Arcanist Occultist, a couple of questions.

[Jaxtor]

Ok so... This dude is crazy without trying very hard. I mean.. Lvl1 summoning monsters as a standard action and they last for minutes per level instead of seconds AND you use your special class pool to do it so it doesn't take up spell slots? YES PLEASE AND THANK YOU!

Anyways my questions come in with the ability "Balanced summoning". It's an arcane discovery that the arcanist can get via taking "arcane exploit" that lets them get an arcane discovery. I believe all of those names are correct. Anyways. Balanced summoning says that when you summon a creature you may also summon another creature of oposite alignment. Summon a celestial wolf and then get a fiendish hyena. That sort of thing.

Here is the link to the srd https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/wizard/arcane-discoveries/arc ane-discoveries-paizo/balanced-summoning/

Now I also know that when you use say a 3rd lvl summon monster to summon a monster from the 1st lvl list you get 1d4+1 of those monsters. With superior summoning that becomes 1d4+2. So lets say I summon 1d4+2 celestial eagles does that mean I also get that many other fiendish lvl1 creature of my choice?

[Meirril]

Two things. First thing is I can't find an Arcanist exploit that would allow you to take a wizard discovery. You might want to double check that.

The second thing is to answer your actual question. Balanced Summoning says you can choose to summon 2 creatures from a lower list of summon monster than the one you cast, as long as the two creatures are of opposite alignments along one axis. So either chaotic/lawful or good/evil.

It very specifically says 2. It also says any lower list, and both creatures have to be on that list. So no, it doesn't double the number of summons you make.

Normally you'd get 1d3 creatures of the same type from a list 1 lower, and go up to a 1d4+1 from 2 or more lists down. Getting a consistent 2 instead of a d3 is a good deal. Especially if you can gain access to additional choices, or have abilities that let you add alignment components to summons.

[Jaxtor]

It's an exploit called Arcane Discovery and it is from the book "Pathfinder Player Companion: Arcane Anthology" that is what hero lab says anyways.

[Meirril]

Interesting. Arcane Discovery isn't listed on the D20 site, but it is on Nethys. That is a strange omission.

[JiaYou]

To answer your question, no, since the wording of the feat is "you summon TWO creatures." Since you have to blow a feat to get that consistent 2, you're probably just better off going with Superior Summoning to get between 2 and 4 rather than just 2.

And yes, Occultist is quite neat. I am running a Monster Tactician Inquisitor in Curse of the Crimson Throne and it was a tossup between that and the Occultist Arcanist.

[Melkiador]

I think the discovery is less about having a consistent 2 and more about the versatility of having 2 different kinds of creatures. Though I can’t realy think of any combination that’d be that worth it.