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I'm trying to gather all the different resources together that augment Summon Monster and Summon Nature's Ally. I'm gonna try to build a non-Summoner Summoner, and I can't find a recent guide for it.
I'll list some I know of; if you know more, please post.
Mostly, I'll stick with Wizard, Sorcerer, Oracle, Cleric, and Druid. I know there are other options (Occultist Arcanist, Summoner), but I don't like those.
To cast as a standard action, you could:
For Summon Nature's Ally: Animal Shaman Druid, such as Saurian Shaman. By sticking to the animal of choice (in this case, Dinosaurs), you can cast as a standard action.
For Summon Monster: Sacred Summons feat. This is a crap option. First, you need an aura, which is slightly difficult to get. Then, it only applies to a very few of the creatures on the list (it also doesn't include celestial/fiendish creatures). If you wanted this, however, you could be cleric, dip paladin, or, if you're a wizard, pick up (or just dip one level into) the Magaambyan Arcanist prestige class. Another option for is Darkfire Adept prestige, but if you dip, you lose one full level of casting (but get Sacred Summons for free).
With Sacred Summons, you could pick up the feat Summon Evil Monster. That opens up options. It makes Sacred Summons kinda worth it now. You don't have to be evil, just non-good. Clerics do this well, as they come with an aura. Arcanes, as far as I see, have to lose a level of spellcasting to pull it off, to gain the aura.
To extend the duration of a summon:
Conjuration wizard gives additional rounds. At level 20, you have perma-summons.
There are a couple traits that add one round here and there, but I don't see that as significant enough to list. Though, if you're min-maxing, and have the open slots, they're worth finding.
Extend Spell is obvious, but still, gotta get it, I'd think.
To summon more creatures than normal:
Sure, you can just pick from a lesser spell level, but there are more options.
Superior Summoning feat: +1 creature, if you summon more than one.
Abyssal Bloodline: At level 15, demons and fiends get an additional summon per cast. If you're not a sorc, you could burn 4 feats (greater eldritch heritage) to get it at level 17, but no. That means, you could cast SM9 with Superior Summoning, and get three creatures from the highest list. Good stuff.
For multiple level 9 summons, you always have the Animal Shaman option of making them Young. That means, -4 STR/CON, -2 AC, -1 size, but you get 1d3 of them instead of just one.
To give your Summons general buffs:
Augment Summoning feat. It's a go-to feat. +4 STR/CON. That's +2 HP per HD, and usually about +2 to hit/damage.
Animal Shaman Druid (again). When casting an animal they're focused on, they get temp HP for free, and you can alter the spell level to add templates (-1 level for Young, +1 for Advanced, +1 for Giant).
A drow with the Blasphemous Covenant racial trait can summon demons with +2 HP per HD.
Diabolical Dabbler magic trait: +1 hp/hd for fiendish animals.
Deep Guardian magic trait (must be a dwarf): +1 morale bonus to attack/AC for burrowing or Earth Subtype creatures.
If you have a Wysp Improved Familiar, all creatures within 30 feet of it that share an elemental subtype with it gets +2 competence bonus to attack and damage. This helps summons, obviously, if they share an elemental type.
The last two options become better with the Versatile Summon Nature’s Ally or Versatile Summon Monster feats. With these, you can apply an elemental subtype to any animal (SNA) or replace the fiendish/celestial templates with an elemental one.
Idolis Varisian Idol. 75 gp. If used as a spell component, gives your summons +2 HP per HD.
Abyssal/Celestial Bloodline for Sorcerers give your summons DR/(Good/Evil) equal to half your Sorc level. But, at level 10, giving your summons DR 5 is redundant. Fiendish/Celestial/Elemental summons already get DR. But some creatures won't start with DR, so this is an option. There are a few more options that give DR, but they don't seem as good overall, so I'm not listing them.
The Evolved Summoned Monster feat can be pretty good. A summon doesn't have a bite attack? Give it one. The get the feat again to make one type of attack cause enemies to bleed. Again, to upgrade the damage die of one attack type. Biggest downside is it only applies to one creature per casting, and I like summoning multiple creatures per spell, if I can help it.
Technically an upgrade, you could get Moonlight/Starlight/Sunlight Summons feats for Summon Nature's Ally. But I wouldn't waste the feat on those.
Having more allies means area buffs become exponentially more powerful. The Flagbearer feat, Haste, stuff like that... really helps when you double your party members.
I'm running out of steam. But are there any other really important options I'm leaving out?
