Prestige Classes for Elemental Summoners
[spoiler]
Archmage - Requires Knowledge (Arcana) 15 Ranks, Spellcraft 15 Ranks, Skill Focus: Spellcraft and Spell Focus x2, and- just be a Conjurer, already!NOTABLE BENEFITS:
-Mastery of Shaping: Poke holes in your crowd control spells!
-Spell-like Ability:
time stop is one of my faves. No one can counterspell you!
-Spell Power: +1 CL helps.
NOTABLE DRAWBACKS:
-3 feats to enter seems much. For you, Spell Focus: Conjuration is assumed. With Master Conjurer, you get Skill Focus: Spellcraft.
-Late entry. Entering at level 14 at soonest means that most games won't reach here.
-Each special ability costs you at least one spell slot. At least you can pay in specialty slots!
EXPIRATION DATE
-As many levels as you find useful. Most likely, that's 1, 2, or 3.
Incantatrix - Requires Concentration 4 Ranks, Knowledge (Arcana) 8 Ranks, Spellcraft 8 Ranks, Iron Will, a metamagic feat, and opposing one additional school like a specialist Wizard doesBEFORE YOU ENTER
-Ask your DM whether you can still cast spells you know from the school you forbid upon entering Incantatrix. The rules are unclear on this.
NOTABLE BENEFITS:
-Metamagic feats at levels 1, 4, 7, and 10.
-Cooperative Spell: With a Spellcraft check, use your metamagic feats on allies' spells without affecting the spell slot level. Works best with Persistent Spell.
-Metamagic Effect: With a Spellcraft check, use your metamagic feats on ANY spells or ongoing magic effects without affecting the spell slot level. Works best with Persistent Spell.
NOTABLE DRAWBACKS:
-You oppose another school. It's unclear whether you can still cast spells you know from that school. Losing 4 schools
hurts for a Focused Specialist.
-No abilities specifically for summoners (hence the rating), but this PrC is better in almost all ways than straight Wizard or Sorcerer!
EXPIRATION DATE
-As many levels as you find useful. Most likely, that's 1, 3, 4, 7, or 10.
Malconvoker (Complete Scoundrel 48) - Requires a Non-Evil Alignment, Bluff 4 Ranks, Knowledge (Planes) 4 Ranks, Augment Summoning, Spell Focus: Conjuration, ability to speak Celestial & Infernal, and the ability to cast summon monster IIIBEFORE YOU ENTER
-Ask your DM whether the Malconvoker's summoning enhancers work on all Elementals as well as Evil creatures. If so, this PrC is
blue. Since you're so focused on summoning, Malconvoker is at least
navy.
-Read and understand Treantmonk's
Mastering the Malconvoker.
NOTABLE BENEFITS:
-If you pass a Bluff check, your Evil summons are Extended. At L4, these summons also get +2 weapon damage and +2 HP/HD. At L5, you summon one additional Evil creature.
NOTABLE DRAWBACKS:
-You lose a caster level @1! You must
greatly want in to accept this loss!
-By default, Malconvoker abilities don't apply to all your Elementals. Instead, they apply only to Belkers, Elemental Grues, and Living Holocausts. See the Favorite Summonlings section for details.
EXPIRATION DATE
-5. If you want to focus on calling elementals too, 8.
Master Conjurer (Complete Mage 70) - Requires Knowledge (Arcana) 5 Ranks, Spellcraft 5 Ranks, Spell Focus: Conjuration, ability to cast L2 arcane spells, and you must be a ConjurerBEFORE YOU ENTER
-Ask your DM if you're using
Complete Mage errata. If not, you can learn
any Conjuration spell of a level you can cast at Master Conjurer2/5/8.
NOTABLE BENEFITS:
-L1: Skill Focus: Spellcraft. Whee!
-L4: Summonlings and called creatures get +your CL in HP
-L6: +1 Conjuration CL
-L9: +1 Conjuration CL
-L10: 3/day cast a standard action Conjuration spell as a swift action.
