Deinonychus's page

I'm really liking these ideas for the summoner! I absolutely called it on the act together change, and love the level 1 evolution idea! Spells taking a back seat is perfectly fine; better that than the eidolon doing the same. I'd also be fine with a spell-less option which shunts more into the summoner-eidolon dynamic, but that can wait for a class archetype if it ever happens.

I had a couple new thoughts while reading this and cross-referencing the playtest doc, though. It would be convenient if tandem move allowed the option to step in addition to stride. It would be both convenient and intuitive.

In addition, it would be nice to have a means to poach martial abilities for the eidolon like attack of opportunity, stances, or charge through multiclassing. As it is, it doesn't read as if the eidolon can use any of these abilities, and it significantly hampers any desire to take martial archetypes if they only affect the summoner, who can hardly punch his way out of a wet paper bag. This would help the variety of summoner combat, which is presently a lot of striding and striking.

I like the idea on the incarnate spells, but they don't feel as if they're a summon at all. for all intents and purposes, they don't exist. As it is, it's just two spell effects sharing the same spell slot. I think so long as it just did something, anything during that intervening time between arrival and departure it would properly feel like a super-summon, such as the vengeful dead having an aura of spookiness that affects those who share its space.

Maybe my understanding is incorrect but increasing in size actually would increase the range of space you can hit. A large creature takes up 10ftx10ft of space giving you a 20ftx20ft perimeter that you can actually hit. Huge goes even higher with 15ftx15ft space and a 35ftx35ft perimeter that you can hit. I do understand the counter arguments to this being "Well, you still have to move just as close to hit something." or "You have more area to get surrounded and beat on, which you don't want since you don't have good AC." but I think with a better feats for tanking, this would be quite good for you and your Eidolon.

I'd hate to see the return of the OP Eidolon from 1st edition, which is why I think feats like this one seem a little under powered. If we were provided with other feats that had better synergy with this one though, it could be really good.

graystone wrote:

I want to know why riding is attached to a size increase feat... Does this feat mean my gnome takes a penalty for riding a medium Eidolon but is fine with one 2 sizes bigger? Seems weird and unneeded. What if I want to keep a medium Eidolon so I'm not taking up a larger area in confined areas? I have to pick either a penalty or super-sizing it?

I don't believe it actually is. The wording you are referring to doesn't really have anything to do with the feat and should probably be moved under Eidolon entry. Atleast, that is how I'll be treating it for the playtest

In addition to what graystone said, it's also mentioned in boost eidolon, in the middle category of spelll effects.

Deinonychus wrote:

Martialmasters wrote:

Dubious Scholar wrote:

I'm hesitant to allow eidolons to pick up combat abilities via archetypes and such. I think that opens maybe a bit too much of a can of worms and it would be safer to do it via evolution feats. An offensive reaction would be welcome though for sure.

Sneak attack and rage are covered by boost, in theory. As has been noted the action cost could be an issue compared to constant passive boosts - maybe if they both had a longer duration? (Not even necessarily a minute, just 3 rounds, or rounds/spell level?)

from reading it, if your summoner gains say..attack of opportunity, your eidolon has it too.

Likewise with Krispy, I don't see anything along these lines. It's actually a sore point with me, as well. I can understand it's strong to give the eidolon flurry or other such abilities, but as it is, the eidolon benefits from nothing but evolutions and weapon/armor runes, so for a game which prides itself on customization, nothing else you do affects the eidolon.

It also gains all of your skill proficiencies, which is not nothing.

But its not as good as if it could use my Battle Medicine.

That's a fair point. I hadn't included skills in that statement. I was primarily referring to new actions, such as sudden charge, battle medicine, or power attack, or feats which give you defensive options, such as divine grace.

Dubious Scholar wrote:

I'm hesitant to allow eidolons to pick up combat abilities via archetypes and such. I think that opens maybe a bit too much of a can of worms and it would be safer to do it via evolution feats. An offensive reaction would be welcome though for sure.

Sneak attack and rage are covered by boost, in theory. As has been noted the action cost could be an issue compared to constant passive boosts - maybe if they both had a longer duration? (Not even necessarily a minute, just 3 rounds, or rounds/spell level?)

from reading it, if your summoner gains say..attack of opportunity, your eidolon has it too.

Likewise with Krispy, I don't see anything along these lines. It's actually a sore point with me, as well. I can understand it's strong to give the eidolon flurry or other such abilities, but as it is, the eidolon benefits from nothing but evolutions and weapon/armor runes, so for a game which prides itself on customization, nothing else you do affects the eidolon.

Unless I'm missing something, the Hulking Eidolon feat line is absolutely terrible. For the cost of a 6th-level feat, you can make your eidolon LARGE... with no mechanical benefit, unless you intend to ride your eidolon as a mount (note the entry on riding an eidolon does not mention rider size relative to eidolon).

But wait, there's more! At 14th level, you can take towering eidolon, which makes your eidolon HUGE, and increases your reach to 10 feet! But this is at 14th level, not level one when you were buying a halberd for the first time, which makes it feel underwhelming compared to other higher-level options, like physical damage resist equal to your CON modifier.

All-in-all, you've spent two feats just to limit your eidolon to not come indoors and to emulate buying a polearm of some variety. Being the size of a pickup truck doesn't even make your eidolon any more difficult to grapple, shove, or otherwise manhandle!

The only good outcome is if you want to make a mounted summoner riding his eidolon into battle, in which hulking eidolon removes the action penalty, but given the summoner doesn't have armor or martial weapon proficiencies, that's not as viable as it was in 1e.

I understand the large evolution in the original eidolons was a must-buy, and they want to avoid that, but this is beyond good reason.