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It is widely believed on these boards that summoning is pretty much the apex tactic at mid and higher levels for powerful characters.
I have a game coming up (not for a while, but I'm a plan ahead kind of guy), wherein my most experienced player has told me he wants to play an Occultist Arcanist with a summoning focus. The other players are either moderately experienced or are being coached by one of the ones who are experienced, so this will be a savvy group, especially in optimizing.
I will be running an AP, and while I don't mind tinkering a little, I don't want to twist every enemy to have dismissal at will or anything like that. I also don't want to metagame that every enemy automatically knows who is the major threat.
So how then do I prepare for this kind of challenge, specifically the arcanist? I know mindless, animal intelligence, or otherwise non-tactical enemies shouldn't alter their behavior, but how can I realistically justify the intelligent ones making a b-line for him?
Furthermore, what are some tricks I can have up my sleeve I might not have thought of the average enemy can try? Shattering or greasing spell component pouches came to mind, readying actions for ranged attacks to interrupt spellcasting as well.
Let me know if you have any tips or tricks as a GM to make the game more challenging, but NOT outright nerf the arcanist.
Thanks!
Magic Circle Against X (Persistent if you want to be really nasty). Crush them with large spells such as Waves of Exhaustion which allows no save and more or less cripples smaller creatures. Cloudkill can also work if you're feeling a little more peckish and they are on the line of HD.
Outside of Magic, the problem is going to lie fighting against the action economy of the summoners. Strike when they are performing Round casts, use summons of your own, have a more intelligent enemy 'Handle' one of the lesser ones to direct it to the target (the summoner). Load up on Greater Dispels.
Its a pretty nasty cold-war situation, but you can always use the Thermopylae strategy and funnel them into areas with close confines (extra points if you use annoying Wall spells to divide and conquer).
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Magic circle against X and protection from X have already been mentioned - they can let you ignore summoned creatures.
Spells that can simply end summons will also be handy: the obvious ones are dispel magic, banishment, and dismissal, but the alignment smites (chaos hammer, holy smite, order's wrath, and unholy blight) and words (blasphemy, dictum, holy word, and word of chaos) can have a similar effect.
I'd do the opposite of Hubaris - stage fights in open(ish) spaces and provide foes with lesser minions. The PC gets to feel awesome because their summon chews through the minions, but you get to feel good that you've kept the summons and pets off of the real villian for a few rounds. Like how Robin always ended up fighting the henchmen.
A big strong enemy (a rager type or a straight two handed fighter) with powerattack, cleave, and great cleave or cleaving finish will reduce grouped summons to pink mist, augments or not. If you wanna throw the occasional non-dismissal curveball, this is one way. Also fits the "big strong and stupid" role as compared to the surgical strike on the summoner. It's tough to swarm a big nasty like that - just be cautious of him accidentally squashing lower level pcs who get in his way.
Aoe spells are the bane of summoners who like dumping out large groups of summons. If he wants to drop a cluster of wolves on your enemy wizard, just be sure your wizard has the selective spell feat - if he can drop aoes on himself, those low hp clusters will get baked. Admixture evokers can mix up the damage types of their spells if he throws out summons with certain elemental resistances. Iceball, instead of fireball. This may breed resentment if all your wizards become admixture evokers, but once or twice in a campaign? why not.
If he likes bringing out singular, more powerful summons, a decent ranger/guide archer/slayer with manyshot/ pointblank master will mop them up quick if they're at a distance or up close -- and you'll be letting him know, forgivingly, that they could have shot him to death, if they were a little less panicked (i.e, shooting up his minions). Send the occasional manyshot his way to remind him of this fact, if he's skating through all your battles untouched.
- Or if he's the kind to summon right onto the rear ranks of an enemy (say, on a wizard or an archer-type), a dual wielding inquisitor (who can drop bane on his weapons toward whatever enemy pops up), maybe a warpriest (with channel smite or using fervor) of an opposed alignment to the party - these can all beat down a summon quickly -- the idea is so that you won't be killing the summoner so much as chewing up his spells. He casts, the enemy does a 1 round wrap-up on said minions - If he keeps dropping swarms of summons, they'll be able to keep up.
