Getting into Someone Else’s Skin: N.

Jolly’s mini
guide to the Synthesis Summoner

“They called it something strange, something foreign and alien that had come from beyond to drag me down to
hell. Tried burning it off, ripping it off, and doing anything else they could to get the damn thing off of me.
Little did they know, they just made it angry. Made me angry too…” Ashe Neith, synthesis acolyte

1. Table of Content and Rating System

1. Table of Content and Ratings System
2. Introduction and Basics of the Synthesis
3. Abilities, Races, and Traits
4. Class Abilities, Multiclassing, Archetype, and Skills
5. Feats
6. Forms and Evolutions
7. Spell Suggestions
8. Mundane and Magical Items
9. Sample Builds
10. FAQ and Closing

Rating System
Black: This option for one reason or another cannot be rated.
Red: This option is to be avoided unless you want a challenge.
Orange: This is an okay option, but you can do better.
Green: This is a good option, and worth considering.
Blue: This is a solid option, it’s hard to do much better.
Purple: A class defining option, this should not be ignored.

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2. Introduction and Basics of the Synthesis

“Oh yeah, we all have things we want to hide. Me personally, I hate my son’s new haircut, think it makes him
look like an elf. But we keep that stuff bottled up inside where it belongs, we don’t just let it all come spilling
out. You need to show some restraint, or else you’ll end up like Riggins.” Grun Dahl, village elder of Zeith

Introduction
So I’ve seen that there’s some desire for a Synthesis guide, and honestly I love this archetype. For the longest
time I wanted to do a Summoner guide, but there’s already a great one by Saph, so this is my chance to help
with this rather intricate archetype that has a lot of people interested. Check out their guide to fill in the
gaps, kids. While not my guide, it fills in a lot of gaps where mine is too lazy to tread, and was one of the
things that inspired me originally to make this guide, so it’s worth checking out.

The biggest problem with this archetype is how little most people understand it, which causes it to be banned a
lot. So rather than how I start my other guides, I’ll be beginning this one with a bit of information on the
archetype and how it works. It’s probably the biggest reason this class is banned, since a lot of it is
misunderstood (I know that’s why it’s PFS banned), so let me know if I’ve messed up anything.

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The point of this guide isn’t going to be as full as other guides I’ve done, since it’s based on an archetype, so a
lot of the information won’t be as thorough, mostly because it’s not as important for this section since there’s
already information on that. I’ll be trying to keep the information as Synthesis specific as possible, possibly
using information on some of my other guides to fill in the gap.

Just be aware that this is a mini guide, so it’s not going to be as complex. But I do plan on trying to give all the
information possible to play this class to its optimal value.

Basics of the Synthesis

Normally I’d talk about roles and such here, but you know what you’re doing when you go Synth, let’s not play
coy here. What’s important is knowing exactly how you’re doing it. The most important thing to know about
the Synthesis (and the summoner as a whole) is that the entire class is almost completely mid op out of the
box. A lot of classes have a much lower optimization floor, which causes some confusion when a Synth comes
in and starts wrecking face. When you bring in a Synth, you’re bringing up someone strong than a Sword and
Board Fighter or Blaster Wizard, and for lower op groups, that’s going to cause you to believe that the class is
broken. It’s not. It simply has a much higher optimization floor, which means that even players who don’t
optimize will be able to make something that’s more effective than their friends who are optimizing at the same
level.

Don’t be afraid of them, but be aware of this disconnect. If this is too much for your game, you should probably
avoid this archetype due to some people having a lot of issues with it. It’s the kind of thing you should talk over
with your GM to make sure it fits the game that you’re playing in, and make SURE you understand the subtle
rulings that go along with this class, because slowing down the game due to ignoring the rules is rude towards
both you and the rest of the players in your game.

Now there’s a few things you should always keep track of when you’re playing this archetype:

Temp HP: One of the biggest issues with your Synth is their temporary HP, which is your ‘perfect shield’ against
damage. But you should know how you recover it. By rules, the only way to do that is with the Rejuvenate
Eidolon line of spells. Without this, you can’t fix up your temp HP, and your Eidolon will always be coming back
at its old HP/half HP. This does make it a required spell, but it’s not a huge issue. But what is important is
knowing that this is the only listed way to recover your Temp HP in case this becomes an issue. Make sure to
either get a wand or take the spell yourself, or your symbiote will be far less useful.

Evolution Points and Combinations: This is also a very easy thing to mess up, so make sure you take care
to only use the points that you have. A lot of times, you’ll see Eidolons coming into play with incorrect totals,
which helps give the reputation of a broken class. It’s your job to make sure you’re playing a legal character, so
make sure that you’re keeping that in mind. Another issue is making sure that your combinations are legal.
That has a lot to do with your natural attack limit since a lot of you will be using them (manufactured weapon
users can ignore this) You need to make sure that you’re following the rules for that, as well as for primary and
secondary natural weapons.

