Summoning creatures with maximum health possible?

[Malagant]

As the title says, is it possible, by feat, ability, or magic item to summon creatures with maximum health? As a Monster Tactician Inquisitor, it would really be nice if my summoned buddies would last more than 1 or 2 hits and getting to attack before returning to the planes. At lower levels, it's not so bad, but at higher levels, say summon monster V, you have Bralani Azatas, 7d10+28 HD (66HP). Seems like it would be enough, but not when you are facing stuff that can chew through that in a single round easy. If they had more HP then even if they die in a couple rounds, they will have at least accomplished something useful. It does me no good to share my teamwork feats with summoned critters if they aren't there to use them.

[Melkiador]

Dying in one round is still pretty useful. That is damage your party didn’t have to take otherwise. Also, “It appears where you designate and acts immediately, on your turn.” So if your creature both got to do some useful actions and then got to prevent a heal’s worth of damage, then I’d say you’re doing pretty good.

And if you are the summoning type, then you should already have augment summoning, which would bring your example creature 80 hit points. Of course, this could still be brought down in one round by a heavy hitter, but it may give you an extra attack till death.

[Malagant]

Right, but this doesn't address the question.

[Melkiador]

If you are talking about the question of the subject of the thread, then no. There’s nothing that does that. There are options to improve summons, but none to use max hitpoints.

But the body of your thread raised issues that are part of the balance of being a monster summoner.

[Firebug]

Not exactly what you are looking for, but a 1 level dip in Bard for Bardic Performance +Poet's Cloak with one of the Linnorm Death Curse rage powers. Not amazing DC, but at least when they are alive they will get raging song, and when they die there is a chance of cursing their killer.

[Pizza Lord]

There's nothing I see initially that does what you're asking. Ferocious Summons would keep them around a bit if you were an orc.

Like Melkiador said in reply to your other concerns, the summoned creatures appear and act, so they should always be getting attacks or actions at least. Also, while it sucks they don't stick around, that is a bunch of damage you and your party didn't take. Against such foes you should start calling multiple weaker creatures from a lower list. They will still die, but will take more swings to clear and can be used to hedge in foes, provide flanking, and be there for your teamwork feats.

[Cevah]

Grab some Summoner's Idols at 50 gp each. These are one shot power components for summoning that adds +2 hp per hit die.

Summoner’s Idol wrote:

Source CotCTPG, RotRPG

These depictions of forgotten spirits can be used to augment summoning magic. If used as an additional material component for any summon monster or summon nature’s ally spell, the summoned creature has an additional +2 hit points per Hit Die.

/cevah

[The Mighty Tim]

While I don't think there's a way to get max health on a summon, Summon Good Monster expands your summon list, and more importantly for you gives summons from that list the diehard feat, which for many of the monsters is a good deal of extra health.

[Firebug]

The Mighty Tim wrote:

While I don't think there's a way to get max health on a summon, Summon Good Monster expands your summon list, and more importantly for you gives summons from that list the diehard feat, which for many of the monsters is a good deal of extra health.

That Diehard part of Summon Good Monster always confuses me.

Summoned monsters go away when reduced to 0 or lower or when they die.
They don't even get staggered at 0 like normal creatures, they are just gone.
So...sure, they have the feat, but nothing about Summon Good Monster or Diehard says they stick around at 0 or below. The intention is probably to have them go away at -Con, but that's not how the rules are written.

Conjuration-Summoning subschool:

Summoning: a summoning spell instantly brings a creature or object to a place you designate. When the spell ends or is dispelled, a summoned creature is instantly sent back to where it came from, but a summoned object is not sent back unless the spell description specifically indicates this. A summoned creature also goes away if it is killed or if its hit points drop to 0 or lower, but it is not really dead. It takes 24 hours for the creature to reform, during which time it can’t be summoned again.

When the spell that summoned a creature ends and the creature disappears, all the spells it has cast expire. A summoned creature cannot use any innate summoning abilities it may have.

[Ryze Kuja]

One thing you could do at the mid-higher levels is use a Summon Monster V spell to summon 1d4+1 SMIII creatures and summon them in such a way as to box your target in. Instead of one big summon that gets 1-2 shot, now they're forced to bull rush/overrun/attack 2-5 summons (these summons will still get one shot, but it absorbs equal or more hits, and gives your summons extra chances to attack because of all the potential Attacks of Opportunity if/when they're ignored and moved past, and provides flanking bonuses to your allies). Honestly if I were you, get Augmented Summoning and invest in some Summoner's Idols like Cevah said so you can summon a beefy Azata when you need one, but also consider getting Pearls of Power so you can cast some extra Summon Monster V's as 1d4+1 SMIII's once or twice a day.

[blahpers]

Yup, Diehard does nothing for a summoned monster. The design team done goofed on that one.

[Belafon]

Talk to your GM before taking this suggestion:

Most people just use the HP in the bestiary, but I don’t believe summon monster actually says that is the rule. If you are playing in a “roll for HP each level” campaign instead of “average HP”, then the Maximize (and Empower) metamagic feats could potentially be used.

From a practical standpoint this only makes sense when using rods. If you used the feat yourself you would need a higher level spell slot, in which case you’re better off just summoning a higher level creature.

[Melkiador]

This FAQ is semi-relevant: https://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1gh#v5748eaic9qli

Quote:

Half-Orc, Ferocious Summons: How does this ability work if a summoned creature disappears when it reaches 0 hp?

The summoned creature does not disappear at 0 hp, instead it disappears when killed (when its current hp get to a negative amount equal to its Constitution score).

posted May 2013

So just check with your DM.

[blahpers]

Melkiador wrote:

This FAQ is semi-relevant: https://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1gh#v5748eaic9qli

Quote:

Half-Orc, Ferocious Summons: How does this ability work if a summoned creature disappears when it reaches 0 hp?

The summoned creature does not disappear at 0 hp, instead it disappears when killed (when its current hp get to a negative amount equal to its Constitution score).

posted May 2013

So just check with your DM.

Oh hey, nice find. I'd be pretty surprised if that didn't apply to Diehard as well for any GM reading the FAQ. (Except in PFS, because, well, they're PFS.)

[Marcella]

There are a number of druid archetypes (including my favorite, saurian shaman) that let you add temporary hit points equal to your level when summoning your specialty critters with standard actions. As near as I can figure, that number of hp goes to *each* critter, not divided amongst them.

So, if you are a 9th-level druid who casts SNA V to bring in 5 crocodiles, that's a total of 45 temporary hp you're adding to the mix, not just 9 hp.

Also note that a few critters (boars, dire boars, and the styracosaurus if you're a dinosaur druid) have ferocity already without the Diehard feat.