Eidolon Arcana
I suppose I make a habit in this column of saying that it’s easy to forget about the spellcasting of various classes, and not to belabor the point, but it can be easy to overlook the summoner. This isn’t just because summoners have a powerful melee combatant as a class feature, or because their spellcasting is only of the six-level variety, but because summoners seem to have a very well-defined niche that, quite frankly, is also covered by wizards and sorcerers, and druids and clerics, for that matter. Everyone and their uncle can summon things, so what’s so special about summoner spells, right?
Well, that’s as may be, but today’s spells are definitely focused on summoners more than on summoning in general. I think you’ll like what you find.
HEIGHTEN LIFE LINK
School conjuration (healing); Level summoner 1
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range personal
Targets you and your eidolon
Duration 1 round/level
You suffuse the mystic link between yourself and your eidolon with healing energy, so that whenever you sacrifice hit points for your eidolon as a result of your life link class feature, you prevent 2 points of damage to the eidolon for every hit point you sacrifice, instead of 1 point. Due to incompatible magical resonances, however, this spell does not function in conjunction with life conduit and similar spells.
NATURALIZE EXTRAPLANAR CREATURE
School transmutation; Level druid 4, sorcerer/wizard 3, summoner 2
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target one extraplanar creature
Duration 1 min./level
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes (harmless)
You alter the target’s aura, making him fit in better on the current plane. For the spell’s duration, the target loses the extraplanar subtype, and is not treated as a summoned creature for the purposes of spells such as protection from evil. Similarly, during this time, the creature cannot be affected by spells such as dismissal or banishment, nor is it subject to any special weaknesses of a summoned creature (such as being sent back to its home plane by dispel magic, or controlled by control summoned creature, etc.).
SUMMON LESSER EIDOLON
School conjuration (summoning); Level sorcerer/wizard 5, summoner 4
Casting Time 1 round
Components V, S
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Effect one summoned eidolon
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no
You summon a single eidolon that is not currently linked to any specific summoner. Treat this eidolon as though it were the eidolon of a summoner whose class level was equal to 1/3 your caster level (rounded down). You may select the eidolon’s base form and determine how its evolution points are spent each time that it is summoned (different configurations represent different eidolons). The eidolon serves you faithfully, as though it had been summoned by summon monster V.
TARGETED DEVOLUTION
School transmutation; Level druid 5, sorcerer/wizard 5, summoner 5
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target one creature
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance yes
This functions as devolution, except that instead of causing the target to lose a certain number of evolutions, it instead causes them to lose a number of evolution points worth of evolutions, of your choosing. If the target fails its saving throw, you gain perfect knowledge of all evolutions it possesses, and can choose what evolutions it loses, up to a total evolution point cost equal to your caster level – 3. If you choose to have the target lose any evolutions that are prerequisites for other evolutions, or that other evolutions modify (for example, removing a natural attack that the target has the reach evolution for), then the evolutions that depend on that evolution count against the number of points of evolutions that you can remove with this spell. If the target succeeds on its Will save, you do not learn what evolutions it possesses, and the spell has no effect.
WILD MUTATION
School transmutation; Level summoner 6
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target one creature
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes (harmless)
You cause accelerated mutation in the target, which allows it to spontaneously develop evolutions. You may apply a number of evolution points to the target equal to 1/2 your class level. You can spend these evolution points however you wish, but the target must meet all necessary prerequisites for any such evolutions. At the end of the spell’s duration, the target returns to normal.