NOTABLE DRAWBACKS:
-Master Conjurer is pretty good for a dip, but not for the long haul,
unless you take all 10 levels and
greatly want the L10 ability.
-With access to all of D&D 3.5, you have these other PrCs competing for your time.
EXPIRATION DATE
-1 for Skill Focus: Spellcraft, 4 for the Minor School Esoterica, or L10 for the 3/day Quicken. I recommend 1, or if your guys
greatly would like the HP, then 4.
Paragnostic Apostle (Complete Champion 94) - Requires Knowledge (Arcana) 5 Ranks, Knowledge (Planes) 6 Ranks, Knowledge (Religion) 5 Ranks, ability to use L3 spells or spell-like abilities, and you must be part of the Paragnostic Assembly (Complete Champion 72)BEFORE YOU ENTER
-Ask your DM about the Paragnostic Assembly (
Complete Champion 72). Sometimes, DMs enforce organization reqs.
-Does the fast healing stack with a creature's existing fast healing?
NOTABLE BENEFITS:
-L1: Your Conjuration (Summoning) summonlings get fast healing 2. This increases by 1/3CL (max fast healing 5).
-L2: If you have Knowledge (Engineering) 5 ranks, your spells that grant an armor bonus to AC give +2 armor AC. I consider it meh, but some people want to use
mage armor or
greater mage armor (
Spell Compendium 136) on their summonlings or themselves.
-With Heighten Spell and Metamagic School Focus (
Complete Mage 46), you can enter this PrC at L3!
NOTABLE DRAWBACKS:
-There's only one compelling ability for you. Oh well.
EXPIRATION DATE
-1 for most people. 2 for AC enthusiasts.[/spoiler]
Summoner Feats
[spoiler]
Ashbound (Eberron Campaign Setting 50) - Requires the ability to spontaneously cast summon nature's allyEFFECT:
Summon nature's ally summonlings get +3 accuracy and double duration.
Handy for all summoner Druids. If only it worked on
all class's summonlings!
Augment Elemental (Magic of Eberron 46) - Requires Knowledge (Planes) 2 RanksEFFECT: Elementals you summon get +2 enhancement accuracy and damage
and 2 temp HP/HD.
The sooner you take Augment Elemental, the better. It's a spiffy boost, but there may be far better feats for your caster in general by the time you could get this.
If you can take
Improved Elemental Summoning, take that instead!
Augment Summoning - Requires Spell Focus: Conjuration OR Enhanced Summoning OR the Dragon Below Domain (Eberron Campaign Setting 106)EFFECT:
ALL your summonlings get +4 enhancement STR and +4 enhancement CON.
ALL Elemental summoners need this, and Augment Summoning is an expected part of any summoner build!
Divine Metamagic (Complete Divine 80) - Requires another metamagic feat, the ability to cast divine spells, and the ability to turn or rebuke undeadEFFECT: Apply Divine Metamagic to another metamagic feat you know. At cast time, you can spend turn attempts equal to 1 + the metamagic's slot level adjustment to cast this spell with no slot adjustment.
Best effects: Heigthen for reserve feats (but see Controversies, below), Persistent for buffs and 24 hour-long Summon Elemental pets, and Quicken for extra in-combat actions.
Easy Metamagic [Metamagic] ("Dragon #325") - Requires another metamagic featEFFECT: One metamagic feat you know has its slot cost reduced by 1 (minimum +1 slot level).
Handy with Quicken and Persist. Nasty on
Fell Drain (
Libris Mortis 27).
Fell Drain [Metamagic] (Libris Mortis 27)EFFECT: Whenever your spell does damage, it also inflicts a negative level. +2 slot levels
Suddenly, that flock of low-level summons is a
lot more deadly! Couple with Easy Metamagic or Practical Metamagic to make this feat practical. Combine with Metamagic School Focus to reduce costs to +0 on occasion
Heighten Spell EFFECT: Spells are in all regards considered a spell of this higher level. Use it to meet prereqs early.
