| evilbob |
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?
| Mortuum |
Cranewings, the problem is that the summoner is happier if his pet dies. That's just awful, thematically. Even if you want to keep the standard action to save it, it's still crazy that you want the thing to die. Maybe if it still kept the dies at -con thing, but if it died, you had to dismiss the body?
| cranewings |
Cranewings, the problem is that the summoner is happier if his pet dies. That's just awful, thematically. Even if you want to keep the standard action to save it, it's still crazy that you want the thing to die. Maybe if it still kept the dies at -con thing, but if it died, you had to dismiss the body?
I'd agree with that.
| evilbob |
cranewings, I think part of my reasoning is that the -Con thing seems like it was supposed to be helping the summoner. If that was the intent of the rule (something no one will ever know), then I'd rather say thanks but no thanks. If, as you suggest, it was intentionally done to hinder the summoner and that's part of the class balance, that is a different story (or at least a different argument).
the problem is that the summoner is happier if his pet dies. That's just awful, thematically.
Not to mention the "kill the thing to heal it" bit, which also seems thematically awful.
| cranewings |
Sorry if you said this, I'm feeling a bit slow tonight, but what if the Summoner could dismiss it while it was in the negatives and it healed at the maximum possible rate, but if it died, there would be some extra penalty?
In my last PF game, the guy playing the 7th level summoner got his Eidelon hammered by a could of undead and had its strength reduced to 4. He dismissed it and was pretty distraught until he figured out how much more useful a couple of hound archons were.
Really, a summoner losing his Eidelon for a while isn't helpless.
| evilbob |
Really, a summoner losing his Eidelon for a while isn't helpless.
That's definitely true, but I think it's more true at level 7. :) I'm thinking more about level 1, when the best you can summon is a single celestial dog. (Then again, at least you can summon that dog 3+Cha times per day.)
One of the main problems I see with healing is actually at the earliest levels. A level one summoner knows only 2 spells. That means that unless you want to dedicate 50% of your spells known to healing your eidolon, it cannot heal past 1/2 HP. And for a level 1 summoner, 1/2 HP = 3 HP. By level 2, you know one additional spell, which means you can dedicate 33% of your repertoire to healing, or you can spend ~75% of your resources on a wand, but either way you still are extremely limited in your options if you want your eidolon to have more than 1/2 its HP at any given time.