# Why work when others can do it for you - A guide to Summoning Monsters



## Neonchameleon

*I'm looking for feedback on this and my other guide - my experience with PF is less than either with 3.X or 4e.  Also the Gdocs master copy version has functioning links.
*

*Why work when others can do it for you - a guide to Monster Summoning*

Summoning monsters doesn’t get very much love in D&D - even the Summoner class is devoted not to the spell but to their Eidolon a companion with them at almost all times and that actually interferes with their ability to summon monsters.
* Why be a Monster Summoner?*

The obvious answer to why you want to summon monsters is because it’s cool.  You get to summon succubi.  You can ask creatures to do your cleaning (take care - last time I summoned a gelatinous cube to clean my tower it ate the carpet and chairs as well as the dirt) and as for homework, what can’t you ask? But being serious, Summon Monster X (or Summon Nature's Ally X) is a great spell for several reasons:


 Flexibility
 Expendability
 Speed
 * Flexibility*

Because Summon Monster is one spell per level with half a dozen different options, it has more flexibility than just about any other spell in the game.  Meet a Fey creature, summon a Cold Iron Elemental.  Meet fliers you can’t reach, summon eagles.  This makes it perfect for spontaneous casters with limited spells known such as sorcerors - or just for indecisive wizards.  Prepare Summon Monster and you know you’ve never prepared the wrong spell.
* Expendability*

Summoned monsters will vanish in a few rounds.  So you can take insane risks with them without being too worried.  And any time the enemy’s attacked a summoned monster they aren’t attacking one of your guys so it’s effectively a wasted attack.  Even the Summoner’s Eidolon isn’t this expendible.  Just watch for area of effect attacks.
* Speed*

Monster summoning is fast.  Or more accurately it shatters the action economy.  If you spend your turn summoning a monster and the monster then casts a spell on its turn you’ve traded a productive action for a productive action.  If the monster casts a second spell, the round after, this spell is effectively quickened.  And if you summon more than one monster and they all cast spells you’re twinning spells at the very least.

To illustrate, Summon Monster 5 can summon a Bralani Azata. and one of its abilities is to be able to cast Lightning Bolt twice at caster level 6.  I’d rate a level 6 lightning bolt from a level 9 caster as about equivalent to a second level spell.  An awful return and just one reason Summon Monster is often thought to be weak.

Now, let’s turn crazier.  We want to summon the Bralani Azata in a _7th_ level slot so it can lightning bolt.  We have the Superior Summons feat and are slightly unlucky to end up with four Bralani.  Each Bralani immediately casts a lightning bolt.  We’re up to 24d6 - or almost the raw damage output of a Meteor Swarm.  And they do it again the next turn.  The Evoker meanwhile turns green with envy as, after doing over 150 damage across a wide area, the Bralani Azata all turn away and heal people.  To match lust the lightning bolts with a metamagicked lightning bolt of his own he’d need something like an Empowered (+2) Maximised (+3) Repeated (+3) lightning bolt for a level 11 spell slot (8 with the Arcane Thesis feat).  And this is just something you can do almost as a throwaway spell - the only feats it took apply to all your summonings.
* Building your Monster Summoner*

* Feats*

It is unusual for a guide to name feats before classes but there are only three feats that matter to Monster Summoners and any summoner both can take them and should take them as soon as possible.  These are Spell Focus (Conjuration), Augment Summoning, and Superior Summoning.  The first is a simple pre-requisite.  The second makes all your summons stronger and tougher, and the third means you get to summon more monsters.  You should have all by level 5 (3 for humans).  They are that good - and there is nothing else that matters to the core concept.
* Classes*

Three classes look as if they make good summoners and a fourth is worth discussing.


 Summoners 	(unsurprisingly)
 Sorcerers
 Wizards
 Druids 	(for discussion)
 
_Summoners_
Perhaps unsurprisingly Summoners make excellent Monster Summoners - in fact I’d say point blank that they make the best Monster Summoners in the game as long as their Eidolon isn’t getting underfoot.  This is for two reasons - firstly they get more high level summons than any other class in the game (3 + Cha Modifier of the mathematically highest level possible) and second because these summons are a standard action not a full round action the monster gets to act on the round the summoner started to summon the monster rather than only appearing at the start of the next round.  This is almost equivalent to Quickening the spell - giving the monster (or monsters) an entire extra round to act in (and be beaten up in).  For these two reasons the Summoner is almost certainly the best Monster Summoner in the game even if they only get to do this trick once per encounter.  Speed is life and they are simply the fastest. 

