The summoner's handbook has a really nifty new cleric archetype, named the Herald Caller. It trades out medium armor and a domain for pre-req free Augment Summons & Superior Summoning at L4 & L8, respectively (as well as being treated as having SF: Conjuration for feat requirements), 4 skill points / level, and spontaneous conversion of prepared spells into Summon Monster (this is seemingly in addition to the normal cure conversion of spells)
I was planning on running a LG Half-Orc with the Tactics subdomain, but I'm honestly kind of stumped when it comes to feat selection past level 11. I'm planning on getting a Ring of Summoning affinity (Archon) by level 11, thus slightly negating the need for Summon Good Monster.
Here's what I was thinking so far:
20 Point buy: 16+2 / 14 / 12 / 10 / 14 / 8
L1: Combat Reflexes
L1: Endurance (Race)
L3: Power Attack
L4: Augment Summoning (B)
L5: Sacred Summons
L7: Improved Initiative
L8: Superior Summons (B)
L9: Quicken Spell
L11: Divine Interference
Suggestions and thoughts?
Ahrel Titanborne – Arqueros' favored
male half-orc cleric (herald caller) 1
LG medium humanoid (Human, Orc)
Init +4; Senses Darkvision 60 ft, Perception +6
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Defense
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AC 16, touch 12, flat-footed 14 (+2 Dex, +4 armor)
hp 10 (1d8+2)
Fort +5, Ref +4, Will +6
Immune none
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee MW Cold Iron Longspear +6 ((1d8+6) 20, x3)
Silver Cestus +4 ((1d4+4) 19-20, x2)
Ranged Sling +2 ((1d4+4) 20, x2)
Cleric (Herald Caller) Spells Prepared (CL 1st; concentration +3)
1st— divine favor (x2), magic weapon (D)
0 — (at will) create water, detect magic, light
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Statistics
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Str 18, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 8
Base Atk +0; CMB +4; CMD 16
Feats Combat Reflexes, Endurance
Traits ancestral weapon, fate’s favored, vain, wary of danger
Skills Acrobatics +4, Knowledge (Planes) +4, Perception +6, Spellcraft +4
Languages Common, Orc
SQ channel energy (2/day)
Combat Gear & Other Gear cold iron longspear (masterwork, consecrated), holy symbol (x3), leather lamellar armor, mirror, razor, silver cestus, spell component pouch, sunrods
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Special Abilities
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Ancestral Weapon Begin play with a masterwork weapon of either cold iron or silver worth up to 500 gp, and gain a +1 trait bonus on attack rolls with weapons made of your chosen material.
Aura of Law & Good Detect as a strong presence of Law & Good
Call Heralds A herald caller can lose a prepared spell in order to cast any summon monster spell of the same level or lower. She gains a +1 bonus on concentration checks to cast a summon monster spell defensively. This bonus increases to +2 at 5th level, and increases by 1 every 5 cleric levels thereafter.
Channel Energy (Su) (2/2 /day) Standard action, channel positive energy in 30 ft radius for 1d6 (DC 9).
Combat Reflexes Can make attacks of opportunity when flat-footed, and can make up to 3 attacks of opportunity every round
Darkvision Darkvision 60 ft
Endurance You gain a +4 bonus on the following checks and saves: Swim checks to resist nonlethal damage from exhaustion, Constitution checks to continue running, Constitution checks to avoid nonlethal damage from a forced march, Constitution checks to hold your breath, Constitution checks to avoid nonlethal damage from starvation or thirst, Fortitude saves to avoid nonlethal damage from hot or cold environments, and Fortitude saves to resist damage from suffocation. You can sleep in light or medium armor without becoming fatigued.
Fate’s Favored Whenever you are under a luck bonus, increase it by 1.
Favored Class Bonus Gain +1 HP / level (x1)
Fey Thoughts Acrobatics & Perception are always class skills for you.
Light Armor Proficiency[/B] No penalty for wearing light armor
Orc Blood Count as Human and Orc for all effects pertaining to race
Sacred Tattoo +1 luck bonus to all saving throws
Shaman’s Apprentice Gain Endurance as a racial bonus feat
Seize the Initiative (Su) (5/5 day) Can roll initiative twice and take either result, and grant this ability to allies within 30 feet
Spontaneous Cure A good cleric (or a neutral cleric of a good deity) can channel stored spell energy into healing spells that she did not prepare ahead of time. The cleric can “lose” any prepared spell that is not an orison or domain spell in order to cast any cure spell of the same spell level or lower (a cure spell is any spell with “cure” in its name).
