Unchained Summons
-Guide to Unchained Summoner in Pathfinder
Written by Mighty Glacier
Table of contents (with links)
Unchained Eidolon, what does it do?
Pathfinder Unchained is out, dust settles. Barbarian, Monk and Rogue all got something they had been really looking for and even if they didn’t, PFS players can still choose to play as their “chained” versions. Summoner does not get the same privilege - new summoners in PFS must be unchained.
I was just about to level my 1st-level summoner to 2nd level when I heard that only 2nd-level summoners can be left chained. It’s a good choice on Paizo’s part, obviously, as it doesn’t punish existing summoners but forces the new ones to be updated, but I was left there wondering what to do with my summoner. There were no guides for unchained summoner, so I rolled up my sleeves and got to work.
The basics. Hit Die, Class Skills, Skill Ranks per Level, BAB and saves remain exactly the same.
Spells per day and spells known tables. Summoner spell list, on the other hand, is not exactly the same (see below).
Class abilities. Excluding some teeny-tiny wording changes (that do not appear to affect the functions of the abilities themselves) life link, summon monster spell-like ability, bond senses, shield ally, maker's call, transposition, aspect, greater shield ally, life bond, merge forms, greater aspect and twin eidolon all function exactly the same.
Eidolon basics. Eidolon base forms (although some eidolon subtypes alter them), eidolon HD/BAB/Saves/Skills/Feats/AC/Str&Dex bonus/max attacks/special abilities per summoner level and eidolon class skills are exactly the same.
Eidolons now have subtypes. You pick one outsider subtype (eg. angel, demon, protean etc) and are stuck with it. All eidolon subtypes have an alignment and its summoner must be one alignment step within that alignment. Each subtype has its own free evolutions that the eidolon gains as it levels up.
The evolution pool is now much smaller. Granted, some of those evolution points are now being used as the free evolutions that each subtype grants (not so free after all, huh?) so it’s not so much a nerf against evolution as it is against player choices.
Evolution point costs. Remember Pounce, the 1-point evolution every quadruped eidolon took at 1st level? It now costs 3 evolution points and requires summoner to be 7th level. Of course, this is not the only change in evolution costs, but it’s the most obvious one.
Spell list. Haste and Slow are now a 3rd-level spells instead of 2nd. That’s the biggest difference I noticed. Please notify me if there’s anything else that needs to be addressed about.
First things first. If you haven’t already, check out Summoner’s Handbook. It’s a bit outdated by now, but it addresses the basics of making a summoner. There’s no point for me to just copy and paste everything there, so please check it out and I’ll talk about what’s different for Unchained Summoner.
This guide uses the basic, color-coded rating system:
Red: A very poor option. Should be avoided.
Orange: A mediocre option. May be useful in some ways, but is subpar to other choices.
Green: A good option. Often useful, but not necessarily always.
Blue: An excellent option. So good that you might regret not picking this one.
(The Summoner’s Handbook uses a different color system - try not to get confused!)
Do note, however, that this guide here is not perfect. Take everything with a grain of salt. Especially if you can think of a way to make a subpar option a better one or if you notice a crippling fault in one of the better options. What I’m saying is, use your own head as well.
Also worth noting is that this guide is written with Pathfinder Society play in mind, but it should work just fine (if not even more fine) in home games, where you can work with your GM more.
If you have read this far, you may have realised that the main roles of eidolons have changed a bit. Yes, they are still meant to go into melee and wreck faces (unless your eidolon is meant to be skill-focused), but the way they’re doing it is a bit different.
Back in the good old days, building a good eidolon was simple: choose either quadruped for pouncer or biped for reach and damage and call it a day. But with unchained summoner, things are a bit different. Obviously there is no pounce before 7th-level and you won’t get that far without thinking things through.
Now the question isn’t pouncer vs biped: it’s fang vs blade. That is, whether you should use manufactured weapons (eg. scimitars, greatswords) or natural attacks. Bipeds do manufactured weapons much better (mainly because large bipeds have more reach - and, you know, they have hands) while quadruped might be a bit better for fang-option, having more speed (and later, the opportunity to pounce for massive attackfest).
I could do some Damage Per Round calculations now to prove which path one does more damage (in fact, I did do some DPR calcs…), but there are so many other factors one has to consider beside damage output.
Not just damage output is different now. Most eidolon subtypes now grant resistances to a lot of things, mostly energy types and things like petrification, disease and poison. This allows your eidolon to take a bit more beating from various things. Do note, however, that your eidolon should not be made with only defensive options in mind: eidolons are still expendable. They exist to fight for you while you support them, not the other way around. I guess what I’m saying is that while they can tank a bit better now, doesn’t mean they should be just tanks.
So: get resistances, do damage.
