A "non-optimized" Eidolon

[Krkll]

I am underway in a full-progression game and chose the Summoner. Our DM has been gracious enough to allow us to change things about our character until the next level, which has let me fiddle with a base Summoner and Master Summoner, to an extent.

I love the idea of my Gnome Summoner using his Eidolon as a mount, which works fantastic as a Master Summoner. I am the quintessential trickster Gnome who is also the party's diplomat and merchant. Our party consists of the following:
(core)
Gnome Fighter
Elven Bard
Elven Magus (staff)
(come and go)
Half Elven Dragonrider
Elven Druid

Now, with all that being said, our games are RP-heavy and the characters don't focus TONS on optimization (except maybe the Dragonrider). So, I was going to focus myself/Eidolon on a buffer and skill monkey. Since I'm a bit of a tinkering Gnome, I thought the idea of having my Eidolon as a vehicle, would be fun. Starting off, it would be a four-wheeler of sorts. Then when I take the double evolution of Flight, it could be a jet-looking contraption. All the while being sentient and acting almost like K.I.T.T. I even thought the wheels could protrude spikes for a "claw" attack. Or taking a breathe weapon for the jet's "bombing runs". Each customized at the every level or at the cast of transmogrify. Heck, maybe a submarine if the situation calls for it.

So, the advice portion comes here. Firstly, it seems like it would be difficult for me to make him the trap-monkey due to lack of appendages. Maybe a knowledge, sense motive, etc. type focus? Or could you think of a clever way for a vehicle to disable a device.

Second, since this is a roleplaying focus, what are your thoughts on using a full-progression Eidolon for many fun skills/abilities, or going Master Summoner and having a weaker ride but being able to have those handy-dandy summons out at the same time?

I also thought about talking with the GM about taking feats of bow/crossbow proficiency and having a ranged weapon built into the vehicle. So if I went base Summoner, I could do something besides cast my limited amount of spells during combat.

[Damocles Guile]

As an experienced Summoner and Master Summoner player I have to say that I love the idea. I'd probably play the character as a Master Summoner but you could really go either direction and have it work really well.

I'll tell you what - a while back I put together more than 20 customized summoning lists so that Summoners could specialize in what 'type' of Summoner they wanted to be (elemental fire, undead, demons, humanoids, dragons, etc.) and I have a construct list for you to use, if your GM was willing to allow it - all the CR's of the creatures are pre-balanced against the CR's that are found on the standard summoning lists and since you have fewer options per level its hardly 'optimized'. To balance things out, GM's are encouraged to allow a Summoner to be able to summon anything on the list that they qualify for (if you're a level 9 Summoner, why wouldn;t you still be able to summon level 1 creatures?), but that would have to be their call.

Anyway, here's the Construct summoning list I put together:

SMI
Clockwork Spy
Ainmated Object
(tiny)

SMII
Homunculus
Animated Object
(small)

SMIII
Iron Cobra
Clockwork Servant

SMIV
Adamantine Cobra
Animated Object
(medium)

SMV
Clockwork Soldier
Cutlass Spider

SMVI
Aballonian
Animated Object
(huge)

SMVII
Aluum
Animated Object
(gargantuan)

SMVIII
Clockwork Leviathan
Stone Golem

SMIX
Iron Golem
Brass Golem

[Damocles Guile]

Also, we've always ruled that as long as you paid the point cost for an evolution, it didn't really matter what form it took - i.e. I might want to buy multiple arms and claws but have it manifest as a single pair of arms and claws that just gets multiple attacks per round. following that logic I see no reason why you could not - for instance - buy two pairs of arms for your eidolon, eqip him with two bows and have it manifest as a couple of arrow firing mechanisms and an extendable lock-picking/trap-disrupting apparatus. In game terms it all amounts to the same thing anyway...

[Psion-Psycho]

Damocles Guile wrote:

As an experienced Summoner and Master Summoner player I have to say that I love the idea. I'd probably play the character as a Master Summoner but you could really go either direction and have it work really well.

