Just reached lvl 7 with my current Summoner and I'm torn between 1 of 2 Feats. I will be taking both eventually, one at lvl 7 and the next at lvl 9. My question is which would you suggest for lvl 7, and which for lvl 9...and why?
The Feats in question are;
1: Heightened Spell (metamagic): This is for the Heightened Mount / Summoned Monster combination. (Yes, I'm familiar with the debate, my GM allows it)
2: Versatile Summoned Monster: For Aerial and Fiery templates.
What is your alignment? Do you already have Summon Good Monster? If you are good alignment I would suggest looking into that or Expanded Summon Monster. Im confused as to what you are expecting Heighten and Mount/Summon Monster to do? Either way, most Summoning you do should be through your SLA, which cant have metamagic applied anyway. So if you have to pick one of the listed feats, go with Versatile, but I would highly suggest taking Aerial and Cthonic instead of Fiery. Cthonic has the same bonus damage (as acid) on natural attacks, but also gets a burrow speed.
Thank you Genoin! To answer your questions;
I'm Neutral.
I do not have Summon Good Monster.
Heightened Mount / (Alter) Summoned Monster: I forgot to add that. Below is the combination.
(Quick version) By casting a heightened Mount spell you can then cast Alter Summoned Monster on that mount to change it into a creature from the Nature's Ally/Summon Monster list. Provided you heightened the Mount spell to the level of the creature you wish to change it to (If over lvl 1) This gives you a summoned creature from either list that lasts 2 hours per level.
Cthonic was a close choice with Fiery due to the burrow speed and associated utility that brings. I'm leaning towards Fiery due to the increased damage, but its a tough choice.
Oh. I had actually never considered that. Wow. That's cheesy as hell but it seems perfectly legal by RAW to me.
A lot of people arent aware of this, but any creature of the earth subtype with a burrow speed automatically gets tremorsense too, so that's even more utility. Generally worth it for the 1d6 damage loss (especially considering Fire Resist is somewhat more common than Acid Resist) in my opinion.
However, if your DM rules that you can use that trick with Mount, I would definitely take that one at level 7 and push Versatile to level 9. Especially considering you can have your effectively all day summon monster out and still use your SLA Summon Monster.
For bonus cheese, once you get 5th level spells, cast a heightened (5th level) Communal Mount and split it into either 2 or 3 mounts, then cast alter summoned monster 2 or 3 times to get something like 3 Tyrannosaurus (Summon Monster VII is a 5th level spell for summoners, so this should be a legal choice) that last 8-12 hours each
I never knew that a earth subtype automatically gave you tremorsense! Cthonic it is! Well worth the loss of 1d6.
One question off of this. If you apply the Cthonic template, does that also grant the earth subtype, or does the creature keep its original subtype?
It keeps its own type and subtype, but also gains the earth subtype. So a Beast becomes a Beast (Earth).
Excellent! Thank you for your help!