Need some advice on feats for a Master Summoner.

[Saraiso]

Hi everyone,

I am starting up a new campaign with a brand new level 1 summoner (going Master Summoner) and I'm trying to decide on what feat to take at first level. I thought I'd post this to the boards and see what you clever folks can come up with :)

Our party is going to be going through Reign of Winter (which I haven't read, no spoilers please!) and consists of a bow Ranger, a caster Druid (using domain instead of companion), a Barbarian, and me. As the only arcane caster I'll be focusing on casting rather than melee or ranged combat, and I will be going Master Summoner for extra versatility; using my Eidolon as our skill monkey and trapfinder.

Race is Half Elf, 25 point buy:
Str 7
Dex 14
Con 12
Int 14
Wis 10
Cha 20 (18+2 racial)

So far for feats I am planning on going
1 (bonus) Skill Focus (Kn(Planes))
1 - unknown
2 Augment Summoning
3 Eldritch Heritage (Arcane) for Bonded Item for that extra slot/day
5 Superior Summons
7 Leadership
9 Persistent Spell
11 Imp Eldritch Heritage (Arcane) New Arcana to learn Paragon Surge
13 Heighten Spell
15 Quicken Spell

The build only goes up to 15 'cause that's what an adventure path is supposed to bring us to, though we may end up going higher.

Some notes:
I plan on taking Leadership to get a Wizard cohort, who can be loaded up on knowledge skills and item creation feats. Probably craft wondrous item, wand, and arms/armor at least to start, with skill focus Spellcraft he should be able to make us most of the gear we might need, since the rest of the party is not keen on making magic items.

The idea for the feats is to make (somewhat cheesy) use of the Paragon Surge spell to do things like:
-Pick up Expanded Arcana adding whatever spell might be useful from the Summoner list, thus opening up all those situational spells that would not be normally learned
-learn Spell Perfection (notice how at lvl 15 I have the 3 metamagic feat prereq as well as the 15 ranks in spellcraft) for whatever spell is most advantageous. This allows things like using Charm/Dominate monster Heightened up to 9th level for better save DC's than would be possible with just the spell focus line, or casting Quickened Summon Monster VI in the same round as a Summon Monster SLA, or casting Persistent Dominate Monster spells to make it more of a sure thing.

I think the ability to pick a different Spell Perfection each cast of Paragon surge opens a lot of interesting options for the summoner list, since you can apply metamagic up to 9th level to spells like Dominate Monster that summoner gets at 6th.

The thing I'm stuck on is what feat to pick up at first level though. Any suggestions would be welcome.

If anyone has ideas on the rest of the build then I appreciate those as well :)

I would also appreciate any suggestions on what second sorcerer/wizard spell to learn at lvl 15 from the New Arcana bloodline power.

[Shindalm]

I chose the Cosmopolitan (Diplomacy/Bluff) for my Master Summoner (because if you're going to summon beings from beyond, you should be able to persuade them, or at least lie). 2 extra languages and 2 Wis/Cha/Int skills as class skills.

I would also recommend against getting Quicken Spell as a feat. You can't make much use of it as a 6-level caster and a Rod of Quicken should more than cover your needs.

Heighten is a good idea, but not great (as per the 6-level spells). I'm not sure Spell Perfection allows you to heighten to 9th level from 6-level casters, as that would allow a 9-level caster to cast 12th level effective spells, so you may want to check on that.

As for the Sorc/Wiz spell, Contingency is always a nice one.

[Third Mind]

Well, since summoning is a master summoner's thing, I may also suggest Extra Summons.

However, I do like Shindalm's suggestion, cosmopolitan is good, especially for such a high charisma class as the summoner.

Improved Initiative could also be a major help. The sooner you get bodies on the field, the better for you and your team I would think.

[Shindalm]

@Third Mind: *Smacks head* I can't believe I forgot Improved Initiative and Extra Summons. I second both of those as well, though Extra Summons is only necessary if you have a loooong adventure-day, otherwise the 5+cha you get by default should cover you.

[Ishmell]

looks like you need spell focus conjuration, you know because its a prereq for all the other summon monster goodies.

[Shindalm]

@Ishmell: Master Summoner gets Augment Summoning free and Superior Summoning only has Augment Summoning as a pre-req., so he can bypass that. Though SF (conj) is a nice option for later.

[Saraiso]

Yes, the Master Summoner gets to skip SF(Conjuration) for pre-reqs, which is nice.

The reason I added Heighten and Quicken in there is for spell perfection use. Spell Perfection reads:

Spell Perfection wrote:

Pick one spell which you have the ability to cast. Whenever you cast that spell you may apply any one metamagic feat you have to that spell without affecting its level or casting time, as long as the total modified level of the spell does not use a spell slot above 9th level. In addition, if you have other feats which allow you to apply a set numerical bonus to any aspect of this spell (such as Spell Focus, Spell Penetration, Weapon Focus [ray], and so on), double the bonus granted by that feat when applied to this spell.

(Bolding mine)

It seems to my limited understanding that it lets you use a free metamagic feat as long as the Level isn't above 9th, rather than "the highest level you can cast" so it doesn't seem like it changes for bards and summoners and such.

Anyways, like I was saying, I picked Heighten and Quicken purely to use with spell perfection. Since it lets you use up to a 9th level modified slot, you can do things like apply Heighten to Charm Monster (a 3rd level summoner spell) to Heighten it up to 9th level (a 9th level slot), which changes the save DC to DC 19+Cha. Alternately I could cast a Persistent Charm Monster using a 5th level slot, and use Spell perfection to apply Heighten to bring it up to 7th level (Heightened to 7th, +2 for Persistent = 9th level slot)

Alternatively (for Way down the line) I was thinking of picking up the Magical Lineage (Maze) trait, which would allow me to use Spell Perfection to cast Quickened Mazes every round using my 6th level slots :3 (Maze is 6th level, Quickened +4, -1 for Magical Lineage = 9th level slot). Something about being able to throw out quickened Mazes on top of whatever else I'm doing just makes me giggle. This would work just as well with any other 6th level spell, but I'd have to plan ahead and take the right trait.

Being able to Quicken any 5th level spell or lower (with one preparatory cast of Paragon Surge to get Spell Perfection) or Heighten any save based spell up to 9th effective level (or 7th, and throw on Persistent) is the main reason for taking those two feats. From my preliminary reading of the summoner spell list, it seems like most of their offensive stuff is save based rather than just damage, so this seemed like an interesting and fairly unique way to boost the save DC's :)

Sorry about the wall o text explanations there. I do like your idea of taking Cosmopolitan. I had planned on taking a trait to get Diplomacy as a class skill, but that feat might let me use the trait for something else. (my other trait is a campaign trait from the adventure path, so its not something I am willing to switch)

I didn't really consider Extra Summons, cause with my starting charisma I have 10 of them a day. I will probably have to see how it goes, but that seems like it should be plenty for the vast majority of our adventuring days? Especially since I'll be boosting cha with levels and gear when it becomes available. By level 15 that would be (20 base +3 levels +6 item) 14 uses per day, so it feels to me like spending a feat to get one more would be a bit of a waste of a feat.

I dunno though, I've never played a summoner before, so I could be wrong?

Thanks for the suggestions so far :)

[Third Mind]

You are correct, you probably won't need extra summons and even if you find you do, you could take that later. So I would stick with the suggestions of either Cosmopolitan or Improved Initiative.