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I'm going to be running a 1e campaign for a new group fairly soon, and one of the players is playing a summoner (Vanilla, not Unchained). This is this player's first time playing pathfinder, and they aren't really an optimizer, so I'm not too worried about them running over the game. However at one point during their personal storyline, the BBEG of their backstory is going to realize that they're a threat and try to cook up something to take them out specifically. I want the encounter to mechanically feel like its a person designed and trained to beat the summoner character, without making the player feel like they're useless in a fight that's very much about them. It's a knife's edge, and after a few years of not running pathfinder, I'm not too confident in my ability to make the best encounter, so I'm looking for advice/resources that I can use to make the encounter better.
TL;DR Looking for help challenging a summoner without making them feel useless
The Control Summoned Creature and Bite the Hand spells.
Spells like Protection from (alignment) will totally negate bodily contact attacks by appropriately aligned summoned monsters, if the PC uses them. Fairly easy to get round with weapons or different alignments, of course.
The Banishment subschool of Abjuration specialises in getting rid of summoned monsters.
Otherwise there are spells like Homeward Bound, Dismissal and Banishment, Dispel Good (or Balance) or simply Dispel Magic. See also Unhallow, Alter Summoned Creature. Disrupt Connection hex.
Someone who can avoid and disengage from the summons and engage the summoner directly. I'd expect them to use invisibility and mirror image as defenses while their summons did the work, so probably someone with blindsight or something similar.
I agree that you should probably switch to Unchained Summoner. The original is kinda broken. Pounce as a 1 point evolution is nuts and getting Haste as a Second level spell is also crazy.
One major weakness for the summoner is they don’t actually do that well in social circumstances. Sure, they have a decent CHA, but they don’t have a lot of skill points and don’t get any social skills as class skills. They also have little or no reason to boost either INT or WIS. This means they have moderate success at convincing people but tend to be rather oblivious to the actions of others against them. They also have poor fortitude and reflex saves. The summoners eidolon does get both perception on sense motive as class skills and has more skill points available then the summoner. So, the eidolon might end up being more observant than the summoner.
My suggestion would be to separate the summoner from their eidolon and use subterfuge to weaken him. Maybe some sort of ninja/rouge using disguise to poison the summoner. Use a poison that weakens instead of kills and then have the ninja/rogue attack the summoner. Find some reason for the summoner to use his summon monster ability either before or after his is poisoned before the assassin attacks. Maybe the assassin stages a fake attack to draw off the summoned creatures and waits till the summoned creatures are busy before attacking.
The regular summoner really isn’t that problematic, except the early spell access can cause issues with item creation. It’s roughly equivalent to a druid of the same level.
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I think I should clarify, since I don't think I did a terribly good job portraying my particular issue. The player playing the summoner is one of the couple in the group who never really optimizes. They might stumble onto something strong while making something flavourful, but I'm not worried about them making something overpowered that will make it so that it is difficult to challenge them specifically.
To give more background information, the character was born and raised in a cult that masqueraded as a cult to the ideal of Perfection, but the cult is a front for a bunch of Shadow demons still loyal to Vyriavraxus to breed perfect hosts, so that when their lord 'inevitably returns' they will have hosts for themselves, and a host for him so that they can rule by his side as his inner circle. The cult has a prophecy for a 'Chosen One' who is destined to end their wait, and signal the time for the cult to rise up and claim their rightful places, as this Chosen One will be a perfect host for their lord. The issue is that while the PC was a candidate to be the chosen one, instead of carrying Vyriavraxus, a being of light made its home in their soul. the oracle of the cult dismissed the PC as a pretender there to get their hopes up, and was going to have them executed, they escape and end up finding their way to the rest of the party before the campaign.
Over the course of the campaign, the Oracle will use their escape to politick and remove rival factions within the cult and solidify their hold over the other demons there, before realizing that the PC is the actual chosen one, not a fake, and needs to be dealt with before they ruin everything. This creature would be the result of that.
