Help with eidolon design

[King Kazma]

Hi,

I would like your help to optimize my eidolon for our upcoming campaign, Carrion Crown.

In this campaign I would play a samsaran summoner, I know it is not the best race for summoner, but the race flavor would work fine with his and the adventure background since Satoshi was a human prison guard who died in the Harrowstone fire 50 years ago and reincarnated as a samsaran.

Since Satoshi was not exactly a role model, Emma-O (in our game the eastern version of Pharasma) let him reincarnate to atone himself of his sins. How he will do it? By aiding him cleanse the world of nuances like the undead. For this crusade he lend him the aid of one of his agents a grimm reaper/ shinigami shaped eidolon named Tamotsu.

I am still working on Satoshi's background story, and the above presented was only the backbone.

My problem is which evolutions select for Tamotsu at higher levels. Which ones do you suggest?

Below are both my character and his eidolon for your critique.

SATOSHI
Samsaran Summoner 1
NG Medium humanoid (samsaran)
Init +2; Senses low-light vision; Perception +1
DEFENSE
AC 14, touch 12, flat-footed 12 (+2 armor, +2 Dex)
hp 9 (1d8+1)
Fort +1, Ref +2, Will +3
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee dagger +1 (1d4+1, 19-20/x2)
Melee spear +1 (1d8+1, x3)
Ranged crossbow +2 (1d8, 19–20/x2)
Ranged dagger +2 (1d4+1, 19-20/x2)
Ranged spear +2 (1d8+1, x3)
Spell-like abilities (CL 1st; concentration +3):
1/day—Comprehend languages, deathwatch, and stabilize.
5/day—Summon Monster I
Summoner Spell Known (CL 1st; concentration +3):
1st (2/day): Enlarge Person, Mage Armor
0 (at will): Detect Magic, Disrupt Undead, Guidance, Light, Read Magic
STATISTICS
Str 13, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 15
Base Atk +0; CMB +1; CMD 13
Feats: Summoner's Call
Skills: Knowledge (arcana) +9, Knowledge (local) +7, Spellcraft +5
Traits: Teacher’s Pet (+2 to knowledge Arcana), Two-world Magic (Disrupt Undead)
Racial Modifiers: +2 to two Knowledge skills.
Languages: Common, Samsaran, Tien.
SQ: Lifebound (Ex), Samsaran Magic (Sp), Shards of the Past (Ex), Cantrips, Eidolon, Life link, Summon Monster I
Gear: Lamellar cuirass, light crossbow, (20 bolts), dagger, scythe, spear, backpack, bedroll, spell component pouch, tindertwigs (3), trail rations (5 days), traveler’s outfit, waterskin, whetstone

TAMOTSU – Grimm Reaper
NG Medium outsider (humanoid base form)
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +5
Defense
AC 15, touch 11, flat-footed 14 (+1 Dex, +4 natural)
hp 11 (1d10+1)
Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +2
Offense
Spd 30 ft.
Melee scythe +5 (2d4+6/x4), 2 claws +5 (1d4+4)
Statistics
Str 18, Dex 12, Con 13, Int 7, Wis 10, Cha 11
Base Atk +1; CMB +5; CMD 16
Feats: Martial Weapon Proficiency (scythe)
Skills: Intimidate +4, Knowledge (religion) +2, Knowledge (planes) +2, Perception +5
Languages: Common, Samsaran, Tien.
SQ evolutions* (ability increase [Str]), claws, improved natural armor, limbs [arms], limbs [legs]), link, share spells.

[Jak the Looney Alchemist]

I would ditch summoner's call. If you've got a reasonable looking eidolon you're not going to want to be resummoning it every combat due to the summoning ritual time. It really isn't terribly cost effective imo.

Nice background story.

[King Kazma]

Thanks Jak.

Currently I sm working on the details of how Satoshi received his first mission; he is having visions of the Harrowstone prisioners burning down the town of Ravengro...

Which feat do you suggest? Maybe Spell Focus Conjuration?

[Rathendar]

King Kazma wrote:

Thanks Jak.

Which feat do you suggest? Maybe Spell Focus Conjuration?

Extra evolution whenever you can take it (1st, 7th, 13th). Spell Focus (Conjuration), Augment Summoning if you want better milage out of your Summon Monster SLA. Metamagic(Reach Spell).

Those would be a few feat suggestions from me on my end.

I also think its a nice background, gives a good bit of hooks the DM can choose or not choose to develop more.

As far as your Eidolon, do you envision it in combat more as a 'durable tank' or a 'damage dealing heavy hitter'?

[Jak the Looney Alchemist]

That one is pretty decent if your going to be using your summoning abilities later on. Augment summoning is always a nice boost even if it doesn't apply to your eidolon.

As far as evolutions are concerned decide if you want to go the natural attack route or utility route. The utility route tends to do overall less raw damage, but you do get plenty of points for extra mods. I recommend staying away from anything situational, unless it fits theme, that you can easily acquire from evolution surge, i.e. element immunity.

[Nicolas Paradise]

Depending on the challange scale Eidolon's can get pretty scary. Speaking from experience the summoner itself ends up not needing a ton of gear and the offenseve use of their spells fall of fast at mid to high level.

That being said I would suggest one of 2 builds. Either a biped with a greatsword who will do more raw damage earlier levels. Or a quadruped who uses its first feat for martial weapon proficiency and uses its evolutions to give it pounce, and arms first and fore most. You have the quad make pounces at up to 80ft with a greatsword and a bite.. So at level one your beast can get two attacks that look like this.

