Has anyone given anythought to or actually built an eidolon with the snake style and the 1 pt evolution skilled: sense motive?
Is there potential there or am I developing a sub with screen doors in the conning tower?
I've never considered it, but going any deeper than the first feat would be very feat intensive considering Eidolons get fewer feats. Plus, you usually have better things to spend evolution points on than Skilled, especially Skilled: Sense Motive. If you really have nobody who is fit to be the lie detector of the party it'd be better though.
Just as important, I rarely build Eidolons to be mainly defensive. Mine usually have the Improved Natural Armor evolution, a Ring of Protection, and Mage Armor cast on them, but much more than that is probably overkill, considering how Summoners can summon things if their Eidolon gets whacked. Then he just comes back the next day. It's like the offense vs. defense debate that pops up here at times. You need characters to put out enough damage to be noticeable to enemies, because if they're not contributing it doesn't matter how good their defense is. Power Attack + (attack evolution of some kind) > Snake Style + Skilled: Sense Motive.
I've never considered it, but going any deeper than the first feat would be very feat intensive considering Eidolons get fewer feats.
Agreed. It's actually doubly prohibitive because of the Imp. unarmed strike prereq, but consider the following:
At level six you're going to have around 9-10 ev points depending on race and feat selection. That leaves 8-9 pts for the max four other attacks you could have.
Just as important, I rarely build Eidolons to be mainly defensive.I hadn't either but in the campaign I've been playing in, the eidolon has kind of turned into a glass cannon. So I was running some ideas through my head. Consider this at level 6 vs one attack per round:
AC= 8(skilled ev) + 3 class skill + 5 ranks +1d20
vs a base AC (unbuffed) of around 18-19 (and keep in mind the snake style eidolon can still take all those buffs.)Don't get me wrong, it's defintately a big investment but I don't think sacrificing 1 ev point is the issue, its more the feats... but there's also nothing stopping you from having power attack for your 3rd feat either.)
Anyways it was just a random idea, and from the general lack of response probably not a good one either. LOL.
Yeah, the evolution point isn't as big a deal. The feats, however, are very much big deals. There are too many good combat feats that improve your Eidolon in other ways to justify two feats for this trick. To be fair, it's a very nice trick though. To elaborate with just a very small selection:
Good feats:
Power Attack
Furious Focus
Improved Natural Attack
Lunge
Martial or Exotic Weapon Proficiency
Combat Reflexes
Rending Fury
Weapon Finesse
Agile Maneuvers
Dodge
Good evolutions:
Improved Natural Armor
Claws
Bite
Mount
Ability Increase
Reach
Flight
Push
Pull
Grab
Trip
Skilled (Perception)
And that's just off the top of my head. It's a very large investment. To be fair, you likely wouldn't need any other method of boosting the Eidolon's AC, freeing up spells, other evolution points, and a ring slot. There are worse ways of building an Eidolon to be sure.
