Crafting a Summoner - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Crafting a Summoner

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
lusden_veharo
Jan 02, 2011 11:16:32
Foreword: This is not a straight optimization request. If you have to preface it with "if your DM will allow..." then the answer is going to be "I'm already stronger than the party and don't need to make it worse."

I'm playing a human Wizard 5/Mage of the Arcane Order 6 in a play by post game, fairly high posting frequency, specialized in Conjuration and banning Evocation and Enchantment. For flavor, I am an extreme summoner with strong battlefield control, and almost no direct offense. The DM did not allow the Rapid Summoning varient from UA, but I have Rapid Spell and Metamagic School Focus, which should work just fine as a replacement. He did allow tapping other books to expand the Summon Monster list; not wanting to push my luck, I only added a few. SMII gained the Varoot; SMIII the Coure and Nashrou; SMIV the Arcadian Avenger, Kilareem, and Voor; SMV the Energons (both books worth); SMVI the Equinal, Elementite Swarms, and Sillit. I'm Lawful Neutral, so the assorted Fiendish Codex nasties are off limits.

Other party members: another Wizard, a Ranger, some kind of warrior, a sneaky thief, and two unknown. I'm guessing the warrior is a Fighter and the sneaky a Rogue, but I'm not certain; all I know is the equipment matches up. The other Wizard has told me he banned Necromancy and has few attack spells, which isn't really helpful in telling how he'll contribute to combat. Clerics and Paladins have been banned as characters, so we're going to have a few gaps.

With the background given, I'm facing two challenges. One, I need to pick a Planar Binding minion to mesh well with the party without accidentally rendering one or more party members obsolete, which is really hard when I'm pretty sure the Ranger is taking the class straight, and the warrior hasn't shown any signs of cool tricks.

Options like the Trumpet Archon and Glabrezu are right out due to sheer power level; I'm figuring that even a Barbed Devil or Hezrou are probably too strong. I haven't found anything with low-medium Cleric casting, say 6-10 levels, to cover the party's big weakness, but that kind of option would be ideal.

The second challenge is to not be obvious how much more powerful I am than the rest of the party. In our first combat, I've summoned the positive energy Energon against some undead, and have a pretty decent chance of using that one summon to win the battle (mostly low-CR undead, admittedly, but the other players might not think of it that way). A meatshield of some sort, or a buff-focused option, seem the best bets.

I'm looking at stuff like the Bone Devil and Rakshasa (low offense, terrifically hard to hurt) from Core, but am I overlooking something in other books, or overlooking a really neat trick among the core ones?
#2
KrootRebellion
Jan 02, 2011 18:36:34 I don't really know much about "the summoner" as a class-role, as I usually catch myself thinking; "do I really want my pet to outshine me?!"

- But on the other hand, I'm usually DM-ing, and would love such a build for a BBEG some time. I will be checking up on this post again, hopefully somebody have some usefull awesome-sauce for this ;)
#3
Chaos_Redefined
Jan 03, 2011 18:50:36 Unfortunately, I can't think of much with cleric casting at all, but admittedly, I'm used to looking at the evil list for malconvokers. This is one where you might want to talk to your DM about allowing something abnormal, just so you can play without obliterating the rest of the party. A unicorn or similar would work.

As for how to limit your strength, use multiple lesser summons, and use them for flanks/aid anothers, etc...
#4
bonzai
Jan 04, 2011 16:49:32 I am currently playing a Conjurer in a campaign that we affectionately reffer to as our Hogworts campaign. Each player is a specialist wizard. I am currently Conjurer/master Specialist, with the UA standard action summoning and Nexus Method. I have to agree, I can easily dominate an encounter and steal the show. In this case it's forgivable though as battle field control is crucial when you have less hp than a commoner. In trying to not take away from the others, I have also focused on teleportation magic as well. I have broken several encounters with those, and other conjuration battle field controll spells.

Summons, Regroup, Balefull transposition, etc... There have been a few encounters where I really didn't have time to even cast summons. I've saved the parties bacon more than once. The good news is that the others should start to scale up, and the evoker is already doing the flashier killing.

Another way to do it is to work more on synergizing with the party, so that they shine individually. Work on tag team combinations. Flankers for the warriors, debuffers for the casters, utility summons, etc...

