Summoner (original and unchained) has always been my favorite class in PF1, the fantasy of being a master conjurer than can shape magic to bring forth creatures to do his bidding sounds amazing. So when I saw that PF2 transitioned the class from a system to another I was hyped..... Was is the right word, because to be entirely honest, the whole class feels like a glorified martial class Jojo stand instead of a specialised caster. So I thinkered a bit and I want some opinions and extra ideas. Mybgoal is to revamp the class to feel like the original while following PF2 general rule design.
It's an interesting idea but a little hardier to implement in a balanced way.
1st- Bring back [summon monster] as a class feature.
Summoner used to not only be about his eidolon, he had a lot of versatility both in fights and exploration activities thanks to 3+CHA free spell like summons. The feature would work very similarly than it does in PF1, but I would make it a focus spell instead so it is more limited in combat and more free form outside of it.
3+CHA feels too much, specially when we compared to things like Cleric Divine Font. Probably the correct option here is just CHA bonus with minimum 1.
I also feel that this need to be balanced removing some summoner/eidolon ability to compensate. Probably removal of Eidolon Abilities can be enough but this will greatly mischaracterize the most eidolons.2nd- remove the shared HP
You monky gets clapped, you get clap. It feels bad even if you are the "caster" with the most HP in the game. I would reduce the PC's HP to 6 and change the eidolon's HP based on it's type. Bear/plant? 10. Dragon? 8. Fey? 6.
Despite that be very flavorful I hardly see this as an advantage. Shared HP is usually more benefit for both summoner and eidolon than a limitation. For summoner this allow to have a really greater HP, for eidolon it's allow to be more easily healed. Also summoner looses mostly of it's base power without eidolon so allow the eidolon to fall independently don't fells really as too good benefit.
3rd- give actual spell casting instead of a small 4 spells max at all time. Something similar to psychic's 2 spells per tiers seem more than enough considering you're based on summoning instead of pure raw casting (tbh, it's mostly to make up for the 6 hp and not feel useless after using your focus spell)
Make sense but I just don't fell this worth. In general I think that spellslots bellow the 3 top levels are just useful for some buffs/debuffs. Rarely they are too attractive to me.
4th- either bring back evolution points or separate the eidolon's feats to the Caster's feat.
Some of the non eidolon's feats are great, but by picking them you basocally nerf your Jojo stand, it feels bad.
It's good but also may fall in too OP. The shared feats already are a way to avoid the Eidolon and summoner become stronger at same time and possible making the Summoner too strong.
IMO to make summoner to have a more summoner like feeling makes more sense just change the Master Summoner to be a Focus Spell similar to how Wild Shape feat works for Forms. Instead of just add extra spellslot to summon, it mais add summon a creature as focus spell to summon type of your choice of same tradition and add an special to allow to buy it more times to increase the summon options.
I agree. That's why I said before it's a little hardier to implement in a balanced way.
Due so many good features it's basically mandatory to remove a similar feature every time that a homebrew want to put another in order to try to keep the minimum balance.
The OP want a summoner more like a summoner than a Digimon Master to feels more like a class that specializes into summon creatures. That's why I suggested to change Master Summoner feats to work with Focus Spell instead (that's happen to Druids to allow the to be "unlimited" Shapeshifters). It's easily to do (it's just copy the Wild Shape feats and change them to work with Summon Spells instead) and removing the Master/Legendary Summoner feats. This allows the player to basically summon in every encounter without need to do too much class changes.
The all other 3 OP questions/suggestions is more like "I don't like how much Eidolon and Summoner are so intimately linked", "I don't like it don't a full caster" and "I don't like to sacrifice my feats to improve my eidolon".
That's why I explained. That Eidolon/Summoner link isn't really a bad or weird thing, isn't be a full casters isn't so much problematic (also the PF1 summoner aren't full casters, since the beginning they are limited to 2/3 casters like PF1/3.5 bards) and allow improve casters and eidolon fully separated is too OP (even companions requires feats to them be improved).
IMO just change the Master/Legendary Summoner to focus points is enough to make summoner more like a creature summoner specialized class. Any other change is too complicated to balance and may risk to nerf the class.