I am confused with Eidolons. I am also confused with Synthesist. Here's what I want to do :
Party lvl 7, 3 players (in this case not really important)
The players find their way to a village that has been dealing with bandit raids a lot over the last few months. Investigation reveals a farm outside of town was most recently hit and burned down, killing the father, mother, son and daughter.
They also discover a rumor that the raids have slowed in the last few weeks because another "adventurer" has shown up in the area and has been fighting the bandits.
*long story elements elapsed*
The "hero" isn't a man at all, its the farmer's daughter, a burgeoning young Synthesist (lvl 1, maybe 2 max) only 11 or 12yrs old. Her Eidolon appears to be a heavily armored warrior who weilds her father's heirloom sword.
Here's where Eidolons get hazy for me:
1. An eidolon looks like... Whatever I want? (based on form) A quadreped with claws and a bite attack looks like a tiger if I want it to; or a wolf, or a leopard or a lion? As long as it has the right basic "parts" it can look like anything, but must be somehow "fantastical" and not mundane?
2. A biped can look like a human(oid) if I want? Can it appear to be dressed or armored in any manner I choose and simply use its Natural stats, or must I physically put it in plate mail if I want it to look that way? Synthesist says the Eidolon becomes translucent when merged? Is that a requirement?
3. Same question regarding weapons - Must its Natural attacks be made with whatever it would "normally" have (fists, claws on hands) or can it swing a "sword" (made from Eidolon... stuff?) and simply use its normal Natural stats? Like, the sword is part of the Eidolon itself, an emanation of it, but is still rolled as a Natural Attack. Or does it have to physically be equipped with a real sword?
*This is not a min/max issue. She is purely for story and don't care what the best builds are etc. etc. I just don't want to butcher the Summoner stuff in case my players become interested in the class after this.
1. The only restriction they place on appearance is what parts you can afford, it must have a glowing symbol on its forehead, and that it can't look 'normal' (ie- it has to be some weird creature so that people using knowledge-planes actually have a chance of guess what it is; this can be as simple as throwing an eye, horns, or making it a weird color. For a humanoid, you can throw a helmet over this stuff, which also covers the summoning symbol)
2. There is an option to turn the natural armor you gain from your eidolon stuff into regular armor AC. So it seems totally possible to make it in 'natural' plate mail. That can also add onto the 'not natural' bit required by appearance.
3. This is....an iffy issue. I know that stone golems (I think stone; one of those types) can appear to have weapons, but in fact they are using their slam attacks. So...maybe? I am just going to chalk this up to something like a mantis claw with that (which then gets stylized so it seems like a sword). So that is an option... although real swords are generally better. Maybe have her use a fancy slam until she learns how to use a real sword (martial weapon proficiency)
4. The eidolon is brain dead, basically. It is all you. That is the price you pay for being kind of broken.
On another note- I keep on saying it has to look 'unnatural', there are ways around that. If you drop 1 point into the skilled (disguise) evo... I think it would be reasonable to say that the +8 to disguise comes from limited shapeshifting.
EDIT- I don;t think synthesist is a good way to introduce summoners, since they come off rather differently. Plus, they can be a pain to balance for on your end. If your players get interested in this NPC's style specifically, Primal Companion hunter might be an easier fit as Player Characters. That class/archetype gives eidolon evos to its animal companion for minutes/level/day. ...but those evos can be put onto the hunter if you do not have an animal companion. Anyway, it is more balanced than synthesist since it doesn't have that double health bar thing, it doesn't switch out its stats, and it can only use evos for minutes/day (which means it will often be restricted to only battle at early levels, and it will only have room to splurge on traps and such after the wizard is already breaking the game with that stuff)
Well since Synthesist gains access to the eidolon evolutions I'm toying with the idea of the eidolon taking Martial Weapon proficiency so it knows how to fight with the sword. Out of the eidolon she won't be able to fight with it (untrained) and strength wise will be lucky to even lift it.
