Sorcerer and his gorilla friend need advice

[Keydan]

I wanted to try and play a sorcerer for a while but those guys are very diverse, thanks to their bloodlines. But the thing is I don't really like the pure spellcaster feel, I mostly enjoy filling a few roles at the same time, like taking an arcane duelist to buff and try to make it in a fight...

Then I came across the wildblooded sylvan bloodline, that gives you an animal companion. And I thought, this might work, I take an ape, name it Bobo, we will be a comedy duo of Bobo getting in trouble and me saving his sorry behind, and vise-verso in combat. I am the brains he is the brawn. I can also share my spells on him buffing the lil' guy, or to turn him into a human with alter self or something like that. Best idea ever. But, I notice I don't get handle animal...

So my question is, is my dream of a comedy duo of a sorcerer and his pet gorilla worth it? Or Are there better sorcerer ideas that could effectively fill several roles, that I missed out?

Or should i just go synthesist/summoner...

[Keydan]

Clearly, the question boils down to, what is better for a campaign, where I at best will reach level 10.
To take a sorcerer with better spells and spend one of my traits on handle animal and get a gorilla. (perhaps I missed a better kind of sorcerer to do the job)
Or take a summoner and have an intelligent pen, but have less spell flexibility.

[Magda Luckbender]

I've played a Sylvan Sorcerer in PFS up to 6th level. It's a very effective combination. So long as you avoid the animal archetypes (e.g. Bodyguard) you can cast some very unusual self-buff spells on your Companion. For example, your gorilla is not normally able to receive Enlarge Person, but it works in your case. Same goes for Mirror Image, Stoneskin, and other 'self only' arcane spells. This is huge!

I used my Animal Companion as a Bodyguard. This is sub-optimal, but made darn sure I didn't die.

Your 10th level Sorcerer will be a more capable spell caster than would a 10th level Summoner. The Summoner's Eidolon will be stronger than your pet, though.

Personally, I think the Summoner class is broken and should be broadly banned. No other class can compare to the combination of a strong arcane caster with a super-powered flying combat-monster cohort. No offense to the various fine Summoners I've played and GMd with.

[XMorsX]

Up to lvl 10, a vanilla Summoner is more generally effective. A Half-Elf Wild Caller is also a bit more mundane and can have a stronger EIdolon thanks to the more evolution points. The early access to some great arcane spells make him pretty versatile too.

That being said, a sylvan sorcerer is a great choice too. If you have not any other primary arcane caster in the party, it could possibly be the best choice because of the versatility and the utility it offers.

I find Summoners fine, with Master Summoner being the only major issue, being OP and managing intensive at the same time. Broodmaster is managing-intensive too, but as a weaker than vanilla summoner archetype it does not see a lot of play.

What is your party composition?

[blackbloodtroll]

Boon Companion helps.

[Just a Mort]

Keydan wrote:

I wanted to try and play a sorcerer for a while but those guys are very diverse, thanks to their bloodlines. But the thing is I don't really like the pure spellcaster feel, I mostly enjoy filling a few roles at the same time, like taking an arcane duelist to buff and try to make it in a fight...

Then I came across the wildblooded sylvan bloodline, that gives you an animal companion. And I thought, this might work, I take an ape, name it Bobo, we will be a comedy duo of Bobo getting in trouble and me saving his sorry behind, and vise-verso in combat. I am the brains he is the brawn. I can also share my spells on him buffing the lil' guy, or to turn him into a human with alter self or something like that. Best idea ever. But, I notice I don't get handle animal...

So my question is, is my dream of a comedy duo of a sorcerer and his pet gorilla worth it? Or Are there better sorcerer ideas that could effectively fill several roles, that I missed out?

Or should i just go synthesist/summoner...

Nah, sylvan sorc is cool, traits help fix handle animal as a class skill. Anyway you would easily have the same handle animal skill bonus as your neighbourhood druid who probably dumped his cha.

