Fluff and the Eidolon forms.
Should it be possible to use some of the crunch of the evolutions (and base forms if necessary) and alter to fluff?
I've been mulling it over and can't find a problem with doing the following:
(and if there is a problemwith it, lemme know!)
Some things on the evolution list are really just extra ways to do damage.
for instance:
Tail + tail slap. (and/or + sting)
Tentacle.
Now, if a Eidolon wanted to take tail and tail slap (and/or sting)
would you as a Dm absolutely mandate that the creature actually possess a tail, as long as they paid for the points?
What if they instead (using all the same mechanical statistics) used it instead as a secondary bite?
(such as.. I have a normal bite, or a poisonous (sting) bite), and such?
The point would be, using the *stats* you wanted without necessarily having to have a creature with a tail. Or, the same goes with tentacles.
Perhaps the creature has two different types of (for instance) hand attack. One is a slam/claw/whatever, and the other uses the tentacle damage.
Mechanics wise i don't see a problem with this. But it would allow someone to make a creature that looked a certain way visually while also allowing them to use the mechanics they wanted.
As an example:
Imagine a medium sized quad creature, that is in physical appearance a gorilla.
They also want it to have a poisonous bite and some extra attacks but don't really want the gorilla to have a stinging tail or a tentacle.
So instead they give the gorilla a rather large underbite with big teeth sticking up.
He has his normal bite attack. he can also "bite" (aka tail sting) for a poison damage.
he could also pick an appropriate appendage (head butt or shoulder butt or something) and use that for the tentacle attack instead of actually having a physical tentacle.
Does that make sense? (whether or not its a good idea to spend the points that way is aside the point. the above was just an example)
Would you all say that should work? or is there some reason it shouldn't? is there some glaring problem I'm not seeing when I look at it?
I'm doing something somewhat in this vein with my eidolon. He has a snake for a tail, so I gave him tail+sting+poison. By fluff it's a bite with a second head, but mechanically it functions like a sting.
As a DM I would personally just ask my players to legitimize the similarity somehow. For example the gorilla's "tentacle" could be a set of very flexible arms or something.
I don't see a problem with it in general, since appearance is just fluff. This being unless you are playing in a game where limbs are frequently severed or something.