building a summoner

[riddles]

so my bard died in his first session. not a happy day. so i'm looking at a summoner.

thing is, i don't know whether to go the druid route or the wizard route. seems druid gets me more skills and utility but with wizard alternate class features gives quicker summoning and wizard goodness...

any ideas?

[Albonor]

Conjurer 3- master spec x (complete mage)- Malconvocker 10 (complete scoundrel)- master spec (20-(13+x))

Ban evocation and necromancy (enchantment is to useful to buff your critters).

Try to trade your familiar for something else, otherwise take a rat and keep it in yout spell component pouch.

Note: summon monster, with a few exceptions ( but you don't need more do you) sucks when it comes to calling tanks and damage dealers. but it rocks when it comes to have something USEFUL...

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Wizard. Wizard Summoners are awesome. Otherwise you'll get hit hard by the casting times. I'd say go Focused Specialist Wizard heading into Malconvoker(CS). Snag Mass Snake's Swiftness and Haste, and use those in combination with Battlefield Control Conjurations and your army of beasties. Use the ACFs from Unearthed Arcana(except the spontaneous summoning one, it sucks), and see if your DM will allow Obtain Familiar to be taken and swapped for the PHBII variant Immediate Jaunt(It works by RaW but will probably get books thrown at you). There are 2 Conjuration variants in the DMG as well, both are a power boost for you but require a lot of extra bookkeeping. In fact, be prepared for massive bookkeeping. You'll want the stat block for all of the summons you use, with modifications from all of your feats and class abilities. I ended up with 20 pages on a 6th-level Malconvoker before. You'll want all of the Summon Monster spells, and the Summon Undead line in SpC is greatly useful for variety. Each of those spells comes with it's own list of monsters for you to go through, prune out the bad ones, and then type up a statblock for, modify the stats, modify everything determined by the stats, and then you summon the monster and cast a buff spell on it, meaning you change the block again.

But it's worth it when you cast 2 spells in the first round and then drink tea for the rest of combat while your minions do all the real work. :smallbiggrin:

[Heliomance]

If you an use the Enhanced Summoning conjurer variant from Unearthed Arcana, I'd recommend going Conjurer 5 rather than 3. The first few levels of Master Specialist don't get you much useful, from memory the real gem for summoners comes at lvl 6.

[Fizban]

Weather you choose wizard or sorcerer, don't forget about your Planar Bindings and Call [Inevitable]s. I hear the inevitables (especially the first one you get access to) are great for bringing along with the party, and they don't cost gold (and only a few xp). The bindings should never really cost you gold, and you can use monster SLAs to get spells you don't have (such as raise dead-Movanic Deva [Fiend Folio]).

The best thing your summoned creatures can usually do is grapple, since the bugs get big fast. Summoning a pair of giant centipedes or scorpions from Malconvoker and then using a quickened mass snakes quickness (or something) to grapple stuff instantly.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

A Wizard specialized in Conjuration is definitely the place to start. From UA you take Rapid Summoning and Enhanced Summoning (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/specialistWizardVariants.htm#conjurerVariants). Your conjured critters arrive one round sooner, on the round you cast it rather than on the next, in exchange for your Familiar class feature. You also get Augment Summoning in place of Scribe Scroll, definitely a good trade. You'll also want the Abrupt Jaunt variant from PH2, but it requires you to trade out your familiar which you've already done, so take the feat Obtain Familiar (CA) and trade that one out for it.

You'll definitely want Malconvoker from Complete Scoundrel, which you have to take Spell Focus: Conjuration for. That also qualifies you for Master Specialist, which I'd definitely replace with as many Wizard levels as you can. I think the Major School Esoterica from Master Specialist 10 is better than the 8th-10th level abilities of Malconvoker, considering the Rapid Summoning variant, so I would make this character go Conjurer 3/ Master Specialist 2/ Malconvoker 7/ Master Specialist 8. The Focused Specialist variant from Complete Mage is also worth considering, as it increases your spells/day to that of a Sorcerer in exchange for banning another school of magic. Conjuration is the most versatile school, capable of creating minions, dealing damage, controlling a battle, neutralizing opponents, and many other effects. I'd definitely take Focused Specialist, and pick Evocation, Enchantment, and Necromancy as your prohibited schools.

You'll have Augment Summoning for free at Wizard 1, plus you'll need Spell Focus: Conjuration. You get Skill Focus: Spellcraft at 4, Skill Focus: Bluff at 8, and Greater Spell Focus: Conjuration at 13. That leaves your feats from level 3 on for whatever you want to take. Metamagic School Focus (CM) is a good choice if you have any metamagic feats, Residual Magic (CM) is also good if you use metamagic, and metamagic feats like Quicken Spell, Split Ray (CA), and Repeat Spell (CA) work well with Conjuration.

In the lower levels use spells like Lesser Orbs, Glitterdust, Web, Acid Breath, and Noxious Breath until you can summon some decently beefy creatures. The Summon Undead line of spells is particularly good at creating meat shields, though they're not affected by Rapid Summoning.

With Arcane Spellsurge from Dragon Magic your Summon Monsters will be a swift action to cast, and you can use Summon Undead (SC) to fill your standard actions. With Residual Metamagic and Repeat Spell along with Fiendish Legion you can quickly fill the battlefield with more minions than you'll care to keep track of, while throwing around crowd control and/or damaging spells in the process.

[Eldariel]

Pst. Malconvoker is only a 9-level class. Also, the only really worthwhile ability above level 5 is on level 8, so if you don't plan on going that far, stop at 5 levels and take something else (Archmage comes to my mind, and a level of Mindbender could be especially useful for a summoner, making commanding your minions much easier. There're other great dip classes too).

[BlueWizard]

Conjurer is my favorite.