So my thought was to have multiple ED's whose purpose is not to be effective themselves, but instead to aid another, distract, and otherwise act as disposable (but still renewable) resources!
Running with this idea what do you think and how would you "optimize" this?
Alright then.
Teamwork feats.
Sorry, haven't thought much about the archetype to give advice.
So my thought was to have multiple ED's whose purpose is not to be effective themselves, but instead to aid another, distract, and otherwise act as disposable (but still renewable) resources!
Running with this idea what do you think and how would you "optimize" this?
Hmmm. Yeah this kind of thing screams for teamwork feats, but I think we can take it further. Maybe this won't be "optimal", but the following could be fun to play around with IMO.
First optimize one of the brood as much as possible for accuracy (to hit) and number of attacks. You don't need to worry about damage too much; his main goal is trying to get as many crits as possible, but even though his damage contribution could well end up meaningful, that's not where I'm headed here (more on this guy later).
Anyway, the crit fisher is your "lead dog". The rest of the brood should probably only have 1 natural attack (so the "leader of the pack" gets to use most of the set limit on natural attacks). Alternatively, your supporting cast could use a manufactured weapon (so they can make use of things like the Menacing property...and isn't there also a property that enhances the ability to aid another? Can't recall off hand).
These supporting eidolons should generally be using aid another and flank tactics (with stuff like the Outflank teamwork feat, among others) to help the "lead dog" as much as possible, but won't be really directly attacking much of anything. It might be worthwhile to spec one of them out to use a combat maneuver like trip or grapple at a semi-competent level, but that may be asking too much. Could be worthwhile if you pulled it off though.
Now, you take the Lead dog, and give him Improved Critical (favored natural weapon, maybe tentacles to keep costs down and maximize attacks per evolution points spent?), and perhaps also a manufactured weapon or two to wield (preferably one with a high threat range and keen like a kukri or scimitar, might as well throw in TWF or multiweapon fighting if you can afford the limbs to wield more of them). Remember, he wants as many chances to get a crit as possible, and if he's sporting tentacles, which are already secondary, he might as well also get iterative attacks. Now...give the lead dog Butterfly's Sting.
See where this is headed? As long as the summoner himself or someone else in the party is built as a high damage per hit character, ideally one with a x3 or x4 crit weapon, lots of strength, and two-handed fighting, your support crew helps the lead dog with his odds in landing a confirmed critical, then the lead dog passes his critical to someone who can really lay the hurt. The summoner can also help set things up with all the buffs he's got access to.
It would certainly take some coordination, but it could wind up being fairly effective and entertaining. There are probably a hundred other things I'm not thinking of to tweak the idea further...
Now, you take the Lead dog, and give him Improved Critical (favored natural weapon, maybe tentacles to keep costs down and maximize attacks per evolution points spent?), and perhaps also a manufactured weapon or two to wield (preferably one with a high threat range and keen like a kukri or...I like this. Very interesting, but...
With Improved critical the limited range of natural weapon crits (19/x2) leaves only a 10% chance of getting the crit. Not very promising.
If using manufactured weapons, the cost gets pretty steep. Or waiting until 11th level to get the Improved critical feat.
Any way to make this viable quicker?
yeah...that's why I said it may not be super optimal. Still, the 19-20 on natural attacks is the best you're going to get. That unimpressive threat range plus the fact that tentacles are the cheapest option and are already secondary, means there's no downside to using your starting limbs (or purchased ones on a non-biped) for manufactured weapons in conjunction with the natural ones. More attacks means more chances to trigger butterfly's sting after all (and the increased threat range on the manufactured weapons helps too).
To keep costs down on those, you could always buy as many +1 Keen kukris/scimitars as you have limbs to wield them and then pump them all up with greater magic weapon. DR will be an issue, since GMW won't bypass it, but since he only really cares about passing on his crits to whoever the designated beatstick is, its not such a big loss.
I would make it were u have a lot of EDs with reach weapons. Have them and ur self pick up team work feats and act as the star combatant while the reach EDs increase ur accuracy, defenses, and what not. It would be unsuspected to see a non Synthesis summoner be the front liner instead of the ED.
Let's combine things shall we? There's no reason the support eidolon's from my proposal can't wield reach weapons. They might as well in case space gets tight, they can still aid another and whatnot over the front line. The lead dog could have the reach evolution on one of his high threat attacks. Might give him an extra attack (or several with combat reflexes) per round that he could potentially start the crit train with. The summoner himself doesn't have to be the beatstick with the x4 crit weapon, but he certainly could be.
The two things that are the biggest impediments are splitting the evolution points and the Small starting size.
I think the real key to this is doing what you can with the smaller-cost evolutions.