Combine with
Divine Metamagic or
Metamagic School Focus to qualify for reserve feats early, like
Summon Elemental at L1.
Using Divine Metamagic (Heighten) for early entry is debatable, however.
Improved Elemental Summoning (Homebrew) - Requires Knowledge (Planes) 2 RanksEFFECT: Most Elementals you summon are one step up (Greater instead of Huge, for example)
and you can summon more of them at a time.
I made this feat because I tired of Elementals being ineffective by the time I could summon them. Here you go!
Imbued Summoning [Metamagic] - Requires Augment Summoning[/u] and
Spell Focus: Conjuration[/b]
EFFECT: When you summon a creature, it's instantly buffed with a L3- melee touch spell you have prepared, +1 spell slot level.
As-is, you're spending a low level touch range buff spell
and a higher level slot for your summonlings
and and action and possibly a spell slot to summon something. There are times when this is useful, but save this for the spontaneous casters built for it.
If you can bypass the spell slot level adjustment, this feat is
black. If you can bypass the slot adjustment, the buff spell level restriction, and the buff spell range constraint, this feat is
navy.
Improved Initiative [Fighter]EFFECT: +4 initiative.
If you go first, you are guaranteed a turn! Start the fight off right by your uber initiative!
Invisible Spell [Metamagic] (Cityscape 27), Requires another metamagic featEFFECT: Your summonlings and other spell effects are invisible akin to
greater invisibility! +0 slot levels!
Whoever wrote this feat probably didn't expect invisible summonlings. Most
Monster Manual or stock creatures would need
true seeing, blinsight, or blindsense to detect your summonling. Wow!
Invisible creatures attack against flat-foot AC and get +2 accuracy.
Metamagic School Focus: Conjuration - Requires Spell Focus: Conjuration OR a that you be a ConjurerEFFECT: 3/day reduce the cost of a metamagic feat you know by 1 slot level to a minimum of +0 slot levels.
Woohoo! Heighten Spell with this feat makes spamming the Summon Elemental reserve feat possible!
This feat is still useful in the expected sense. Apply it to
Fell Drain to make your summonlings bestow negative levels. Use it on
Imbued Summoning to make Imbued Summoning less burdensome.
I'm sure you can find some other uses for this feat.
Persistent Spell (Complete Arcane 81) - Requires Extend SpellEFFECT: Spells you cast with a fixed range or a personal range instead last 24 hours. +6 (!) slot levels
1: Ask your DM if "touch" spells work with this feat. If so, its rating goes up
greatly.
2: If you can avoid paying more spell slots or higher level spell slots,
this feat is wonderful! See Incantatrix's Cooperative Metamagic and Metamagic Effect abilities and the feat
Divine Metamagic for details.
If you
can't avoid such costs, you must either greatly reduce this feat's slot adjustment or ignore it. +6 slot levels is almost never worth it!
Practical Metamagic [Metamagic] (Races of the Dragon 101) - Requires (Dragonblood) subtype, Spellcraft 8 Ranks, a metamagic feat, and the ability to spontaneously cast L3 spellsEFFECT: One metamagic feat you know has its slot cost reduced by 1 (minimum +1 slot level).
Handy with Quicken and Persist. Go
Dragonborn to meet the Dragonblood prereq.
Practiced Spellcaster (Eberron Campaign Setting 50) - Requires Spellcraft 4 RanksEFFECT: Your caster level in the chosen class increases by 4 to a maximum of your HD.
This is slightly helpful for Malconvokers. Combine with
Spellgifted for best effect.
Quicken SpellEFFECT: You can cast spells with a casting time of 1 round or less as swift actions. +4 slot levels
Best used on buffs or crowd control spells once you can cast level 5 or 6 spells. Wizards are known for having a blah level 6 spell selection, at least in core.
The
black rating is from needing to wait so long, and from which spells you cast with it.