Clerics are kinda the bane of the summoner - the one sure-fire thing that will irritate a summoner is if someone uses it against him - and does it better. While he drops summons, an evil cleric could raise dead (or have started out with a fat group of his own), and use negative energy channeling to keep his minions alive, while still having nasty spells of his own to stack the fight (level 1: Bane, bless... Level 3 prayer. Etc). With better AC and decent bab, that cleric will be more pesky than your party's summoner bargained for. Nobody does the necro-horde better than the ebil cleric.
Anyway, there's a few different tricks to use if his summoning starts making your encounters breezy for his party. Summoners get out of control if you take out the dispelling and banishment from your quiver, but they also - at least at earlier levels - tend to be somewhat squishy (as are his minions). You may want to let him go to town on a few fights, obviously, so it's not the "let's kill a summoner" show, but you'll also want to read up on the summoning lists he uses, just so that he doesn't drop some ridiculous damage resistant pixiebeasts/imps on your carefully designed critters. It's a bit demoralizing to GMs when they've got "Kobold Boss" all ready to drop a monologue and shine on, only to have his tribe wiped out by one spell: a squad of d3+1 cackling imps.
Your last ditch resort should be to target him directly, in which case, you build a bad-dude magus. Said magus is the bane of the summoner-wizard types. Blade dash past his minions, landing the dash attack on the summoner, then tossing in the full attack strikes afterward. If you're leery about just 1-round-dropping him, use spellstrikes like chill touch or ghoul touch to make him sick/paralyzed (Magus could have taken this with spellblending), and use combat maneuvers like trip or overrun (pick one, and give the magus maneuver mastery and the appropriate improved ____ feat).
The reason I say last resort is because you're obviously not trying to just kill him; a magus is a caster-killer. high mobility, swift action arcane pool enchantment bonuses, and full attacks on anyone within 30' (with blade dash, specifically) will jack anyone with a low con and low hitdie. Ultimately, after giving the summoner some aggro, you can easily move the magus away to pester someone else with another blade dash. If this is the road you want to take to make him afraid, stay away from the usual "rapier/scimitar dancing dervish" type, and go with a staff magus type and the like (lower damage potential, and lower crit rates, so you won't "accidentally" kill him in a single burst of hits'ncrits. Nail him with a couple of ugly hits and a trip to lay him on his back, then retreat (dash) when his allies drop by to save him. It'll be enough to make him reconsider sending all his minions into the fray instead of holding some back to protect himself.
@Ross: I do agree with letting their summons and the character's build shine, though if it does become a problem, terrain becomes your friend (and instant terrain such as Walls of Stone / Force / Fire / Prismatic become a lot more valuable). You can't make every fight in a 10x10 hallway after all without it feeling dull, forced and targeted after a while.
However there is a lesser known rule that you can always utilize:
Summon Monster I
This spell summons an extraplanar creature (typically an outsider, elemental, or magical beast native to another plane). It appears where you designate and acts immediately, on your turn. It attacks your opponents to the best of its ability. If you can communicate with the creature, you can direct it not to attack, to attack particular enemies, or to perform other actions.
What this means is that most creatures actually don't follow commands to the letter but do work with regards to their instinct and threats (read: DMs discretion). Combine this with Ross' idea and you can effectively 'force' them to tackle threats they can take instead of dog-piling.
This might not apply to a summoner or occultist arcanist who have extremely long-term summons (but it can still apply if they're using actual spell slots to add more summons), but hit & run tactics might be worth using. Every round that the summoner or monster can't locate or can't reach your monsters and NPCs is another round of that limited spell duration ticking down.
Two easy fixes, add additional encounters as needed and slightly increase the number of cannon fodder enemies the AP provides.
Walls of Stone / Force / Fire / Prismatic become a lot more valuable)
This is good advice. It lets you have a big room, but still create choke points.