The Master Summoner specialist class can summon top tier monsters for two rounds rather than one, further leveraging this speed advantage and cutting down his stamina to “only” about five fights per day going flat out.  That said, at a potential average of nine allies in a fight people might complain.
* Sorcerers*

The Sorceror has a major strength and a major weakness - being a Monster Summoner covers the weakness and enhances the strength.  The sorceror’s weakness is that they know very few high level spells - but Summon Monster is almost always relevant due to its flexibility.  So the Sorceror always has relevant spells, and has a lot of them.  However a Master Summoner has about as many free summons as a Sorcerer can cast spells of his top two levels.  Meaning that the only advantage the Sorcerer gets is being able to completely flood the battlefield with annoying critters and not having to stop at lower levels.  It’s a decent way to play a Sorcerer but you’d be better playing a Master Summoner.  And half the time your best summons is a level lower than the Summoner’s anyway.  On the other hand, making your first spell known to be the summons and training it out when you can take some variety is a good default option.
* Wizards*

It’s a trap.  The major advantage the wizard has over the cleric is quality of spells.  Which means that any time you restrict yourself to spells on the cleric list you would probably be better off as a cleric.
* Druids*

This is another trap.  Druids get Summon Nature's Ally X rather than Summon Monster X.  And at first level this means they are missing the pretty awesome Riding Dog - arguably the best beatstick at level 1 or 2.  At higher levels they have a lot of good beatsticks, but you only need one.  What they lack are the utility monsters as those are almost all outsiders - I therefore can’t recommend Summon Nature's Ally X in Pathfinder, although the much more fey D&D 3.5 version had such things as Unicorns on the level 4 list.
* Summoning Tactics*

Summoning tactics rely on three central principles.


 Expendability
 Flexibility
 Positioning
 * Expendability*

I’ve mentioned before that summoned monsters are expendable, and there’s no reason not to mention it again.  If you drop a summoned monster into the middle of an enemy group and they take a round to turn round and shank it, you’ve effectively used up all their actions for the round.  You might as well have stunned them - and the monster got to do something on the turn it was summoned.  A bargain much of the time.  (Yes, I am recommending summoning monsters in the middle of blocks of enemies).
* Flexibility*

The huge advantage of Summon Monster is being able to pick the right tool for the job.  Summon Monster isn’t just one spell, it’s often a choice of half a dozen.  Know your enemies and guess your targets.  Are they fey enough for Cold Iron to hit the spot?  Do they look big and beefy (in which case you want to attack their reflex defence) or small and scrawny (attack their fortitude) - you have plenty to do both, and even some monsters to attack Will.  Know your enemy.  And have your favourite monsters either printed out or on index cards.  It’ll save everyone a lot of time.
* Positioning*

The range of Summon Monster X is “close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)”.  Which means it’s often possible to drop a multi-attacking monster like an eagle right on top of the enemy.  Or on the far side of a shieldwall so it can attack the enemy caster.  Also summoning a herd of aurochs onto the flank of the enemy so they can stampede straight down the line is not only funny, it’s extremely effective.  (As is summoning someone with lightning bolt onto a flank, or a Vrock or two with a stun attack into the middle of the enemy and just out of range of your fighters).  Look at the angles or just block the doorway.  And remember that single attackers and pouncers want to charge - the -2AC doesn’t matter to you anyway.  Position your monsters as outright awkwardly as possible for the other side.
* Monsters to Summon*

Unlike most guides I’m not rating the monsters specifically - the key to being a good summoner is to pick the right tool for the job which might not be the best tool in the abstract - so best approach is to list the tools.  I am, however, picking two monsters at each level - one as meat and one as muscle.  Meat refers to a large, hard to kill monster - you put it somewhere and the enemy will need work to get past.  Muscle on the other hand just does as much damage as possible.  And remember for both that there’s both more meat and more muscle in several lower level creatures than one being summoned at the first level you can.
* Summon Monster 1*

At only 1-2 rounds, these are use-and-throw monsters - but the Riding Dog is really good for its level.

