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So I was trying to build a low level Summoner and I was trying to find what the Eidolon brought to the table above a 16 str Summoner trying to use a weapon. Until proficiency kicked in it was surprisingly little aside from HP.

Level 1

Eidolon:

16 str 16 dex 16 con 8/10 int 10/12 wis 10 chr HP: summoner racial + 10 + summoner con (assumed to be 16)

For the example I decided the Summoner for the Eidolon was a Dwarf. The -2 charisma hurts but the extra HP for the Eidolon is more important.

So at level 1 the Eidolon has 23 HP, 16 AC and +6 to hit. They can't take any options to change this. Their only choice of weapons is 1d8 with no tags or 1d4 agile for an average of 7.5 and 5.5 damage per hit respectively. Boost Eidolon is another +2 per hit.

Each Eidolon does get something combat based at level 1. Angel gets +1 good damage which will come up sometimes but animals are fairly at level 1 and aren't evil so they don't take good damage. Beast gets a charge action with +1 to hit. Adds some nice mobility to charge in and exit a fight. Devotion Phantom gets Dutiful Strike for attack of opportunity when attacked but it requires the Summoner stand next to the Eidolon and be targeted which is the opposite of what you want to aim for even if you do have the same AC as the Eidolon. Dragon gets a breath weapon which is fairly weak at level 1 but the area is big. None are particularly impactful but it is something that no one else can bring to the table.

Summoner:

This is a Summoner build to use a weapon in melee. I went with human because extra general feats at 1st for cloth casters is more important than +2 to another stat if they want to try and fight in melee. There are more optimal builds I'm sure but this is quick and simple. Human boosts went to str and dex, background went to str and dex, and 4 boosts went to str, dex and con. Ancestry feat went into General Training which turned into Armor Proficiency for Light Armor. Heritage was Versatile Heritage for Weapon Proficiency for Martial Weapons.

Stat Line: 16 str/ 16 dex/ 12 Con/ 10 int/ 10 wis/ 12 Chr

HP: 19 AC: 18 (Light armor + dex) To Hit: +6

Weapon choice wise they have access to the entire martial weapon list. 1d12 is the top damage so I'll just use that. Average damage ends up 9.5.

So the Summoner has 4 less HP and no special attack for +2 AC and +2 damage. The +2 from Boost Eidolon is necessary to make the Eidolon the better option when acting in melee combat to the Summoner at level 1 and it'd still be better if the Summoner was the one tanking the hits because it has more AC. The Summoner can also get access to Shield and Electric Arc for a ranged option and a little extra defense. Or pick up a bow or use another martial weapon if they want specific weapon tags.

At level 1 there is little reason to summon an Eidolon outside flavor for the melee summoner. It's a vulnerability that doesn't add anything.

Level 2:

Level 2 helps the Eidolon, but it's mostly just catching up to the melee Summoner. Magical Evolution gives access to the Shield and Electric Arc cantrips or whatever other cantrips it might want. Reinforce Eidolon is +1 AC and -1 damage which helps survivability but costs an action or means no Boost. The only issue is it can only take one of those.

A melee Summoner doesn't have class feat support so it has to look to archetypes. Ironically since I frontloaded Armor and Weapon Proficiency from human and started with 16 dex Summoner doesn't have many choices that bump melee power (There are at least 10 different archetypes that give some level of armor or weapon proficiency at 2nd but none are useful for the build I went with). I settled for Mauler Dedication which gives nothing as far as this analysis is concerned.

Level 3:

Eidolon gets +2 AC which puts it on par with the Summoner. With that and Magical Evolution and Boost Eidolon it is suddenly on par with a Melee Summoner and has 8 extra HP. The only drawback for using the Eidolon at this point is AoE. The Dwarf Summoner can also pick up Toughness for an extra HP per level but that will be cancelled out.

The Summoner gets a general feat and access to more spells. I've been ignoring spells for the most part for this analysis since the Eidolon does have a summoner than can cast spells as well, but the melee summoner has access to True Strike 3/day at this point while the Eidolon does not. At this point it can actually be used for most of a boss fight or a few times throughout the day at key moments. The general feat I picked was toughness since high dex and 2 handed weapon do not play into more armor proficiency or shield block.

Level 4:

The Eidolon gets a boost at this level mostly in the +10 ft move speed. Suddenly the Eidolon can kite like a nimble Elf or monk. Unfortunately Tandem Move is also at this level and it's integral to not losing actions when caught out of position with the Summoner. Since the general feat was spent on toughness the Summoner is still a weak point with at least 2 less AC than the Eidolon so getting out of harm's way with lower action cost is important. I'd say the +10 ft movement speed isn't worth it because of the lack of Tandem Move meaning that even if the Eidolon can kite with the best of them the Summoner is just standing around in melee reach. The Eidolon can also just pick up Reinforce Eidolon or Magical Evolution instead if kiting and maneuverability aren't concerns.

The melee Summoner once again has no class feat support but does get access to power attack from Mauler. The Summoner can now with 3 actions do True Strike + Power attack 4 times. That's a pretty solid hit when it's needed and Power attack for an extra d12 is nice.

