Cloth Summoner archetype

[Sigil Baram]

While looking at options for an NPC party backup/gap filler for a run of Carrion Crown (only 3 players who aren't minmaxers) I was intrigued by the Tatterdemalion Witch archetype but felt it a bit to back-line to quite fit the party makeup. The thought crossed my mind that the summoner might be able to make good use of the themes while being a little more front-line. This is also something one of my players might be interested in too, though, so I figured I'd give putting it together a shot.

Basically I looked at what spirit summoner traded for hexes and threw the Tatterdemalion stuff in it's place. It seemed pretty 1 to 1 though some of the levels are different. I wasn't sure if that was something worth addressing or if it could be left as is.

I then gave them a little template for the summons along the lines of fiendish/celestial to make them stuffed animals and some Eidolon adjustments to match. My hope is that these changes aren't huge ups or downs in total power...

I also didn't like the way the Tatterdemalion was like "give up 3 out of 4 of your cantrips to do not cloth specific things", so I thought maybe a single cloth specific cantrip that had a few more options but all of which were limited to cloth might work... and probably over killed it... I'm slightly corrupted by the more powerful cantrips in 5e... heh

Also, pretty iffy on the weapon and armor situation. All simple seems like too much random non-thematic stuff, but there are only so many soft/rope/cloth weapons. And only padded armor seems really awkward, but they should have something for defense probably because summoner normally does. Maybe something-something bonus while unarmored but clothed? @.@

Also, a more inventive name would be neat. haha

Cloth Summoner

[avr]

Toymaker, or stitchwork summoner, or fey tailor are all possible names IMO.

It's possible the stuffed monster thing will hurt the verisimilitude of your campaign. Basically it might feel too silly. Think about that before introducing this.

It doesn't feel overpowered to me, but padded armor is 3 AC worse than general light armor unless the character is investing hugely in Dex. It seems like it would make for just as much a back line character as a tatterdemalion witch. If you restricted them to nonmetal light armor you could avoid that effect to some degree, and leather lamellar involves enough thread that it should be in-theme. Simple weapons include a dagger which they really should be proficient in (thread doesn't cut itself you know) and in general the simple weapons are - simple. They don't require long training to know how to use. Simple weapons plus primarily cloth weapons, light armor, and ignore ASF on nonmetal light armor only perhaps?

[Sigil Baram]

Hmm laminar seems more thematic than other leathers, but still feels a bit too not cloth. Might give them the option for cha to AC similar to the unarmored magus archetypes with the requirement that they have cloth clothing. Theme it as a defensive use of dancing threads.

As for silly factor, it could go either way. There are examples around of stuffed creatures being macabre. Oogy Boogy and Sally from nightmare before Christmas for example. That's why I wanted the part about their visually quality being somewhat flexible. It makes up for the lack of thematic variation from doing a single unaligned template instead of the choice between fiendish and celestial. A not darkly themed character might even make them more refined and life like works of art rather than cute and toy like, similar to the effigy construct subtype in 3.5, sans mechanical bits.