| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
A chance encounter with the Half Elf section of Tyler's Race Guide, where Tyler opines that a First Worlder Summoner is good.
I believe that this archetype hasn't recieved a lot of attention, so I thought I would work with the idea.
First, let us have a look at a build. Race is half-elf of course.
20 point build
STR - 8
DEX - 14
CON - 14
INT - 12
WIS - 10
CHA - 16
Traits:
Diabolic Dabbler
Reactionary
A First Worlder will get excellent value from the Diabolic Dabbler trait, as it will enhance most of the summons cast.
Take the Arcane Training alternative racial feat offered by half-elves for Multi-Talented. Summoners should never multi-class, so an additional favored class is a waste.
Feats:
1st - Skill Focus: Use Magic Device
1st - Spell Focus (Conjuration)
3rd - Augmented Summoning
5th - Superior Summoning
7th - Summon Evil [Good or Neutral] Monster.
This character is most powerful when of an evil alignment. You get to apply your Diabolic dabbler bonus to near every summoning.
Another thing to note. Summon Nature's Ally spells are added to the First Worlder's spell list, not that anyone would take them, but nothing is removed. So you can still use Summon Monster and other good summons the Summoner gets, you just have to cast them as spells.
Why do I think First Worlders are good? I ask the reader to look at the archetype and compare it to a basic Summoner.
The Summon Monster SLA is replaced with Summon Nature's Ally, and the First Worlder gets some useful additional options to summmon at level 3.
This sounds like a drawback as Summon Monster is normally more powerful. But there is no restriction on the First Worlder using the summon SLA while the Eidelon is present.
And there are a number of changes to the Eidelon, notably changing the BaB to half the Eidelon's HD and it HP die type to d6. Sounds bad. But if you plan to use the Eidelon for something other than combat, this matters little. Most obviously, you can dedicate your Eidelon to skills and take the Skilled Evolution over and over, what is sometimes called a skilldelon. The Eidelon can be given a wand and use magic device and can contribute to combat that way.
Now compare the First Worlder to the Master Summoner. The Master Summoner has 2 extra summons/day and gets the augmented summons feat for free at level 2. And the Master Summoner gets to summon monsters, which is more powerful.
In the First Worlder's favour is the Master Summoner loses a whole lot of powerful or utile class features that the First Worlder does not, and gets an Eidelon as if they were half there level.
In sum, the Master Summoner is better at calling things to the battlefield, though perhaps not by that much, while the First Worlder is better at most other things. This likely puts them on a par, or close. And the Master Summoner is banned in PFS and will be by many GMs, which makes the First Worlder much better as you are more likely to be able to play it.
And you get pugwampis- aka "AoE no Save Misfortune hexes"
That is what their unluck aura can do. Forcing everything to roll twice for every saves, attack, and skill, and take the worse result. And these things are summoned on a low enough level that you can easily get a ton of them to canvas the battlefield.
It even has loopholes that let you avoid the unluck. Luck bonuses automatically make you immune, and you can take advantage of your summon nature's ally SLA because animals are also unaffected.
So send out your pugs riding t-rexes.
Yep, its summon nature's ally 2.
And you just need one in each 20 ft radius circle. As long as you can keep them alive.
And a correction. The charisma is my first post should be 18.
Stirges as a lv1 summons are also awesome.
|
And you get pugwampis- aka "AoE no Save Misfortune hexes"
That is what their unluck aura can do. Forcing everything to roll twice for every saves, attack, and skill, and take the worse result. And these things are summoned on a low enough level that you can easily get a ton of them to canvas the battlefield.
It even has loopholes that let you avoid the unluck. Luck bonuses automatically make you immune, and you can take advantage of your summon nature's ally SLA because animals are also unaffected.
So send out your pugs riding t-rexes.
So you need a way to give your allies luck bonuses. Or else you will make summoner an even more hated class than it is already.
So you need a way to give your allies luck bonuses. Or else you will make summoner an even more hated class than it is already.
Depends. Some classes/builds do not rely much on d20 rolls. How about a save or suck wizard? A hex slinging witch?
But yeah....generally, this approach works best if you can coordinate with teammates. It is not too hard to get a decent party together, but it requires specific character choices.
Pretty much any religious divine caster is golden. Divine favor is a great level 1 buff spell that gives luck bonuses.
For a rogue/skill monkey type position, you could go with an archaeologist bard.
Half orcs are always fantastic. So you could use them for any role...melee or gish are often thematically appropriate.
And we already went over how many pure spell casters (at least ones that don't use touch attacks or summons) will not notice any ill effect. Plus, pure casters and ranged characters could simply sit in the back line outside of the aura's AoE.
Overall, like many debuff builds, a pugwampi focused summoner has to really pay attention to teamwork and how they can work with the party's composition.
|
|
Casters may not need d20s to hurt the bad guy, but they may still need to make saves if the enemy has casters... But yes, they can do a certain amount of good if they just stay out of range.
Are there any magic items you could use? Something cheap you could hand out to people at the start of the day? (I am thinking for PFS, though I don't know if first worlder is legal for PFS anymore. But might also be important if you have any pet classes or if you need to do an escort mission.)
|
|
Things I could find:
5000 gp. Jingsana of the fortunate soldier is just a good thing to have.
4000 gp. Trap springers gloves.
6000 gp. Luck Symbol, if you have a halfling cleric in the party, they can channel to heal + give everyone a luck bonus for rounds equal to the healing dice.
Anything cheaper? (there is a 1K option, but it is only 10 charges and expendable)
Pugwampi are the only thing it has going for it, very powerful and very unfun for anyone facing them. Your DM will either negate this tactic with luck bonuses/gnolls, or burn out quickly (at least, I would).
