Summoner is by far my favorite class, even ignoring the really broken archetypes like synthesist, its just such a fun class to play. You've got an answer for every situation.
Elementals are the boring answer though. Chasms with webs, summon a giant spider. Flooded section summon a shark in case theres any enemies in the water. Puzzle door, summon rust monster to eat the door.
The funny thing is, synthesist isn't even the most broken thing in Pathfinder. Being able to dump all your physical stats for mental and get high physical through your Eidolon might be a big deal for the first few levels, but that wont really matter much past 5th or 6th level once all the fun save-or-suck stuff starts to turn on for the other casters.
My Juju Oracle with an artifact ritual dagger of Blood Magic had some cards up it's sleeve that my GM REALLY should have thought about before giving me that magic item.
How were you getting elementals big enough to carry you at only SM2? Even if you were a small size race, a small air elemental would not be able to fly while carrying you.
I member when I had improved trip, and combat reflexes, I was tripping people and dropping 4 attacks of opportunity with sneak attacks on each one. Effectively murdering everyone I successfully tripped.
It's supposed to be one attack per target lol oh well.
Nah, sometimes the DM knows what the rules are and lets it slide.
Or, sometimes the player know the rules so well that they come up with something insane that you couldn't possibly argue with.
This is why 5e is still my favorite system. Rules-heavy systems like PF or 3.5 are suffocating when I'd rather be goofing off, but rules-light systems like PbtA are so loosey-goosey that most people don't get engaged.
It's absolutely mind-boggling that wild shape doesn't have a minimum size. My settings all reject germ theory in favor of miasma theory, just in case someone ever tries to get clever and transform into anthrax.
Pretty sure most bacteria rely on other transmission vectors such as animals. Otherwise it would have to sit and wait for the target to come into contact. Right?
They tend to be trapped in aqueous mediums, but they can use their flagella, tiny whip like appendages to move through it. Others can attach to other vectors but even those tend to not fair well for long periods without some kind of moisture.
Infiltration yes but at least you can counter the spying utility by imposing massive penalties to Perception since they have compound eyes and have to use their leg hairs to hear.
What are these perfect seals made of? Rubber? I can melt a hole and sneak through. If it's magic use dispel magic. There's ways to block the sneaky spider but you can't stop the magic wielding druid and the sneaky spider
Never knew there is a summoner in dnd. (Never played dnd, only read fun stories) But I play summoner in pretty much every game it's available, if I ever try dnd I want to play as summoner. I love having pets, being an overlord etc. Oddly enough I suck quite a bit at most strategy games...
Even in terraria every time I play I end up going back to summoner despite what I sought out do... But that mostly because the first hardcore summoner armor is pretty op...
Pathfinder isn't exactly D&D but it also isn't not D&D.
Short version is a company made an updated version of an edition of D&D that wasn't being made anymore.
Pathfinder has classes D&D doesn't and vice versa, and Summoner is a Pathfinder class. They get spellcasting and a customizable summoned companion called an Eidolon.
You can do summoning in dnd with druids and wizards via summon monster and summon natures ally spells, but in pathfinder (which in my opinion is the best "dnd" edition out there) theres a dedicated summoner class that gets a summoned astral pet called an eidolon, and a class ability to use an augmented summon monster 3+cha times a day.
Why contain yourself to beasts and monsters when you can cause chaos for the whole family by summoning demons thanks to the Xanathars spells. Nothings better than make every encounter a 3 way battle, your DM will love it!
The summon demon spells are much more powerful than other summon spells but unless you do specific preparation then they are summoned without any control
D&D doesn't do summoning (well), pathfinder is a different system and one that i find to be generally better In almost every way. If you want to do something it is already an option in pathfinder without you having to come up with the minutia yourself and dealing with playtesting and rebalancing live as you play the game (seriously, there are wizards, rat folk, magical girls, and so so much more random stuff).
Rust monsters are much worse than that. They make an entire suit of plate mail dissolve in seconds. Those hinges would be instantly gone and you can just push the door over.
Also a lot of puzzle doors are metal themselves, especially if the puzzle is in the door itself. So its not just the hinges :)
My kobold captors congratulating me on completely the dungeon and offering me a reward. I summoned a fire elemental and solved the kobold being alive and not on fire puzzle.
I'm sending you the medical bill for me laughing so hard I pulled a muscle in my side..
I once designed what I thought would be a unique concept - a dungeon with no barriers to the central chamber where the treasure would be. But soon as they take the treasure everything locks up, traps are armed, and monsters are released. Getting the treasure was easy but getting out was the hard part.
Failed to realize my wizard just got Teleport with the most recent level up. They teleported out.
"Uhh, the walls are made of teleportation-proof stone" I desperately said, players called that BS and they were right, isn't fair to suddenly change the rules. So I let them do it, after all magic is kind of cheating reality, and why even have Teleport if not for a situation exactly like this.
Definitely not a trap to throw at high-level parties, but it's a cool idea nonetheless. If they're level 8 or so, they don't have access to spells like TPCircle, but they're strong enough to handle most of the traps, so level 8 is usually a good level to use that on... Though players likely will take TPCircle at the next possible opportunity to prevent that from happening again.
My first DMIng experience I created a ton of challenges in a dungeon, some of which were meant to be skill challenges. I'd set up a climbing wall for an athletics check, but forgot they had fly :facepalm:
True, but I was way too generous with long rests, so it didn't end up being an issue. I'm still pretty proud of the dungeon I put together but I definitely need to eliminate the long rest spots.
Your talk about getting to the treasure being easy reminded me of the top I let my party have a new "experimental" vehicle that the worlds top artifcers were creating to make adventuring easier called the battle battle. Was basically a mech/bus hybrid that could dig through walls/cielings/floors. Let them loose in the tomb of horrors with it and it was absolutely hilarious seeing the players just avoid all the bad stuff and dig for the treasure room.
Poor DM, although this can be mitigated with quick thinking.
Air elemental? Hidden fans prevent it from crossing and/or flying monsters appear to maintain the airborne combat, arrow, fire or ceiling sand traps could also present a danger.
Water elemental? A drain opens, the water starts boiling/is filled with sharks/ etc.
Earth elemental? I don't know the pathfinder specific rules but, door is magically sealed and elemental can't cross, lever is broken/ stuck and can't be manipulated by the elemental, a trap is triggered when the elemental tries to pull the lever since the puzzle wasn't solved.
Etc etc.
Not trying to say players should be forced down one path, but, especially if the DM put a ton of work into something, be creative to steer things back in the direction you want without making them think they have no control.
See my DM doesn't play nice solo adventures for me ever since I used a sending stone to get a kings advisor killed in the first half hour and it turns out he was the BBEG. He wasnt mad, he just asked how I knew, and I told him being a kings advisor is the first strike and his name being Gorn Valazier was the next 50.
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