It is important that you don't block a working tactic at every turn. Let players use summons to fight off hordes or trigger traps. If they keep using that tactic, then intelligent opponents that investigate the characters beforehand would have reason to prepare effective counters (forbiddance, dismissal, counterspell, or even using summons to fight summons).
If every BBG has the same shut down tactics, the players have the right to call shenanigans.
Other tactics to use - simulacrum and multiple image. The BBG uses simulacrum of themselves to find information on the PCs. Multiple image is then used to confuse PCs even more.
Invisibility - if the BBG can observe while unseen, so much the better. Smart BBGs won't attack while invisible until circumstances are just right. Information is more important than a blind fist strike.
At least the Occultist can't have more than 1 active Summon X in play at a time.
Depending on what he summons (and what level you're playing at) - if level 1, he'll likely use eagles because they get 3 attacks/rnd @ +3 each to hit. Be sure to use the Fly check rules: they must successfully hover to get in their 3 attacks, otherwise they have to move. (I learned this from running RotRL with a player using a Master Summoner.)
Grapple - his summoned creatures &/or the Occultist. (Most low level summoned monsters have low CMD.)
Nets & tanglefoot bags are very helpful. Also smoke sticks (obscures vision, which can help against his creatures); and thunderstones (deafness imposes a 20% spell failure for an hour if they fail their save.)
Because of the standard action summons, be on the watch for this abuse of the system: summon creature 1 rnd; wait for them to attack on the next, and then summon again, which replaces the first summons with fresh creatures who then get THEIR attacks, doubling the attacks in that rnd. Sure, it burns up summonings, but can be devastating. It's legal by RAW, but a complete cheese move.
And you want him to burn up his summonings, and to keep the pressure on! No 15-minute adventuring days.
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At least the Occultist can't have more than 1 active Summon X in play at a time.
Take note. This is a significant limitation. Also, don't forget the arcanist is also a 9-levels caster, so he has other tricks too. Summoning is nice but he can do a lot of other things as well.
Depending on what he summons (and what level you're playing at) - if level 1, he'll likely use eagles because they get 3 attacks/rnd @ +3 each to hit. Be sure to use the Fly check rules: they must successfully hover to get in their 3 attacks, otherwise they have to move.
They could just make a full attack from the ground.
Don't go specifically out of your way to counter the summons. Just make sure that enemies are powerful enough that the party as a whole is challenged. If it turns out that an APL+4 encounter didn't challenge 19 Celestial T-Rexes, make the next fight APL+5, and so on. This can then lead to 2 different problems:
1) The summoner is significantly more powerful than the rest of the party, and so you can challenge him without murdering everyone else or pulling your punches. Possible solutions include helping your (apparently experienced) group step up their builds, telling the summoner to take it down a notch or two, or if your players are okay with it, crank up the difficulty anyway and let the chips fall where they may.
2) You may end up challenging the group as a whole, but the summoner takes 80% of the combat time running his minions. Solution is to tell him to knock it off, not because of balance concerns, but because it makes the game less fun for everyone else.
Be aware the arcanist can and probably should also be preparing his highest level spells as summons too. Sure they take longer to cast and don't last as long but you probably already have a lot of feats in summoning. So why not prepare for what you are good at.
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Depending on what he summons (and what level you're playing at) - if level 1, he'll likely use eagles because they get 3 attacks/rnd @ +3 each to hit. Be sure to use the Fly check rules: they must successfully hover to get in their 3 attacks, otherwise they have to move.They could just make a full attack from the ground.
I'm not going to claim to speak for every GM, but I know I personally won't allow birds to use their talon attacks while on the ground.
I'm not going to claim to speak for every GM, but I know I personally won't allow birds to use their talon attacks while on the ground.Depending on what he summons (and what level you're playing at) - if level 1, he'll likely use eagles because they get 3 attacks/rnd @ +3 each to hit. Be sure to use the Fly check rules: they must successfully hover to get in their 3 attacks, otherwise they have to move.They could just make a full attack from the ground.