Math and Calculations: It’s important that you do your addition and other math correctly as well, taking into
account the bonuses and such that you’ll be getting with your evolutions. This is especially important for
changing sizes, since there are a lot of adjustments for it. Be careful in adjusting your size as well, since it’s
quite a large shift in power, and for most people it’ll be too much of an increase at once. While it’s homebrew, I
suggest breaking it up into 2 separate evolutions so it’s less of a steep increase all at once.

Appearance and RP: Remember if you’re always in your monster suit, it’s going to be hard to get into towns.
And if you’re large, it’ll be even more difficult. A lot of people will have issues with this, and you need a minute
(unless you use a spell) to pop on the beast mode, so make sure that you’re playing by the rules.

The rest of your party: As was touched on earlier, make sure this character plays well with the rest of the
party. Know that you’re going to be one hell of a melee combatant who can start at level 1 with pounce. And
that you’re packing 6th level spell casting, which makes you even more dangerous. Be sure that you’re playing
at the same level that your party is, since it’s not hard for you to outshine them. You’re playing a team game,
so find ways to help them out with your substantial buffing ability, keep your entire group functioning, and make
sure to help everyone else enjoy their time at the table too.

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Return to Table of Content
3. Abilities, Races, and Skills

“I didn’t know what it was at first, but now that I do, it’s such a rush! Who knew I could be this strong, this
fast, this powerful? It’s like a dream come true, and I owe it all to myself. Now I’ll never be alone, I have me
to keep me company. A friend who can never leave me, just like I always wanted.” Rel Nuse, village drunk

Abilities
You have a very special relationship with your physical stats, in that you don’t need them at all. Your Eidolon
subsumes your physical stats, letting you dump them all to high hell. You can even meet prereqs for feats and
such with your Eidolon. For this reason, all you really need is listed below.

Strength Yeah, you don’t need this at all. It’s the least valuable of the physical stats to you, so it’s easily a 7,
and possibly a 5 with the right race.
Dexterity Just barely higher than strength, you’ll need this for your initiative if you’re caught without your
symbiote, but even that isn’t a huge issue.
Constitution Another stat that’s useful to have in case you’re caught without your Eidolon, this one will keep
you alive, which is what makes it higher than the others.
Intelligence Considering this is a stat you keep inside of your symbiote, you want this to be good, although it
doesn’t affect a lot of what you do.
Wisdom Now this is a save boosting stat that’s pretty helpful, and it also helps with a few skills that you’d
enjoy being better at, so it’s worth your time to bump.
Charisma Now this is the stat you need, as it gives you more summons, spells, higher DCs, and other gifts.
And it makes you pretty, which is just as important for your character.

Races
Your choice of race is odd since a lot of things that would matter for other characters don’t matter for you at all,
and all you really care about are your mental stats (aside from having enough Con to survive getting the sniffles
when you’re sleeping at night without it. Because of this, our priorities are shifting in race, although some are
still quite solid while others lack that shine that they’d normally have.

4
Core
Dwarf While we’re getting a penalty to charisma, both other stats that it’s helping are good and so is the save
bonus vs magic, making it at least a semi viable choice.
Elf The racials are ‘meh’, but the nice thing here is the weapon profs, which can give you quite a few weapons
that you wouldn’t normally get proficiency with. Getting longbow and long sword both are quite nice.
Gnome Really solid racial bonuses here, nothing else is really that impressive though, so it can be a decent call.
Halfing Another group of good racial bonuses, and the race traits aren’t bad either, another good choice.
Half-Elf The benefit here is your insane Favored Class bonus which gives you extra evolution points. Evolution
points are your lifeblood, so getting more is of paramount importance. Even better with Ancestral Arms to get a
weapon proficiency in case you wanted to go with manufactured weapons.
Half-Orc Wow, these are nice (and can go Blood God), with variable stat bonuses, proficiency in a few nice
weapons, and a few racials that are easily traded out into better ones, half-orcs are hella solid.
Human Always good, the feat and variable stat placement help them out quite a bit, but the half-elf favored
class bonus is still king, making them probably the best synths.