It comes naturally that with the level of customization that eidolon class feature has, there are many other ways to build a successful eidolon. Some of these “unorthodox” builds require a little more extra planning and resource management, but all of them are very entertaining to play.
Ranged Eidolon (credit to Ryzouken)
You heard that right. Usually when one brings a summoner character to a PFS game people are expecting a supporting summoner and a meat shield eidolon. This build aims to create a duo of two archers, raining a volley of arrows at their enemies.
The eidolon build uses Azata subtype for weapon proficiencies, Biped for more strength (although Serpentine would also be viable), evolutions that emphasize accuracy, archery feats, composite longbows as weapons and a bunch of other gear. This azata archer teams up with its summoner, who also uses archery to form a deadly duo of two marksmen.
Exact details here.
Skill Eidolon
Not using your eidolon for combat may sound silly, but as soon as you realise how little skill points a summoner has (2 + INT, humans may get a third point, but that’s assuming not to dump Int) it starts to make a bit more sense. Eidolons, you see, get 4 points of skill points per eidolon HD (assuming its Int is 7) and they have access to Skilled evolution and feats like Skill Focus.
Not sold yet? “Eidolon’s class skills are Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Knowledge (planes) (Int), Perception (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), and Stealth (Dex). In addition, at 1st level, the summoner can choose four additional skills to be class skills for his eidolon.” Yep, you can even customize your eidolon’s class skills. That’s not even taking into account that Perception is already a class skill. Only rogues and investigators get sweeter packs of skills.
Building a skill eidolon is simple, but the difference to a regular eidolon is quite drastic. First of all, your eidolon is not meant for combat, so you’ll be using it only out-of-combat. That means you can keep in un-summoned during battles, so taking the best use of your summon monster spell-like-ability should be the way for the summoner to battle. Combine summoned monsters with ranged combat (like crossbows) and your summoner always has something to do.
As for the eidolon itself, taking use of aforementioned Skilled evolutions and Skill Focus feats. Oh, and don’t forget to use Ability increase (Int) evolution at higher levels to grant extra skill points.
Mount Eidolon
If playing as a cavalier is not your thing, why not play as its caster counterpart: summoner? You’ll be riding an outsider and casting buffs as you go, not to mention that if you invest in Str yourself, you can rock that lance.
Race choice here is usually either Halfling or Gnome, due to the fact that medium races like human and half-elf have to wait for 8th level to be able to ride their Large eidolons. Quadruped base form is pretty much a must, as is Mount evolution. As a result, the subtype choice is limited to daemon, demon or elemental. After that’s done, the eidolon doesn’t need much else to be awesome. Build it as you would build any other quadruped eidolon. As for the summoner, build it with Strength and Charisma prioritized, all other ability scores are pretty much pointless.
Mounted Eidolon (credit to Dragonborn3)
Now we are getting silly. Yes, you can even build your eidolon to be the one riding. No, you can’t make your eidolon ride yourself (I’m not judging anyone, but that’s a weird fantasy...).
Azata subtype for weapon proficiency, evolutions like Skilled (Ride) and Ability increase (Str) and a lance for a weapon is all that’s required. Buy a combat-trained mount, put your eidolon on top of it and presto, a knight is made. Good job, now you can play as Sancho Panza while your eidolon friend is fighting against windmills.
See Sample Builds for 6th-level Mounted eidolon.
This is the biggest change in Unchained, so the sooner I address this the better. Unlike chained summoner, who picks various evolutions and mashes them together to make a godless abomination, unchained summoner picks a subtype that solidifies the eidolon much more. This is a good thing if you are playing summoner for flavor as it makes creating a summoner A LOT easier, but makes optimization a bit more challenging.
If you don’t care about specifics, just read the following.
Agathion: A very solid choice, one you likely won’t regret. Agathion gets less resistances than angel, and unlike angel agathion doesn’t get flight, but does get the amazing lay on hands at later level. Has both Biped and Quadruped while angel is Biped only. The only good-aligned subtype to get many natural attacks.
Angel: Angel gets the second most resistances (right after demon) and gets flight. On downside, they have very few natural attacks and are forced to use weapons, at which point Azata always trumps. Still, if you want to have more resistances than Azata, consider Angel.
Archon: I see very few reasons to pick Archon, but I guess Archon’s forte is its raw power. Has to use weapons though, so archon has to pay a feat tax.
Azata: If you want your eidolon to wield a weapon, azata does that probably the best. Normally you’d pay a feat to get martial weapon proficiency but azata gets it for free. Also has flight like an angel and cool resistances, although angel has a bit more of them. Simply a very good subtype.
Daemon: Angel, daemon and demon all have crazy resistances, demon just happens to get a little bit better ones.
Demon: Demon has so many resistances it’s crazy. If weapon-wielding Azatas aren’t your thing, consider being a demon summoner.