Rashemi Elemental Summoning (Unapproachable East 45) - Requires Spellcaster Level 5EFFECT: Air elementals you summon gain the Orglash template, allowing them to cast
cone of cold 3/day, among other things. Your summoned earth elementals gain the Thomil template, granting them slight defensive bonuses (+2 natural AC, DR 10/magic, cold resist 5, and SR of 5 + their HD) and some other goodies.
With the Summon Elemental reserve feat, air elementals become blasters! Stay out of their way or use
anticold sphere (
Spell Compendium 13) to become cold damage immune.
Summon Elemental [Reserve] (Complete Mage 47) - Requires L4 Spellcasting and a spell slot dedicated to a summoning spellEFFECT: You can spam a Small Elemental (water, air, fire, or earth) with a 30' tether. Its duration is 1 round of the highest level summoning spell you have in resesrve. This increases to a Medium Elemental with a L6 spell and a Large Elemental with a L8 spell.
One of the major
points of this guide is using the reserve Elemental ASAP! Combine this feat with
Heighten Spell and
Metamagic School Focus: Conjuration to start spamming Elementals at level 1!
Water Devotion (Complete Champion 64)EFFECT: Once per day as a standard action (and more if you ignore
Complete Champion errata), any character can dump out a full waterskin to summon a Small water elemental for 1 minute. This Elemental becomes Medium at L6, Large at L11, and Huge at L16.
This feat is cool! Now
anyone can summon a water elemental, if only for a short time! Since it's summoned, other summon boosters (just about everything in this guide) apply.
If you play with
Complete Champion errata, you're limited to using this feat 1/day. You
can retake the feat to gain another daily use each time, but it ain't worth it.
If you ignore the errata (which I recommend), you can spend a turn or rebuke undead attempt to summon another water elemental.[/spoiler]
Summoner Items
[spoiler]
Ehlonna's Brooch - Masterwork Holy Symbol (350G, Requires Patron Deity: Ehlonna, Complete Champion 134)EFFECT: Summonlings have +1 HP/HD. These are real HP, not temporary HP.
Note that this is a nonmagical item.
Metamagic Rod: Chain (14,000G Lesser, 54,000G Normal, 121,500G Greater, Magic Item Compendium 165)EFFECT:
Chain Spell 3/day. Lesser rods work on spell levels 3-, normals on L6-, and greaters on L9-. You need only possess this rod to benefit from it. You may only use no more than one metamagic rod per spell.
Give your party
nerveskitter (
Spell Compendium 146) with this. If you can afford it,
polymorph your party or/and army into something nasty, like
hydras, including pyrohydras or cryohydras as appropriate.
Metamagic Rod: Extend (3000G Lesser, 11,000G Normal, 24,500G Greater)EFFECT: Extend Spell 3/day. Lesser rods work on spell levels 3-, normals on L6-, and greaters on L9-. You need only possess this rod to benefit from it. You may only use no more than one metamagic rod per spell.
Handy for making crowd control spells, buffs, or summons last just a
bit longer.
Metamagic Rod: Quicken (35,000G Lesser, 75,500G Normal, 170,000G Greater)EFFECT: Quicken Spell 3/day. Lesser rods work on spell levels 3-, normals on L6-, and greaters on L9-. You need only possess this rod to benefit from it. You may only use no more than one metamagic rod per spell.
Very expensive, but possibly cheaper than the spell slots. The lesser is probably the best deal, so you can drop a mass buff or distracting summon or a crowd control spell in a pinch.
Metamagic Rod: Reach (9000G Lesser, 32,500G Normal, 73,00G Greater, Magic Item Compendium 165)EFFECT:
Reach Spell 3/day. Lesser rods work on spell levels 3-, normals on L6-, and greaters on L9-. You need only possess this rod to benefit from it. You may only use no more than one metamagic rod per spell.
Give summons touch buffs at range, such as
cat's grace or
barkskin. If you have
Augment Summoning (and you should!), your summonlings already have the effects of
bull's strength and
bear's endurance.