*Meat:* Riding Dog - single attack with trip and 17hp.  It’s about as good a summons as the Wolf or Hyena at level 2 and a solid contender for the muscle award at level 1.
*Muscle:* Eagle - triple attack with fly - really benefits from Augment.  That said it needs the triple attack as each of the attacks has a hard time with anything bigger than a kobold.
* Summon Monster 2*

Even without Superior Summons, for most purposes D3 riding dogs or eagles are superior to summon monster 2.

*Meat:* Lemure - DR/5 Good or Silver.
*Muscle:* Just go with Summon Monster 1.  No really good damage options here.

*Elemental (small)* - Elementals are all beatsticks and will be in line for the meat awards later, but most of them need to be bigger than their foes to work properly.  That said, some of them have nice properties at this level.
Small Lightning Elemental - +3 to hit against anyone wearing or holding metal.  Like most humanoids.  Still, probably not worth it compared to more doggies.
Small Magma Elemental - Turns a square into molten magma for a few rounds - nice to hold the line.
Small Mud Elemental - potentially makes the enemy helpless with a +7 to attack slam and DC 14 entangle attack.  Too big a threat to ignore and probably the best creature at this level.
Small Cold Iron Elemental - it’s made of cold iron.  The Fey hate it.
Small Gravity Elemental - blame Frog God Games for this cheese. If your DM allows you Reverse Gravity with a second level spell from a third party publisher, the DM deserves whatever the DM gets.

Pugwampi Gremlin (First Worlder Summoner Only) - level 2 monster that contains the level 2 Shatter spell.  Also contains an Aura of Unluck which debuffs everyone near it - useful for messing up archers even if it’s in heavy cover.
Vexigit Gremlin (First Worlder Summoner Only) - You won’t often need to trash non-magical metal things in a hurry.  But when you do, the vexigits each carry the L4 rusting grasp spell.  More useful to set up Snares.
* Summon Monster 3*

This is the level where monsters really start getting powers of their own.
*Meat:* Aurochs - Large makes for more meat..  Not even close to the meat of a pack of riding dogs yet - but at higher levels, a stampede of Aurochs (requires 3) is going to be very nasty.
*Muscle:* Wolverine - the high damage option, combining multiattack with rage with augment summoning.  3 attacks at +8, doing d4 or d6 +6 damage when raging.
Dretch - Stinking Cloud.  It’s not _that _hard to resist from the Dretch, but still a very useful spell.  And overlapping stinking clouds or multiple stinking clouds mean that people will fail saves in the end.
Lantern Archon - useful against creatures with low will or with DR you otherwise can’t break as a Lantern Archon’s ranged touch attacks ignore DR.  Also Aid At Will almost makes this a pocket healer.
Dire Bat - Radar - but in this build your Eidolon does that job.

Nuglub Gremlin (First Worlder Summoner Only) - heat metal, shocking grasp, snare.  If you want to prepare snares, you can summon more Vexigits.
* Summon Monster 4*

The utility monsters here are the Mephits.  With some obvious ones  notable.
*Meat:* Brown Bear - not only large and tough but grabs, making it that much harder to ignore.
*Muscle:* Lion - Grab, Pounce, Rake.  
Bison - an upgraded Aurochs.  Probably most useful at summon monster 6 - at SM 5 it has a 1 in 3 chance of not triggering the stampede.  And the summon monster 5 monsters are generally awesome.
Hound Archon - if the foe is evil it has continual Magic Circle against Evil.  If not it’s DR10/Evil.  If you’re lucky, both apply.

*Mephits* - all Mephits get a weak breath weapon and either two second level spells or a second and a third level spell at CL6 - often useful for utility.  Notable ones (i.e. third level spells) are below:
Dust Mephit - Blur and Wind Wall
Earth Mephit - Soften Earth and Stone.  Might come in useful and no one will have learned or prepared it.
Ooze Mephit - Acid Arrow (6d4 ranged touch, no save or SR), Stinking Cloud, sickening breath.  The combat option - but I’d still use a combat creature rather than a mephit.