Featured
Aasimar Base racial adjustments are golden for these angels, and their favored class bonus is pretty nice as
well, making them some fine celestial synths.
Catfolk The first of the dex/cha boosters (not bad for you at all), aside from okay racial adjustments, there’s
not really much here worth checking out, probably on the lower end of the dex/cha group.
Dhampir Another dex/cha, there’s again no real reason to pick it aside from flavor, so it goes back in the pile.
Drow Oh look, dex/cha. They do get some nice racial abilities though and some decent weapons as well as nice
darkvision. So far these are looking like decent enough synths.
Fetchling Another dex/cha, but we have a bunch of random SLAs thrown on, making this at least passable.
Goblin Finally, a non dex/cha. Goblins do have a discount version of the half elf favored class bonus, but it all
has to related to fire, and without as flexible a stat adjustment, this fall short.
Hobgoblin Now this doesn’t really give anything we want, the best thing it has going as that it has no cha
penalty. They can sneak well and have darkvision, but meh?
Ifrit ANOTHER dex/cha race, but these firestarters aren’t bad thanks to the alternative racial trait they can get
to get +4 to initiative. There’s a few others, but this race could easily be worse.
Kobold No good stats, no good racial traits, no reason to be here.
Orc Ew...just ew...racials here are garbage, adjustments are garbage, find you a human to love and come back.
Oread All wrong stat adjustments and no redeeming racial traits make this trash.
Ratfolk Unless you’re shooting for skills, rats aren’t anything spectacular, but they do get nice skill bonuses.
Slyph Bad racial adjustments all over here, and no good racial traits, so most elemental people aren’t great.
Tengu Not great racial adjustments, but being able to get some nice weapons out of this makes them passable.
Tiefling Div, Kyton, or Raksasha-spawn are what you’re looking for here, but tieflings have enough neat
alternative racials where you’re certain to find something that you enjoy.
Undine Water people ain’t great, just a fact of nature. Get youself a fire people, them good people.

Uncommon
Note: Make sure you get GM permission on this, since these races may not be suitable for your game.
Changeling I really like these ladies, aside from the con loss. They get good racial adjustments, and can get
free bonus melee damage, and can take a feat for even more damage. Hagspawn are solid synths.
Gillmen Again, not a fan of the wisdom loss, but aside from that there’s some solid racials here and a bonus to
mind affecting effects that help offset this, and they can breathe underwater which can be helpful.
Kitsune Looks like even foxes can be good synths with great racial adjustments and the shape change ability is
really nice utility, which is quite useful.
Merfolk Who knew Ariel could fight? With the low land speed negated by your synth form (or just go strong
tail), you’re decent enough to actually work well in a class like this.
Nagaji Cha bonus is nice, str bonus isn’t, but an int penalty isn’t terrible, and bonus vs enchant is okay, not
bad.
Samsaran I want to like these blue bastards more, but their best and most unique ability, Mystic Past Life,
really works better with anyone stealing from their list. They can steal some nice stuff from bards though, so
they’re still a strong choice, but they don’t get the bonuses you really want them to for their reputation.

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Traits
Most of the traits you’re taking are going to be combat based traits, since you’re a machine of murder and
vengeance. You don’t even really need to work on your magic much since it’s mostly going to be for self
buffing, meaning you don’t really have to care about anything but damage dealing.

Combat Traits
Axe to Grind This is a damage bonus that’s going to apply pretty often, especially once you start getting larger,
being the main combatant in the fray.
Bloodthirsty While sounding quite cool, there’s not here to validate a trait slot.
Careful Combatant This can be quite useful if you HAVE to withdraw since a lot of the things you can fight
have some very nice reach, and keeping yourself safe is pretty nice.
Killer Another cool name for another crappy trait, avoid this if you can.
Reactionary Any +2 to initiative is considered here, as all of them are great and amazing.
Threatening Defender If you’re going the Stalwart route, this is a +1 to all attacks. If not, this is basically
worthless, since actually using Combat Expertise is such a bad move.
Vengeful Another damage boost, this one is also pretty easy to activate, but does require you to take damage,
so it’s a little worse than Axe to Grind.

Faith Traits
Fate’s Favored This is really only helpful for a Half-Orc to boost their racial luck bonus to saves.
Unnatural Presence Giving your intimidate a bit more utility is good if you’re scary.

Magic Traits
Desperate Speed It’s a +5 to the fly speed of your eidolon suit, so it’s okay, but won’t matter until 5th level.
Hedge Magician If you’re a penny pincher, this will help stretch your crafting budget.
Kin Bond A save reroll is pretty nice, and nothing says you can’t bond with your eidolon, although it can’t be a
twin sadly, so you could pick one of the other characters, maybe a paladin?
Unscathed Mostly for Tieflings, Suli, and Aasimars, getting a little extra protection is never a bad thing,
especially if its from a few different elements.

Social Traits
Adopted This trait’s as good as the trait you take with it so it’s hard to rate this one on its own.
Rich Parents While starting with extra money is nice, money is fleeting while a trait is forever. I’d consider
most traits worth more than 900 gold in my experience.

