Eidolon and Speech

[Gina Starr 248]

I have a question about the eidolon and speech. The eidolon entry in the APG says the eidolon 'can speak all of the summoner's languages'.

Can you have your eidolon take linguistics as a class skill and can the eidolon learn new languages that way? Or can he not learn a new language on his own?

And can the eidolon speak no matter what the form is?

[WithoutHisFoot]

That seems to be a reasonable interpretation. I don't see anything to suggest that eidolons don't benefit from skills in exactly the same way as anything else. It's not as if it's any boost to their power.

Do keep in mind, though, that their low intelligence (7) might hinder their usefulness as translators if that's your intended purpose here.

They can speak no matter what form you choose.

[David knott 242]

But keep in mind that it can be a waste if you have the eidolon learn a language that the summoner eventually intends to learn -- the eidolon does not get the slot back in that case. That is the main reason that I generally don't have my eidolon take ranks in Linguistics.

[Shfish]

Since the others have answerd, I would like to piggyback on this one Gina. One 'optimal' usage of this would be to get a few more languages for those "rare" needs. As WHF said though, int 7..this means minimal skill points anyway. If for whatever reason you absolutely did not have anything else to spend skill points on (really? ...I can think of a few better ones..), then you can by all means snake up some rarer languages that you the character don't need on your own. Is said player sub-optimizing his character? Absolutely. Is it useless? In PFS...NO!Home game? depends on DM.

Me personally...I'd be putting all my points in Acrobatics (ground based) or Fly (with the wings? evolution). :)