EDIT- I don;t think synthesist is a good way to introduce summoners, since they come off rather differently. Plus, they can be a pain to balance for on your end. If your players get interested in this NPC's style specifically, Primal Companion hunter might be an easier fit as Player Characters. That class/archetype gives eidolon evos to its animal companion for minutes/level/day. ...but those evos can be put onto the hunter if you do not have an animal companion. Anyway, it is more balanced than synthesist since it doesn't have that double health bar thing, it doesn't switch out its stats, and it can only use evos for minutes/day (which means it will often be restricted to only battle at early levels, and it will only have room to splurge on traps and such after the wizard is already breaking the game with that stuff)
I purposely want this one to be different and a little off-putting. My players originally browsed Summoner and the consensus was "*yawn* another pet class" and they moved on. I like to throw them curveballs that aren't challenges, but make them think. My npcs are all a bit outside of the box.
Pyrophobic Witch
Excommunicated Lesbian Paladin (pregnant with a Tiefling baby)
Archeologist Bard (who can't carry a tune in a bucket)
Clockwork Construct Barbarian (long story, winding mechanism is powered by a crystal heart that contains a soul)
A few other oddballs floating around the area. Its a homebrew sandbox campaign where I offer 2 or 3 story hooks at a time, each connected to the corresponding NPC, and they choose their own adventure.
I'm totally off track now, sorry.
Given its complexity and poor design, the Synthesist could be a... messy way to introduce a little girl whose magic lets her pretend to be a mighty warrior.
If you wouldn't mind, I'd suggest exploring some other avenues for mechanically telling that story.
1. Normal summoner! She summons up that warrior Eidolon and sends it out to protect the town, using the telepathic link to watch through and order it about.
2. She found a lamp and rubbed it and a Genie appeared, granted her wishes and gave her a Lesser Planar Ally, some outsider or nature spirit that disguised itself as a warrior and set to protecting.
3. She's becoming a witch. She convinced some out-of-towner to face enemies and then discreetly slumber-hexed them while the towner was posturing.
4. Have the other 'adventurer' be an animal, a roc or a tiger that has started protecting the town, and have the girl be a natural druid.
If you're set on using the Synthesist, go for it, just keep in mind that
-Much of how to play the Synthesist is in dev FAQs and the like
-It's easy to misunderstand how Synthesist abilities work
-As the GM you're free to overrule anything like 'the eidolon must be translucent'.
EDIT: ""*yawn* another pet class" " HAHAHAHAH yep they deserve everything coming to them. In that context, I can quite agree with your idea to go Synthesist, but I'd still suggest vanilla summoner first.
All good suggestions, thanks. I'll consider them also. I think #1 is most likely my best route.
3. This is....an iffy issue. I know that stone golems (I think stone; one of those types) can appear to have weapons, but in fact they are using their slam attacks. So...maybe? I am just going to chalk this up to something like a mantis claw with that (which then gets stylized so it seems like a sword). So that is an option... although real swords are generally better. Maybe have her use a fancy slam until she learns how to use a real sword (martial weapon proficiency)
Tricky, since a synthesist eidolon has no feats other than the summoner's. So you could give the child a single MWP for whatever the ancestral weapon is, which wouldn't be out of the realm of rationality. If it's a weapon that's been in her family, it stands to reason she's seen it lying around and maybe got to practice with it.
On another note- I keep on saying it has to look 'unnatural', there are ways around that. If you drop 1 point into the skilled (disguise) evo... I think it would be reasonable to say that the +8 to disguise comes from limited shapeshifting.
Likewise, a synthesist eidolon has no skills.
From what you'd describe, I'd say you could do it with a a level 1 Synthesist Summoner, with a bipedal eidolon, using her 3 evolution points to take Improved Natural Armor (which you then shift to a regular Armor bonus) for 1 point, and 2 points for Improved Strength. Done. She's not optimized, that's just what you described. I'm not sure how to parse the rules for replacing the claws that come on a bipedal eidolon and buy a slam attack instead, but you're the GM, so do it for free. The way I read it, you lose the claws, which is a 1-point evolution, and gain a 1 point evolution, which you still have to pay for, so you lose 1 point. And that's stupid.
ETA: Why make the weapon part of the eidolon? Why not say she recovered the weapon from her family's possessions after they were killed? Again, you could just say she knew right where it was.
ETA: Why make the weapon part of the eidolon? Why not say she recovered the weapon from her family's possessions after they were killed? Again, you could just say she knew right where it was.
No no, I am. That's exactly the plan. I was just asking in general if the Natural attack can take on different physical appearances the way the body can, aesthetically.