Legs and Claws on a Serpentine Eidolon

[SnowHeart]

I'm playing around with a Summoner and Eidolon in Hero Lab, and for the longest time I've had two of the evolutions as Limbs (Arms) and Claws. Is there any reason why I can't switch the Arms for Legs, and put the claws on the legs, thus giving me claw attacks AND a +10' to land speed? I guess the tradeoff would then be that it couldn't wield items in its "hands", but that's not likely to happen with this build anyway.

I ask because it's a little hard for me to visualize something using its legs to "slither" faster and then having the option to attack with them. I tried to look up other creatures that had legs but no arms, and the only one I could think of (the wyvern) does not have claw attacks.

[Archaeik]

Couple of points...

A) Yes, you can do this, an eidolon is allowed to have 1 set of claws on its feet

B) Giving your serpent legs means it is no longer immune to trip.

It's a little bit strange, but I think there are some monsters with multiple legs(only) and multiple claws (as opposed to talons).

[SnowHeart]

Thanks, Archaeik. Good point on the tripping issue.

[Ravingdork]

Archaeik wrote:

B) Giving your serpent legs means it is no longer immune to trip.

There's no proof of this anywhere.

Take a look at the behir. It's a serpentine creature that also has legs, yet it retains its trip immunity.

Therefore I posit that serpentine creatures cannot be tripped regardless of presence or absence of legs.

Besides, why would adding an evolution ever make a creature weaker? If it was immune to trip without legs, it's logical that if tripped with legs, it would resort to slithering as it did last level and therefore not effectively be prone.

It certainly wouldn't hurt to throw the serpentine form a bone, what's more.

[SnowHeart]

A behir also has twelve legs... Not disagreeing with you; I don't know where it's stated anywhere that legs=trippable. The overall point is well-taken. I'm just trying to think this through (before bothering my GM with it).

Concept-wise, I saw the eidolon sort of using the legs more to "push" himself along to assist in the slithering motion (not walking), but maybe a GM would rule the legs effectively make it bipedal and, thus, no longer immune to being tripped.

[Archaeik]

Well it's that the opposite is stated. No legs = not tripable

Trip wrote:

You can attempt to trip your opponent in place of a melee attack. You can only trip an opponent who is no more than one size category larger than you. If you do not have the Improved Trip feat, or a similar ability, initiating a trip provokes an attack of opportunity from the target of your maneuver.

If your attack exceeds the target's CMD, the target is knocked prone. If your attack fails by 10 or more, you are knocked prone instead. If the target has more than two legs, add +2 to the DC of the combat maneuver attack roll for each additional leg it has. Some creatures—such as oozes, creatures without legs, and flying creatures—cannot be tripped.

So yeah, I guess they retain immunity, but I find it counterintuitive that all legless creatures get immunity but adding legs doesn't remove it rather than a case by case basis.

[Slaunyeh]

Archaeik wrote:

So yeah, I guess they retain immunity, but I find it counterintuitive that all legless creatures get immunity but adding legs doesn't remove it rather than a case by case basis.

Depends on how reliant the creature is on those legs, doesn't it? You could just as easily assume that it doesn't really hinder a serpentine creature to be lying on its stomach, so even if you can technically kick the legs out from under it, it doesn't really matter.