Don't forget items like rings of summoning affinity. For example, the angel one:
Aura: Faint Conjuration [Good]
CL: 5
Slot: Ring
Cost: 7,200 gp
Category: Ring
This ring is cut from transparent crystal. If the wearer can cast summon monster spells, the wearer adds cassian to the 3rd-level list of monsters she can summon with those spells, adds movanic deva to the 7th-level list, and adds monadic deva to the 8th-level list. Also, once per day on command the wearer can use this ring to summon a cassian, as if by the summon monster III spell.
Construction
Requirements: Forge Ring, planar ally or planar binding, creator must be good Cost 3,600 GP
Appears in: Advanced Class Guide
Don't forget that Shamans can also be summoners. With the Nature spirit you can have the Friend of Animals Hex that gives you spontaneous casting of Summon Natures Ally and all animals within 30ft add your Cha to their saves.
Expanded Summon Monster, Summon Good/Neutral/Evil Monster and probably a few more feats give you extra options. This is especially useful for sacred summons since it's often hard to find something to match your alignment types exactly, as you note.
Versatile Summon Monster can help you use creatures in different environments.
Summon Guardian Spirit is another way of getting minute/level summons, though limited. Also there's a bunch of SLAs it gets.
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1) your formatting is aweful, no structure at all. Hard to read quickly.
2) There's a Hunter archetype that adds one to the number of monsters summoned.
3) Everyone can get an aura with VMC Cleric
@Ellioti, I agree about the formatting. When I was typing it up, I was putting line spaces in to separate sections (which, even then, wasn't ideal), and once I posted, they didn't carry over.
And I had forgotten about VMC Cleric until a bit later. I'd like to find two domains (and maybe some variant channeling ability) that would really, really make it worth it, but yeah, I started writing up a sheet yesterday:
An elf Arcanist (School Savant - Conjuration (Teleportation), VMC Cleric. At level 11, get Bloodline Development (Abyssal). With a Robe of Eldritch Heritage, he can use a swift action to bump his abilities up to 15, giving him an extra summon, and more DR to his summons.
Feats were
1 Sacred Summons
1* Spell Focus (Conjuration)
5 Summon Evil Monster
9 Augment Summoning
13 Superior Summoning
17 ?
Though, the only reason I did just dip one level of Divine Strategist Cleric was so that I could say "At level 20, my summons become permanent". Well, that, and the one level loss, but still. Probably be more effective to just dip.
@avr
Expanded Summon Monster, Summon Good/Neutral/Evil Monster and probably a few more feats give you extra options. This is especially useful for sacred summons since it's often hard to find something to match your alignment types exactly, as you note.
I really, really wish Summon Good Monster had as much power as Summon Evil Monster. Summon Evil gives "Special: If you possess the Sacred Summons feat, you can apply it to a creature on this list whose alignment (as opposed to its subtype or subtypes) matches your aura." Summon Good doesn't have that.
As a PC, having your summons Smite Evil is probably much more useful than Smite Good.
@Reksew_Trebla, I do agree that being able to bypass DR with your summons can be vital sometimes, but three feats spent, and there are still tons of DR's out there than you can't get around. AND, if your build doesn't cast SNA, you have to tweak.
@pad300, I did kinda like the Occultist Arcanist. But you can summon those, what, maybe 3 times a day? Or you could do School Savant, and get x1.5 duration, and get another spell per day that lets you summon.
I really, really wish Summon Good Monster had as much power as Summon Evil Monster. Summon Evil gives "Special: If you possess the Sacred Summons feat, you can apply it to a creature on this list whose alignment (as opposed to its subtype or subtypes) matches your aura." Summon Good doesn't have that.
As a PC, having your summons Smite Evil is probably much more useful than Smite Good.
True. Summon Good does give the summons an extra ~10 hp (effectively) though, and from SM III+ it has some creatures with subtypes which Sacred Summons will work with.
Being able to summon pugwampis as a standard action via Summon Evil M. with SM II (if you're NE) is very, very nice though.
Was the Acadamae Graduate feat ever updated to PF?
Losing half your feats just so that you can get an ability at level 20 is worthless. In my previous build I posted (barebones build, I mean), I'm gonna start with one level of Divine Strategist Cleric. Then go Arcanist.
Feats:
1 Sacred Summons
1* Spell Focus (Conjuration)
3 Summon Evil Monster
5 Augment Summoning
7 Improved Familiar
9 Flagbearer
11 Superior Summoning
13 ?
15 ?
17 ?
19 ?
