Why Are Summoners Practically Banned from PbP?


Advice


Just above. I want reasons!


Because it can take forever to resolve a summoner combat by post?


...Fair point...


Not really. A summoner in a PbP is less cumbersome than one in a live game. In the PbP the summoner makes all his attacks/actions in a single post. The GM resolves them all when he/she posts. No one else is waiting any longer than usual.

Its more an issue of summoners not being particularly well balanced class wise.


That's a polite way of putting it. The truth is, they are overpowered. They have an Eidolon which can be built very flexibly; it can out fight the party Fighter or Outskill the Party Skill Monkey, and on top of all that, their spells are almost as good as a regular wizard.


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Because they're banned in a lot of real life games too.

Scarab Sages

The Summoner has a lot of factors that balance him in theory that aren't actually carried through in real play.
In theory, his 3/4 spellcasting balances out the fact that his eidolon takes the animal companion and rubs it's nose in the dirt. In practice, the Summoner has a spell list that's almost better than a true full caster's backed by an SLA that closes any remaining gap.
In theory, his charisma based limited casting isn't as good as a full spell list or prepared casting. In practice, his incredibly mutable eidolon and his ability to summon up things that can fill in his casting gaps make him one of the most versatile and adaptable classes in the game.

Summoners are frequently banned from PBP because they're frequently banned from other games. PBP has very little to do with it. You also have the issue that the Summoner and his eidolon have a lot of moving parts; some GMs would rather avoid the issue entirely than have to double check your character.


As other have stated they are actually less cumbersome in PBP. The eidolon can take his 5 natural attack while the summoner cast his spell in just the same space as the other use for their action. Unlike Tabletop games where the summoner action can last forever...It is just that, basically, the class was bad desgined.


Honestly, I like having summoners in the party. <.<


The rout of it really comes down likely to complexity. Eidolons are complex and break alot of pre-defined game rules. Mistakes happen with them repeatedly and they have alot of fiddly bits. My guess is its a combination or and people not wanting to bother with the extra hassle.


One of the biggest, and least discussed, aspects of the Summoner is that he's really easy to optimize. Given the free-form nature of Pathfinder any class can be used to create exceptionally powerful character builds, but it's much easier to do it with a Summoner since the best options are sitting in plain sight.


Reason: OP

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