Strongest/favorite summoner?

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MeTooThanks
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2023 3:24 am

Strongest/favorite summoner?

Post by MeTooThanks » Sat Feb 04, 2023 3:29 am

Hey everyone! It's been quite a few months since I've last played, and I saw that there was a summons rework which brought me back because I used to love playing summoners. Looking for suggestions on what you think is the most fun/most powerful summoner to play these days. Thanks in advance!


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Hazard
Posts: 1866
Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2018 8:27 am

Re: Strongest/favorite summoner?

Post by Hazard » Sat Feb 04, 2023 6:17 am

Shaman.

You get all the AC/survivability/disc with just a 3 level dip into monk.
You get AoV to buff your summons, you get mass haste to give them all extra 1 apr.
You get most every spell in the game that you can throw on yourself, henchmen, allies.

Shaman is really difficult to beat.


MRFTW
Posts: 503
Joined: Mon May 03, 2021 5:37 am

Re: Strongest/favorite summoner?

Post by MRFTW » Sat Feb 04, 2023 7:19 am

Shaman 22 / LM 5 / Ranger 3
Gifts:
+2 CON
+2 WIS
+6 Spot / Sail (your choice) or gift of crafting

7 Preepic feats:

Extend Spell
SF & GSF in Conjuration or Necromancy
SF & GSF in Transmutation
SF: Lore
Free Feat (2 if human)

6 epic feats (4 general, 1 ranger):
ESF: Transmutation
ESF: Divination (Shamans get GSF Divination for free)
ESF: Discipline
Epic Spell: Planar Conduit
1 free feat

4 Loremaster Secrets:
Lesser secret of the explorer
free lesser secret
Greater secret of Yoink
Greater Secret of Warding

This leaves a lot of room for Skill focuses in spot or sail, if you want, as well a massive choice of skills from Loremaster and Ranger. As well as doing literally everything in terms of QoL caster cookies (yoink, scry etc), it can also be an A tier spotter, sailor and climber as well as getting access to traps, stealth and animal empathy for 2 completely separate companions from your conduit/swarm.

Due to the broad nature of the skill sets, I do recommend playing as a human and seriously considering trading out the +2 CON gift for +2 INT. While the +30 HP is very good, a skilled player might get more from 33 more skill points with this build. However I will say that I've played numerous variants of this build in many different races, with many different stat lines, and they are all playable.


Wethrinea
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Re: Strongest/favorite summoner?

Post by Wethrinea » Tue Mar 07, 2023 11:10 am

Maybe not the strongest summoner, but Blackguard is very a fun summoner since you get a full BAB melee class that has a infernal/yugoloth/demon/fey buddy. You won't be casting spells, but you have a wide range of options for what else you can do. Want to be a cavalier too? Go for it. Prance about being all sneaky and dexterous? Works like a charm if you can give up the +5/6 corrupt weapon at 20 BG. Heck, could even make it an archer if corrupt weapon one day works on ranged weapons.

Ivar Ferdamann - Mercenary turned Marshall

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Myles Magnus
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Re: Strongest/favorite summoner?

Post by Myles Magnus » Sun Apr 30, 2023 6:02 pm

I wouldn't sleep on Warlock right now. They're the only summons that get resistance to word of faith. A big freaking deal.

"It ain't easy being green." -Gur'Durak

Gazfrost
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Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2018 2:36 am

Re: Strongest/favorite summoner?

Post by Gazfrost » Sat May 06, 2023 2:42 am

Shaman has my vote to be able to have the most powerful army at your side.
I really like the build with 27 Shaman 3 Barbarian.
You can go Zen Archery but I like to go Strength mele fighter option.
Having 2 Tribal warriors that are summoned instantly and at Max 21 level by level 30 that can be warded directly without using any Sequencers

Able to summon Mummy Dust .. planar conduit and as well Elemental Meteor that gives Monolothic Elemental
Many options to choose what summons to use depending on the dungeon

Last edited by Gazfrost on Tue May 09, 2023 9:53 am, edited 1 time in total.

Khorvale
Posts: 39
Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2023 12:19 am

Re: Strongest/favorite summoner?

Post by Khorvale » Fri May 12, 2023 2:04 am

Personal favorite is probably Blackguard or Pale Master because both are great for making more multi-faceted character builds than just primary-stat power builds (though of course PvP and maybe later game PvE suffers if you don't hyper-optimize) but in terms of the most powerful I'm pretty sure it's probably the Shaman, judging from the wiki anyway, due to how they apparently get to do, and synergize with, most things :)


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