed, since it's +2 CR at your current level, but eventually becomes +3 CR?
My main aims are defence - one of the problems with pathfinder is that I can't just hide in a metal box - that only gives me +8 cover bonus so I need to maximise my dexterity so that I can't get destroyed by ranged attacks. I want to get charisma high so that I can maximise my ghost abilities as they are supernatural and thus not subject to SR - thus malevolence and fateful fate can be amazing tools.
Half-celestial is allowed and three players are taking it, I would be taking it but I think that the massive HP bonus I get from being a ghost is a lot better. I have just asked about what will happen, I am assuming that anybody else will be able to take a new template or they will have to sacrifice a level.
As a Master Summoner, you get Augment Summoning at level 2. So Spell Focus (Conjuration) is not really needed.
The reason being most of the spells you can get as a summoner are usually buffs and you don't need Spell Focus (Conjuration) on those.
You may want to get Improve Initiative for level 1 instead.
With Improve Initiative, you can (hopefully) get monsters out first. These can act as a meat shield/wall for the party until your party's high damage dealers can get into position to attack.
With high damage dealers in your party, you can afford to take a back seat. Instead of focusing on dealing damage. you can focus more on flanking and keeping the enemies off your party members' backs.
One nice thing about master summoners is that summoned monsters do not disappear if you go unconscious or drop below 0hp.
Unlike normal summoners, whose Eidolons will disappear if the summoner goes unconscious. Your summoned monsters will still fight on. (In fact without you to command them they will most likely attack the attacker that knocked you out.
So don't worry too much about acs and such. Focus more on getting summon monsters out.
Its a Heavy heavy feat investment, but Greater Eldrich Heritage - abyssal is worth aiming great if you think the campaign will go over 17th. Makes every demon summoned two. Add superior summons for a 3-for-1 deal. You've got the charisma, and the prerequisite feats are decent to make your summoner more combat capable.
Ghost will have a hard time getting armor. Don't waste your light armor proficiency and casting. Go anything with with innate flight and DR orfast healing. I suggest half fiend. Works with EH abyssal.
You need...help? optimizing the master summoner?!
Ok, here we go.
Step 1: Pick Master Summoner as your archetype.
Step 2: Acquire the ability to cast a Summon Nature's Ally spell somehow. One level of Nature Oracle might not be a bad choice. Grab Friends of Animals, so that you can select those spells. It'll also buff any animals you summon, giving them a nice saving throw bonus.
Step 3: At this point, you'll (possibly, please FAQ!) be able to take the Moonlight, Sunlight, and Starlight Summons. This lets your summons overcome a few types of DR that pop up.
Step 4: Done. Congratulations, you're the most powerful archetype in the game.
@Cheapy
Ok, I did not know that!
SLA "are not" affected by feats that affect spells?
I always thought that only applies to Meta-magic feats.
Cos... won't that make Master Summoner's lv 2 Augment Summoning feat pretty much useless??? Or ANY summoning feat for that matter.
In the thread, I linked to this post by Jason Bulmahn saying Augment Summoning does work with the summoner's SLA.
I want to find out why, so until the difference is made clear, I'm just going to say it's due to Designer Fiat :)
You're not getting a lot of replies because, to be honest, the master summoner is so freaking broken that it's not even interesting to optimize. =)
The most powerful build would look like:
1.) Improved Initiative
2.) Augment Summoning (summoner)
3.) Superior Summons
5.) Craft Wondrous Item
7.) Leadership
----------------------
Your eidolon won't be too good as a combat critter, because of its half-evolutions. Turn it into a skill-monkey: Make it a small biped, pick up Fly and Skilled (Stealth, UMD, Perception, Disable Device, etc...).
Give it a wand to use on the first round of combat, before you have multiple summons in the field.
----------------------
The only trick is then figuring out the most overpowered summons at every level. I think there's a link around here somewhere.
----------------------
Congratulations. You have now made the most universally loathed character in Pathfinder. Your turns will take 5-8 times as long as your friends', combat will slow to a crawl, and you will be the best option for accomplishing almost every task...but you will be powerful as hell.
-Cross
All playstyles are valid as long as all are happy, but to me it almost sounds like a video game... I like characters to be effective, but I don't concentrate on maximizing DPS or DPR, I try to maximized what they're supposed to be good at. (my rogues will be as sneaky as possible, for example)
Anyway, my 2 cp:
Master Summoner looks like a pain to run unless you're extremely well prepared.
My advice isn't how to build the master summoner. It builds itself. My advice is how to run it:
Prepare index cards for what you summon ahead of time, so you're not flipping through books constantly.
Personally, in your place, I'd make a monk with the advanced creature template (+4 to all attributes!)
Or a drow noble (that should be worth the +2 CR)
|