Wary of Danger +2 trait bonus to Initiative
Evolved Summon Monster lets you slap a one point eidolon evolution on one of your summoned guys. Some of them are pretty tasty (Push, Reach, Pounce, natural armor) and you get to choose the evolution each time you summon, so there's a lot of versatility. Drawback is that the summon has to qualify for the evolution and summons weren't really specced out with evolutions in mind, so if your GM is strict RAW it's less cool than it otherwise could be (i.e. not letting you treat obviously four legged monsters as quadriped unless they explicitly have base form: quadriped spelled out).
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(i.e. not letting you treat obviously four legged monsters as quadriped unless they explicitly have base form: quadriped spelled out).
Any GM that would allow you to use the feat but not allow you to count a four-legged creature as a quadruped doesn't deserve to be GM'ing.
Any GM that would allow you to use the feat but not allow you to count a four-legged creature as a quadruped doesn't deserve to be GM'ing.
Probably true. I think some feel constrained to be overly strict when running a PFS game, and it's not really worth making a fuss.
Re: the OP, one thing I forgot to mention is that you might want to consider traits that bring Acrobatics or Perception in class. Perception is obvious. Acrobatics is nice for repositioning yourself without provoking attacks of opportunity. Basically tumble around, cast spells, poke people as they get close, rinse and repeat.
Also depending on your cash circumstance a good place to splash out some money is on an Opalescent White Pyramid ioun stone. Gives weapon proficiency and in PFS play slotting it into a wayfinder will give you a weapon focus. 10k GP can be a little steep but the step up from a longspear to a lucerne hammer is nice (and expands if you're going big).
Re: the OP, one thing I forgot to mention is that you might want to consider traits that bring Acrobatics or Perception in class. Perception is obvious. Acrobatics is nice for repositioning yourself without provoking attacks of opportunity. Basically tumble around, cast spells, poke people as they get close, rinse and repeat.Also depending on your cash circumstance a good place to splash out some money is on an Opalescent White Pyramid ioun stone. Gives weapon proficiency and in PFS play slotting it into a wayfinder will give you a weapon focus. 10k GP can be a little steep but the step up from a longspear to a lucerne hammer is nice (and expands if you're going big).
I'm already planning on using the alternate racial trait "Fey Thoughts" from Heroes of the Wild, which trades out the half-orc racial weapon familiarity for getting two class skills off a list - and I'm going with Acrobatics & Perception.
Good point with the Opalescent White Pyramid. Maybe an elven branched spear would be even better, with the +2 on attack of opportunities? I'll definitely consider it.
Evolved Summoned Monster was actually one of my other backup options, as the versatility is neat, but it seems like a waste to get it at L13 when I could have taken it earlier, if that makes sense? Something to keep in mind though.
Also, starting at L8 I'll get the Weapon Master ability, so that might also help alleviate getting random combat feats at higher levels.
Any other thoughts?
Probably true. I think some feel constrained to be overly strict when running a PFS game, and it's not really worth making a fuss.When running a PFS game, you'd hope they'd at least be strict enough to enforce Evolved Summon Monster not being legal in PFS.
Is there any reason to think it won't be getting in once the official publication date is upon us?
For the OP--is there a reason to put Quicken up so high? I would think about jumping evolved summon monster over it and maybe over improved initiative.
I was mainly thinking of having quicken there as an option for quickened divine favour, which gives an effective +4 luck bonus to attack & damage rolls at CL 9 with Fate's Favored. It seemed rather nice if I can't spend other actions buffing, and it allows me to self-buff and still standard action summon at the level.
You are right in evolved summon monster being useful at any given level after L5 though.
I was contemplating getting Hurtful & Cornugon Smash, but they also seem more useful at a lower level where clerics are expected to be more martial. Would there be a point in picking them up at the later levels?
I was mainly thinking of having quicken there as an option for quickened divine favour, which gives an effective +4 luck bonus to attack & damage rolls at CL 9 with Fate's Favored. It seemed rather nice if I can't spend other actions buffing, and it allows me to self-buff and still standard action summon at the level.
You are right in evolved summon monster being useful at any given level after L5 though.
Divine favor is sweet. Wouldn't you usually be wanting your fifth level spell slots to spit out 1d3 hound archons, though?