See
Treantmonk's Guide to Wizards for spell ratings and descriptions.
Orange Ioun Stone (30,000G)EFFECT: +1 CL. Only one orange ioun stone affects you at a time.
Ring of Arcane Might (20,000G, Complete Arcane 144)EFFECT: +1 CL on arcane spells. Only one of these items affects you at a time.
Ring of Mighty Summons (14,000G, Complete Mage 127)EFFECT: Summonlings have max HP per HD, but their duration is halved.[/spoiler]
Wondrous Locations
[spoiler]
Metamagic Storm (Requires 1 Metamagic Feat, 5000G, Lasts 1 Year, Complete Mage 151)EFFECT: Get a metamagic feat for 1 year*.
Sometimes, you really want another metamagic feat for cheap. This can do it.
*The metamagic feat granted by a Metamagic Storm can't be used as a prereq. You must meet all prereqs for the bonus metamagic feat before choosing it.
Otyugh Hole (3000G, Lasts Permanently, Complete Scoundrel 151)EFFECT: You get Iron Will, qualifying you for Incantatrix. Yay! You also get +2 Will from this feat. Yay!
Worldmeet Glade (18,000G, Lasts 1 Year, Complete Mage 157)EFFECT: Summonlings get +2 HP/HD
and +2 on damage rolls and d20 rolls.[/spoiler]
Favorite Summonlings
[spoiler]
Belkers: [Large], [Evil], [Air], [Sense Motive +0] Evil Large Air Elementals in Core. Woohoo!
Elemental Monoliths (Complete Arcane 156-160): [Colossal], [Neutral], [Air/Earth/Fire/Water], [+15 Sense Motive]Normally, you need to maintain concentration to summon these, but they're more painful than they may seem. You can use
gate to bring in something
far more powerful, but that costs XP. See the spell
summon elemental monolith on
Complete Arcane 124 for details.
Elemental Grues [Medium] (Complete Arcane 153-156): [Medium], [Evil], [Air/Earth/Fire/Water], [+0 Sense Motive]They're evil and Elementals.
All your summoning augments apply! Air and Earth Grues are my favorite for natural invisibility and sneak attack respectively.
Living Holocausts (Fiend Folio 117): [Small], [Evil], [Air & Fire], [+21 Sense Motive (!)]If you're mean, you'll spam these at level 1. They're [Air] and [Fire], meaning Rashemi Elemental Summoning applies. They're Evil, meaning Malconvoker goodies apply. Beware their +21 Sense Motive!
Storm Elementals (Monster Manual III 48-49): [Small to Huge], [Neutral], [Air], [+0 Sense Motive]Once per round, they can shock someone within 10'
as a free action. Also, once per minute (probably once per summon) they can do a 60' radius sonic AoE (Fort half) and a 120' line of electricity (Reflex half). Especially at low levels, this is a
lot of damage.
They're Elementals with the [Air] descriptor, which may make them Air Elementals for purposes of Summon Elemental. Also, the
summon spells say Small Elemental (any), but Storm Elementals can be summoned 1 spell level later. Ask your DM at which levels you can summon Storms.
Thoqqua: [Medium], [Neutral], [Earth & Fire], [+1 Sense Motive]They're core Earth Elementals with tremorsense and a 2d6 fire slam. (Not even the standard Earth Elementals have tremorsense! How do they know where they're goin' when they earth glide?)[/spoiler]
Sample Build
[spoiler]
Dragonborn Fire Strongheart Halfling Conjurer5/Malconvoker5/Incantatrix4/Paragnostic Apostle1/Master Conjurer1/Archmage3/X1You NEED at least 3 feats @1 for this build to work. More feats are better, of course.
Decide whether you want Abrupt Jaunt (
Player's Handbook II 70) or
Rapid Summoning.
Dragonborn and Fire are optional, though recommended. Skip Dragonborn @1 if you're Fire and plan to have your fire elementals carry you.