Devil: Has OK resistances, but the main selling point is supposed to be +8 Bluff and Diplomacy.
Div: Only a notch better than devil. Not recommended.
Elemental (air, earth, fire, water): Instead of having many resistances, elemental has one immunity and other goodies. A solid pick.
Inevitable: It’s a shame that robots drew the shortest straw. Worst subtype if you ask me.
Protean (if you REALLY like constrict): Serpentine only, so pretty suboptimal unless you’re making a constrict-based eidolon, in which case this is the eidolon for you.
Psychopomp: A little bit of energy resistances, a little bit of save-or-suck immunities, a little bit of offensive variety. It’s a mixed bag, but if you can make it work, it’s gonna work well.
I’m going to go through every subtype one by one, addressing the following points:
Flavor: Alignment restrictions, roleplay opportunities, fluff, the stuff that’s hidden behind the crunchy numbers. I won’t color-code this one though.
Base Forms: Biped, Quadruped and/or Serpentine, and any modifications that come with them.
Natural Attacks: Basically there are two kinds of eidolon subtypes: those that have access to natural attacks and those that don’t. This factor decides whether the subtype can use natural weapons or if it has to use manufactured weapons.
1st, 4th, 8th Base Evolutions: What good stuff the eidolon gets for free at the marked summoner level. Eidolons also get these for levels 12, 16 and 20, but I won’t rank them because PFS doesn’t go that far, but those of you who care about higher levels can probably figure out how good so-and-so ability is.
! It is worth noting that resistance (energy type) evolution is a bit better than resist energy 10 in the long run. Resistance evolution gives resist energy 5, but it scales with level: it increases to resist 10 at 5th level and caps at resist 15 at 10th level. In the long run, more resistance evolutions is better than more resist energies. This is the reason why demon has better resistances than daemon.
Agathion
Flavor: Neutral Good is very easy to manage. The idea of having your eidolon trying to make you a better person sounds pretty fun.
Base Forms: Biped and Quadruped. Good for any build.
Natural Attacks: All except tentacle. The only good-aligned subtype that has this.
1st: Resistance (electric), +4 bonus vs poison and petrification. Good stuff.
4th: Resist cold and sonic 10. Good stuff.
8th: Lay on hands as a paladin. Very good, especially for eidolons whose job is to tank a lot (which is almost every eidolon).
Angel
Flavor: Any good means you, the summoner, can be any non-evil alignment, so very lenient. Now all you need is BMX Bandit!
Base Forms: Biped that has slam instead of claws.
Natural Attacks: Slam, rake and wing buffet. Suitable only for weapon-wielding.
1st: Resistance (acid) and (cold) evolutions, +4 vs poison. Two resistances is as good as it gets at 1st-level.
4th: Resist electric and fire 10. Two very common energy types, nice. Only Daemon has better 4th-level perks.
8th: Flight evolution. Battles against flying enemies are always a problem for melee fighters and this one solves that. The only reason I’m not rating this blue is because flight evolution otherwise costs 2 points, so it’s affordable for eidolons other than angel while some other subtypes get something unique yet equally awesome at 8th-level.
Archon
Flavor: Having a companion that comes from heaven is fantasy roleplaying at its finest.
Base Forms: Biped that has slam instead of claws.
Natural Attacks: Slam and wing buffet. Suitable only for weapon-wielding.
1st: Resistance (electric) evolution, skilled (Intimidate) evolution, +4 vs poison. Skilled is nice and all, but two resistances would be better.
4th: Evolution pool increases by 1. While other eidolons are getting more resistances the archon gets this. Then again, this just means archon has more options available - and nothing is preventing you to use this 1 point to buy resistance evolution if the lack of resistances starts to bug you. Sub-optimal nonetheless. Might be good for some very precise builds though.
8th: Ability increase evolution. Oh boy. That’s a free 2-point evolution right there. Other subtypes also get this, but not this early. The reason this isn’t blue is the same as with flight: it’s not unique. Other subtypes can get it just by spending 2 points. To be honest, if you like archon, consider air elemental instead. That one gets immunity to electric, evolution pool +1 and magical flight. The two are very similar, hm?
Azata
Flavor: Chaotic Good allows some cool alignments for its summoner. Azata eidolons apparently look like elves and fey: kinda fitting for a half-elf summoner?
Base Forms: Biped with just legs and arms, Serpentine with arms and tail slap. Clearly meant to use manufactured weapons.
Natural Attacks: Slam and wing buffet. Suitable only for weapon-wielding, but that’s kind of the thing with Azatas.