Don't forget buying leather armor for Bobo, its only 10 gp and he won't incur any acp because it has none. Later you can buy him mw studded leather, or simply mage armor him the whole day. I may be a tad overdoing things, but I recently purchased a mithril breastplate if comfort for my animal companion...

If it really goes to high level gameplay, either use mage armor, or get wild armor. There are so many things you can turn Bobo into...including a dragon. Animal companions gain multi-attack as a bonus feat.

[Keydan]

So so far we have a Witch an Inquisitor and a Magus. And I am strongly leaning towards a vanilla summoner now. We roll for most traits and I didn't get any traits for a class handle animal, or any good class skill for that matter.

So if no one is against, I'd like to ask about summoners, I had an eye on them for a while, but never plaid one. [though the Sorcerer is still partially on the table]

The attributes I rolled are 15 16 16 14 12 17, in that order, no race bonus applied, still can swap places for 2 attributes, once.
So far the idea for first few levels is:

1: Skill Focus Knowledge (of some kind); Spell focus conjuring
2:
3: Augmented summoning
4:
5: Eldritch heritage Arcane [get myself a familiar]
6:
7: [something, something]
8:
9: Improved familiar (to get an Imp or another cute little flying stealth machine)

The DM allowed to dump all starter evolutions, for a total pool of 8 points. I've read a few threads about how it's ridiculously easy to make a fighter cry with the death-machine that an Eidolon quickly becomes. But I really don't wish for that to be so in this case.
I have an Idea of an eidolon-butler, with a class skill in Profession (Servant) since it fits with the character background. And no claws, manufactured weapons only. Now, is my idea even worth it, will it lower his combat potential that much? Or should I go ninja-assassin-death-butler, who turns into a pouncing razor chariot on command?

[XMorsX]

Half-ELf wil give you both more evolution points through the alt. favored calss bonus and a free skill focus.

I like most the Farie Dragon and the Lyrakien Azata as far as familiars are concearned, bu the Imp is alos a great choice.

Youc an make a great eidolon that uses weapons, mainly because of the Large, Reach and Ability increase (strenght) evolutions. Go biped, initialy wield a reach weapon, as soon as you become large swap it to an ordinary two-handed weapon. Take exotic weapon proficiency (fauchard) (retrain it for a nodachi when the time comes), power attack and combat reflexes, and you will have ai eidolon dishing AoOs at a huge radious for massive damage. Take Dazing assault when you qualify for effective battlefield control too.

The Wild-Caller archetype is probably worth it. It has drawbacks, but in the end having a stronger eidolon is the most important part of the build.

[Devilkiller]

Rolling for traits is kind of weird. The DM allowing you to dump the evolutions from the base form is also weird though possibly to your advantage. If you’re interested in an improved familiar then I think the “something something” feat should be Craft Wands.

1: Skill Focus Knowledge (Planes); Spell focus (Conjuration)
3: Augmented summoning
5: Craft Wands
7: Eldritch Heritage (Arcane)
9: Improved familiar (Imp, Quasit, or Faerie Dragon)
11: Improved Share Spells

A wand of Lesser Evolution Surge might be pretty worthwhile so that you eidolon can gain flight, scent, a swim speed, etc as needed. You can also make a cheap wand of Haste for the familiar to use in nearly every combat. You can also make wands of Summon Monster, including SMV as a 4th level spell, and an invisible familiar using such a wand would remain invisible. With a little investment your eidolon could use wands too. This can come in handy sometimes.

The Sylvan Sorcerer can pull many of the same tricks and gets Mirror Image. The eidolon will probably be better in combat than an Ape companion and is certainly more versatile except that it doesn’t fill the Bodyguard role quite as well since it can’t wear Benevolent armor (or any armor). It might still be worth taking the Bodyguard feat to get In Harm’s Way, which will let the eidolon take bad hits for you or your party members.