Then they'd just 5 foot step into the air.
Occultist doesn't get Handle Animal as a class skill, so the early summons are a problem trying to direct them. That eagle knows who the enemy is, but it will not attack in a coordinated manner. They will tend to attack the closest enemy and not reposition for optimal flanking.
Summon Monster has a short range. Archers and other ranged attacks tend to be effective.
The summoned creatures also tend to have low bonuses to hit. Good defensives AC or some DR can really slow them down.
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I'm not going to claim to speak for every GM, but I know I personally won't allow birds to use their talon attacks while on the ground.Depending on what he summons (and what level you're playing at) - if level 1, he'll likely use eagles because they get 3 attacks/rnd @ +3 each to hit. Be sure to use the Fly check rules: they must successfully hover to get in their 3 attacks, otherwise they have to move.They could just make a full attack from the ground.
The problem with that "realism" argument is that it's kind of a gut reaction where you say "that's clearly implausible", but you might be wrong. Take this example video of an eagle using both beak and talons while fighting on the ground. If you look around a bit, you'll see that that's a fairly typical way for eagles to fight; they use their claws to hold something down and then bite it to death.
It's really easy for us to make snap judgements to change the rules because we know better about what's realistic or not, but we tend to do that quite a lot without actually knowing better ourselves.
As soon as I said I will use the entire rules sets for controlling summons, including handle animal for animals, speaking a common language for intelligent creatures, fly checks for hovering and sharp turns and the like...and that I'd require him to have any monster he could possibly summon pre-statted with all templates, modifiers, and abilities written out so that we don't have to wait for it mid-combat....
...well, he changed his mind. Will make note of those tactics mentioned for the future, though, should a similar situation crop up. Really appreciate the input.
Summon Monster has a short range. Archers and other ranged attacks tend to be effective.
This shouldn't work past level 3. Then you can just summon air elementals with 100 foot fly speeds. That's a 200 foot charge. And they can start it from 30ish feet out.
The summoned creatures also tend to have low bonuses to hit. Good defensives AC or some DR can really slow them down.
DR was by far the worst for my summoner.
I see Magic Circle against X and Protection from X have been mentioned.
Consider using an Arcane Archer with the ability to imbue his arrows with antimagic field. The summoned creatures wink out in an antimagic field. And, the summoner will probably be happy you didn't target him with it.
Summon Monster has a short range. Archers and other ranged attacks tend to be effective.This shouldn't work past level 3. Then you can just summon air elementals with 100 foot fly speeds. That's a 200 foot charge. And they can start it from 30ish feet out.
You have the correct language to tell them to charge?
The Occultist is better than the Summoner in that way, being an Int based class so they have more skill points. Still need to invest in the languages.
The summoned creatures also tend to have low bonuses to hit. Good defensives AC or some DR can really slow them down.DR was by far the worst for my summoner.
Few summoned creatures can get through DR, whereas most melee fighters have power attack and many archers have deadly aim or clustered shot. Allows them to show off their massive damage capabilities.
Really if you call yourself a summoner and can't speak at least Auran, you are doing it wrong. "Hey you. Grab that.", solves so many problems when you are talking to a surprisingly strong and fast air elemental.
Consider using an Arcane Archer with the ability to imbue his arrows with antimagic field. The summoned creatures wink out in an antimagic field. And, the summoner will probably be happy you didn't target him with it.
Antimagic field is a 6th level spell. That's a 12th level character, minimum (Wiz10/ArAr2). Not saying this doesn't work, but it's a very focused response that doesn't become viable till much later in the game.
(Also, the arrow has to hit, which might be a problem for your 12th level character with a +7 BAB.)
With this concept in mind does anyone know if summoned monsters disappear anymore? It use to be when they died they were sent back to their plane, but Summon Monster doesn't say that any more. Does it say that somewhere else in the rules? If not then AOE and raise undead for a counter attack baby! This could make an evil cleric all kinds of sick and fun to play...