ARCANE EXPLOITS
5 Familiar
9 Counterspell
11 Bloodline Development
13 Greater Counterspell
15 ?
17 ?
19 ?
Smiting Evil would be really good for my summons, but then again, Summon Monster 5, summoning a Tiger, all it gives me is +6 damage on attacks against one creature. Which, yeah, good stuff. But I'd rather have all the other goodies that come with evil summons. And I'm sure I could get away with playing one evil character in a good campaign. Just talk to the DM about being aligned in main goals with the party, or something.
Pact wizard gets aura and sacred summons
Getting at least one of the moonlight/starlight summons feats is worth it. There are tons of ways to get 1 summon natures ally spells onto your list.
Prestigious caster should be mentioned with blackfire adept
Alter Summoned Monster is a great spell. Notably combos with Mount and Superior Summons
Zenj Totem Staff is worth looking at
Rod of Giant Summoning
Scouting Summons
Versatile summon monster
Versatile summon natures ally
Gird Ally
Instant Restoration
I've been discussing my changing Separatist cleric of pulura and she's focusing on summoning among other things on the forums in another post, but only thing not mentioned here is the Stargazer prestige if your summoning animals one of the options adds an extra one to the number.
Getting one action summons is a pain in the ass. Saurian druid does it if I remember correctly but heavy restrictions.
Wow, a lot of good ideas. 2 level dip into Stargazer allows for any animal summon that brings out at least two, bring out one more. And as far as I could tell, adding the fiendish template doesn't change the creature's type away from "animal".
That's my favorite new suggestion, but there are a lot of good ones.
"fiendish proboscis"....I try to stay away from infinite resource loops, if I can help it. This would mean a lv9 elf arcanist could cast 4 Summon Monster 5 spells that lasts 9 minutes....every combat. As long as he has a minute downtime to refill.
Ugh, just saw that I can't be evil alignment and get that prestige. I really wish I could figure out some way to score Summon Evil Monster as a neutral character.
Yeah Pulura only so one step of her alignment sadly. Been wrestling with quicker summons for my build but can get three summons from CG that are nice mid to late levels with sacred summons, will have to suffer full round summons. But otherwise I can spontaneously turn summons into heals and stars(void) spells(if I pray under the stars) anyhow, so taking summons and not using them all the time shouldn't hurt my build.
You'll just have to weigh up evil Vs good in character design. Easier being bad it would seem, games teach us odd lessons.
Getting one action summons is a pain in the ass. Saurian druid does it if I remember correctly but heavy restrictions.
Well, maybe not.
"Totemic Summons (Su)
At 5th level, a saurian shaman may cast summon nature’s ally as a standard action when summoning reptiles and dinosaurs, and these summoned creatures gain temporary hit points equal to her druid level. This ability otherwise functions as the dragon shaman’s totemic summons ability.
This ability replaces a thousand faces."
(Dragon Shaman's) Totemic Summons (Su)
"At 5th level, a dragon shaman may cast summon nature’s ally as a standard action when summoning lizards, and summoned lizards gain temporary hit points equal to her druid level. She can apply the young template to any lizard to reduce the level of the summoning spell required by one. She can also increase the level of summoning required by one in order to apply either the advanced or the giant template, or increase it by two to apply both the advanced and giant templates.
This ability replaces a thousand faces."
There is nothing to say you can't use SNA to call an animal that is not a dinosaur [or lizard for dragon shaman] you just don't get the added benefits.
I think Saurian Shaman is the go if you want to play a druid that leans heavily on summons.
I saw this thread and thought i would have a lot to contribute. But someone has thought of most everything.
I am especially disappointed that I am not the only one to have thought of the Wysp and Versatile Summon Monster combo. I like the aerial wysp and template for the flight speed.
2 things have not been mentioned. Being neutral in alignment has advantages for the summoning heavy character. You can choose the celestial or fiendish template when you summon, rather than have it set by your alignment. Sometimes very important.
Which synergy with the Envoy of Balance Pr C, which is an unusual as it is actually powerful. You can give summoned creatures the counterpoised template. There is other good stuff in the Pr C as well.
Finally the lesser rod of giant summoning is just brilliant at lower levels and costs almost nothing.
I'm gonna start with one level of Divine Strategist Cleric. Then go Arcanist.
Honest question here: is it really worthy to be a whole spell level behind a single-classed wizard, cleric or druid?
