A excellent expansion to the Pathfinder Summoner class, plus expanded options and a worksheet for creating the Summoner's Eidolon. The 30 new feats include some that have a strong caveat for the GM (Cannibalstic Casting, for example, should probably not be allowed for Summoners who can recover Constitution easily).

The layout and art are very good, and other than a few small typos, the text is clear and well written. Used responsibly, this supplement can add a lot of variety and enjoyment of the Summoner class in your Pathfinder campaign.

If you wish to understand the Summoner class and to expand the options available to these magical masters, the Summoner’s Circle is an excellent sourcebook. Summoners and conjurers will especially benefit from the feats but others will too.

The Summoner’s Circle: Advanced Feats is a 19-page PDF (17-pages if you remove the cover, ad and OGL page) for the Pathfinder RPG written by Sigfried Trent and published by Open Design. This is part of Open Design’s Advance Feats line for Pathfinder.

The layout is primary traditional two columns and the table of feats clear to read. The cover is full color while the minimal interior art is black and white and supports the theme. An eidolon character sheet is included at the end.

The Summoner’s Circle begins with an introduction to this product and its aim, which is to provide a detailed look at the Summoner class and ways to play it as well as providing additional options for the class. It does a good job laying out the basic ins and outs of the summoner and provides a grounding in the class’ abilities with a good look at the role of the eidolon.

Much of the product is the thirty new feats, only four of which are tied to Summoner class abilities though several are primarily monster-type feats, and each has paragraph or so of commentary that talk about the reasoning behind the feat and discusses balance issues -if any- with each feat. Personally, I appreciate this insight into the design process. The feats are solid mechanically and certainly aimed toward what the Summoner does well, which is creating and manipulating things.

Concluding the product are three example 20-level character and eidolon builds, showing feat and ability progressions: the Chess Master (battlefield manipulator), Mythic Rider, and the Master of Arms (combat summoner).

Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.

Summoners are a particularly interesting addition to the roster of character classes available for Pathfinder players. The Introduction states the purpose of this book, to provide carefully-designed feats chosen to make the most of the special abilities of this particular class, and - through the suggested 'career paths' - demonstrate how to use them to good effect in constructing effective and interesting characters.

Next is an overview of the summoner and, as always with this series, a good knowledge of the basics from Paizo's Advanced Player's Guide is recommended before you settle to explore the potentials laid out here. Suffice to say, he's an arcane spell-caster specialising in summoning creatures to do his bidding and has one particularly intriging feature: his eidolon. This is a powerful outsider with whom the summoner forms a lifelong attachment, being able to summon it like any other creature except that it can stay until dismissed. It acts in accord with the summoner's wishes but has free will as to just how it goes about it! Fun indeed and in the hands of a creative player far more than an adjunct to combat. Although a regular spell-caster outside of summoning ability, the summoner is relatively weak in this regard and his lists concentrate on defence, enhancement and things related to summoning - such as calling up walls and pits, which can lead to some interesting and unusual battlefield tactics, if that's the way that your summoner is inclined.

So, on to the new feats. Many are available to any character who can meet the requirements, although they are aimed at this particular class. One thought for effective use of an eidolon is to have one which can fly, so feats like aerobatics and balanced spellcaster (which lets you dispense with Concentration checks when you try magic on the move) are of particular use if you have taken that path. One of the most unusual requirements for a feat must be that for multihanded weapon - you need 3 or more arms! (As you can imagine, it's mostly intended for eidolons.) If you take a tactical approach, wall mastery is useful as it permits you to have holes in walls that you have summoned through magic, while enlarge wall lets you have bigger ones than the opposition might expect. Another feat with potential for fun must be clockwork summoning which enables you to summon a mechanical version of the creature you wish to summon. There's one minor problem: in the headings to the feat descriptions, somehow the letters 'ft' - as in shifting wall and sizeshifter do not render correctly, although a quick play with the copy tool shows the right letters are actually there!

Next, three character builds are presented - which for summoners include builds for both yourself and your eidolon. First is the Chess Master, and it's a real gem, using the varied abilities of the Summoner to take control of a battlefield, manipulating the terrain and the movement options available to your opponents to your advantage (and, of course, their detriment). If you enjoy a calculating and tactical approach to combat, this build is worth your consideration. The others are Mythic Rider, based around using your eidolon as a mount, and the Master at Arms, where both character and eidolon are carefully-crafted battle-monsters, fighting side-by-side! The work rounds off with a 'character sheet' specially tailored for eidolons, as you are going to need to track its capabilities as much as you need to document your own.

Overall, this is a good addition to the series, very combat-oriented but opening out some very interesting possibilities - now to learn all the wall spells I can and take the wall-manipulation feats...