Equipment Traits
Heirloom Weapon While much maligned for its errata, this errata could actually help you. The bonus of a +1
to AOOs is nice, but the real bonus here is the +2 to CMB rolls to Sunder/Trip is actually pretty damn nice.
While it’s not the marvel it used to be, combine it with Sword Scion to basically get the same effect. Be sure to
have the Masterwork Transformation spell around or on a scroll to keep this weapon viable.

Campaign Traits (Note: These traits are generally intended for a specific campaign, and may not be suitable
for everyday play. Consult with your GM before taking these traits)
Finding Haleen The BEST trait in the game, a +1 to HP and Skill Points per level is too powerful for a trait.
This is a 3.5 trait, and not really suited to a current game, but if your GM lets you take it, then take it and thank
your god for the chance to do it.
Sword Scion Getting a masterwork weapon and a +1 on attack rolls with a very solid weapon is a great use of
a trait, something that you can really use well if you’re proficient with it.

Race Traits
Bred for War (Human) The CMB bonus is what you’re here for, and make you a bit more scary as an added
bonus. Not a great trait, but it does help out CMB monsters.
Boar Resilience (Werebear) Foregoing the sucky feat of Endurance is too good, but lower if it’s not
considered to count for a prereq when selecting Stalwart.
Enlightened Warrior (Aasimar) Barbarian and Monk have a lot of synergy, so being able to multiclass
between the two can prove quite useful.
Feline Instinct (Weretiger) While slightly situational, you have good enough instincts to keep you aware of

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what’s going on, and it’s the biggest bonus to initiative you can get.

Glory of Old (Dwarf) I love this, it continues to pump your awesome dwarven saves, and stacks with Steel
Soul to make a Synthesist who’s hard to keep down.
Precision Hearing (Werebat) Adding utility for one of your best skills is a solid use of a trait.
Shadow Stabber (Tiefling) While it’s not incredibly easy for you to be unseen, a +2 on all strikes while you
are is a definitive buff to your damage, enough so to seek out invisibility.
Suicidal (Tiefling) I’m a big fan of this, as this lets you keep in front of your more vulnerable party members
when it counts, which is pretty amazing for a trait, even if once a day.
Superior Clutch (Tiefling) Considering you can go large and huge, imagine the damage you could do with a
gargantuan weapon with damage dice scaling.
Tiger’s Claws (Weretiger) I forget, what kind of action do you love using to attack again?

Regional Traits
Chosen Child Almost as bad as Rich Parents, this at least gets you +900 gold instead of changing your starting
gold, so if you’re going to sell a trait do it for this one.
River Rat A bonus to damage yet again, but only with daggers. But there’s a swimming bonus in here, and it’s
kinda flavorful, so it’s not terrible.

Religion Traits
Blade of Mercy Mostly for your bounty hunter types, being able to switch between lethal and nonlethal is a
nice trick, and the bonus damage is pretty nice as well.
Defensive Strategist Always golden, always being ready for combat is the best situation to be in.
Magic is Life While it’s not amazing, auto stabilizing is pretty damn nice since you’ll always be magic’d up.
Second Chance A reroll on any save once a day? This is beyond good, you NEED it. Kind of hard to find a
better bang for your religious buck than saving your life.
Veteran of Battle This might just be a personal preference, but the +1 to initiative is nice if you didn’t take
something else to boost it. But the quick draw in response to battle is what I really like about this trait.

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4. Class Abilities, Multiclassing, Archetype, and Skills

“I don’t think I’ve seen a lot like that fellow, flying around on angel wings and saving towns like it was nothing.
That dragon took out 3 squads of royal knights and yet that shining figure just took it down like it was nothing.
Makes me glad that some people know how to use their power responsibly instead of like that jackass mage
who keeps changing the color of my sheets.” Iras Mentek, relieved villager and prank victim

As stated before, you’re a simple class, but you have a lot of tools to mess around with to make you even more
deadly, and it’s hard to ignore them all. As long as you’re smart, you’ll get a chance to use all of them,
although personally I ask you not to completely ignore Summon Monster due to the intense level of versatility
possible with different summon creatures, even if it requires taking off your monster suit for a little bit.