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 lusden_veharo Jan 02, 2011 11:16:32	Foreword: This is not a straight optimization request. If you have to preface it with "if your DM will allow..." then the answer is going to be "I'm already stronger than the party and don't need to make it worse." I'm playing a human Wizard 5/Mage of the Arcane Order 6 in a play by post game, fairly high posting frequency, specialized in Conjuration and banning Evocation and Enchantment. For flavor, I am an extreme summoner with strong battlefield control, and almost no direct offense. The DM did not allow the Rapid Summoning varient from UA, but I have Rapid Spell and Metamagic School Focus, which should work just fine as a replacement. He did allow tapping other books to expand the Summon Monster list; not wanting to push my luck, I only added a few. SMII gained the Varoot; SMIII the Coure and Nashrou; SMIV the Arcadian Avenger, Kilareem, and Voor; SMV the Energons (both books worth); SMVI the Equinal, Elementite Swarms, and Sillit. I'm Lawful Neutral, so the assorted Fiendish Codex nasties are off limits. Other party members: another Wizard, a Ranger, some kind of warrior, a sneaky thief, and two unknown. I'm guessing the warrior is a Fighter and the sneaky a Rogue, but I'm not certain; all I know is the equipment matches up. The other Wizard has told me he banned Necromancy and has few attack spells, which isn't really helpful in telling how he'll contribute to combat. Clerics and Paladins have been banned as characters, so we're going to have a few gaps. With the background given, I'm facing two challenges. One, I need to pick a Planar Binding minion to mesh well with the party without accidentally rendering one or more party members obsolete, which is really hard when I'm pretty sure the Ranger is taking the class straight, and the warrior hasn't shown any signs of cool tricks. Options like the Trumpet Archon and Glabrezu are right out due to sheer power level; I'm figuring that even a Barbed Devil or Hezrou are probably too strong. I haven't found anything with low-medium Cleric casting, say 6-10 levels, to cover the party's big weakness, but that kind of option would be ideal. The second challenge is to not be obvious how much more powerful I am than the rest of the party. In our first combat, I've summoned the positive energy Energon against some undead, and have a pretty decent chance of using that one summon to win the battle (mostly low-CR undead, admittedly, but the other players might not think of it that way). A meatshield of some sort, or a buff-focused option, seem the best bets. I'm looking at stuff like the Bone Devil and Rakshasa (low offense, terrifically hard to hurt) from Core, but am I overlooking something in other books, or overlooking a really neat trick among the core ones?
#2 KrootRebellion Jan 02, 2011 18:36:34	I don't really know much about "the summoner" as a class-role, as I usually catch myself thinking; "do I really want my pet to outshine me?!" - But on the other hand, I'm usually DM-ing, and would love such a build for a BBEG some time. I will be checking up on this post again, hopefully somebody have some usefull awesome-sauce for this ;)
#3 Chaos_Redefined Jan 03, 2011 18:50:36	Unfortunately, I can't think of much with cleric casting at all, but admittedly, I'm used to looking at the evil list for malconvokers. This is one where you might want to talk to your DM about allowing something abnormal, just so you can play without obliterating the rest of the party. A unicorn or similar would work. As for how to limit your strength, use multiple lesser summons, and use them for flanks/aid anothers, etc...
#4 bonzai Jan 04, 2011 16:49:32	I am currently playing a Conjurer in a campaign that we affectionately reffer to as our Hogworts campaign. Each player is a specialist wizard. I am currently Conjurer/master Specialist, with the UA standard action summoning and Nexus Method. I have to agree, I can easily dominate an encounter and steal the show. In this case it's forgivable though as battle field control is crucial when you have less hp than a commoner. In trying to not take away from the others, I have also focused on teleportation magic as well. I have broken several encounters with those, and other conjuration battle field controll spells. Summons, Regroup, Balefull transposition, etc... There have been a few encounters where I really didn't have time to even cast summons. I've saved the parties bacon more than once. The good news is that the others should start to scale up, and the evoker is already doing the flashier killing. Another way to do it is to work more on synergizing with the party, so that they shine individually. Work on tag team combinations. Flankers for the warriors, debuffers for the casters, utility summons, etc...