evilbob's page

Two things about eidolons make no sense: the fact that once it is below half its hit points it's more efficient at the end of the day to -kill it outright- than to heal it, and the fact that once an eidolon goes into negative HP it's actually more of a burden than if it had just died (since you have to spend a standard action to dismiss it so you can start using summon monsters).

The negative HP thing seems simple enough to fix: just house rule it so that it dies at 0 HP instead (like all other summon monsters). Problem solved. (It's unfortunate that it seems like the "death at -Con" thing was done to help summoners out, but actually it makes them worse.)

However, the "kill yourself to heal" mechanic is more problematic. I can understand that they don't want summoners using a natural healing mechanic to game damage in some way, either by having it "resting" while it's not summoned (but the summoner is adventuring) or even "resting" while the summoner is resting, thus effectively doubling the summoner's HP (at later levels especially). So, I propose that eidolon healing be changed so that when a summoner is healing naturally (resting), he may choose to heal himself or his eidolon but not both. Whatever amount of healing or ability damage he could normally heal is spread between the summoner and the eidolon as he sees fit. It even works out thematically since they share a Life Link and they are bonded so closely. (If people are worried about long-term care abuse, you could rule that long-term care cannot apply to the eidolon since it is not present, but I think that's getting a bit nit-picky.) If you're less worried about gaming the "double HP" system, you could also remove the restriction that the healing is spread between the two, and just say that while the summoner is resting, so is his eidolon.

This also has the advantage of solving the additional problem of how eidolons heal from ability damage, which is so far unaddressed. The only downside that I see is that a summoner may end up lagging the group, causing them to slow down and take extra time to rest, since ideally he would want to heal both himself and his eidolon to full - and given that the eidolon is an expendable battle resource, it will often take a while to heal it. It might be necessary to also keep the "next day it has 1/2 HP" rule intact to help with this, and/or try the variant above where both summoner and eidolon heal naturally while the summoner is resting.

Another, different suggestion would be to change Purified Calling to a 1st level spell. This would be a significant drain on the summoner's resources at early levels, which would help balance out its effectiveness. However, at later levels having a 750g wand that can rejuvenate your eidolon would be too powerful, so you'd have to set a restriction that it could only be cast once per day.

Thoughts, constructive criticism?

Sorry if this has been asked before but I couldn't find it in a search. Specifically, I am wondering about the interaction between the following aspects of an eidolon:

"When summoned [via ritual], the eidolon hit points are unchanged from the last time it was summoned. The only exception to this is if the eidolon was slain, in which case it returns with half its normal hit points. The eidolon does not heal naturally."

So an eidolon does not heal naturally, and summoning the thing doesn't heal it either... Meaning you can only use magic to heal it. Ok, I get that. But if it dies, it can be summoned the next day with 1/2 its hit points. ...Meaning, if you have an eidolon that has less than half its hit points and it's near the end of the day, the most efficient way to heal it is to -kill it outright-?

Surely this makes for some weird role-playing interactions, at best. Plus, it doesn't really make any sense and certainly goes against the intent of the rules. Can anyone shed any light on this issue or is this something best addressed in house rules?

2nd question: Summon Eidolon. "Treat this as if you had summoned your eidolon normally" and "This spell allows you to summon your eidolon even if it has been returned to its home plane due to damage." Ok, so does the summoned eidolon return with 1/2 its HP, no HP, or full HP? And if it's not dead when you summon it, does it get summoned with the "normal" HP or full HP, especially considering the answer to the first part of this question?

Personally, I'm inclined to treat the Summon Eidolon as a summon monster-type spell, meaning it starts with full HP and dies at zero, etc., etc. - especially since it is vulnerable to protection magic and all that. But that doesn't really seem supported in the text. In fact, I have no idea what is supported in the text because you can't really summon it "normally" when it's dead. Any ideas?