I have read the description of what an Eidolon looks like whe summoned, he glowing rune, etc...
How difficult would it be to pass an Eidolon off as your guard dog or your horse? Is it even remotely feasible?
Opinions?
Yeah, what I was afraid of =)
I have a summoner who thinks her eidolon is her daughter. The 'kid' wears a wig which covers the rune, and dresses like a little girl. The fact that she is about 9' tall, has claws, and her arms drag on the floor does tend to be a bit offputting however.
I think the main problem is that barding isn't allowed. If you could put them in barding, covering up the fantastical nature might be doable. I mean I guess some sort of costume might be possible. I'm not quite sure.
Not a bad idea...
We play a homebrew and are getting ready to re-boot the game. The concept for the new game is a world there is very "gritty" and set in the 'inquisition' for lack of a better description. Part of that is, bascially, arcane power is thought to come from the "devil".
I like arcne caster so I am looking for some wiggle room. Not looking promising here.
I don't see a reason to think you couldn't make it look perfectly normal if you want to. The only noted facet of its appearance is the rune, which can be covered or otherwise obscured ("Yes, my dog is wearing a headband. What's the problem, officer?").
Besides that, the way it looks is pretty much up to you. 'Fantastical creature' has a lot of leeway. A unicorn would be pretty much indistinguishable from a regular horse aside from the horn. I think if you want it to look like a regular animal version, it shouldn't be difficult.
Personally, if I was running it, I would say disguise/bluff checks would still be needed to hide its magical nature or its high(er than animal) intelligence. Without actual scrutiny from NPC's though, I would figure they would just assume it to be a normal animal until looking closer or if it somehow draws attention.
Just my opinion, of course.
I made disguise one of the eidolon's class skills and took the evolution for a bonus to it. It was kind of like shapechanging except it actually had to mold its features like clay. Whenever it popped claws and fangs, it'd have to re-disguise itself.
Short of using magic, I think this is the best way to go about it.
The eidolon's physical appearance is up to the summoner, but it always appears as some sort of fantastical creature. This control is not fine enough to make the eidolon appear like a specific creature. The eidolon also bears a glowing rune that is identical to a rune that appears on the summoner's forehead as long as the eidolon is summoned. While this rune can be hidden through mundane means, it cannot be concealed through magic that changes appearance, such as alter self or polymorph (although invisibility does conceal it as long as the spell lasts).
Maybe there's a little leeway in the definition of "fantastical," but I think the RAW is pretty clear.
Ravingdork and Gorjerborjer have it right, but I'm having trouble finding rules to use disguise to change type. The only modifier listed is a -2 to change race.
I know that common sense dictates otherwise, but changing type is changing type. So, making an outsider look like an animal is by RAW just as hard as making a horse look like an otyugh.
@ The Mighty Khan: You read the bolded part of that quote differently than I do then. My take from that is to specify you aren't able to use it to impersonate specific creatures, such as pretending to be the leader of some group or something like that, just because you know what they look like. Making it look like a generic example of a species on the other hand...
I don't know though. That's just the way I've always thought of it.
You know, D-Dub, that never even occurred to me. My mind is a little blown now. It is not "pretty clear."
I think it is being over thought. Who cares about type? (rhetorical) It's a different race, so the DC goes up appropriately. Period.
^ Possible. In most cases, I'd expect it to really just be a matter of flavor... but with the OP's setting, it becomes a somewhat bigger deal.
Easiest answer for this is probably just to get the GM's take on it, to be honest.
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The eidolon's physical appearance is up to the summoner, but it always appears as some sort of fantastical creature. This control is not fine enough to make the eidolon appear like a specific creature. The eidolon also bears a glowing rune that is identical to a rune that appears on the summoner's forehead as long as the eidolon is summoned. While this rune can be hidden through mundane means, it cannot be concealed through magic that changes appearance, such as alter self or polymorph (although invisibility does conceal it as long as the spell lasts).Maybe there's a little leeway in the definition of "fantastical," but I think the RAW is pretty clear.
Raw is very clear that I can't make my eidolon look exactly like Bob the warrior. Raw is also very clear that I can make my eidolon look like a generic creature of a given type.
sort of fantastical creature
a generic creature of a given type.
So the question is: which types of creature are "fantastical" in the setting?
In a world where all kinds of mythical beings are reasonably commonplace, the choice of words 'fantastical' is extremely poor.
Thats sort of the point. On the one hand you could make it look like a human but it needs to be just a smidge 'not human'... Not so much that it couldnt be disguised per se but enough to where if you weren't disguising it there would be no question 'thats not right' Same theory works with making it look like a horse. You can make it look almost exactly like a horse and make its 'unusualness' hideable.
Obviously the sigil on their head makes the second party easy.
By the same token you can really stretch the limits of what a standard creature looks like in a positive way or even in a ludicrous way as long as it doesnt steal away from the things you need to spend evolutions on.
You could make a human looking eidolon that has bright pink hair and eyes and that's enough to qualify as 'just not right'... You could give them only 3 fingers per hand and let them wear 5 fingered gloves... Your 'horse' could have a tiny extra mouth or a third eye on the tip of its tongue... Essentially hidden 'not rightness' but anyone who looks your 'gift horse in the mouth' is gonna come away knowing that aint no horse... Heck. The wierdness in your horse doesnt have to be 'its got a tentacle tail'... It doesnt even have to be as obvious as 'its eyes glow'... It could be something as subtle as 'its clearly twice as muscular as any horse you've ever seen'... Thats enough to make anyone on the planet think 'wow, thats not right'...
Other than the obvious need to purchase the size and mount evolutions obviously, the flip side is you can typically go nuts. My eidolon looks like a human but it appears to be made of black jello. A thin black smoke comes out of its pores all the time. It smells like burning hair. It looks exactly human in the same way that darth maul looks exactly human (not very). My eidolon is rideable and horse sized but looks like a doberman pincher. Looks like a horse except its colored like a rainbow and has a rottweiler face. Making your eidolon look like mick jagger is enough in my mind to make people think 'thats not right'
My eidolon looks like a 6 foot tall tarrasque. My 'large horse eidolon' looks like an 8 foot tall 9 foot long tarrasque...
One of the reasons I chose evolutionist is so I can spend a few gold and blow my party's mind on a day to day basis.
Thats why I love summoner. Other than size and evolution advantages you've got nearly total freedom to sculpt whatever you can think of