The Aether Artisan
Have you ever felt that the customizability of summoner eidolons is a little bit wasted? There are so many options and so many configurations, but any given summoner will only ever use a small handful of them. Today’s archetype rewards creative thinkers by allowing you to mix-and-match evolutions and apply them to a wide variety of summoned outsiders, ensuring that you have a minion for every occasion. I hope you like it.
New Summoner Archetype
Aether Artisan
These summoners are almost universally reviled and ostracized from any form of civilized society, for they possess the power to force various extraplanar beings to do them service. They are equally despised in the planar community, for not only do aether artisans force extraplanar creatures to do their bidding, but they can fundamentally alter these creatures while in their service, a practice most planar creatures find terribly insulting.
Call Extraplanar Entity (Sp): An aether artisan can call forth an extraplanar creature to serve it in any capacity he chooses. Calling an extraplanar entity is a full-round action which provokes attacks of opportunity. Once called, the summoned entity is under the aether artisan’s control, as though it were summoned using the spell summon monster I. However, a creature called in this way is unaffected by protection from evil and similar spells which provide protection against summoned creatures, though spells such as banishment affect the extraplanar entity as normal. When summoned, the extraplanar entity has its full hit points and all uses of its daily abilities, including spells and spell-like abilities.
A creature summoned by this ability is further empowered by the aether artisan, gaining additional abilities similar to the eidolon possessed by a normal summoner. When summoned, for the duration of this ability, the extraplanar entity gains the armor bonus, Strength/Dexterity bonus, maximum attacks, and special abilities indicated on the Eidolon Base Statistics table found in the Advanced Player’s Guide, based upon the aether artisan’s summoner level. The summoned outsider retains its Hit Dice, attack bonus, and saving throws.
Additionally, when summoned, the called creature gains a number of evolution points equal to 3 + 1 for every 2 summoner levels the aether artisan possesses beyond 1st, to a maximum of 13 points at 19th level. These evolution points are allocated to the creature when it is called, and are reallocated each time the aether artisan summons a creature in this way. For the purposes of determining what kind of evolutions the creature can qualify for, its base creature type is based on its physical appearance: bipedal creatures are bipeds, quadrupedal creatures are quadrupeds, snake-like creatures are serpentine, and anything with the aquatic subtype is aquatic. All other types of creatures are assumed to be bipeds, though the GM has final say on what kind of creature it is. Do not recalculate the creature’s statistics.
The types of creature which can be summoned in this way vary in accordance with the aether artisan’s level. Once he gains the ability to summon a creature, he may always choose to summon that type of creature when using this ability. At 1st level, the aether artisan can summon any of the following outsiders: an imp, a lantern archon, or a quasit. At 4th level, the aether artisan can additionally summon any air, earth, fire, or water elemental of Large size or smaller. At 7th level, the aether artisan can additionally summon a djinni, bone devil, or succubus. At 10th level, the aether artisan can summon any greater air, earth, fire, or water elemental, as well as any lesser elemental of these types, and any genie with a CR less than or equal to his class level (such creatures can never grant wishes). At 13th level, the aether artisan can summon a ghaele, ice devil, glabrezu, or astral deva. At 16th level, the aether artisan can summon a planetar or horned devil. Finally, at 20th level, the aether artisan can enlist the services of either a balor or a pit fiend.
For the purposes of any class feature the aether artisan possesses which references the aether artisan’s eidolon, he treats creatures summoned by this ability as his eidolon.
An aether artisan can use this ability a number of times per day equal to his Charisma modifier (minimum 1). A creature summoned by this ability lasts for a number of rounds equal to the aether artisan’s class level + his Charisma modifier (minimum 1), or until the aether artisan dismisses it as a standard action. If the summoned creature is dismissed or slain, the aether artisan suffers damage equal to the difference in the summoned creature’s current hit points and maximum hit points. An aether artisan can never have more than one creature summoned in this way at a given time.
This ability replaces the eidolon, summon monster, gate, and twin eidolon class features.
Improved Aspect (Su): At 10th level, an aether artisan is able to shape his summoning energies to improve himself. He gains a single 1-point evolution.
This ability replaces the aspect class feature.
Improved Greater Aspect (Su): At 18th level, an aether artisan’s ability to shape his energies into himself improves. He gains an additional evolution worth no more than 4 evolution points.
This ability replaces the greater aspect class feature.