Add levels to summons?

[zDark Shadowz]

There are lots of different summoning themes so this might be a bit much to ask, reasoning is the following though, the consequences of them being at level 1.

Turn checks mass wipe out themed summonings instantly

All casts from summons are set to lowest checks, makes it tough to pierce SR, dispel opponents, do significant spell damage with a summoned proxy.

Level-reliant creature abilities are set to lowest possible DC. Domination gaze for example from a certain Summon Creature V is only DC 10 when around DC 14 should be its estimate (+1/2 level 8 or 9 to base DC 10) [in my opinion only]

Only one attack per round. (Excluding dual-wielding summons)

Extremely adversely affected by spells with low HD bypass effects.


If its possible to make them equal or one less than the minimum caster level required to cast the Summon spell that'd be great, though I suppose AB and HP might need to be rebalanced after to make sure that aspect isn't increased from its current state.

Thanks in advance for your time, constructive feedback welcome, deconstructive not so much :P

[Cruzel]

The reason summons have level 1 is so they don't massively alter quest spawns. If you want to know how rough this would be, try having your familiar out during quests and noting how different the spawns are.

[Caster13]

Cruzel's already explained why all summons were changed to level 1 creatures. I want to add, though, that when we did make this change to our summoning system, we adjusted a number of variables for each creature such as BAB, APR, HP, saves, turn resistance, etc. to make them appropriate for the summon spell used to summon them.

There have been plenty successful/powerful summoner concepts both past and present--I even think they're still slightly overpowered depending on their summoning theme.