What are your homebrew fixes to the Synthesist Summoner?

[Reksew_Trebla]

So my fix for it is you take your physical ability scores, -10 to each, then add them to the physical ability scores of the Eidolon. This means if you dump your physical ability scores, you’ll be weaker than a normal Eidolon (sort of; you can still cast spells after all).

The reason for the -10 is because the formula to get an Ability MODIFIER is (Ability Score -10)/2 round down. If you simply added both Ability SCORES together, it would be more powerful than the sum of its parts.

But why not just add the two modifiers together then? Well what if you and the Eidolon both have an odd number same physical Ability Score? Before the rounding down, both Ability Modifiers would have .5 in the decimal place. I wanted to be fair about that, and allow the two .5s to add together for another +1 to the Ability Modifier.

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I’m interested to hear what your fixes are though.

[ShadowcatX]

This presumes the synthesist summoner needs nerfing because it is broken.

The synthesist is actually weaker than a normal summoner, the base summoner gets 2 actions for every one lf the synthesist. The synthesist has the advantage of being more survivable than the standard summoner.

[Reksew_Trebla]

ShadowcatX wrote:

This presumes the synthesist summoner needs nerfing because it is broken.

The synthesist is actually weaker than a normal summoner, the base summoner gets 2 actions for every one lf the synthesist. The synthesist has the advantage of being more survivable than the standard summoner.

It does need nerfing. It is in fact way stronger than a normal summoner. I mean, there's a reason almost all GMs, including Pathfinder Society, ban it with no chance of appealing that ban.

[Melkiador]

The synthesist only has a couple of real balance problems.

1) The stat replacement can break expectations in a low stat game or any point buy game. The opposite can also be true though. If you are playing in a high stat game, the synthesist could lag behind. When everyone is expected to have multiple stats over 16, the synthesist is under tuned.
2) The stacked hitpoints can make the synthesist hard to kill through regular means.

But in general, the synthesist is weaker than the base summoner, because you lose action economy. And any summoner could dump his physical stats and keep a low profile, so dumping stats in moderation isn't really unique to synthesists.

[Melkiador]

As for homebrew fixes, I'd do a few things:

1) Remove the replacement of constitution. Your constitution doesn't change from merging, including not gaining constitution from evolutions. This keeps the base stats more relevant, like the regular summoner. And really simplifies all the screwy constitution math.
2) Make the temporary hit points a low constant number, like 2 per level.
2a) Synthesist based temporary hit points regenerate at the rate of 1 per minute. So, the synthesist has fewer relative hit points, and they are less of a hassle to manage.

[Dragonborn3]

My usual change is use the summoner's ability scores, and then apply the Eidolon's ability score increases to Strength and Dex. Do not use the temporary HP as written. Probably add something like 1 temporary HP per Summoner level.

EDIT: Glad I managed to find this in time. This Archetype does the job of Synthesist in a more interesting and balanced way.

[ShadowcatX]

Reksew_Trebla wrote:

ShadowcatX wrote:

This presumes the synthesist summoner needs nerfing because it is broken.

The synthesist is actually weaker than a normal summoner, the base summoner gets 2 actions for every one lf the synthesist. The synthesist has the advantage of being more survivable than the standard summoner.

It does need nerfing. It is in fact way stronger than a normal summoner. I mean, there's a reason almost all GMs, including Pathfinder Society, ban it with no chance of appealing that ban.

In what way is it stronger? Does it do more damage? Does it's spells effect more? Don't put up a logical fallacy as your only argument.

[Lelomenia]

The issue with Synthesist as I see it isn’t that it’s better than base Summoner; you can argue about that if you want, but it doesn’t matter.

The problem is the comparison with CRB non-magic martials. As a CRB Barbarian or whatever, you can at least squint at base Summoner and say “i’m better than the Summoner PC at A, B, and C and better than his Eidolon at X, Y, and Z. So I guess that’s okay.” Comparing himself to a Synthesist, it’s just time to tear up the character sheet.

Full casters are ‘way better’ than martials in general, but they are different enough with little enough overlap that everyone can be happy.

Responding to the OP, I would add these two restrictions:
(1) The Synthesist’s physical ability scores while in fused form can’t be higher than twice the corresponding ability scores of the player character
And
(2) The Synthesist can’t learn any spells that are on class spell lists other than the Summoner and Unchained Summoner spell lists.

So basically a martial. With a tech suit.

[avr]

I prefer not to write extensive house rules, even ban lists. The synthesist summoner is a headache because it can show up martial characters in some ways and because its mechanics work differently than PF expects polymorph effects to work. I wouldn't ban it or rewrite it but I might push an interested player gently in the direction of the aegis, the soulblade, the vigilante or some polymorpher class so I wouldn't have to do so. One of those would likely cover the concept without requiring me to write something up.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

1) Use Spheres of Power.
2) Use Shifter class (the SoP one).

OBVIOUSLY opinions on using this method will vary. But it's an easier fix for me than trying to figure out what bits of the Synthesist are broken and how.

[KahnyaGnorc]

Aegis from Dreamscarred Press is basically a martial synthesist.

I think the main issue with Synthesists is that their biggest advantages are simple and straightforward, while their drawbacks are more complex, making it easy to even accidentally cheat/exploit the archetype, while virtually impossible to make them underpowered.

[Dragonborn3]

SilvercatMoonpaw wrote:

1) Use Spheres of Power.

2) Use Shifter class (the SoP one).

OBVIOUSLY opinions on using this method will vary. But it's an easier fix for me than trying to figure out what bits of the Synthesist are broken and how.

Alternatively, the Alter-Ego does this well too.