Class Abilities
Spells/Cantrips Now you’d be fine with just your monster suit, but these are what make you into a true
combat monsters, since you have amazing casting off an incredible list with discounted spells and great buffing.
It’s hard not to love the summoner’s casting list, and you have so many great options here to real bust out.
Fused Eidolon Now this is why we’re here, the class feature that matters. It’s turning you from a small Harry
Potter like mage into a large Hulk like mage, and that’s probably the best place on the mage spectrum to be.
Fused Link And this is what’s helping keep your big monster suit from leaving you high and dry, so don’t be
afraid to take some damage to keep it around, since it’s the centerpiece of your offense.
Summon Monster X With your play style, you won’t use this as much as other summoners which is fine, but
it’s still great to have in your back pocket, especially at the higher levels once you get summons that cast spells.
Shielded Meld This is straight better than what’s being traded, and the +2 to saves definitely beats out the +2
shield bonus to AC. Both are great though and will almost always be active, helping keep you safe.
Maker’s Jump Hey, free Dimension Door. Not much else to say, but D. Door as an SLA is pretty nice.
Aspect Since you ARE your eidolon, this doesn’t really help at all. Don’t steal evo points from it, please.
Greater Shielded Meld Same as before, but better! Never something worth turning down.
Split Forms If you wanted to do this, you could have just taken the vanilla summoner.
Greater Aspect I like this for one reason, and that’s being able to get fast healing so you can keep giving your
eidolon hit points and keep it around. Aside from that, don’t steal points.
Twin Eidolon Yeah, this doesn’t work. Or at least there’s no real explanation for it. Does it make a copy of
your Eidolon like in Split Form? Does it let you give someone else a monster suit? It’s not super clear.

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Multiclassing
Don’t.

Not gonna listen? There’s only one acceptable multiclass for the synth, and that’s Paladin 2. That’s it,
everything else will make you worse at what you do. You NEED to keep evolving and getting stronger, and
doing anything other than taking synth levels is going to stop that. So why paladin 2? Because you get Divine
Grace, so you’ll get your charisma bonus to all saves. Is this worth it to you? It could be, I don’t know you, it’s
not worth it to me because I don’t like being 2 levels behind the curve in both spells and evolutions, but you
could be terrified of failing saves, and if so, it’s a fine multiclass.

Archetype
Yes, that’s singular archetype, there’s one archetype that works for this archetype, and it’s half orc only.

Blood God Disciple (Half-Orc)

1st Blood Feast Wow, this is a lot creepier once you’re doing it yourself. It’ll give you bonus evo points, but
for not nearly long enough to matter, making this really meh. Taking this archetype is basically going to remove
Summon Monster from your arsenal, and that’s not a great trade.
3rd Bloody Gift So you can give your friend evos too, but it burns through your Blood Feast...not great.
7th Avatar Gambit Yeah, you don’t want to dismiss your eidolon. This is trash.
11th Rage Power I really like rage powers, but this was a long road to get to a bad place.

Skills
Craft While this is kind of neat, you’re not really doing anything special with it, which makes it kind of a waste
unless you need something to do with your skill points.
Fly You’ll be flying eventually, so you’ll want to be good at it, and this will help you do that.
Handle Animal Kind of a weird skill here...not really sure why you have it...okay?
Knowledge: All Now these are a lot more useful, especially Religion/Planes/Arcana, which should do a lot to
help you out to summon new and cool things.
Linguistics It’s not really a great skill, but it’s worth it to pick up a few languages to make sure you can talk to
the strange creatures that you’re summoning up.
Profession Yeah, this is worthless. You get the same result with craft, and the chance to actually make
something instead of just running a business.
Ride You’re never going to ride anything, you’re almost certainly whatever you’d want to be riding, so skip out
on this.
Spellcraft You need this for knowing anything about magic, which makes it important to you.
Use Magic Device The best skill in the game, and you're charisma based. Take it, love it.

Non Class Skills

Diplomacy/Bluff You’re a charisma based class, and what’s sweeter than a giant monster made of awesome
who’s good at talking shop?
Perception It’s not a class skill, but it’s very important that you see, and you’re able to be made much better
at seeing through evolution, so keep this maxed.

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5. Feats

“I guess I’d call it a partnership if I had to call it anything. I needed help, and it was there. It needed a body,
and I was there. Overall, I’d say we’re pretty happy. Sure, sometimes it can get a little demanding, but that’s
what it’s like in every relationship, right?” Lark Northin, cultist of the Blood God

Feats are strange for you because of how you qualify for them. Now you may be saying “I don’t have the
strength to pick up Power Attack!”, and normally you’d be right. But the rule is that if you meet the prereqs for
a feat for 24 hours (so pull an all nighter with your symbiote), you can qualify for a feat. Sure, you won’t be
able to use it when you’re outside in your own skin, but that doesn’t really matter when the only time you
should be out of it is when you’re sleeping.

For the most part, you’re a combat specialist at first, and your feats should reflect that. Your spellcasting, while
powerful, can easily stand alone without feat support, meaning you’re free to explore combat feats and really
help develop your own style. Really your only big decision here is if you’re thinking of going with a weapon
wielder or natural attacks.

