While constructing a Warpriest for a playtest game, I noticed that the various 10th level of the blessings that summon things are totally worthless. This is, of course, the Animal, Law, Chaos, Good and Evil blessings.
They get to use SM/SNA IV at level ten, meaning that a full progression caster could use SM V when they get it. This is very important, because the SM V list is designed to summon things that can contribute to a fight with level 9-10 adventurers. When the party levels to eleven, the Warpriest uses SM IV while the full casters uses SM VI.
Now, I'm aware that this is anecdotal evidence, but every time my Sorcerer summons creatures from a lower-level list, they more or less always get taken down in a round or with a single attack by the opposition. This doesn't really matter, as you get multiple, meaning they can take at least a round or two of hits for your party. They never really contribute towards damage, as their to hit is geared towards easier encounters.
Now, the warpriest using his blessing is at least one spell level behind in the potency of his summons, half of the time it's two spell levels.
This means that what he can summon is never level appropriate. This means using his blessing power at level ten is more or less wasting an action.
To fix this, I suggest you make these abilities function like a SM V or SNA V initially, and let them progress like a primary caster's, that is to say Summon VI at level 11 (or twelve if you really want the warpriest to feel the pain of a sorcerer) VII at 13(14) and so on.
But it really needs fixing. Making a warpriest means I'm not making a cleric. The only reason I could see not making a cleric would be to get the class features of the warpriest. I need to care about having said class features. I really don't care about getting an ability that is not even level appropriate on the level I get it.
Really? You know Celestial monsters can smite, dr evil and SR right?
An attack on them isn't an attack on you.
You can keep summoning them using your Blessings. 10th Level Warpriest has 8. He could summon 2 before an encounter then head in.
Augment Summoning functions on them.
That said it would be nice if it started out at Summon Monster 5 and got better every 2 levels.
That said, You should have really just said this in the Warpriest thread. SKR is probably going to close this thread because we don't want to have 50 billion simultaneous Warpriest discussions going on.
I'm well aware how summoned creatures work, thank you very much.
Let's see what Animal blessing can summon, for example.
Dire wolf, 37 hp, ac 14, does 1d8+6 damage with +7 to hit.
Deinonychus, 34 hp, ac 15, does 2*1d8+2, 2*1d6+2 & 1d4+1 on a +5, +5 & +0, respectively.
And a couple of others. The complete availible list includes:
Bison
Dire Boar
griffor
grizzly bear
lion
ptedorian
rhino
tiger.
At level 10 you are supposed to fight, amongst other things:
Xenarths
Rakshasas, common
Young adult Black Dragons
Giant Anacondra Snakes
Fire Giants¨
None of which have below AC 24. This is a problem, like it or not.
Edit: I forgot to use the tiger in my very brief comparison. It is the undisputed king of this summon level. It also actually has about 1/4 of a chance of hitting a CR 10 monster with a given attack. They get five on a pounce, and three on a full attack. They still get on-shotted, as they bring 45 hp and 14 ac to a fight with CR 10 monsters.
I'm well aware how summoned creatures work, thank you very much.
Let's see what Animal blessing can summon, for example.
Dire wolf, 37 hp, ac 14, does 1d8+6 damage with +7 to hit.
Deinonychus, 34 hp, ac 15, does 2*1d8+2, 2*1d6+2 & 1d4+1 on a +5, +5 & +0, respectively.And a couple of others. The complete availible list includes:
Bison
Dire Boar
griffor
grizzly bear
lion
ptedorian
rhino
tiger.At level 10 you are supposed to fight, amongst other things:
Xenarths
Rakshasas, common
Young adult Black Dragons
Giant Anacondra Snakes
Fire Giants¨None of which have below AC 24. This is a problem, like it or not.
Edit: I forgot to use the tiger in my very brief comparison. It is the undisputed king of this summon level. It also actually has about 1/4 of a chance of hitting a CR 10 monster with a given attack. They get five on a pounce, and three on a full attack. They still get on-shotted, as they bring 45 hp and 14 ac to a fight with CR 10 monsters.
You say one-shot, I don't think it means what you think it means.
CR10 Black Dragon who attacks the summon with his best attack deals on average 15 points of damage before DR. So in no weird universe is that Cat getting one shot by a backhanded attack. So that Dragon is burning a full action negating one of our player's action in combat. Win-win situation there. Pretty good for a spell that players get access to at 7th level. And one that the Warpriest can drop 8 times a day.Furthermore Summon Nature's Ally is nowhere near as good as Summon Monster since you can't apply the Celestial Template to the creature. A smiting Lion is way better than a Tiger.
Obviously a 4th level spell is going to fall off when the game assumes the players have 5th level spells. However a good summoning player packs area buffs to make their lower level summons still relevant. My Glory Domain Cleric has his Heroism aura to kick things up a notch and having a Bard in the party is a godsend.
So yeah. You are over exaggerating this slight. Could it be better? Yeah definitely everything could be. Is it okay as it is? Sure. Should summoning be a powerful option without investment? No. Furthermore the Warpriest can summon as a Standard Action. Which is awesome.
EDIT: Further furthermore, The Warpriest can summon his battle companion without provoking attacks of opportunity. Hes not casting a spell.
I maintain that the Warprist (and all other classes) should be getting level-appropriate abilities.
You are probably right that might not be as bad as I thought it was.
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No, I also think that the blessing summoning options are underwhelming, because they start it off with SM IV, SM V. Getting Summon Monster XI at level 20 is irrelevant, people, because the campaign is over at that point.
I would like to point out some of them have Summon Natures ally, which have Cyclops.
Cyclops isn't an "animal" and therefore isn't a valid pick for most Blessings that offer SNA.