1st: Resistance (electric) evolution, martial weapon proficiency. Holy Elysium, you heard that right! Martial weapon proficiency costs either 4 points or a feat - and you get that for free. Obviously very good 1st-level perk if you’re going to use manufactured weapons. On top of all that, there’s the resistance evolution, and to a common energy type no less. If you want your eidolon to use manufactured weapons, Azata is for you, no point reading further.
4th: Resist cold and fire 10. Two very common energy types, yes please. Only Daemon has a better 4th-level perk.
8th: Flight evolution. See angel’s 8th-level perk.
Daemon
Flavor: Sometimes to fight evil you need to use bigger evil. Daemons can definitely do that: they just hate mortal life and are willing to serve even a neutral summoner.
Base Forms: Biped, Quadruped, Serpentine with reach on bite and sting. Good for any build.
Natural Attacks: All. No restrictions.
1st: Resistance (acid) evolution, +4 vs poison, death effects and disease. Pretty decent.
4th: Resist cold, electric and fire 10. Combined with the above your eidolon is now very hard to kill with energy attacks. Three resists is as good as a 4th-level perks get.
8th: Evolution pool increases by 1. Other subtypes are getting Flight (costs 2 points), ability score increase (costs 2 points), and even some goodies that can’t be bought, like lay on hands and spirit touch. And daemon gets just 1 point worth of stuff.
Demon
Flavor: You know you have a badass eidolon when the first lines of description read “raw destruction”. Chaotic Evil might be hard to keep at bay, though.
Base Forms: Biped, Quad, Serpentine with improved damage and reach on bite. Good for any build.
Natural Attacks: All. No restrictions.
1st: Resistance (fire) and (electric) evolutions, +4 vs poison. Two resistance evolutions for two very common energy types? As good as it gets at 1st-level.
4th: Resist acid and cold 10. Congratulations, your eidolon is now practically immune to energy attacks for at least a couple of levels.
8th: Evolution pool increases by 1. See daemon’s 8th-level perk. You also get immunity to poison, but you should already be rocking some really nice saves against those anyway.
Devil
Flavor: Gives a whole meaning to “go to hell”. Lawful Evil is probably the “softest” evil alignment to handle as a summoner.
Base Forms: Biped.
Natural Attacks: All except tentacle (and rake).
1st: Resistance (fire) and skilled (Bluff) evolutions, +4 vs poison. Resistance to fire is very nice, but skilled (Bluff) seems like such a waste for an eidolon.
4th: Resist acid and cold 10. Nothing flashy.
8th: Skilled (Diplomacy), immunity to poison. Ugh. Look, if you really, really like having your eidolon do all the talking for you (who’s the Charisma-based caster here, anyway?), Devil might be the subtype for you. Otherwise, don’t bother: there are better ones out there.
Div
Flavor: “Div eidolons seek to doom their summoners to existences full of suffering and loss.” Yikes! Only true badass summoners need apply for this one.
Base Forms: Biped.
Natural Attacks: All except tentacle (and rake).
1st: Resistance (fire) evolution, +4 vs poison. It’s like Paizo forgot to include something here. Other eidolons are getting much more at 1st-level. Regardless, resistance (fire) is good.
4th: Resist acid and electric 10. Nice.
8th: Evolution pool increases by 1. Other subtypes are getting 2-point flight evolutions and whatnot while div gets 1 point worth of stuff. You also get immunity to poison, but you should already be rocking some really nice saves against those anyway. I wonder what Paizo has against Divs for giving it so suboptimal perks.
Elemental
Flavor: Neutral alignment is probably the easiest one to handle as a summoner. Your elemental eidolon doesn’t really care no matter what you do. As for flavor, I’m sure many agree that the forces of nature are pretty cool to summon.
Base Forms: Biped with slam instead of claws, Quadruped, Serpentine. Good for any build.
Natural Attacks: All except tentacle.
1st: Immunity (insert energy type here) evolution. This is a tough one to rate. While other subtypes are getting 5-15 resistances on many energy types, elemental eidolon takes one energy type and sticks with it. Immunity at 1st-level and that’s it. If you chose fire, water or air this is a very good 1st-level evolution. I think acid is a bit more rarer energy type, so sadly earth elementals can treat this as only green. However, the fact that the elemental eidolon does not get any other resistances evens out in the long run, so when compared to other subtypes elemental subtype is good, but not the best.
Oh, and they also get immunity to paralysis and sleep at 1st level. Pretty nice bonus.
4th: Evolution pool increases by 1. See archon’s 4th-level perk. Although, since the idea of elementals seem to be to take one energy type and stick with it, this just means more options for you, in which case you may even want to treat this as green.
8th: More movement. Air elementals gain magical flight evolution, earth gets burrow evolution, fire gets +20 feet base speed and water gets swim evolution twice and gills evolution. Another really tough one to rate. My favorites are air and fire elementals, as they are useful in most environments while earth and water are really situational.
