Smog's page

So looking at cavalier steeds, I see it operates as Druid's animal companion, which makes me think I need to use the horse statistics listed under druid, but the light horse in the bestiary has slightly different stats, as does the light horse listed on the srd.

So I'm still assuming I should use the druid animal companion stats, but it seems odd to be that they're different than a base horse from the bestiary.

My question is very simple: can you leave a feat slot open and fill it at a later time?

For a bit of explanation, I'm building a summoner. I plan on taking Extra Evolution as many times as possible. I qualify to take it again at 10th level, except that a summoner obviously doesn't get a feat at 10th level. OK, no big deal, I'll take it at 11th. But how about at 20th? I would once again qualify to take it at 20th level, but again do not receive a feat at that level, meaning the campaign would need to extend into epic levels in order to take it again.

I don't see anything that says that you absolutely must fill your feat slots (or spend all of your skill points) as soon as you get them, but I'm assuming you probably do. I'm just here to confirm.

Recently, we've picked back up an old campaign that was shelved. In it, the campaign centric character was my mystic theurge. I was all for converting to pathfinder and I absolutely love the system, but people that know the game (3.5/Pathfinder) know that mystic theurge is not where it should be.

Is there any word on a mystic theurge revision in the upcoming DM book? If not, has anyone made any headway into building a competitive theurge? I'm not here to debate whether or not the theurge is good, so if you disagree with me, that's fine, but I'm not here to argue that point. I was given the option by the DM (because of the state of the PrC) to convert the character as 100% cleric, but unfortunately, being a mystic theurge was centric to the character, and I couldn't in good conscience do it. (Cleric of Mystra, story had a lot to do with his dual casting abilities, etc.)

So basically, if you're in agreement with me about the state of this PrC, let me know what luck you've had in playing it up to par without Practiced Spellcasting and Divine Metamagic + Nightsticks. At the moment, I've geared him completely up for survivability (stacking AC, saves, and HP) as I couldn't find any better way to use his feats. Currently, the character is 3/3/3.

edit: I should have mentioned that anything outside of the core books isn't an option. We're using the base rules, so the +2 CL trait that I've seen mentioned isn't an option.

The entire purpose of this post is to provide more flexibility to an eidolon's initial physical form. One way to do this would be to denote some evolutions as form defining and then simply grant eidolons 5 initial points that can ONLY be used to purchase these denoted "Form-Defining Evolutions" (a key-phrase that will be used throughout the rest of the post).

For example, the following evolutions would be considered form defining:
Bite
*Claw
Gills
Improved Natural Armor
*Pincers
*Sting
Tail
*Tail-Slap
Tentacle
*Wing-Buffet
Flight
Limbs

The *s denote basic attacks. To prevent abuse, it could easily be required for an eidolon to have at least one primary attack. Another requirement could be that an eidolon must have either limbs or a tail to prevent further abuse by min/maxing your initial points. This would leave 2-3 free points to define the eidolon's form. This would completely eliminate the need to have pre-defined base forms. The eidolon's initial stats could simply be derived from their Form-Defining Evolutions allowing for even more flexibility while not increasing the power level of the eidolon.

You will also notice I added flight in as a base form-defining power. This is because I see no reason to restrict an eidolon from flying immediately. Though a melee eidolon with immediate flight could perform some annoying kiting of ground restricted mobs, the option to simply pursue the stranded summoner is always present.

By using this slightly revised system to define your starting eidolon, many more options open up and your initial restrictions on how your eidolon might look are completely removed. These Form-Defining Evolutions would be denoted as the only evolutions that cannot be changed as your summoner (and eidolon) level because they are, as the name implies, Form-Defining. They are what outline the basic shape and form of your eidolon.

The common complaint is the inability to have an avian eidolon immediately. With this system, you have 5 initial Form-Defining Evolutions. So, for example, if we wanted to make an avian type Eidolon, we have several options open to us. First, as either limbs or a tail is necessary, we can take the "limbs(legs)" evolution, reducing our initial evolution pool to 3. As it is an avian type eidolon, we obviously need to give it "flight", reducing our initial form-defining pool down to 1. And as stated earlier, one primary natural attack is required, forcing us to take either "wing-buffet", "bite", or "claw" with our last point. For the sake of this example, we'll give our feathered friend "wing-buffet" and call our Form-Defining Session complete.

Keep in mind, this session does NOT include your eidolon's initial 3 evolution points granted to him by his progression table. So our eidolon now looks as follows.

"Owlcabird" Size: Medium; Speed: 30feet, fly 30feet(average); AC +2 Natural Armor; Saves Fort(bad), Reflex(good), Will(good); Attack: 2 Wings (1d4); Ability Scores: Str 14, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 7, Wis 10, Cha 11; Form-Defining Evolutions: Flight, Wing-Buffet, Limbs (Legs); Unspent Evolution Points: 3 (lvl1).

The ability points listed here are simply an estimate, and as I said, I believe an eidolon's initial strength and dexterity ability scores should be dependant on its starting form-defining evolutions. I believe a system like this is already in place but the values are simply hidden and incorporated into the three base-forms. As far as I can tell, Limbs(Legs) grants 2 Str and 2 Dex, Limbs(arms) grants 4 Str, and a Tail grants 2 Str and 2 Dex as well. It would seem that either the stats were not balanced in this way or it was determined that if a creature has no limbs initially it is granted a bonus 2 Dexterity. These numbers are a balance issue that would be better handled by the developers.

This system seems complicated upon initial reading, but in reality it is very simplistic and could be demonstrated in a single small table. It would allow for much more flexibility and versatility in the initial forms and abilities of ones' eidolon without increasing the power level of it too substantially (with the previously mentioned restrictions in place).

Thanks.

edit: due to the length of this post I will be doing some editing as I further define my thoughts. I ask that you please do not quote it in its entirety.

First issue involves the Serpentine Base Form granting the free evolution "Climb". I understand that each evolution has 5pts of evolutions allocated to them, but why climb? This just seems out of place. Another one-point evolution that would be more universal for those with other ideas for their serpentine summons would be "Improved Natural Armor". The evolution listing even lists 'scales' as an example.

My personal summon is modeled after Leviathan from (of course) Final Fantasy. Therefore, as some of the first points were immediately used to grant him flight, the climb evolution is just a complete waste. Which leads into my second question.

Can the free evolutions granted by your base form be changed? I think the opportunity for abuse is fairly high if so. I only really believe the option is needed if climb remains static as a free evolution for the serpentine form. All the other base forms' free evolutions are physically defining in some way: arms / legs / tails / bite / claw / etc. Climb, however, does not fit into that niche. It needs to be changed to something more general, especially for those of us (and believe me, I'm sure I'm not the only one) who plan on having flying serpents.

Lastly, a table with a short summary of all the evolutions and their descriptions, separated by point cost, would be incredibly convenient. Flipping back and forth over four pages looking at evolutions gets a bit tedious.