From the magic chapter:
"Summoning: A summoning spell instantly brings a creature or object to a place you designate. When the spell ends or is dispelled, a summoned creature is instantly sent back to where it came from, but a summoned object is not sent back unless the spell description specifically indicates this. A summoned creature also goes away if it is killed or if its hit points drop to 0 or lower, but it is not really dead. It takes 24 hours for the creature to reform, during which time it can't be summoned again.
When the spell that summoned a creature ends and the creature disappears, all the spells it has cast expire. A summoned creature cannot use any innate summoning abilities it may have."
The do. It's part of the rules of the Summoning subschool.
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Disintegrate the caster as he is trying to summon something. >.> How dare you try that s!&$ in my house.
Provide some enemies with (circle of) protection from Good (if the summoner is summoning lots of Good creatures. Evil if he is summoning fiends.
Sirocco is awesome to hit the entire party with and if they are using water elementals it pretty much makes them a waste of the summoners time in casting.
Having a caster doing Control summoned creature is another fun method.
Then there is dismissal...not on all but there can be a few who do this.
You could potentially make an Anti caster who sits back and dispels ever spell he is trying to cast. Not many people make Dispel/Counterspell characters because its not as effective as a Battlefield controller or other forms of magic...but it sure would be enough to piss off a caster.
Or you could be a real mean guy and make a fight against a Invulnerable Barbarian with all the Caster Hate Feats/Powers and set the stage inside an Antimagic field. Make the Barbarian B-line for the squishiest targets first and Sunder all the fighters gear with a non magical adamantine weapon. All that DR will be hard to bypass without magical means and once the front liners are weaponless and armorless they are pretty much done for as they will never do enough to break through that much DR.
Consider using an Arcane Archer with the ability to imbue his arrows with antimagic field. The summoned creatures wink out in an antimagic field. And, the summoner will probably be happy you didn't target him with it.Antimagic field is a 6th level spell. That's a 12th level character, minimum (Wiz10/ArAr2). Not saying this doesn't work, but it's a very focused response that doesn't become viable till much later in the game.
(Also, the arrow has to hit, which might be a problem for your 12th level character with a +7 BAB.)
As far as I saw the OP didn't state what level the party was at.
Also, who builds an wizard 10/arcane archer 2. Much better off to build Fighter 1/Wizard(or Sorcerer) (20-X)/Eldritch Knight X/Arcane Archer 2.
And, this has the same slightly lower entry level to when you can actually get into arcane archer. Which is level 10. You can take your first arcane archer level at 10, as opposed to 11. Although it does have the downside of putting you to levels behind on spell progression, so you wont cast 6th level spell to level 14...you will however have a much better to hit. Also, seems like you should be able to attack a square (with a durable arrow) and just have it land in the square. No reason why that shouldn't work.
Note that most of the above suggestions can be circumvented by a capable player or would just outright kill most characters/parties.
So far, DR and its ilk, are the only things I've seen that really counters the summoner, without also significantly hurting the rest of the party.
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Note that most of the above suggestions can be circumvented by a capable player or would just outright kill most characters/parties.
Sometimes a Character death is not the end of the world. In Fact sometimes it is needed to remind the players that things are serious and this isn't an easy mode adventure.
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As soon as I said I will use the entire rules sets for controlling summons, including handle animal for animals, speaking a common language for intelligent creatures, fly checks for hovering and sharp turns and the like...and that I'd require him to have any monster he could possibly summon pre-statted with all templates, modifiers, and abilities written out so that we don't have to wait for it mid-combat....
...well, he changed his mind. Will make note of those tactics mentioned for the future, though, should a similar situation crop up. Really appreciate the input.
That sounds like a bit of an overreaction though. I dunno if that's the way you told it to him, but this sounds a bit like you're going to punish him by making him adhere to some dubious rules;
- You don't need Handle Animal to make a summoned animal attack your enemies:
This spell summons an extraplanar creature (typically an outsider, elemental, or magical beast native to another plane). It appears where you designate and acts immediately, on your turn. It attacks your opponents to the best of its ability. If you can communicate with the creature, you can direct it not to attack, to attack particular enemies, or to perform other actions.