Inevitable
Flavor: Robot eidolons? Robot eidolons.
Base Forms: Biped with slam instead of claws.
Natural Attacks: Slam and wing buffet. Suitable only for weapon-wielding.
1st: Treated as both construct and outsider for certain effects (like bane and favored enemy), +4 vs death effects, disease, necromancy effects, paralysis, poison, sleep, and stun. The other kids are having fun playing with their resistances and you’re a robot that resists a bunch of effects. These bonuses mainly ensure that “save or suck” effects don’t affect your eidolon that often, but save or suck was never a huge deal anyway for an eidolon.
4th: Immunity to nonlethal damage, fatigue and exhaustion, +4 vs mind-affecting effects. Oh joy, now your robot cannot be beaten with nonlethal fists. Where are the energy resistances and cool robot stuff, like arm cannons and lazer beams?
8th: Immunity to death effects, disease and poison. Look, if you really enjoy having bunch of immunities (that are not energy types), Inevitable might be for you. Otherwise, don’t bother, there are better subtypes out there that actually do stuff.
Protean
Flavor: Reptiles of pure chaos. They are happy to work for any purpose. #YOLO
Base Forms: Serpentine with grab on tail slap. No Biped or Quadruped means this subtype does not fit for many builds.
Natural Attacks: All (except rake).
1st: Resistance (acid) evolution, grab evolution on an attack of summoner’s choice. Grab evolution costs 2 points, so if you’re planning on making a serpentine eidolon that grabs a lot, protean saves you some points.
4th: Resist electric and sonic 10. Sonic resistance is quite rare, so good for you. Then again, it’s rare for a reason: sonic effects are pretty rare as well.
8th: Constrict evolution. Constrict, like grab, costs 2 points and is perfect for a grab-based eidolon. If you’re making grab-based eidolon, treat this as green and Protean eidolon as whole as green. Otherwise forget Protean, there are better subtypes out there.
Psychopomp
Flavor: Dying can be scary, but not for the psychopomp summoner. “When the summoner dies, a psychopomp eidolon personally escorts him to afterlife”. Is that touching or what?
Base Forms: Biped with slam instead of claws, Quadruped, Serpentine. Good for any build.
Natural Attacks: All except tentacle.
1st: Immunity to death effects, disease and poison. No energy resistance is a shame, but at least this grants full immunity instead of bunch of resistances… *glares at inevitable*
4th: Resist cold and electric 10. Good stuff.
8th: Spirit touch ability (gives attacks ghost touch property), evolution pool increases by 1. This one borderlines orange, but overall it’s pretty neat. At 8th level incorporeal enemies may become more common and +1 evolution is always nice, even though some things might be better.
As Summoner’s Handbook put it, the best (core) races for a summoner are human (extra feat, is this a surprise for anyone?) and half-elf (racial favored class option is the main selling point here: +¼ evolution point per level). Gnome, halfling and half-orc are also pretty viable. For non-core races: anything that gives a penalty to Charisma is a no-no, racial bonuses to Charisma and Constitution are preferred.
There is something to talk about here: the decision between human and half-elf. Quote from Handbook:
Half-Elf and Human are probably the strongest core Summoner races unless you're going for a very specific build, so here's a useful comparison between them, showing what they give you over the 20 levels. (Contributed by John John.)
Half elf: +2 perception, immune to sleep, +2 vs enchantment, +3-6 to one skill, +0-5 evolution points for your Eidolon.
Human: +1 feat, +1-20 skill points, +1-20 hit points for you or your Eidolon.
The lesson seems to be that if you want to make it a priority to pick up those extra evolution points, take Half-Elf. Otherwise, Human edges it out.
Unchained Summoner has much more limited evolution pool, so you may want to prioritise that over an extra feat. Summoner isn’t really the most feat-heavy class anyway. Still, summoner gets very few skill points (2+INT), so human is still worth considering. Then again, your eidolon has more skill points than you anyway and if you take half-elf, you can dump Int to 7 and only lose 1 skill point per level (because minimum is 1). If you want my opinion, take half-elf.
Tip: Summoner never multiclasses, but half-elf has that useless Multitalented racial trait (two favored classes, oh boy!). But wait! You can take the Arcane Training alternate racial trait and treat your level 1 higher when using spell trigger and spell completion items (like scrolls and such). If you want even more alternate racial traits, take Dual Minded. You lose Skill Focus (do you really miss those skills?) and gain +2 Will. Then again, your will saves will be pretty high anyway, so do as you will.
I would also offer tips for humans if they weren’t so straightforward. Bonus feat, more skills, that’s it. But it’s actually the reason why you’re taking human anyway, so no need to change perfection.
The biggest “nerf” unchained summoner faces is the significant decrease in evolution points per level. Like I said earlier, some of those evolution points are now being used in each subtype’s free base evolutions, so that almost balances things out.