Unicorn (First Worlder Summoner Only) - Magic Circle against Evil like the Hound Archon makes this a good summons.  But beyond that it has Cure Poison, Cure Moderate Wounds, and two uses of Cure Light at CL9.  A useful defensive summons.
* Summon Monster 5*

Demons and Devils - spells FTW.  And the Anklyosaurus is an outstanding monster.
*Meat:* Anklyosaurus - it’s not just the 95 HP here, it’s that the tail (+16 to hit) inflicts a DC25 one round stun.
*Muscle:* Xill - four grabbing claws (or four shortswords) and biting paralysis.  Still, slightly disappointing.  I’d skip this one entirely, jumping straight from brown bears to dire tigers.  Or just take the Anklyosaurus.

Bralani Azata - Two 6d6 lightning bolts, cure serious wounds, and wind wall at will.  For those of you keeping score that’s at least four level three spells - but if you want wind walls fast you can summon multiple dust mephits, and evocation is generally weak - although see above for how these things work at level 7.
Babau - dispel magic at will.  And See Invisibility.  Keep it dispelling until it succeeds - a utility monster.
Large Air Elemental - the Air Elemental’s Whirlwind can now pick up medium creatures (Ref DC 20) - the air elemental’s becoming viable.  Mud is still an anti-fort option and the Elementals are all contenders as meat although the anklyosaurus rocks just too much.

Pixie (First Worlder Summoner Only) - this isn’t a combat summons.  The Pixie has the L6 spell Permanent Image.  Also Charm Monster (L4) and Modify Memory (L6).
Satyr (First Worlder Summoner Only) - Suggestion and Fear effects if you want them.
* Summon Monster 6*

Here’s where you start getting an actual spellcaster as a summoned monster.  Unfortunately it’s a bard with all the wrong spells known.  But still useful.
*Muscle:* Dire Tiger Pounce, Rake, Grab.  Really made up  for the xill.  77 damage on average rolls if all attacks (all at +20) hit and you succeed at a grab once.
*Meat:* Huge Water Elemental - the DR 5 has it, along with the DC21 to avoid being staggered on each slam.  But honestly, stick with the Anklyosaurus for as long as possible.

Invisible Stalker - it’s always invisible.  And... er... that’s about it.
Lilend Azata - it’s a 7th level bard with a bad spell selection.  If you want an unoptimised 7th level bard here’s where to turn.
Shadow Demon - Shadow Conjuration 3/day, Shadow Evocation 3/day, Telekenisis At Will, Magic Jar 1/Day.  Shadow Conjuration is level 4, the rest are level 5.  And this is only one option for a L6 monster summon.  I hope the sorceror knows you’re treading on his toes.  At level 11 he can, after all, only cast 5th level spells.
Succubus - the bane of many summoners.  What more do you need to say other than that it’s a  succubus or that some summoners will summon d4+2 of them just because they can?  Possibly Charm Monster (L4), Dominate Person (L5), Cha 27, Bluff +27.
* Summon Monster 7*

This level’s a little disappointing after the high casting of the last one.
*Meat:* Tyrannosaurus - yes I said meat.  It’s huge and bulky.  And the Dire Tiger does more damage.  But being gargantuan that bite has one hell of a reach.  Alternative beatsticks of choice are the Greater Elementals with DR 10/-
*Muscle:* Roc - Grab and fly off (and possibly let go) is a simple approach.  But when a gargantuan creature grabs it grabs.  And the Roc can both fly and flyby attack.

Bone Devil - It has a Dimensional Anchor if no one remembered to prepare one.
Vrock - A DC 23 30 ft radius stun is really quite nice.  But it’s a one shot wonder which is then best off just using Telekenisis for a second shot.  Either that or you can have the Vrock dance somewhere expensive.  No, it’s not going to complete the dance against competent opposition.  But that’s the point - it’s a bag of hit points that the enemy must take down.
Nymph (First Worlder Summoner Only) - the Nymph is a nice way to open a fight with a bang, with Blinding Beauty.  Unfortunately her best spell is Summon Monster IV (which you can’t use) - and for blowing stuff up she has Call Lightning - or simply can unleash her Stunning Gaze on anyone who doesn’t get blinded.  A good alternative to the Vrock as a control-bomb summon.
* Summon Monster 8*