Core/APG/UM/UC/ACG/Misc

Core
Skill Boosting Feats (Skill Focus and others) No. You don’t need your skills boosted, and if you did, you’d
take an evo to give them a +8 bonus, not a feat to give them a +2/+3 bonus. Your feats are worth more to you
than skill bonuses, and it would be a shame to lose out on being awesome simply because you wanted to pick
locks better or whatever other dumb crap you liked to do. These are prerequisite feats only.
Agile Maneuvers This isn’t for you, since you should be just getting bigger and slower.
Arcane Strike This actually isn’t a terrible use of your swift action, and with 3+ natural attacks, this damage
can really start to add up, giving a lot more power to your swings.

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Augment Summoning You like this. You like this a lot. At worst, you only use it for summoning your eidolon
through spells and getting a buff because of it. Free stat boost for summons are GREAT.
Blind-Fight You can get a lot of alternative senses, so unless this is a prereq for something you want, pass.
Combat Casting I’d buff before combat, but the bigger you are, the more you’ll provoke. Decent early, but the
later you go, the less useful it is. Consider it for a retraining option.
Combat Expertise Another ‘prereq’ feat, you don’t want to take penalties to hit for AC.
Improved, Greater Disarm/Feign These combat maneuvers aren’t great for you, stick with raw power.
Improved, Greater Trip Tripping is actually quite nice, and for those natural attackers who get 3+ attacks,
using 1 of them to get a +4 on attack rolls is good. Even better since as you get larger, you can keep tripping
larger creatures, making this strategy viable longer than most others.
Combat Reflexes Out of anyone, you can make something good with this as long as you keep your dex up. So
if you’re gonna go big, make sure everything that steps into your reach pays for it.
Craft Wondrous Item Yeah, this makes you able to make your own gear, it’s pretty awesome.
Critical Focus This is mostly for weapon wielders, since natural attacks aren’t the best crit fishers. They could
try for it, but there’s too many attacks they’d need to focus on, so this is weapons exclusive.
Bleeding/Sickening/Staggering/Blinding Critical Blinding requires retraining, but if you’re going to crit
focus and you don’t mind waiting for BAB +13, I’d hold out for staggering since it’s so debilitating.
Archery Feats You’re not a ranged character, and if you are, you’ve picked a strange way to do it. Solid for
ranged as expected, but since I don’t think you can dual wield bows without an archetype, this isn’t great.
Defensive Combat Training You should already have a killer CMD, but it could always be higher.
Dodge/Mobility/Spring Attack/Wind Stance/Lightning Stance/Whirlwind Attack Everything from this line
is terrible, and it’s depressing that it is. Dodge is a chain you don’t want to head down.
Endurance/Diehard Endurance is just a prereq feat on its own, but diehard isn’t bad if you’re going for a vital
strike build, since your actions are limited. Without that though, it’s not super great.
Eschew Materials I think you kind of need this for a lot of your casting since I’m not sure if you can get to
your spell component pouch while monster’d up unless you keep it outside and attach it afterwards. This feat is
really dependent on how your GM rules these sorts of things.
Exotic Weapon Proficiency If you’re going to wield a weapon, make it exotic. There’s no reason to spend evo
points on getting prof with all martial weapons when you can burn a feat to get one great weapon.
Save Boosting Feats Aside from reflex you have good enough saves with the con bonuses from getting large.
Improved Critical Again, really only the best for weapon wielders, but it’s really nice for them, since your crits
are going to level mountains and shake the bones of the old gods of this world.
Improved Initiative For pouncers, this is heaven since it gives you a better chance to go first and get pounce
off ASAP. For non pouncers, it can be skipped while you wait for people to wade into your melee range.
Improved Unarmed Strike Normally I wouldn’t be big on this, but it does open up a few cool options. First of
all, with Feral Combat Training, you can make one of your natural attacks with this. This opens up taking
Pummeling Charge with it (which is hard to validate without a MoMS dip), but it’s an alternative route to
pounce.
Deflect/Snatch Arrows Just take the arrow, don’t be a coward.
Improved/Greater Grapple With your strength and size bonuses, you’re not a terrible grappler, even with
your moderate BAB. It’s not super important, but you could try to build around it if you wanted.
Intimidating Prowess This + Evo = one scary monster. If you want to build around fear, this will help greatly.
Leadership If you can take it, do. If not, don’t. Even better with your charisma focus, but it was already hype.
Lunge More reach is always good, you can never reach far enough.
Mounted Feats You’re the one who should be mounted, not the other way around.
Power Attack Yeah, you’re getting this 3rd level. The amount it will increase your damage is just terrifying,
and if you’re smart about your natural attacks, it’s a 2/1 exchange for them all. You basically need this to help
abuse your monstrous strength stat, since accuracy shouldn’t be a huge issue for you. Get this, love it, destroy.
Cleave, Greater Maybe for a weapon build, but you should be pouncing somehow, so meh.
Improved, Greater Bull Rush/Overrun/Sunder None of these are great, stick to tripping.
Spell Focus (Conjuration) You’ll need this for Augment Summon, and it’s not bad even without that.
Spell Penetration, Greater Most spells you cast will be on willing targets, so this is a waste.
Step Up This isn’t as good for you since you’ll be large and your opponents hopefully won’t be adjacent to you.
Toughness I’m not a big fan, but some people love extra HP, so this isn’t a terrible way to get it.
Two Weapon Fighting Feats Really, you’re better off going multiweapon fighting if you’re not going to focus
on huge weapons, although annoyingly there’s some good feats that require TWF, so it’s basically a prereq feat.
Vital Strike, Improved I really want to like this more, and since you could possibly go Gargantuan you could
have one hell of a single hit, but only going up to improved is a hard roadblock. You could make this viable by
piling on effects to a bite attack, it’s at least an option that’s worth considering for fun.