Striking weapons also come online this level but it's irrelevant since the melee Summoner gets an extra d12 and the Eidolon gets an extra d8 with Boost Eidolon for an extra +2.

Level 5:

The Eidolon gets expert proficiency for a flat +2 to hit over the melee Summoner. Stat boosts to Str, Dex, Con, and Wis give it as good defenses as it could hope for and +1 AC which the melee Summoner can't match.

Summoner gets access to 3rd level spells but loses 1st level spells so 4/day true strike with a two handed weapon is still the cap. Stat boosts to Str, Con, Wis, and Chr make it keep up stat wise. More Dex with light armor doesn't add to anything but reflex saves. The 5th level human ancestry feat isn't useful for combat with this build.

At this point 12 HP, 1 AC, and 2 to-hit behind the Eidolon it's safe to say outside the True Strike + Power Attack bursts the Eidolon is better in melee. Without Boost Eidolon the Melee Summoner is still 4 points of damage ahead per hit though.

For the 4 levels just being a caster and grabbing proficiencies puts you equal the Eidolon. The Eidolon needs access to 2 handed weapon damage if it can't use its free hands for anything (A simple longspear is a better weapon than the Eidolon primary attack). It should have expert unarmored from 1st. It needs access to martial feats. Where's Power Attack? Where's Flurry? Where's Nimble Dodge? Where's a circumstance bonus to AC? The Eidolon gets a lot of varied abilities but it never learns how to hit someone better or defend itself. The Summoner has easier access to martial tricks than the Eidolon does. Letting the Summoner give their class feats to the Eidolon so it can take martial archetypes seems necessary even if it just makes it feel even more like you are playing an Eidolon with a pet Summoner rather than the other way around.

Does an animal companion get resonance points or the ability to use/wear magic items? Because they could really use say bracers of armor to offset their low saves or a stat boosting item.

How long did it take to play this part of Doomsday Dawn: 3-4 hours, my party was learning the system as we went along and this included the time to look up abilities as they came up. Combat went fairly quickly.

How long did it take to prepare this part of the adventure (time spent reading, gathering materials, etc.)? 1 hour. Enough to familiarize myself with the scenario, but not much more.

How many sessions did it take for you to play through this part of the adventure? 1

How many Hero Points (in total) did you give out during this part of the adventure? 1, Druid's animal companion soloed Drakus with a combination of magic fang and two good attacks, one of them a crit.

How many times was a player character reduced to 0 Hit Points during this part of the adventure? 4, One against the centipedes because they accidentally wandered in the human rogue took several attacks plus the poison. Two against the 6 skeleton guards. The monk ran in, took down two of them, and was taken down by the other four. The human rogue ran in after him and got taken down as well. The druid ended up using shillelagh to rip through them. Triple staff dice at level one is deadly. The final one was against Drakus, they failed their first check against the door and when the monk broke in Drakus won initiative and attacked. With a +12 to hit he had a solid chance to crit considering the monk had pretty bad AC. He rolled well and 20 damage later the monk was down.

How many player characters were killed during this part of the adventure? 0, a combination of hero points and good luck when it came to death saves. Couldn't roll a 10 to hit, but a 18 DC death save, every time.

Party was a human rogue, halfling rogue, dwarven monk, and goblin druid. Yes this party is not balanced at all.

Gameplaywise it felt good. Level 1 meant there weren't many options so it was just stride-strike-strike most of the time, but it was acceptable for level 1. I wasn't entirely clear on how stealth as initiative worked, but we figured it out. 6 enemies was generally too many at level. Just too many dice and when I won initiative I would drop one of them. The skeletons being immune to most piercing/slashing didn't help the rogues. Drakus's special wasn't that great. The new grab is dangerous but drained isn't good at level 1 when it lowers saves that aren't targeted and only deals on damage. It also takes two actions to set up since he needs to grab. He also needs to use his claw rather than his longsword.

Spellwise two were used. Magic fang and shillelagh, both are great at level 1 since they double weapon dice. Detect magic/read aura being separate basically meant there was a two cantrip tax on the druid and ray of frost came up once. Stabilize wasn't used because of their good rolls and in combat it's a lot to hold the line and spend an action to make sure no one dies.

The animal companion did require a bit of action juggling since two sets of two actions has its benefits but not having 3 hurts. At level one at least it was a good asset to have. Wildshape never came up. Sneak attack was often irrelevant since the enemies would have 6-8 HP and the rogues had +4 damage. The other rogue feats never came up at all aside from trap finding. Flurry of blows was quite useful though the monk had a small AC problem. He couldn't afford the 18 dex like the rogue and had effectively leather armor. Without a cleric healing resources were almost nil as well and there's no such thing as a minor wound at first level. 1d8+casting mod twice per day wasn't what the druid wanted to be doing and it took 2 full days to get back to full HP thanks to some bad rolls. The potions ended up being fairly unimportant since they just stepped out and healed instead of trying to complete the dungeon in one shot.

Overall I think the boss was a bit much and the enemies were as well. I could easily roll 12 attacks in a round. The PCs made it through though and we're interested to see how higher level play goes.