So how much less evolution points do you get? I made a chart, have a look:
The difference is noticeable, but not heartbreaking. This just means that when selecting evolutions, you need to only take what you need. Work with a tight budget.
So, I’m listing the evolutions you want and what you don’t want.
A rule of thumb is that primary attacks are always better than secondary attacks, except if you have a weapon-wielding eidolon, in which case all natural attacks are considered secondary attacks, in which case only look at damage. (Remember, secondary attacks take -5 penalty on attack rolls and only add ½ Strength modifier to damage)
Primary
Bite 1d6: Good damage and doesn’t need free limbs. Take it.
Claws 1d4 each: 2 attacks that deal reasonable damage. Reliable way to deal damage.
Slam 1d8: Best damage and doesn’t use any body part (it just slams its body against target)
Sting 1d4: requires a tail and damage is small, but if you want more primary attacks, take it.
Gore 1d6, costs 2 points: Expensive, but decent damage.
Rake 1d4, costs 2 points, requires grappling: Nice added damage if your eidolon is good at grappling and likes clawing, but the cost is high and damage is meh...
Secondary
Pincers 1d6: You might run out of limbs if you take this one. Useful for grappling-based eidolons, maybe?
Tail Slap 1d6: Sting is better.
Tentacle 1d4: No body parts required, but damage is small. Ugh.
Wing Buffet 1d4: Only if you really, really need more attacks and happen to have wings.
Your budget is tight, so if it doesn’t increase your damage output, it’s probably not worth taking.
1-point evolutions
Climb: Situational at best. It’s the poor man’s flight, but costs less.
Gills: Is your campaign set in underwater?
Improved damage: The name of this evolution is 100% what your evolutions should do. Take this to your best natural attack(s).
Improved natural armor: Hm. +2 AC is always nice, but it doesn’t increase your damage. Then again, if you feel like your eidolon is being hit too often, might be worth considering. Or you could always cast more mage armors and shields.
Magic attacks: Oh boy. This is essentially Amulet of Mighty Fists but without bonus to damage. Summoners are always a bit short on cash, so save 4,000gp! Then again, it becomes alignment-piercing at later levels, so definitely worth it by then.
Mount: If you aren’t making a mount eidolon, do not take. If you are, take it as early as you can.
Pull: Here’s an idea. Step 1: Take Reach and Pull. 2: Attack enemies at 10 feet away from your eidolon. 3: Full attack 4: ??? 5: Profit! ...Doesn’t actually increase damage output, but makes full attacks a bit easier. If you have evolution leftovers, why not?
Push: Opposite of good. Only if you want your eidolon to act as a meat shield for your party that pushes enemies further away.
Reach: REACH IS KING
Resistance: What, those free resistance evolutions that every subtype gets (except you, inevitable, shame on you) aren’t enough?
Scent: Situational at best. And you can’t afford situational. Useful for ranged eidolon due to pheromone arrows though.
Skilled: Only skill-eidolons need apply.
Swim: Is your campaign set in underwater? ...I know what you’re thinking: “but what if my eidolon falls to a river and is drowning?” That’s when you dismiss your eidolon and resummon it later! Dismissing takes a standard action, so you can do that even mid-combat.
Tail: Running out of limbs? Why not tail? It’s cheaper than actual limbs!
2-point evolutions
Ability increase: Increase Strength for more damage. I guess you could increase Constitution for more hit points. Or Intelligence for more skill points. Sky’s the limit? But seriously, take Strength.
Constrict: Grappling-based builds only.
Energy attacks: More damage! Too bad monsters tend to have energy resistances, and this one is a bit pricey for a shallow +1d6 damage.
Flight: Annoyed by flying enemies? Your subtype doesn’t grant flight, magical or otherwise? Take this.
Grab: Grappling-based builds only.
Immunity: Your resistances to 2-4 energy types aren’t enough?
Limbs: Expensive, but often a necessity.
Poison: 1d4 Str damage, DC 10 + ½ HD + CON. Why are you only weakening enemies when your job is to kill them?!
Rend: More damage, nice.
Trample: More damage, nice. But only for Large evolutions and at that point you may have better evolutions to choose from.
Tremorsense: This works like a limited blindsense, which doesn’t really do much. It allows you to pinpoint locations of your enemies in the dark… but they still get total concealment and deny you of your Dex bonus to AC. What good is this, anyway?
Trip: There are way better 2-point evolutions out there.
Weapon Training: Just spend 1 feat for Martial Weapon Proficiency. Or pick Azata.
3-point evolutions
Blindsense: This is unlimited tremorsense, but with more expenses. What a deal!
Burrow: Situational at best. Might be fun to play though. Send your eidolon to scout the dungeon or something. Hilarious.