How good is "the best of its abilities"? Suppose the party ran into a wild pack of wolves. Would they use flanking against the party? I'd say so, since wolves are known as typical teamworkers. So if a while later the arcanist summons a wolf, it makes sense that that wolf will also take advantage of flanks against the arcanist's enemies.
- You only need a common language (or other means of communication) if you want to issue specific instructions to the monster. Learning just a few languages will allow you to command most monsters worth giving specific commands. Most of the really good ones are smart enough to speak a few languages like Draconic, Celestial or just Common. And as an Arcanist you should be able to afford some Linguistics, too.
- You don't need a Fly check to hover if you can just make full attacks from the ground. The only monster I can think of that might have to hover fulltime is the lantern archon (no ground speed, maybe it can't land) but that one has a +14 to fly so it succeeds on a '1'.
- Requiring statted out monsters for the monsters he wants to summon makes sense. Requiring statting out for every monster he possibly could summon sounds like a vendetta.
You're not making the same demand of clerics or druids, who also get Summon Monster/Nature automatically, right? Are you demanding that fighters have their combat routines with every possible weapon and set of buffs listed?
So yeah, I hope you didn't ask him the way you wrote it here...
Mooks mooks mooks!
Most summons have fairly awful AC's for their level. Mooks with composite longbows, greatswords, and feats like deadly aim and power attack can chew through summons fairly quickly. Serious brute monsters like giants can also get a summon off the field in a round or two.
Bringing the battle to the sky is also a good way to reduce the summoners power fairly significantly. The flying summons are a good amount weaker then their grounded counterparts (compare an earth elemental with a air element of the same size).
Encounters that feature lots of a specific element can make many summons require resist or protection, although sometimes the summoner can just pick the right summon for the situation (for example a fire elemental to fight the red dragon, or a water elemental to fight the shark). If you can make the summoner buff his summons for a round or two that is a significant chunk of resources.
Smite is very powerful, so neutral enemies are harder for a summoner to deal with then other alignments.
Many of the most powerful summons are large or huge later in the game. If the opponents can fit in smaller spaces, having the encounter in tighter spaces can limit the summoner to smaller creatures. Be careful of this backfiring however as 1d4+1 summons is a great way to clog up a room.
Use in an illusion or some disguised mooks or some other trickery to make the summoner expect one type of encounter, then deliver another. For example, a harpy wizard could disguise herself and her gargoyle minions as a group of burning skeletons or poisons centipedes.
Finally, if it is an intelligent opponent who understands magic, just leave for a minute or two after the summon appears. By the time the opponent reappears, the summons and a buff spell or two will have expired.
just leave for a minute or two after the summon appears. By the time the opponent reappears, the summons and a buff spell or two will have expired.
Minute per level summons, friend-o.
Counterspelling works. Dispelling works. Killing the low-CR summons quickly works. Any sort of debuff makes them so much waste. Control summons works. Drenching everyone in deeper darkness may both blind them and make sure they can't get specific orders. Area damage works pretty well, considering the weak CRs they have.
It is widely believed on these boards that summoning is pretty much the apex tactic at mid and higher levels for powerful characters.
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Let me know if you have any tips or tricks as a GM to make the game more challenging, but NOT outright nerf the arcanist.
Thanks!
Also, rounds, minutes, hours, doesn't matter for many enemies, especially if they have at will abilities, or something like regeneration.
{EDIT} Also, I would say that Dominate and Hold tactics would be the apex, but summoning is way up there.
v v v Oh, ok found it: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/advancedClassGuide/classOptions/arcanist .html v v v
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In the case of this thread, I was assuming an Occultist Arcanist, although there is probably some option that would let them do it as well.
Yes. It's the thing that archetype does.
That sounds like a bit of an overreaction though.As soon as I said I will use the entire rules sets for controlling summons, including handle animal for animals, speaking a common language for intelligent creatures, fly checks for hovering and sharp turns and the like...and that I'd require him to have any monster he could possibly summon pre-statted with all templates, modifiers, and abilities written out so that we don't have to wait for it mid-combat....
