Hey guys,
So I've been doing a bunch of research into summoning lately and have run into several guides/threads on these forums regarding the topic. Especially at high levels, people generally seem to rate summoned creatures with spellcasting abilities far higher than beat sticks. It is usually cited that at high levels, a typical summoned monster can't really keep up with the AC/DR of the opponents. Its gone so far that none of the guides I've seen have even mentioned the fact that summoned animals gain either the celestial or fiendish template depending on your alignment (you get to choose if you're neutral, so you can always pick the more beneficial one), and when people on here mention it, it's normally in terms of the DR gained.
But these things can smite.
Lets have a look at the dire tiger. It's a typical beat stick on the summon creature 6 list with 3 attacks plus pounce rake (meaning you'll get 5 attacks every time you charge). Note that it's attack bonus is about 5 higher than most of the other stuff on the list. It also has 14 hit dice.
Just for fun, let's set up a typical combat encounter. We are level 13 and have access to summon monster 7. Because we're a good summoning build, we have augmented/superior summons as well as a greater rod of giant summoning. There is a bard or evangelist cleric in the party granting everybody +3 attack and damage through bardic performance. Furthermore, this campaign is hard. The typical opponent we fight is CR 17. According to the monster creation table (http://legacy.aonprd.com/bestiary/monsterCreation.html), this means a typical opponent will have an AC of 32 and 270 HP. It's also likely going to have DR 15 or something but that bit isn't particularly important.
Turn one, combat begins, bardic performance goes up and we use summon monster 7 to call in 3 celestial dire tigers at +8 str and con. They all pounce/rake and smite evil at the same time. At this moment, they have an attack bonus of 27, a damage bonus of 29 and they ignore all DR of the smitten opponent.
They deal, on average,
drumroll please,
467.16 damage per round (hits 80% of attacks, 15 attacks total).
WHAT??!
Why is nobody talking about the smite ability?
This thing isn't just good its hilarious. It's better than basically everything on the summon monster 7 list and about half of the stuff on the summon monster 8 list. Yeah, they don't tank as well as most of the outsiders but who cares? A dead monster does no damage and even if they survive, if the DM is attacking your summons, you've basically already won.
I dunno, I've been weirdly frustrated by all the discussion of combat control and utility casting when this cat can vaporize an encounter 6 CR higher than you.
"But Mike, it has to compete with the shadow demon dealing 1d6 damage as a touch attack and casting shadow conjuration"