Only three options here.  And like at level 7 I don’t recommend any of them.  You’re probably better off sticking with flooding the place with Summon Monster 6 - or Vrock-bombing (an average of three attempts to stun everyone in 30ft for the turn can be pretty effective).  Both meat and muscle here are Elder Elementals and I don’t honestly see any casting here that beats Summon Monster 6.
* Summon Monster 9*

I’ve been complaining about level 7 and 8 monsters.  But the level 9 ones are _all_ good.
Astral Deva - Holy Aura to start.  Then Blade Barrier and Heal.  And it’s also a beatstick with an array of ways to deal with evil creatures, and almost a full curing spectrum.
Ghaele Azata - always on Holy Aura, then casts like a 13th level cleric.  Plus Prismatic Spray and Chain Lightning to boost the offence.  And not that bad a beatstick.
Glabrezu - Reverse Gravity At Will.  Fun! (Also Power Word Stun).  And hits pretty hard.
Ice Devil - At Will Ice Storm and Cone of Cold (13d6).  Also Wall of Ice to keep people in the area.  Still, if you wanted evocation damage, you were better off at Summon Monster 7, summoning an average of four-and-a-half Brelani Azatas who would all throw 6d6 lightning bolts for the first two turns for 27d6.
Nalfeshnee - Greater Dispel Magic and Feeblemind At Will and a dazing unholy nimbus.
Trumpet Archon - flying 14th level cleric with a Magic Circle against Evil.  I’m more impressed by the Azata.


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## StreamOfTheSky

Pretty good.  Things I didn't notice:

- Summoners also have the edge of 10x duration, so those SM I spell(-like)s  are actually worth spending the time casting.

- One advantage Wizard has over cleric (and druid....dont know why THEY get saddled with it...) is that he can be good and summon fiends or be evil and summon celestials.  Divine casters can't summon creatures of an opposed alignment.  So...a little more flexibility.  Still a trap.

- No emphasis on one of the greatest advantages Summon Monster has over SNA (and yet another reason druid sucks so badly at summoning in PF...).  That would be adding the celestial or fiendish template for smite good/evil.  This ability was buffed massively in PF, and as a summoner, you can take advantage of that far far far more often than the paladin can!  Hell, just a few weeks ago another PC had her eidolon blasphemy-banished away and was pouting about how she was useless now.  I was like, "dude's evil.  Sic a horde of celestial dire tigers on him."  Two rounds after doing so: even w/ two rounds of doing nothing at all (moping over the lost eidolon), she did more damage than the rest of the party combined that encounter, and it was already over.  BBEG had TWO contingency type effects to _Heal_ himself and near max hp when the summons came in.  So yeah...

- It's extremely one-trick ponyish, but a 15th level demon bloodline sorc (or level...11? with that robe) can become a very nasty summoner of demons.


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## Wycen

I don't know about including 3rd party material in a guide.  Maybe in an appendix, but I was pretty sure I'd never seen a cold iron elemental before so I had to read this with a critical eye.


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## Neonchameleon

I'd missed quite how powerful Smite is in Pathfinder on a summoned monster.  70 possible damage on a Dire Tiger.  Thanks


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## Neonchameleon

Wycen said:


> I don't know about including 3rd party material in a guide.  Maybe in an appendix, but I was pretty sure I'd never seen a cold iron elemental before so I had to read this with a critical eye.



I found it in the SRD but hadn't spotted that it was listed as variant rather than core.  Unlike the quite ludicrous Gravity Elemental which is exclusively third party.


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## Wycen

*This post is for clarification only.* Ignore if you already know and apologies if anyone thinks I want to argue, I don't.

The d20PFSRD site is great and I use it myself.  However, the Paizo PRD  is a better site to reference when trying to exclude 3rd party, "unofficial" if you will, material.  Super Genius Games and Necromancer Games/Frog God both make cool things for Pathfinder, but neither are Paizo.  They are 3rd party-unofficial.

You will not find the gravity elemental or the cold iron elemental in the Paizo PRD.  If you do I salute you and I've learned something new.