Damage reduction: Summoner level 15th required, holy moley. If you ever get that far, this is worth it. PFS doesn’t go that far, so I won’t rank this.
Frightful presence: Badass on paper, too unreliable in practise. Still… it is pretty badass.
Pounce: This is what all quadruped eidolons strive for! mah boi
Swallow whole: Expensive, unreliable… but if you get it to work, enemies die super fast.
Web: Makes enemies entangled, which is a good way of shutting down enemy spellcasters. But to pay 3 points for this? Also the prerequisites are very harsh: summoner level 7th; daemon, demon or protean subtype; climb evolution. Does anyone apply for this?
4-point evolutions
Blindsight: If you are really fed up with having to fight in darkness, sure? But let me get this straight: this evolution requires blindsense evolution, so this evolution costs 7 points instead of 4. It’s a trap!
Breath weapon: So much damage, baby jesus. But as one might expect, Reflex halves and it’s only once per day (unless more points are spent). Worth considering, at least?
Fast healing: By the time you can afford this 1 hit point per round is really shabby. Or you can spend 6 evolution points for fast healing 2? How does that sound?
Large: Take it. Doesn’t matter if you’re Biped, Quadruped or Serpentine. Take it as soon as you can. Huge is also tempting, but costs 6 additional points. Maybe at later levels...
Spell resistance: Your eidolon has two good saves and bunch of energy resistances and that still isn’t enough? Spend your points somewhere else.
Listed for convenience’s sake. The level listed is a requirement for the evolution(s).
4: Rake
5: Energy attacks, Flight
6: Rend
7: Immunity, Poison, Pounce, Tremorsense, Web
8: Large
9: Blindsense, Breath weapon, Burrow, Spell resistance, Swallow Whole
10:
11: Blindsight, Fast healing, Frightful presence
12:
13:
14:
15: Damage reduction
I regret to inform that there aren’t many usable archetypes for unchained summoner. From Paizo blog regarding PFS Unchained Summoners: “The unchained summoner qualifies for all existing summoner archetypes, save those that modify the eidolon's type or base form.” Half of summoner archetypes are banned in PFS anyway and for those that aren’t, the above ruling removes a part of those. For those that are left, not many good ones among them.
Broodmaster: Banned. A shame, I for one enjoy being a minion master. Oh well.
Evolutionist: May be banned, not sure about this one. Evolutionist can modify eidolon’s base form, but does not have to do so. Still, even if this one is legal for play, you’ll be trading away a lot of good stuff (maker’s call and transposition both come in handy) just to get more flexibility with evolutions (not that there is any need for that), so not worth it if you ask me.
First Worlder: Modifies eidolon’s type, so not legal.
Master Summoner: Banned.
Naturalist: Summon nature’s ally is weaker than summon monster and a bit more limited. Animal Focus might come in handy though, so you’ll be trading away a lot but getting some nice things back in return. Still, I’m rating this one as orange because the vanilla summoner has better goodies. Not a terrible archetype, but not optimal.
Spirit Summoner: Banned.
Synthesist: So much banned. God help us all.
Blood God Disciple (Half-orc): Banned.
Shadow Caller (Fetchling): Banned.
Shaitan Binder (Oread): If you are playing an oread summoner, you are doing it wrong (+2 Str, +2 Wis, -2 Cha; oh boy!). This archetype loses shared spells. Honestly, I don’t see how this archetype could be any less playable.
Wild Caller (Half-elf): Again, summon nature’s ally instead of summon monster. However, this archetype has more evolution points (+ ¼ per level) but cannot select some evolutions (I’m not sure how this works with unchained summoner since the evolutions list has been changed). The biggest selling point here is more evolution points, but at the same time you’ll be giving away many options. Losing summon monster also hurts.
Note for non-PFS players:
You lucky punks, take Synthesist for maximum levels of broken. Or Master Summoner for a spamfest of summon monster. Or Broodmaster to command an army of mini critters. Be nice to your GM to avoid being nerfed. Pretty much all other PFS-banned archetypes are not worth the time.