I'll tell you what - a while back I put together more than 20 customized summoning lists so that Summoners could specialize in what 'type' of Summoner they wanted to be (elemental fire, undead, demons, humanoids, dragons, etc.) and I have a construct list for you to use, if your GM was willing to allow it - all the CR's of the creatures are pre-balanced against the CR's that are found on the standard summoning lists and since you have fewer options per level its hardly 'optimized'. To balance things out, GM's are encouraged to allow a Summoner to be able to summon anything on the list that they qualify for (if you're a level 9 Summoner, why wouldn;t you still be able to summon level 1 creatures?), but that would have to be their call.

Anyway, here's the Construct summoning list I put together:

SMI
Clockwork Spy
Ainmated Object
(tiny)

SMII
Homunculus
Animated Object
(small)

SMIII
Iron Cobra
Clockwork Servant

SMIV
Adamantine Cobra
Animated Object
(medium)

SMV
Clockwork Soldier
Cutlass Spider

SMVI
Aballonian
Animated Object
(huge)

SMVII
Aluum
Animated Object
(gargantuan)

SMVIII
Clockwork Leviathan
Stone Golem

SMIX
Iron Golem
Brass Golem

Just wondering do u have a slime/ooze version? If so id love the list because i would love to toss out oozes and what not at people. Admittedly there movement sucks but i think it would be fun going a caster wrought for the summoner and having the oozes act as personal body guards.

[Damocles Guile]

Psion-Psycho wrote:

Just wondering do u have a slime/ooze version? If so id love the list because i would love to toss out oozes and what not at people. Admittedly there movement sucks but i think it would be fun going a caster wrought for the summoner and having the oozes act as personal body guards.

Here you go, but I'll warn you - by necessity its even more limited than the Construct one.

SMI
Ooze Swarm, Sanguine
Ooze Swarm,
Phlegmatic

SMII
Amoeba, Giant
Shrieker

SMIII
Gelatinous Orb
Slime Mold

SMIV
Gelatinous Cube
Ooze, Gray

SMV
Ooze, Verdurous
Jelly, Ochre

SMVI
Pudding, Black
Jelly, Mustard

SMVII
Pudding, Behemoth

SMVIII
Ooze, Verdurous, (Greater)

SMIX
Carnivorous Blob

[Devilkiller]

I think that having a mechanical looking eidolon disable traps would be fine. In Star Wars a little mechanical thing would come out of R2-D2 to interact with computers and other machines. Something similar could open locks, disable traps, etc.

If you're going to ride around on the eidolon I highly suggest the Mounted Combat feat along with maximum ranks in Ride. Besides protecting your eidolon with Mounted Combat you can hide behind it for +4 AC with a DC15 Ride check. I'd probably play this as a Master Summoner with the eidolon as just a mount/skill monkey, but if you're a regular Summoner you might have some extra feats open for stuff like Bodyguard and could even consider a level or two of multiclassing if you want to make something a little more unique.

A Summoner with Bodyguard and some Benevolent armor (from Ultimate Equipment) could make his eidolon very tough to hit. A level of Fighter (Dragoon) would let you get Mounted Combat, Skill Focus (Ride), Combat Reflexes, and Bodyguard all by 3rd level, plus you'd have Medium Armor Proficiency so that you could wear mithral breastplate once you have the gold.

Depending on how much downtime you think you'll have in the campaign it might be worth picking up Craft Wand since Summoners get lots of cool low level spells but not many spell slots. As an added bonus, an eidolon with the Skilled evolution would have a good shot of using a wand with UMD. This could help a Summoner with a skill monkey eidolon buff the party and summoned monsters faster and more often. A wand of Lesser Evolution Surge would also be pretty cool...maybe it could be described as a wrench you use to adjust the mechincal eidolon...

[Krkll]

Thanks! I'm leaning toward MS, for the ability to have my mount out, and still be somewhat combat useful. But the idea of so many EP's (and Evo Surge!) of utility powers seems like it would be ridiculously fun. Plus, at higher levels the Dragonrider will just have his pet out for combat and the Magus/Fighter will be obliterating things as well. Hmmm, at least I have a few weeks to narrow it down.

Great work on the SM lists! It would be a good addition to the character's story. Luckily, my GM lets us enjoy our fluff to the fullest extent. As long as it is something we can somewhat stretch or relate to the rules.