I wont bump the other thread but I knew the Paizo people said you can use the Conjure/Augment summoning chain for a summoner.  If I put on MY rules lawyer hat, MY interpretation is you can't use them on a spell like ability.  Having said that, I don't see them as broken and I know many people do it, it is just MY reading that says you can't.

Both this thread and the other one about summoning are useful and I hope you get more feedback.


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## MerricB

Sadly, the Riding Dog is not available to level 1 characters. It's been corrected to Dog in later editions of the Core Rulebook.

From the errata (corrected in 4th printing):
Page 353—In Table 10–2: Summon Nature’s Ally, on the 1st Level list, change “Riding dog” to “dog” and move to the correct alphabetical location. On the 3rd
Level list, change “Giant lizard” to “Monitor Lizard” and move to the correct alphabetical location. Move the “Giant scorpion” entry from the 6th Level list to
the 4th Level list.

Unfortunately, Paizo are less good at correcting their PRD.


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## StreamOfTheSky

They nerfed it to dog for SNA, but left it as riding dog for SM.  Why should druids even dare to be equally good as clerics at summoning animals?

*anger*


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## Mad Hamish

One advantage Wizards have over clerics, druids and sorcerors is increased duration for Conjuration Specialists as well as an extra conjuration spell for each spell level (although that gets them up to the same number of spells as a cleric including domain spells).
There's also the point that they have more spells that Summoners so they have other options for when summoning isn't an option (Dimensional lock etc), don't have the demands for healing that Clerics and Druids have.

It's arguable that they're better positioned to be able to get a full round spell off considering 
a) they tend to be less exposed to melee 
b) they have quite a few defensive spells that can protect them (note that invisibility isn't broken by summoning...)


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## MerricB

StreamOfTheSky said:


> They nerfed it to dog for SNA, but left it as riding dog for SM.  Why should druids even dare to be equally good as clerics at summoning animals?
> 
> *anger*




I had a feeling it was changed for SM as well in the new copy of the rules I was looking at, but it's entirely possibly I misread it, getting confused between the SM and SNA lists.

It's so out-of-whack in the SM1 list.


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## frankthedm

StreamOfTheSky said:


> They nerfed it to dog for SNA, but left it as riding dog for SM.  Why should druids even dare to be equally good as clerics at summoning animals?
> 
> *anger*



 Interesting! If i see any posts about that issue at Paizo's forum, I'll hit the FAQ'ing button.  Just don't be surprised if paizo nerfs the riding dog off the SM1 list

EDIT: JJ did plan to nerf SM1 Riding Dog to just Dog.


			
				Andrew Betts said:
			
		

> Looks good, although one small comment, somewhere James said the Riding Dog in SMI should just be a Dog.






			
				stuart haffenden said:
			
		

> Not according to the recent errata-ed updated Core rulebook unless they missed that one!






			
				James Jacobs said:
			
		

> They did indeed miss that one.
> 
> Since a riding dog and a wolf have pretty much identical stats, they should both be about the same difficulty to summon is my reasoning...
> 
> Ah well... hopefully something to errata in the next printing, I guess. Not that it's particularly game breaking as it stands.




http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboard...les/summonMonsterAllyPdfsWithErrata&page=1#13  {make sure to hit the FAQ button so Paizo can remember to nerf it!]


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## Kaodi

If you are willing to complete sacrifice the evocation and illusion schools of magic, a Thassilonian Specialist Conjurer gets can effectively memorize an extra Summon Monster spell per day of each level. And add to that that a 20th level Conjurer treats one of their Summon spells as having a duration of permanent and can still keep using non-permanent summons. Kind of like getting the Eidolon and still be able to cast.


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## StreamOfTheSky

frankthedm said:


> paizo.com - Suggestions/House Rules/Homebrew: Summon Monster/Ally .pdf's with Errata  {make sure to hit the FAQ button so Paizo can remember to nerf it!]




Thanks, I did!


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## Evilhalfling

Small Elementals are the only thing I use SM 2 for. 
Earth +5 hit, 1d6+4 damage.  (earth mastery for +1/+1)
Air elemental +6(1d4+1) flyby attack.  100 perfect flight. 


anything else is just an exercise in whiffing.


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