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Weapon Focus Another weapon only feat, I just don’t like this, but it’s a prereq none the less for other stuff.
Dazzling Display You can make yourself quite scary with the right combo of feats, so if you want to really put
the fear of god into someone, it’s not hard with this feat.
Shatter Defenses Seeing as you don’t really get much from attacking flat footed opponents, you can skip this.
Advanced Player’s Guide
Additional Traits Traits are great, although you need to make sure you’re not doubling up on categories.
Arcane Blast/Shield You have far better things to do with your spells than thnk.
Bloody Assault While it seems cool, this is garbage, not worth your time.
Bodyguard/In Harm’s Way Just adding +2 to someone’s AC isn’t really worth an immediate action, especially
if you have to be adjacent. Tanking a hit is much better, but even that isn’t super reliable.
Combat Patrol Needing Mobility kills this for me, as it wasn’t even super great to start off with.
Dazing Assault If there were any way to boost the DC, this could be better, but the saves you’re forcing with it
aren’t going to relevant when you can pick this feat up due to your 3/4ths BAB.
Eldritch Claws This has the same effect as a +2 amulet of mighty fist...which you’ll no doubt own. Not great.
Furious Focus A slightly scaling Weapon Focus for V. Strike builds, it could be worse, but it’s not great.
Heroic Defiance/Recovery Defiance can stall a debilitating condition, but the prereqs are steep. Recovery on
the other hand is garbage, and should really be avoided at all cost.
Improved, Greater Dirty Trick I really like dirty tricks, but until you can get quick dirty trick, this is taking up
your only attack, which isn’t great. It’s a lot of feats, but it does open up some decent debuff options.
Rending Claws Two Weapon Rend, this ain’t. It’s a conditional extra 1d6 damage, that’s terrible.
Spell Perfection While you’re not too big on metamagic, getting one spell to be amazing is worth taking a
metamagic feat, it just depends on which one you want to be your signature spell.
Steel Soul Making dwarves more hardy is the good thing for feats to do.
Summoner’s Call The duration of this buff isn’t great and neither is the type of bonus, so it’s the kind of thing
you should retrain if you take it early, it has little value later in the game.

Ultimate Magic
Antagonize Yeah, now with how it’s been errata’d, it’s not worth the action.
Eldritch Heritage This isn’t bad for you at all, seeing as you have the charisma to take it and your best race,
half-elf, gets a free skill focus. A familiar could be fun, as with other options, but make sure the ones you’re
getting don’t affect you personally, since you’ll lose those when you super suit up.
Extra Evolution Now this is always golden, and you should always take it. I’m pretty sure it’s ruled to work
with Synth even though you don’t ‘technically’ have the eidolon class feature. But evolution points are your
lifeblood, and getting more will only help make you into a more powerful engine of destruction.
Extra Summons Not a very strong feat choice, since you’re not the best at using this feature yourself.
Resilient Eidolon Again, it’s grey if you can use this, but this feat is mainly protection for if you’re targeted
with an effect that would knock you out like Sleep, making sure you don’t turn back into Bruce Banner too soon.
Superior Summoning If you’re deciding to use your SM ability, using this to help flood the field with additional
creatures can help turn the tide of battle. Just try not to take too long with your turn, okay?