I think the reach cleric action economy is usually good enough to get the buffs done that you want done. Move to somewhere, cast divine favor, poke monsters as they close in, that kind of thing. It kind of depends on how interested the rest of your party is in maximizing attacks of opportunity. If your barbarian buddy AM SMASH-ing his way through everything then you have to adjust your approach.
I was contemplating getting Hurtful & Cornugon Smash, but they also seem more useful at a lower level where clerics are expected to be more martial. Would there be a point in picking them up at the later levels?
I think you're right that by level 13 you're mostly a caster. At that point you can either go for Minor->Major Spell Expertise or try and wedge in Spell Perfection.
If you wanted to try something a little wild you could also consider going CN and following Lamashtu. Deceit domain is solid and the summons are nice. Kind of depends how you feel about following a CE deity, though.
Good call on the Fey Thoughts, btw, I skimmed right by it looking for traits.
Evolved Summon Monster (which was the start of this quote chain) has already banned.
Feats: all feats on pages 136–159 are legal for play, except Animal Soul, Divine Protection, Evolved Companion, Evolved Summon Monster, and Spirit’s Gift. Pummeling Charge has been removed from the banned list and is now available for play.
Good to know, thanks.
This is not for PFS, so Evolved Summon Monster does not overly concern me. I'll look over the options it provides once more, and talk to my GM to see if it goes by unchained or "chained".
@ chuffster, I was thinking about getting Quicken Spell at L9 partially because otherwise I'd have to wait until L13 to pick it up (Divine Interference is non-negotiable in my opinion), and also because preparing a quickened L1 spell is not as big of a sacrifice when I can spontaneously convert it into a Summon Monster V with 1d3+1 hound archons. Though admittedly, if the feat is there solely to not be used, it loses its purpose.
Also, the character being Lawful Good is pretty set in stone, sorry! As to whether he manages to stick to the alignment is a different matter entirely, but it is part of the concept so far :)
What common high-level cleric feats are usually taken? (and though I suspect that this character will never actually get into those levels, I would like to have an idea of good options) I know that Spell Perfection was mentioned, but that requires a LOT of metamagic feats, and I have quite honestly little idea of which ones would be useful to a summon-focused build.
Also, I was planning on using Weapon Master from L8 onwards to pick up Lunge or random TW feats depending on the circumstances. Any suggestions for uses?
Finally, would I be better served by going Half-Elf in place of Half-Orc? I like the early-game survivability of Half-Orcs as they get the Sacred Tattoo option + Darkvision, but any character can pick up relatively cheap magical items that grant a +1 luck bonus to saving throws (The Calamitous mail comes to mind), giving the same effect, and the Half-Elf gives EWP: Elven Branched Spear in addition to access to Paragon Surge, which together with Weapon Master gives access to two-on-demand feats in one round, should it be needed.
Thoughts?
It's kind of crazy how many feats get opened up by Herald Caller and Weapon Master.
Spell Perfection on Wall of Stone looks pretty good for a summoner. You can also take Spell Perfection multiple times (since you already qualify)...
The other high level one would be Major Spell Expertise.
Not sure about the race. I went human with a reach cleric so that I'd still get some skills despite punting int, but the herald caller makes that a moot point. That archetype opens up so much it's going to take a while to figure out what to do with the possibilities.
I think I'm going Half-Elf, playing the long game. (by L5 the half-elf is equal in survivability using WBL, but edges ahead on aoo's)
So, after some investigating, I think I'm leaning towards picking up Spell Perfection at L17, and in order to reach the pre-reqs I'll grab Still Spell at L13, and potentially Dazing Spell at L15. Though, with my naturally non-high Wisdom, it seems like a waste to pick up most of the metamagic feats. Is a L5 quickened wall of stone worth three feats?
Can I take Spell Perfection multiple times? It seems to lack the typical caveat that you can take it several times, and as such, perhaps I'd be better off just Paragon Surging into it starting at L15, to make it more flexible?
Potential feat progression:
L1: Combat Reflexes
L1: Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Elven Branched Spear (B)
L3: Power Attack
L4: Augment Summons (B)
L5: Sacred Summons
L7: Improved Initiative
L8: Superior Summons (B)
L9: Quicken Spell
L11: Divine Interference
L13: Still Spell?
L15: Dazing Spell? -> Spell Perfection (PS)
L17: Spell Perfection?
L19: Celestial Obedience?
Is there a way to treat summon monster spells as summon nature's ally? The Versatile Summon Nature's Ally feat seems interesting, at least.