Just beat 2 EL 17 encounters with my EL 8 party composed of 2 druids, a cleric, a wizard and a bard. Everyone has Summon Monster, and the cleric gets Animal Companion from Animal Domain. This is on NWN2, Storm of Zehir, with Kaedrin's PrC Pack. THEM MEGARAPTORS STOOD NO CHANCE! NEITHER DID THE FELL TROLL! Although the troll did make me reload once, because i forgot i had an acid flask in the cleric's inventory. Overall, the party's strong as fuck when fully buffed, but weak if ambushed with few spell slots. The amount of micromanagement is making me think if i want to go through with this to the end...
Maybe i shouldn't have gone so crazy on the summons, two buffers and 2 heavy hitters would do the job, but then it wouldn't be worthy of mentioning on these boards!
My small army consists of 2 Celestial Deynonychus, 1 Normal Deynonychus, 3 Summon Monster IV, 3 Summon Monster III, 4 Summon Monster II. Two of the summons are Ashbound, the bard has Song of the Heart and a spell (possibly homebrew), that enhances Inspire Courage by +1. So i as a level 8 bard can give a nice plus 6 to hit and damage, to EVERYONE. Enter Bless, Mass Lesser Vigor, Prayer, Enrage Animal + Animalistic Power to each Deynonychus, as well as Stoneskin, Barkskin, & Mage Armor.
The Cleric, of course, buffs himself to be better than a fighter at fighting, and for a full 2 minutes real time he's a beast with +20/10 to hit. At level 8. Don't even know how much the Deynonychus stats are after the full rounds of buffing, but they draw blood with a rage that's fierce. ECL appropriate encounter ends with just the dinosaurs tearing everything apart. I don't even have to buff them.
It's nice, but tiresome. If this party was on a PnP, each encounter would have lasted 1 hour or more.