Melee Greatsword +3[+1bab +2str](2d6+3[two handed so Str+2 and 1/2 str+1]) and one Bite -2(1d6+2)

Before entering combat you cast mage armor or shield on it. Or both if you have the time and you have a 20 AC pet with two attacks at level one.
Level 2 use the evolution on bite to make its bite str and a half so on.

Honestly tho its all up to what flavor you want for it. Quadraped wins out imo because of pounce. Bite is a bit nicer than claws because you can add trip to it. Later adding claws and rake and taking improved overrun tree of feats you can pounce Greatsword more than once bite and try for the trip and overrun or stop and try for grab/rake with claws. Bite wins out early for quad but claws and grab win out for Biped since it won't be pouncing.

[Jus me]

Because of the increased Dex on quads I like bite + Trip evolutions + Combat reflexes as a concept....

[Nicolas Paradise]

Jus me wrote:

Because of the increased Dex on quads I like bite + Trip evolutions + Combat reflexes as a concept....

I agree. anything at can bring a trip into the mix without losing one of its attacks to do so is very nice. If it goes off that mob is mostly skrewed.

Also THIS is a very good guide on GITP. it makes choices very easy. Although their bit on spells is a bit off. Most of the offensive spell options of the Summoner are garbage either because of will saves or SR. Most of your spells should be for buffing the pet or keeping you out of harms way.

[King Kazma]

Thanks for your tips guys and the feats suggested. Nicolas, I just reviewed the The Summoner's Handbook, that guide is really good. I believe I will go with the slugger build, although I will give Tamotsu a scythe (grim reaper) to keep the flavor, maybe select for him feats like improved critical and critical focus to ensure get that x4 of the scythe.

[CyderGnome]

King Kazma wrote:

Thanks for your tips guys and the feats suggested. Nicolas, I just reviewed the The Summoner's Handbook, that guide is really good. I believe I will go with the slugger build, although I will give Tamotsu a scythe (grim reaper) to keep the flavor, maybe select for him feats like improved critical and critical focus to ensure get that x4 of the scythe.

You could also see if you could convince a high crit range party member to take Butterfly's Sting. That way as you leveled up you could focus on enchantments on the scythe that increase it's critical damage like Thundering (+3d8 sonic +deafened ) and/or the various Flaming/Icy/Shocking/Corrosive Burst (+3d10 energy) powers.

Also, it's always fun to play complimentary characters. Your Eidolon might roll the big damage dice but the other guy gets to feel like he made it happen.

[King Kazma]

Wow, I haven't seen this feat before, sweet sugestion CyderGnome :)

[Momar]

Since you're going with a weapon using eidolon, you'll have plenty of points. Did you actually want the reaper man to behave mechanically like a full on undead/skeleton? Getting all of the stuff that entails eats through a pretty good number of points- 6 for fully powered undead appearance and 4 for no breath, with other thematic perks like unnatural aura (1), lifesense (4), incorporeal form (4), channel resistance (2 or 4), and maybe supernatural flight (4+) pretty much eating through your entire supply if you want to go all out.

On the more practical side you have the standard picks like ability score increase and improved natural armor. The size increase evolution are point efficient, but then you have to use spells or items to get your eidolon back to medium size if you don't want a larger one.

I like high numbers over utility, so I would probably do something like this:

Improved Natural Armor x5
Strength Increase +8
Maxed Undead Appearance
No breath
Constitution or Dex +4 (Whatever you prefer)

Which gives you a pretty good, but very boring, tank. Except for no breath all of these evolutions can be scaled back for points to put into utility stuff, or you could find room for the extra evolution feat a few times in your build. Buying the large evolution and a permanency-ed reduce person gets you +6 str, +4 con, and 2 more natural armor for only 4 points as opposed to the +8 str and +4 con/dex from ability increase for 12.

[Robespierre]

Half elf alternative favored classed bonus gives 1/4 evolution points per level. Also you can't use claw attacks at the same time as weapon attacks without having another set of arms. So if you're attempting to optimize I suggest dropping the sycthe for now and grabbing the bite evolution and power attack for your eidolon's feat.

[Momar]

Robespierre wrote:

Half elf alternative favored classed bonus gives 1/4 evolution points per level. Also you can't use claw attacks at the same time as weapon attacks without having another set of arms. So if you're attempting to optimize I suggest dropping the sycthe for now and grabbing the bite evolution and power attack for your eidolon's feat.

You could actually use the claws with a weapon by putting them on the legs instead of the arms. Some consider this mildly cheesy. The OP seems to have a pretty clear picture of what he wants his eidolon to do though, and natural weapons don't seem to be a part of it.

On that note it might be worth your time to ask the DM to refund you the 1 point for the claws evolution the biped starts with so that you could throw it into something more useful to you, or more thematic, like maybe unnatural aura.

Natural weapons are the more powerful way to go with an eidolon in general, so you could alternately choose to go that route and just flavor the eidolon as a humanoid thing that can summon spirit blades or whatever. Aside from the required reflavoring, the other downside is that the natural weapons will eat a handful of points from the evolution pool, which again makes it a tad harder to fit in thematic choices.

[sunbeam]

I like that serpentine eidolon so much, and it is probably the least useful one.

At least without looking goofy as all get out when you add legs and arms.

[King Kazma]

Quote:

Buying the large evolution and a permanency-ed reduce person gets you +6 str, +4 con, and 2 more natural armor for only 4 points as opposed to the +8 str and +4 con/dex from ability increase for 12.

Thanks Momar, for your suggestion, I really like this.

Quote:

On that note it might be worth your time to ask the DM to refund you the 1 point for the claws evolution the biped starts with so that you could throw it into something more useful to you, or more thematic, like maybe unnatural aura.

I mentioned this to my DM and he said he had no problem with it. :)