Djelai, I know common wisdom says no. But if I can optimize enough for where my summons can hurt enemies, then on the surprise round, I can get several attacks in from weaker summons. Compare that to: not the surprise round, not the first round, but the second (if I don't lose the spell in the first round), I get attacks in with a slightly stronger summon. The difference is two rounds of full attacks, which is usually a chunk of the battle.
In other news, I'm now building an Animal Shaman druid, to see how it can compare.
It doesn't look good so far.
A trick that is often overlooked is use destruction domain and natures ally to summon cyclops or as many as possible. Once you get to level 8 use the power of auto confirming crits, crits that a cyclops is guaranteed to get at least one of because of their abilities. The combo gives hundreds of damage In a turn and gives more bodies as well.
Stack superior summons and the usual feat enhancements and you have something nearly unbeatable in terms of summons and even beats out most blasting builds.
That is level 9 for clerics and druids.
But that is a superb idea.
Oh, nice. I thought about Spell Perfection, trying to maybe work it in, but I did forget about the second part of it.
Be hard meeting the prereqs, though, as Augment Summoning, etc, aren't metamagic feats.
In fact, I don't really know if you'd ever want to get metamagic feats, if you focused completely on summoning (which, you wouldn't wanna do, but yeah).
Maybe Vast Spell? So you're sure to hit all your allies with buffs. I dunno.
About the Cyclops idea, I'm still crunching numbers on the Druid build (I've been pretty busy), but at first glance, it seems pretty solid.
It'd be a full round cast, so they act on the following turn. So, as they come into play, you use the next turn's standard action to activate the Domain power. With Stargazer and Superior Summons, casting two levels higher, that's 1d4+3 Cyclops being brought into play, immediately next to enemies, critting them for over a hundred points each. That is, if you cast as a level 7 Summon Monster. At level 6, it's only 1d3 Cyclops, +2 only if you summon at least two on the roll.
So a level 13 (level 14, in my particular build), in two rounds, can do an average of over 500 points of damage (depending on how my Cyclopses are summoned), spread over up to five enemies.
K, I had to google it. Apparently, the plural is Cyclopes.
Halek, RAW or not, I wouldn't allow that at my games, so I won't make it into a character I make.
Reksew, I dunno if the benefit is worth three feats, but it is an option.
A preview on my druid summoner. Lemme know what you think.
Samsaran (Mystic Past Life)
NG
16 Druid (Saurian Shaman)
3 Starseeker
1 Monk (Sohei)
Progression:
6 Druid, 3 Stargazer, 1 Monk, 10 Druid
STR 9
DEX 14
CON 14 -2 Racial
INT 8 +2 Racial
WIS 18 +2 Racial, +5 Level
CHA 7
STR 9 -1
DEX 14 +2
CON 12 +1 (18 +4)
INT 10 +0
WIS 25 +7 (31 +10)
CHA 7 -2
TRAITS
- (Social) Adopted - Enlightened Warrior (Aasimar)
-
-
DRAWBACK
-
FEATS
1 Spell Focus (Conjuration)
3 Augment Summoning
5 Superior Summoning
7 Boon Companion
9 Improved Familiar
10*Dodge
11 Versatile Summon Nature's Ally (aerial, Chthonic)
13 Sunlight Summons
13*Nimble Moves
15
17
17*Skill Focus (Intimidate)
19
HEXES
- Feral Speech
DOMAINS
-STARS
Guarded Mind: +2 Insight Bonus to saves against Mind-Altering effects
Spells Added:
1 - Feather Fall
2 - Hypnotic Pattern
-DESTRUCTION
Destructive Smite:
Destructive Aura:
Spells Added:
1 - True Strike
2 - Shatter
3 — Rage
4 - Inflict Critical Wounds
5 - Shout
6 — Harm
7 — Disintegrate
8 — Earthquake
9 — Implosion
SIDEREAL ARCANA
The Pack: +2 Handle Animal. When summoning more than one animal, summon an additional one
At level 12, she'll stay in Small Air Elemental form all day, every day (and still cast), giving her fly speed. Summons flyers, her Air Wysp familiar helps all (wait....Wildshaping doesn't give you the subtype? Well, it'll still help the summons).
Her go-to summon spell will be the 1d4+1 Young Dinos version, from the list of her second highest spell level. Which turns into 1d4+3.
She can pick 6 spells from another divine casting class, and add them to her spell list. Haven't decided which class or spells yet, though.
Djelai, I know common wisdom says no. But if I can optimize enough for where my summons can hurt enemies, then on the surprise round, I can get several attacks in from weaker summons. Compare that to: not the surprise round, not the first round, but the second (if I don't lose the spell in the first round), I get attacks in with a slightly stronger summon. The difference is two rounds of full attacks, which is usually a chunk of the battle.
