Android Summoner help

[Aaronar]

Hello all, my group is going to start an Iron Gods game soon and I've decided to play an android summoner. I know it's not really an optimized choice and that's fine. There are four other players so I'm not overly concerned at being the best of the best. That being said, I'm looking at making the eidolon a quad, probably start with the single attack at first and add more attacks as I level up. I don't have much more planned mechanically for him otherwise. Cosmetically while I haven't decided on a final look for him, the eidolon will appear to be at least partially mechanical, and unfinished. Patches of skin missing here and there exposing gears or whatnot underneath. As I level up the eidolon will look more and more 'finished'.

As for the summoner himself, I don't plan on taking Cha over 16. I'm thinking Str as secondary then assigning the remaining stats depending on how I roll. Non pfs game in case any were wondering. Looking at using a longspear and after casting my buff spells, unless other magic is called for following up behind my eidolon and attaching from reach. I'm not that familiar with the summoner spell list so I'll take all suggestions I can get.

One last bit of flavor I'm considering, when summoning my eidolon or using the SM SLA they would appear from a small nanite swarm that eminates from me to where they appear, as they Rex into our plane. Not sure if the rules frown upon making up your own special effects.

I'm not looking for an uber optimized build, just something that can be at least somewhat effective and fun.

[BretI]

Might want to look at mount. You would either have to take Undersized Mount feat for yourself (assuming the android is medium sized rather than small) so you could ride it from the start, or wait until you could increase the Eidolon's size to Large. You could use Enlarge Person
on the Eidolon, but that is limited time and takes a full round to cast.

Give summoner the Longspear, take Paired Opportunists, ride your Eidolon metal horse/camel/whatever into combat.

Spells:
Grease, Shield, Rejuvenate Eidolon would give you good defense along with some battlefield control and the ability to keep the Eidolon going.

Remember that you can wear light armor, so if you take Mage Armor it is for your summons or Eidolon.

[boring7]

Synthesist is a lot of fun, but raises a lot of hackles and complaints. Also the rules are a bit messy at times.

Anyway, your theme is a planar construct that slowly grows more complete and powerful and appears to function as an extension of your nanites. I can dig it, have a mostly-nonsense technobabble explanation that it involves quantum etheric projectors which are formed from nanite clusters or something. This works well with Synthesist as well, since the nanites come from your body.

For combat, I recommend Dexterity. You could swing a longspear around but as levels progress you will be spending more and more of your time casting spells, and you can't wear heavy armor so you need all the AC you can get. It is true that your ranged weapons will not hurt most of the robots (robot got hardness) but that would be mostly true for your longspear, you aren't going to be the damage guy, your Eidolon and the raging barbarian will be.

Also, with dexterity you can throw a net (Don't have to be proficient when you're aiming for touch AC) or make those ranged touch attacks with your attack magic.

Another thing to consider is the Spirit Summoner Archetype. I know the name sounds off for what you're going with but hear me out. Your character is conjuring up an astral construct from non-dimensional scrap material and using quantum mathemagicks to manipulate reality. Your "shaman's hexes" can be subtle tugs of superstrings to manipulate probabilities in your favor, ranging from the "negative waveform collapse" (misfortune hex) to the "resonance harmonizer" (chant/cackle), and the "spirit" can be your Self-Powered Intelligence-Relaying Interdimensional Transducer. Or something.

[Aaronar]

Thanks for the replies. Sadly the androids weigh 200 lbs on average, way too much for my medium sized eidolon to support, and I'm not fond of spending a round every combat to enlarge it. But for level 8 I will revisit the mount option. Can't believe I overlooked rejuvenate eidolon for spells...

I did consider the synthesist archetype but decided against it for the loss of action economy. As for damage output, I will be the weakest, no doubt about that. We have a bomb throwing alchemist, half-orc melee warpriest, archery ranger, and an investigator. Good thing I have Sparky.

I had completely overlooked the Spirit Summoner based on its name. Losing summon monster hurts a little bit, but it was only going to be a backup if the eidolon falls. I can live with that, hopefully. Wind spirit looks appealing.

I'm considering feats like extra evolution, resilient eidolon, and improved initiative. First level is where I'm mostly concerned about being the squishiest, would another feat be better to start with or should I hope the eidolon and rest of the party run interference for me?

[Melkiador]

If your summoner is focusing primarily on his Eidolon's power, then you will want to pump up your hp and constitution as much as you can stand to take advantage of Life Link. If you want to wade into combat with your Eidolon you will probably want to work on some teamwork feat combinations with it.

Personally, I prefer to rely on the power of Summon Monster(SP), and thus I now prefer Arcanist: Occultist over the Summoner. Not that there's anything wrong with going Eidolon focused Summoner.

[Aaronar]

My only problem with Life Link, unless I'm reading it wrong, is that it only kicks in when the eidolon is dropped to a negative hp total equal to or greater than its Con score and not when it's just dropped to negative hp. If I am wrong, be pleased to be, it would make Life Link rather useful.

Edited for autocorrect

[Melkiador]

Hmm. I seem to have been playing Life Link wrong. When I first read the class I didn't notice that Eidolons are not not dismissed by going below 1 hp like the typical summon.

[BretI]

You are reading it right. It prevents Eidolon death, but doesn't kick in until then.

Useful if you want to use the standard action dismissal to send it back and then later summon it back when you will have time to heal it. Not so good for keeping it active in combat.

[boring7]

Aaronar wrote:

Thanks for the replies. Sadly the androids weigh 200 lbs on average, way too much for my medium sized eidolon to support, and I'm not fond of spending a round every combat to enlarge it. But for level 8 I will revisit the mount option. Can't believe I overlooked rejuvenate eidolon for spells...

I'm considering feats like extra evolution, resilient eidolon, and improved initiative. First level is where I'm mostly concerned about being the squishiest, would another feat be better to start with or should I hope the eidolon and rest of the party run interference for me?

I think BretI was talking long-term. Eventually you will want that eidolon to be a large creature for the damage and such, and it might be worth going mounted at that point, keeping your Eidolon close for healing/buffing it and maybe even using mounted combat feats on it. You'll have to keep a scroll or two of reduce person (I think it works, casting link rules) in case of small dungeons, but that's no big deal.

I still think that Dex is your second-most important stat, that extra +1 or +2 you are getting at level 1 isn't worth it when by level 6 or so you'll be spending every round casting spells. Not to mention the AC and reflex saves are nice. Improved initiative gets a lot of press as the winner for theorycrafted "rocket-tag" fights, but I find not going first doesn't make that big of a difference in most of the campaigns I have played in.

Since you're focused on your eidolon and don't have a clear 1-20 build I recommend extra evolution. It is solid and it will help just about any eidolon build you end up making. Basically you are the eidolon, except you also get a free spear-stab/crossbow-shot every round.

Also: worry about hardness. It's kind of a big deal in this AP.