Weapon-wielder Alfa
Subtype: Azata
Form: Biped
Evolutions (1): Slam
Feats: Power Attack
AC: 13 (+2 natural, +1 Dex)
Attack: greatsword +4 (2d6+4), slam -1 (d8+1)
Resist: electric 5
Weapon-wielder Beta
Subtype: Angel
Form: Biped
Evolutions: (1): Improved damage (slam)
Feats: Martial Weapon Proficiency
AC: 13 (+2 natural, +1 Dex)
Attack: greatsword +4 (2d6+4), slam -1 (2d6+1)
Resist: acid 5, cold 5
Nirvana Kitten
Subtype: Agathion
Form: Quadruped
Evolutions (1): Claws
Feats: Power Attack
AC: 14 (+2 natural, +2 Dex)
Attack: bite +3 (d6+2), 2 claws +3 (d4+2)
Resist: electric 5
Archer Angelica Submitted by Ryzoken
Subtype: Azata
Form: Biped
Evolutions (1): Scent
Feats: Point Blank Shot
AC: 13 (+2 natural, +1 Dex)
Attack: Longbow +2 (1d8) or Greatsword +4 (2d6+4)
Resist: electric 5
Swiss Army Eidolon Submitted by Rosc
Subtype: Elemental, Air
Form: Biped, small
Evolutions (1): Skilled (Perception)
Feats: Skill Focus (Stealth)
Skills: Perception +12, Stealth + 13, Disable Device +6, Use Magic Device +4
Weapon-wielder Alfa
Subtype: Azata
Form: Biped
Evolutions (3): Ability increase (Str), slam
Feats: Power Attack, Improved Initiative
AC: 15 (+4 natural, +1 Dex)
Attack: greatsword +7 (2d6+6), slam +2 (d8+2)
Resist: electric 5, cold 10, fire 10
Weapon-wielder Beta
Subtype: Angel
Form: Biped
Evolutions: (3): ability increase (Str), Improved damage (slam)
Feats: Martial Weapon Proficiency, Power Attack
AC: 15 (+4 natural, +1 Dex)
Attack: greatsword +7 (2d6+6), slam +2 (2d6+2)
Resist: acid 5, cold 5, electric 10, fire 10
Nirvana Kitten
Subtype: Agathion
Form: Quadruped
Evolutions (3): Ability increase (Str), claws
Feats: Power Attack, Improved Initiative
AC: 16 (+4 natural, +2 Dex)
Attack: bite +6 (d6+3), 2 claws +6 (d4+3)
Resist: electric 5, cold 10, sonic 10
Storm Hound
Subtype: Elemental [air]
Form: Quadruped
Evolutions (4): Ability increase (Str), slam, improved damage (Slam)
Feats: Power Attack, Improved Initiative
AC: 16 (+4 natural, +2 Dex)
Attack: slam +6 (2d6+3), bite +6 (d6+3)
Immune: electric
Archer Angelica Submitted by Ryzoken
Subtype: Azata
Form: Biped
Evolutions (3):Ability Increase (Dex), Scent
Feats: Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot
AC: 16 (+4 natural, +2 Dex)
Attack: Masterwork Composite (+3 Str) Longbow +6 (1d8+3) or Greatsword +6 (2d6+4)
Resist: electric 5, cold 10, fire 10
Costly equipment assumed: Masterwork Composite (+3 Str) Longbow [700 gp]
Swiss Army Eidolon Submitted by Rosc
Subtype: Elemental, Air
Form: Biped, small
Evolutions (4): Skilled (Stealth, Perception, Disable Device, Use Magic Device)
Feats: Skill Focus (Stealth), Weapon Finesse
Skills: Perception +14, Stealth + 23, Disable Device +16, Use Magic Device +14
Nature’s Knight (Mounted Eidolon) Submitted by Dragonborn3
Subtype: Azata
Form: Biped
Evolutions (5): Slam, Skilled(Ride), Ability Increase(Str), Improved Natural Armor
Feats: Nature's Spirit, Mounted Combat, Animal Ally(Horse)
AC: 19 (+8 natural, +1 Dex)
Attack: Lance +10 (1d8+5) and slam +5 (1d8+2), or Lance +10 (1d8+7) or slam +10 (1d8+7)
Resist: electric 5, cold 10, fire 10
Archer Angelica Submitted by Ryzoken
Subtype: Azata
Form: Biped
Evolutions (5): Ability Increase(Dex)x2, Scent
Feats: Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot
AC: 20 (+6 natural, +4 Dex)
Attack: +1 Composite (+4 Str) Longbow +10 (1d8+5), or Rapid Shots +8/+8 (1d8+5) or Greatsword +9 (2d6+6)
Resist: electric 5, cold 10, fire 10
Costly equipment assumed: +1 Composite (+4 Str) longbow [2800 gp]
Swiss Army Eidolon Submitted by Rosc
Subtype: Elemental, Air
Form: Biped, small
Evolutions (7): Ability Increase (Dexterity), Perfect Flight (Free), Skilled (Use Magic Device, Stealth, Perception, Disable Device, Slight of Hand)
Feats: Skill Focus (Stealth), Weapon Finesse, Hellcat Stealth
Skills: Perception +17, Stealth + 28, Disable Device +21, Use Magic Device +17, Fly +18, Slight of Hand +20
(Ability Increase went into Int, giving it one more skill point per HD. One rank went into Fly, the other five went into Slight of Hand)