...well, he changed his mind. Will make note of those tactics mentioned for the future, though, should a similar situation crop up. Really appreciate the input.
Agreed. Now the player will come up with likely come up with something else.
I dunno if that's the way you told it to him, but this sounds a bit like you're going to punish him by making him adhere to some dubious rules;
You don't need Handle Animal to make a summoned animal attack your enemies: This spell summons an extraplanar creature (typically an outsider, elemental, or magical beast native to another plane). It appears where you designate and acts immediately, on your turn. It attacks your opponents to the best of its ability. If you can communicate with the creature, you can direct it not to attack, to attack particular enemies, or to perform other actions.
Correct, you don't need it in order to have them attack most creatures.
It is questionable if a summoned animal would attack undead, aberrations, and other unnatural creatures probably should require a Handle Animal trick.
Attack (DC 20): The animal attacks apparent enemies. You may point to a particular creature that you wish the animal to attack, and it will comply if able. Normally, an animal will attack only humanoids, monstrous humanoids, or other animals. Teaching an animal to attack all creatures (including such unnatural creatures as undead and aberrations) counts as two tricks.
So the question becomes what makes up the 'best of their ability'? You couldn't make a pony attack undead normally.
How good is "the best of its abilities"? Suppose the party ran into a wild pack of wolves. Would they use flanking against the party? I'd say so, since wolves are known as typical teamworkers. So if a while later the arcanist summons a wolf, it makes sense that that wolf will also take advantage of flanks against the arcanist's enemies.
Flanking with other wolves, perhaps.
Flanking with a specific character (such as the rogue), better make the roll.
I believe the other points stand though.
Anyone who is going to summon should have the creatures stats before doing so. Not doing so slows down the game. That should be made clear to all the players who may want to summon.
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@thegreenteagamer
Summoners (not talking about class, just regular summoning casters) aren't that hard to solve if you have appropriate creatures against them. A melee brute will prove to be completely locked and ineffective, while supernatural or spellcasting creatures will do the trick. Simply choose spells which would lock the caster down for example Ray of Enfeeblement might knock the wizard down unconscious, Confusion will affect entire swarm of summoned creatures, Invisible rogue can instantly down caster if he gets lucky, etc. Step away from standard challenges and play enemies smart.
Adam
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At least the Occultist can't have more than 1 active Summon X in play at a time.
Conjurer’s Focus (Sp): An occultist can spend 1 point from her arcane reservoir to cast summon monster I. She can cast this spell as a standard action and the summoned creatures remain for 1 minute per level (instead of 1 round per level). At 3rd level and every 2 levels thereafter, the power of this ability increases by one spell level, allowing her to summon more powerful creatures (to a maximum of summon monster IX at 17th level), at the cost of an additional point from her arcane spell reserve per spell level. An occultist cannot have more than one summon monster spell active in this way at one time. If this ability is used again, any existing summon monster immediately ends. This ability replaces the arcanist exploit gained at 1st level.
To be precise, the Occultist can only have one Conjurer's Focus (lasts min/level) active at a time. They can still have as many Summon Monster x spells in play as they want, as any other caster can.
I did not say summoned monsters would not attack, but that a) they would be on autopilot to the best of their respective intelligences without handle animal or a common language, and b) they have no means of intrinsically telling friend from foe aside from the one who summoned them. This means without a means of directing them, they will not know whom to coordinate tactical movement with and who to attack and who to ignore. They just show up and go after the person closest to them that didn't summon them in the most efficient way they can do so alone UNLESS they can somehow be told not to, whether that's handle animal, speak with animals, or in the case of the sentient, a common language.
EDIT - I also clarified they would recognize and work with those summoned as part of the same spell, but again, they would not intrinsically work with the rest of the party, and if summoned between friend and foe, for example, have a 50/50 shot of attacking the wrong guy unless clarified by the character summoning them.