The goal is to create or use something that would in universe theoretically counter the summoner, but mechanically make something that looks like it's made with defeating the summoner in mind, but without really countering them, since they aren't likely to be a large threat compared to the characters made by other players in the group who do optimize, including a wizard.
I probably should have stated some of this earlier, and I apologize for not doing so sooner.
Countering the summoner will depend on the summoner's play style. Is the summoner mostly using the eidolon or using the summon monster SLA fairly often?
Most eidolons struggle against DR, since most eidolons are based on using as many attacks per round as they possibly can, with none of those attacks going very high above level relevant DR. Eidolons also tend to have low touch ACs, so firearms or ranged touch attacks, can bring them down fairly quickly. Depending on the GM, I've found that some really enjoy when you have an eidolon, because they can "kill" it without the usual guilt from killing the PC.
A good monster summoning build is harder to lock down, because of its extreme flexibility, but it sounds like your player is unlikely to maximize on that front.
Be warned, summoner is an incredibly complicated entry point for a new Pathfinder player. It has many options that interact with other options. And it has many rules that are unique to it and how it works.
If your player is the kind of guy who enjoys reading a bunch of rules, it can be fun for him. But since you described him as someone who doesn't power build, I worry he wouldn't process all the ins and outs of the class well. At the least, you will need to "check his work" when he's done. You may very well need to help him build the eidolon.
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Be warned, summoner is an incredibly complicated entry point for a new Pathfinder player. It has many options that interact with other options. And it has many rules that are unique to it and how it works.
If your player is the kind of guy who enjoys reading a bunch of rules, it can be fun for him. But since you described him as someone who doesn't power build, I worry he wouldn't process all the ins and outs of the class well. At the least, you will need to "check his work" when he's done. You may very well need to help him build the eidolon.
As someone who's played a lot of summoners, I think even despite the years, I still remember enough to help them out. So far their level 1 looks fine. Since they really like flavouring things out, I'd imagine the unbridled customization of the Eidolon is what inspired them to take the class, which is why I'm somewhat loathe to make them swap to Unchained.
As for the expectations, I'm also expecting an eidolon focused summoner, and I have sent them the Summoner's Handbook to help them along. so giving them some DR may be a good idea.
The problem I have with thinking of how to counter a summoner is how to do it without completely shutting them down.
Protection from Good/Evil/Law/Chaos can shut down a number of summoned creatures due to how it works. It can be overcome with a spell resistance check, but can still be an issue. Although, IIRC this doesn't impact the eidolon it will apply to their SLA summons or spells. The eidolon is subject to banishment.
Using maze on the eidolon could be terrifying for the summoner too, but not too much better than simply banishing them.
If the do start relying on their SLAs having big AOE spell prepared on top of the Prot spell (already running) can be very effective.
Like I said, the hard part in my mind is not completely negating large portions of the character, like an enemy specifically aiming to foil you would.
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The problem I have with thinking of how to counter a summoner is how to do it without completely shutting them down.
Protection from Good/Evil/Law/Chaos can shut down a number of summoned creatures due to how it works. It can be overcome with a spell resistance check, but can still be an issue. Although, IIRC this doesn't impact the eidolon it will apply to their SLA summons or spells. The eidolon is subject to banishment.
Using maze on the eidolon could be terrifying for the summoner too, but not too much better than simply banishing them.
If the do start relying on their SLAs having big AOE spell prepared on top of the Prot spell (already running) can be very effective.
Like I said, the hard part in my mind is not completely negating large portions of the character, like an enemy specifically aiming to foil you would.
It's the hard part in my mind too, hence why I'm asking for help lol.
Honestly, maybe just build a summoner that will do the opposite of the schtick well. Sounds like you're player will focus on building their eidolon, build a summoner as a foil that will focus on using their SLA and overwhelm the PCs with action economy.