Is it worth it?
Pugwampi are the only thing it has going for it, very powerful and very unfun for anyone facing them. Your DM will either negate this tactic with luck bonuses/gnolls, or burn out quickly (at least, I would).
Is it worth it?
Well, there are also stirges. Just think of them as a con draining spell that can be interfered with. And they are on an even lower list than pugwampi, making them even easier to spam at an earlier level. Hell, a nice pack of them is pretty close to death for low level characters
The first worlder's best summons have a weird strength in their weakness. Sure, a pugwampi or stirge can be killed in 1 hit....but that is a waste of actions from the enemy. The enemy either pays in actions, or has to deal with massive debuffs and con damage. As in, it would be stupid not to instantly get rid of that hassle...but it distracts you from the real problem of an armed party, no?
First worlder is kind of like a 1-2 trick pony witch. And those are rather good tricks. Not sure whether the GM retaliation through metagaming will work out too for you though.
People have decided that the First Worlder is all about Pugwampi. It isn't.
Say your party does not have luck bonuses until you reach a level where you can afford to buy an item giving each member a luck bonus. AT that point, its Pugwampi city. What can you do until then.
1 Call up Pugwampi when they can be placed to hurt enemies and not us. This will be often, though it won't always last the whole combat.
2 Flood the battlefield with summoned critters that you spend feats to amplify. You are not as good at this as a Master Summoner, but still it can be very powerful.
3 You have a full Eidelon that is poor at combat, but not useless, and has a pile of skills at +8. Lots of utility.
4 Your summoner is a 6 level caster with an excellent spell list.
None alone is game smashing powerful. Put 1 or 2 can swing encounters more or less solo. Add them up and you have a powerful character than can do many things.
So you need a way to give your allies luck bonuses. Or else you will make summoner an even more hated class than it is already.Depends. Some classes/builds do not rely much on d20 rolls. How about a save or suck wizard? A hex slinging witch?
The truly great thing about the summon line of spells is that if one creature isn't a good fit for an enounter, then another creature probably is. And you don't have to decide what creature to summon until you cast the spell.
No offense, but that list looks like:
1: Pugwampis
2: Standard Summoner.
3: Inferior to Standard Summoner
4: Standard Summoner.
I am not offended Petty Alchemy, but I don't agree. Have a closer look and read of my original post, and the list should look like:-
2: Standard Summoner.
A Standard Summoner's SLA allows them to cast Summon Monster, but not when the Eidelon is present and only one at a time even then.
So its Eidelon or one Summon Monster at any one time.
A First Worlder's SLA allows them to cast Call Nature's Ally, which per se is inferior, but the 2 qualifications are wholly absent.
So its Eidelon and as many Call Nature's Allys you can cast at any one time.
3: Inferior to Standard Summoner
The First Worlder's Eidelon is markedly inferior to a Standard Summoners if you want to use it as a melee beast.
If you want to use the Eidelon for skills and rogue like activities, which is a perfectly sensible course for a Standard Summoner, then the changes heart you minimally if at all.
These two points are the whole point of my original idea.
I have a question/observation about the trait diabolical dabbler.
None of the creatures summoned by natures ally have the option to get the fiendish or celestial template. Looks useless for us First Worlders.
*edited* okay i reread and saw the lines i missed, you would focus on casting actual spells of summon monster? whats the feat you have at 7th level?
what do you think of the religion trait Shaper of Reality, from inner sea gods?
Requirement(s) any of the Eldest
You can mimic the Eldest’s ability to reshape the world. Once per day, you can cast either a conjuration spell or a transmutation spell at +1 caster level.
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
|
Yay for people still using my (getting kinda outdated at this point) race guide! I do hope to keep updating it eventually, but I now have a kid and a job and am a freelancer for Paizo and some 3rd party content as well, so I just don't have as much time as I used to to devote to my guides. :(
Crafter's Fortune is a luck bonus and most Wizards and Alchemists will know it. If you coordinate it could be a cheap way, or if you get a wand of it and UMD.
1 I have a question/observation about the trait diabolical dabbler.
None of the creatures summoned by natures ally have the option to get the fiendish or celestial template. Looks useless for us First Worlders.
2 *edited* okay i reread and saw the lines i missed, you would focus on casting actual spells of summon monster?
3whats the feat you have at 7th level?
4 what do you think of the religion trait Shaper of Reality, from inner sea gods?
Requirement(s) any of the Eldest
You can mimic the Eldest’s ability to reshape the world. Once per day, you can cast either a conjuration spell or a transmutation spell at +1 caster level.
Hello Laurela.
On your questions.1 You are quite right. I have been looking at too many different summoner archetypes recently, mixing things up.
Diabolic dabbler is only useful in conjunction with summon evil monster, as that allows you give summoned creatures the fiendish template. And to take that feat you need to be evil.
You could take that as your level 1 feat, which means you get value out of diabolic dabbler from level 1, but that means slowing your access to other feats that augment your summoning spells.
2 Not focus on casting Summon Monster as a spell no. But include summon monster in the highest level of spells you can cast. Its a pity not to as you spend all your feats and [maybe] a trait or two on enhancing summoning.
3 My first post reads- Summon Evil [Good or Neutral] Monster. They all have an alignment restriction, depending on your characters alignment you only qualify for one.
4 The trait is OK. I would prefer reactionary and [if evil] diabolic dabbler, but if you get a campaign trait as well and its available go for it.
Hope my thoughts have been some help.
cartmanbeck- I believe in giving credit where credit is due.
I sympathise with life getting in the way of important things like gaming.