Advice on building a melee Summoner

[Tyghorn Hallukson]

Hello everyone, this is my first post so i'm sorry if it is on the wrong subforum. Also, i beg pardon for any language mistakes i made, not my native language.

As the title says, i would like advice on building a Summoner that can rely on melee abilities. My group will be starting a new campaign in some weeks and we are already thinking on our characters.

The idea is is simple. I would like to have my eidolon do the most part of combats, but if something bad happens i would surprise enemies by hitting them in the face, so what advice could you guys give me about how to build this guy?

We will be using the Ability Scores purchase system with 15 points.
What can you tell me about a good configuration of Ability Scores, Feats, Skills, Weapons, Magic Items.

I plan to play as human, but you can give me other race ideas if you wish. Eidolon building and modifications is up to you too, although i have in mind to play with an biped elemental.

Any advice will be welcome. We will also be using the Pathfinder Unchained Summoner's version. Thank you.

[cavernshark]

Here's a guide written about several different approaches to the melee summoner. It was written before Unchained, but you can probably use the general gist of the various builds to use a templates. The Commander (last entry) in the build types section might fit the type of summoner you're describing.

Tark's Guide to Building Tag Team Champions: (Melee Summoner)

[Renegadeshepherd]

I personally think that a reach based summoner is best for a human of low point build. Your having flanking bonuses and hiding behind the eidilon or friends means low health needed and a summoner doesn't need very large charisma either for most of its spells.

If you wanted to power game a half elf is the way to go. In addition to the favored class bonus the gaining any weapon of your choice is pure gold to a summoner because he has almost no good weapons. I've used TWF with a wakizashi on a summoner before and it worked surprisingly well. Most of the damage was based on crit fishing.

[Tyghorn Hallukson]

Thanks for the tips guys. Half-elf sounds really interesting now that you mentioned, it doesn't get far from the character idea and it gives these awesome bonuses. That crit build sounds cool to me, i think i'll walk this way.

[Renegadeshepherd]

Tyghorn wrote:

Thanks for the tips guys. Half-elf sounds really interesting now that you mentioned, it doesn't get far from the character idea and it gives these awesome bonuses. That crit build sounds cool to me, i think i'll walk this way.

Just got to warn you about one thing... Eventually you reach a point where the only time you will hit is a crit. A case in point is a beast with an AC of 40, even at level 20 bonus of +10 a roll of 20 and dex being +10 mod you would still miss with TWF penalties. So the only way this works after a while is improved critical giving you a. 30% chance to hit unless you buff yourself with some of your spells. If you or the party bard buff yourself a bit then you have more life of the concept without crits but it is going to happen eventually. At that point it will be more about your summons, eidilon, or spells.