Without Summon Good Monster or appropriate deity extra summons, yes. The Lemure is the first one, with SM3. Meaning, Sacred Summon isn't useful au naturelle until level 5.Sigh... Lets look at a Human Cleric feat list...
Human:Spell Focus (Conjuration)
1st: Augment Summoning
3rd: Sacred summons
5th: Summon Good MonsterLook at that. Level 5. Seems legit to me. It is useful as soon as you get the feat. Its not supposed to shine at 1st level. Your picking other feats up at that point. But by level 5 (which doesnt take that long) you have standard action summons. Whats the issue?
I'm fond of using Summoners with the First Worlder archetype from Inner Sea Magic. It adds Summon Nature's Ally to your spell list, giving you the option to pick up Moonlight Summons, Starlight Summons, and Sunlight Summons. As it doesn't remove Summon Monster from the spell list and adds some great utility summons to the Summon Nature's Ally list, it makes for a very versatile summoner with some great DR penetrating summons. Be certain to note that Moonlight Summons and the like, while they require Summon Nature's Ally to take, do not exclusively provide their benefits to creatures summoned with that spell.
The archetype is unfortunately not compatible with Master Summoner, but it is a fairly nice alternative.
I've never noticed Summoners doing any actual summoning in the games I've played; they pretty much just send out their eidolon (who is always with them at all times and is never dismissed) and cast buffs on it.
Wizards, on the other hand, seem to summon things all the time. Go figure.
Lol thats because Summoners CANT use their SM ability while their eidolon is out. Every time I see someone complain about Summoners it goes something like this... "OMFG! They can summon a bajillion creatures, Have a OP Eidolon, cant be killed cause of their eidolon skin, have early access to spells, and I dont like them!" They just group all the abilities of a Master Summoner, a Summoner, and a Sythesist all into one pot. Well of course it looks overpowering that way.
Standard Summoner - He cant use all his class abilities at once. Either Eidolon or Summons... and he can only use one SM at a time.
Master Summoner - He can use multiple Summons at a time. Or one and his Eidolon... but his Eidolon is at half strength... basicly a neat familiar.
Sythesist - He is really sad. You can form into your Eidolon.... Great. Its not any more powerful then a Summoner's pet... your just inside it. And for that you give up all action economy. Your either swinging at someone or casting a spell... not both. On top of that while in your skin (all the time basicly) you cant use your summons... great. No summoning or action economy for you. Why people hate this one I have no idea.
Sythesist - He is really sad. You can form into your Eidolon.... Great. Its not any more powerful then a Summoner's pet... your just inside it. And for that you give up all action economy. Your either swinging at someone or casting a spell... not both. On top of that while in your skin (all the time basicly) you cant use your summons... great. No summoning or action economy for you. Why people hate this one I have no idea.
I could easily be wrong, but I always got the impression that Synthesist simply got too much too soon, making it a fantastic dip class. People would dump their physical stats into oblivion, take synthesist as their first level, and use the eidolon's physical stats and their heightened mental stats with little penalty.
I could easily be wrong, but I always got the impression that Synthesist simply got too much too soon, making it a fantastic dip class. People would dump their physical stats into oblivion, take synthesist as their first level, and use the eidolon's physical stats and their heightened mental stats with little penalty.
I suppose you could. I have seen people mix Syth and Paladin. But you dump your stats to much and get caught outside your shell and you will have a bad day. Its a cheesy and risky tactic I suppose you could use to abuse the system.
I could easily be wrong, but I always got the impression that Synthesist simply got too much too soon, making it a fantastic dip class. People would dump their physical stats into oblivion, take synthesist as their first level, and use the eidolon's physical stats and their heightened mental stats with little penalty.
Sythesist - He is really sad. You can form into your Eidolon.... Great. Its not any more powerful then a Summoner's pet... your just inside it. And for that you give up all action economy. Your either swinging at someone or casting a spell... not both. On top of that while in your skin (all the time basicly) you cant use your summons... great. No summoning or action economy for you. Why people hate this one I have no idea.
They aren't that great a dip class, since the eidolon is not allowed to wear armor, you need the evolution points of later levels to increase the natural armor, if you want your AC to be worth a damn. And for a combat character the base physical ability scores of the eidolon are about average.
A for spellcasters, I maintain that the spell progression you sacrifice is never worth a dip, unless you're not going for a primary caster type character concept anyway.
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Sythesist has other problems. Think of him as a Druid able to customize his battle form. With the Evolution Surge Spell he can drop immunities as needed and jump his size around in combat. So far it's taken some very big critters to hurt the one in my game. The only saving grace is the healing economy where the Eidelon can't be healed conventionally.