I get that, but acting during the surprise round and summoning as a standard action are abilities tied to your cleric dip. My question was more like:
- What are you getting from the arcanist that worth a whole spell level?- Why not going full divine strategist cleric, full pact wizard specialized in divination, or whatever singled-classed prepared spellcaster with abilities to summon as a standard action and act during the surprise round?
You're taking a level in sohei monk and using its bonus feat for dodge, really? Even if you're not inclined to use it to grab some mounted combat feat without any of the prereqs, deflect arrows would seem to be natural for someone who plans to hide in the back and let their summons do the fighting.
The saurian shaman's wild shape works at level-2 when not taking the form of a reptile or dinosaur. It might be an idea to try to work the shaping focus feat in there.
Spell perfection seems to powerful to pass up. For metamagic how about maximize/empower, quicken, and reach
@Halek. Because there are some lines that should not be crossed. That is one
Djelai, I see what you're saying now.
Arcanist would fuse Conjuration School (which starts good, then lessens in power), with the Bloodline ability to gain an additional summon (which doesn't come online until level 11). The additional summon is a guarantee, which will kick off Superior Summoning. That, compared to, say, a Pact Wizard (also evil, so I get a large list of Standard action summons), who casts one level higher (for one creature), or at the same level as the Arcanist, bringing out either 1, 3, or 4 summons. In that sense, it's better to get the guaranteed 3. Also, I really like the Arcanist's counterspelling, which is top-notch stuff.
I could be a good Pact Wizard, with Stargazer. That means either one summon at a level higher, or one level lower with a chance of either 1, 4, or 5 creatures. That would be slightly better (I like reliability, though), but I'd lose out on standard action summoning on a lot of creatures. I could go through the list of those that I can summon, and see if it'd be worth it, but I haven't gotten that far.
Halek, what Dastis said. It's an overpowered option that probably wasn't intended. If it was intended, I think it was a bad call.
avr, you're exactly right, Deflect Arrows is straight-up the better choice. I didn't really think about it.
And Dastis, on my Arcanist build, I could push Greater Counterspell to level 17 (instead of 13), use my level 13 and 15 exploits and my level 13 feat for metamagic feats, then level 15 for Spell Perfection.
And I think I will. I mean, I'll still be a caster, I still want some metamagic feats. An additional summon, and all summons gain an additional +2 hp/hd and +2 to hit/damage is pretty worth it. At level 15, I could also add a metamagic feat to my level 7 summoning spell for free, as long as it only added +2 spell levels initially. But I can't really think of one that would be worth it. Except maybe Reach Spell? Already, at that level, I could summon minions 70 feet away, though. I just looked through all the metamagic feats, and yeah, that seems about it.
Unless Ectoplasmic Spell works with summons (I would say prolly not).
I could be a good Pact Wizard, with Stargazer.
I can't seem to find this Stargazer you guys are talking about.
Could you set out what it is and where it is from so I can look it up. Please. :)
I could be a good Pact Wizard, with Stargazer.I can't seem to find this Stargazer you guys are talking about.
Could you set out what it is and where it is from so I can look it up. Please. :)
The Paths of the Righteous Player Companion.
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Summon Nature's Ally 1 has stirge on its list. That is just something awesome to note. ;)
I could be a good Pact Wizard, with Stargazer.I can't seem to find this Stargazer you guys are talking about.
Could you set out what it is and where it is from so I can look it up. Please. :)
The Paths of the Righteous Player Companion.
Thanks.
Now I know what you are all talking about.I don't know it is worth taking levels in the Pr C just for the Pack Sidereal Arcana. But the Pr C seems pretty good overall.
I don't think anyone has mentioned the , Cauldron of Overwhelming Allies.
You are right, nobody has mentioned it. Good idea it is.
I like summoning characters, partly stemming from relishing Michael Moorcock's Elric novels in younger days, and thought I knew all the [few] items that help. But it seems there is always something that escapes ones notice.
Man, that item is good. Kind of a game changer.
A 3 level dip not only nets me +1 summon, but also a familiar (that I turn into an improved familiar that gives all my elemental summons a constant buff), and the ability to talk to animals as a hex. I think it's a good deal.
I am not seeing how the heighten mount and alter summon monster trick gives you more summons per day. It requires more spells for less creatures. How is that overpowered?
It gives you summons which last hours, which means they can probably last more than one encounter and don't require actions to summon in combat.