i saw many people in this thread crying about master summoner and broodmaster

there are advantages but most of the people here just compare the "damage per round" their eidolons could do.

let me show you there are different options

the eidolon can grapple but grappling is normally bad. why grapple someone when you could kill him in this or the next round? if you only play killer parties and no roleplaying you dont need this. if you have a quest and you want to capture (and not kill) someone.... or the enemy is too strong to kill him in a few rounds....
grapple takes a standard action so you cant do a full round action. a weak eidolon wouldnt lose much dps if it grapples. so you can knockout one enemy with your weak eidolon that focus on grappling (pin the enemy)

a weak eidolon can still use wands. just maximize use magic device and the eidolon doesnt need more evolutions and attacks. you can reduce your eidolon by default so its harder to hit. just give it a wand of cure wounds.
a broodmaster could have at level 8 4 small eidolons with a use magic device of 1-2(ranks)+3(class skill)+8(skill evolution)+1(charisma including ability increase)=14-15 and nuke magic missiles


(umd doesnt say anything about emulating a caster level so you can use a wand of fireballs at level 1, right?)


there is another evolution that is normally nearly useless/wasted: web
have 4 eidolons that use 4x8 webs per day or a master summoner that has 1 web eidolon and summons many spiders

web hits easily and it takes the enemy 1 standard action to burst it. in other words: web disables most melee-enemies for 1 round. nice croud control (even if you party has only melee characters)

you could also ride on a flying mount that never engages in melee (though it needs only 2 evolutionpoints and 1 hd you should give it more hitpoints. otherwise just 1 arrow pulls you back to the earth...and not gently)

a master summoner + skilldolon is also nice