Build guides for Guardian Spirit? If not, any help?

1E Player

So I just got the Summon Guardian Spirit feat. That, plus Alter Summoned Monster + heightened mount cheese lets me have a Guardian Spirit for ten hours a day, essentially an animal companion.

The Guardian Spirit template has decent room for customization: I get to pick its feats, its skills, and some of its spells (albeit from a highly restricted list.) Are there any guides to using this? If not, is there any advice you could offer?

I'm using a Rod of Giant Summons so it's small instead of tiny, and at later levels can use Bonded Mind + the Share Spells feat to cast self-only spells on it, so it's a great target for buffs, and with the juicy stat upgrades it gets, I feel like it could be completely combat viable. Because its duration is hours/level via Heightened Mount cheese, I can even get it magic gear/barding/etc without "wasting" its duration. All this is cool, but I'm not sure what feats to give it to maximize its usefulness. I've looked at "how to build your animal companions" style threads, but animal companions can only pick feats from a specific, limited list. My guardian spirit has the whole range of feats available from any official Paizo source, and I'm not as familiar with this game as I was with 3.5.

If it matters, the base creature is a Silvanshee. (So taken because Guardian Spirits have stupid high charisma at max level, and getting that as a luck bonus to saves is awesome.)

Thanks for any help you all can offer!

Posted Apr 30, 2022, 12:45 AM UTC

43

Hmm.

Silvanshees are not fond of open combat, even against demons, devils, or other fiendish threats, and they’re likely to run away if confronted. When they must fight, they prefer greater numbers and the element of surprise, using their magic to temporarily overcome their physical weaknesses, and melting away into mist if the battle turns against them.

Basically you're herding a cat here.

Probably not an issue if even heightened mount/alter summoned monster cheese is allowed, but 'When you summon your guardian spirit, the duration of the spell you use to summon it is 1 minute per level.' which doesn't have an exception for mount.

Anyway, there are no build guides I know of for guardian spirits specifically, but it'd be much like a summoner's eidolon in terms of useful feats. Piranha strike is probably a must. If there are other PCs it might be fighting with then teamwork feats like outflank are good for both it and the PCs (assuming they can be persuaded), if it's only going to be fighting with other summoned monsters then forget those.

2
covert_operator100•

Spell-like abilities are also based on charisma so you could look for ones that have good spells for you. There's always the classic recommendation of a faerie dragon because it can use wands.

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covert_operator100•

Instead of an improved familiar I would choose a fey-touched regular familiar because it is able to transform into humanoid form and wield weapons.

edit: you could even disguise it as you :)

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Shamalayaa95•

The silvanshee Agation is a support summon and it's awesome, since his lay on hands scales up with his HD. To me a summon guardian spirit feat is the strongest feat in the game if used with a silvanshee. Let me explain with a 3rd level slot you get at least 6 use of lay on hands (1d6 too bad but it's still useful) on top of that he can give you a +5 LUCK bonus on all saves for 10 min, he can mist up and has true speech this alone is insanely useful. Then as he progresses he can became only more insane as 3rd HD feat pick Hands of valor which allow him to grant a 1/day bonus of his CHA on all attacks to an ally that has been target of his lay on hands for 1 min this is HUGE it can give your caster a better bonus to attack than a full bab class and if you want he can give it to them too. From that point on only his cat luck ability, hands of valor and lay on hands ability make worth any level of spell slot used to summon it. For the other feats you can go as you wish and it will still be good for example giving him more lay on hands feats to boot his healing effectiveness, quicken SLA dimension door. Or combat feats to boost his offensive capabilities, heck i even toyed with the idea of giving a guardian summon the smash from the air chain feat and keep him close but that's not for a silvanshee. As more combat focused option the tidepool dragon looks fantastic but it needs to be comboed with the proxy summon feat to give your summons the share spell ability, so you can turn it in a fucking medium/large/huge dragon but any beast shape will do the trick also opening you up a lot of other buffing option like mirror image, blade's tutor Spirit, displacement and so on. This makes the use of the rod of giant summon less mandatory (it's still super important but not so much) since you turn him into a fixed size whatever you want (still good for str and con bonus but not improved weapon DMG). Also I'm not sure if the rod would work with the mount altered summon trick. You probably can't turn a guardian spirit into a melee power house but you can surely with 1/2 buff spell can make him decent by himself to be a support/off tank to the party and take some heat off them while still doing a bit of damage with the smite threath, if properly beefed up it can reach the level of a good animal companion or a non min maxed melee pg in my opinion.

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TalonosOP•

This is exactly the sort of post I was hoping for. Thanks so much for your suggestions!

I think RaW, Hands of Valor won't work because the Silvanshee's Lay On Hands is a racial ability, not a class ability, so it doesn't meet the prerequisite, but I would not be surprised if my GM would go for it anyway because it's so close to being allowed.

Right now my guardian spirit is very "nova" as a fighter. Heroic strength + smite + augmented summons + evolved summons to put claws on her back feet too + giant summons + her precasting chill touch + charge + pounce is an insane damage output while it lasts. Then her buffs wear off and she's back to being an off-healer, lol.

1
Shamalayaa95•

Yeah i played it with a master that dislikes summon as offensive weapon with a Sorcerer/arcane trickster, for world building reason reason he gave me a summon monster page of knowledge and I used a silvanshee the whole campaign as a buffer healer he was broken. I more or less carried the party throught the last boss fight using plane binding to get a bunch of other support. I would like to play a martial focused guardian spirit one day, having a tank near you thought it is more feat intensive than the silvanshee that works without proxy summoning. Shame for hands of valor but I honestly think that RAI (you can disagree) you can use this since usually in PF feats and such do not specify that the prereq needs to be taken from a class or another but just that you have the ability that is effected. For example the rage prophet needs the rage feature.

1