1: {
Aggressive}, {
Murky-Eyed}, {
Noncombatant}
1: [Abrupt Jaunt (
Player's Handbook II 70) OR
Rapid Summoning], [
Augment Summoning - Lose Scribe Scroll]
1: Augment Elemental OR
Improved Elemental Summoning (Homebrew), Heighten Spell, Metamagic School Focus: Conjuration, Summon Elemental
3: [Iron Will from O Hole], Spell Focus: Conjuration
5: [Granted Domain Power: Travel]
6: [Deceptive Summons: Summonlings get free Extend Spell], Rashemi Elemental Summoning
7: [Learn
planar binding series]
8: [Skill Focus: Bluff]
9: [Deceptive Summons: Summonlings get +2 HP/HD, +2 Damage], -=FEAT=-
10: [Fiendish Legion: +1 Evil Summonling Summoned]
11: [@METAMAGIC FEAT@]
12: [Cooperative Metamagic], -=FEAT=-
13: [Metamagic Effect]
14: [@METAMAGIC FEAT@]
15: [Skill Focus: Spellcraft], -=FEAT=-
16: [Call of Worlds: Summonlings have Fast Healing 5]
17: [Spell-like Ability:
TIME STOP]
18: [Spell Power OR Mastery of Shaping]
19: [Spell Power OR Mastery of Shaping]
20: [Whatever]
-=FEAT POOL=--
Improved Elemental Summoning: Homebrew, but meant for dedicated Elemental summoners. If allowed, take this instead of Augment Elemental.
-Improved Initiative. Yum.
-Martial Stance
-Martial Study
-Practiced Spellcaster
-Spell Focus
-Sudden Empower
-Sudden Maximize
@METAMAGIC FEAT POOL@-Easy Metamagic
-Extend Spell
-Fell Drain. On summonlings. Yeah.
-Persistent Spell
-Quicken Spell[/spoiler]
Spiffy Tricks
[spoiler]
Buff your summons! Your Elementals may only be around for a few rounds, but it may be viable to buff them. For example, summon something on round 1 and
haste your army and your party on round 2. Perhaps a Cleric will buff your summonlings, too!
Cone of Cold Spam: Take Rashemi Elemental Summoning. Summon an Elemental with the [Air] subtype. Have it use
cone of cold. Summon another when done.
Fell Drain AnticsGet Fell Drain to +0 or +1 slot levels and summon something with a buncha attacks. Each time the target is damaged, it takes a negative level!
Invisible Spell AnticsThis feat is +0 slot levels! Most creatures can only sense your summonlings through
true seeing, blindsense, or blindsight! Whee!
Persistent Pet ElementalUse Persistent Spell with Metamagic Effect to make your Summon Elemental pet last all day! (The pet has a 30' leash.)
Buffing your elemental becomes more appealing when you know it'll be around!
The Living Holocaust @1Fiend Folio 117 has this CR13 Small Air Elemental. You can summon a Small Air Elemental with Summon Elemental. I advise ONLY using this to utterly surprise your opposition.[/spoiler]
Controversies
[spoiler]
What is an "Elemental?"
The term "Elemental" could refer to either creatures listed under "Elemental," or any creature of the Elemental type. I interpret "Elemental" to mean "Any creature with the Elemental type."
Summon monster seems to support my definition of "Elemental," since
summon monster III says "Elemental, Small (any)," and there are no other summonable creatures of the Elemental type.
When can I summon a Storm Elemental (Monster Manual III 48)?
They're Elementals with the [Air] descriptor, which may make them Air Elementals for purposes of Summon Elemental. Also, the
summon spells say Small Elemental (any), but Storm Elementals can be summoned 1 spell level later. Ask your DM at which levels you can summon Storms.
Divine Metamagic (Heighten Spell) - What's it do?
Seemingly, I can use this to meet spellcasting requirements early. If so, hello reserve feats! [/spoiler]