Ultimate Combat
Body Shield If you’re going to grapple, cover is nice to have, although it’s not my thing.
Chokehold Choking someone else out can be a viable strategy, although I think this depends on if it’s ruled if
they can hold their breath in response to you doing this. I’d say not, you don’t announce you’re about to choke
them, so it’s a decent way to bring in someone alive and stop someone from Dimension Dooring to safety.
Cleaving Finish, Improved Your reach should be impressive enough to use this well, but it’s really only useful
for minion slaying. Still, it’s great for that purpose, and worth considering.
Death or Glory No. Just no. Everything this lets you do is bad. No.
Deathless Initiate, Master, Zealot Initiate is actually nice due to still being able to pounce and full attack,
although the other feats in this chain are really just filler. Sucks you need to be a half orc though.
Devastating Strike For those of you going down the Vital Strike chain, this is probably an important stop to
you, since you need to do everything you can to make that one attack as big as possible.
Dimensional Agility By itself, this is pretty tame, but you already knew that, and it leads to good places.
Dimensional Assault Now this is why you came, giving you even more ways to telepounce. Not only does it
look super sweet, but it also stops terrain from being an issue on your charge, meaning you’re always
functioning at full potential. And since you get Dimension Door as a 3rd level spell, you can get this as early as
9th level (7th with retraining), meaning you can start telepouncing very early. It’s dangerous to overuse though
since you could very easily burn through all of your 3rd level spells, so take care to only use this when needed.

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Dimensional Dervish Now this isn’t much of an upgrade since you already have pounce, but for those of you
without pounce, here it is. That basically makes it a biped exclusive feat, but if you don’t have it any other way,
here’s pounce for the cost of another feat.
Dimensional Maneuvers A slow end to a good feat chain, a +4 on trip is nice, but not worth this feat, since
you hopefully won’t be needing to use it too much, making this bonus apply less than you’d hope.
Feral Combat Training While your natural attacks are going to be doing more damage than your unarmed
ones, unless you dipped MoMS, your natural attacks are always better, and the feat investment isn’t great.
Final Embrace, Horror, Master These feats require you to choose serpentine for your base form, and that’s
not great, but some of us don’t like being hurt monsters, we just want to grapple. And this lets you constrict
things of your size, which as you level should grow smaller and smaller. Making an opponent shaken as well is
another help, but Master is actually really nice when you’re huge, since your base damage for your attacks is
harsh.
Hammer the Gap This can really help increase that damage and accuracy if you’re a multi armed/weaponed
monster, making sure that every attack of yours lands and causing even more damage than before.
Moonlight Stalker, Feign, Master Syths don’t have a great way of generating low light conditions, so while if
you can get into that condition it’s nice, it’s not something you can rely on, and the prereqs don’t make this
worth it either. Both additional feats are just as bad, stick with Hammer the Gap and Arcane Strike.
Quick Dirty Trick This is what makes tricking worth it, but it’s a large investment, so it’s up to you to decide if
it’s worth it. Blinding an opponent can increase your accuracy to intense amounts though.
Rending Fury, Improved, Greater Most of you will have 4+ claw attacks eventually since they’re just so
good, so it’s not super important to cut down on the number of claws you need to hit. Improved gives garbage
bonus damage though, and 1d6 bleed damage for Master is just insulting.
Stalwart, Improved The worst thing about these feats is how many feats you need to get them up and
running. Considering you need Endurance, Diehard, and Combat Expertise to use these at their best (along
with probably also taking Power Attack penalties on attack), Stalwart can be hard to fit onto builds, even if the
DR is really nice. Plus Improved, while great, comes online very late. They’re good, but very intensive.

Advanced Class Guide

Evolved Summon Monster Now this can be nice, seeing as anything you summon with 4 legs could be picking
up pounce, and therefore always putting maximum hurt onto opponents.

Misc Feats
Ability Focus There’s a lot of abilities you get that have saves that can be made better by this.
Cornugon Smash This is the best way to intimidate, hands down. And it works well with Hurtful too.
Ferocious Summons Keeping your summon buddies around is very helpful, especially if you’re having them
around for a minute a level. Only for half orcs though.
Horn of the Criosphinx Weapon Wielders only, if you’re pouncing with a 2 hander (not a bad idea), this is
going to increase your damage quite a bit, abusing that intense strength bonus of yours.
Hurtful The best use of this feat is with the above feat, although if you’re using this, you’re not using Arcane
Strike. If you have an attack that has a lot of nice things attached to it (trip, poison, etc) or aren’t throwing out
6+ attacks a round, this is probably better than Arcane Strike.

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6. Forms and Evolutions

“Did ya see it? Did ya see that monster beating up that other monster? Never thought I’d see something as
amazing as that. It looked like their souls were clashing, like they were fighting for the fate of the world! I
wish I could do something like that!” Jessop Narn, local gossip and awestruck bystander

Forms
There’s really only two different options here, Quadruped or Biped, as they’re the only ones of whom get decent
stats and abilities. So it’s more of a choice between those two forms.

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