My PC's eidolon has been cursed to eventually starve to death. How would this work out? I mean, yeah, I'd use standard starvation rules so he has time until stuff gets bad, but what happens if he doesn't get it taken care of?
As a Summoner he loses a pretty big part of his class if his eidolon is permanently dead.
Eidolon's cannot permanently die.
If you kill them, they simply return to their home plane and come back with half their hit points next time you summon them.
Outsiders do not eat. They cannot starve to death.
Is this with a standard ability or something homebrewed? First off, eidolons are outsiders, so they do not need to eat, not sure if they can starve. Even if it does die, it should be able to come back the next day, but starting at half hit points.
EDIT: so, yeah, what ninja snowlilly said.
Normally if an Eidolon is slain it just gets sent to wherever it came from and can't be called back til the next day and when it does it has half HP. You really can't kill it for realz as it just respawns.
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My PC's eidolon has been cursed to eventually starve to death. How would this work out? I mean, yeah, I'd use standard starvation rules so he has time until stuff gets bad, but what happens if he doesn't get it taken care of?
As a Summoner he loses a pretty big part of his class if his eidolon is permanently dead.
I believe the General consensus is that if an eidolon is slain in any way (not just hit point damage) it is instead de-summoned back to its home plane, and can be summoned the next day at 1/2 hp
One of the artifacts from DnD, (back to first edition) is that summoned creatures aren't actually there. They are in a weird liminal state between their home plane and the plane they have been summoned to. So the feel and perceive like they are on the plane they've been summoned to, and can effect that world, but anything that would kill them breaks the link and sends them back to their home.
This is why ACTUALLY killing demons is tough, because 99% of the time, they are summoned. To actually kill them you need to go to their home plane and kill them, or a halt get their entire body to come to you (like with gate or planar travel, or moving through the world wound)
Another option (if you think that is too powerful) is to have the summoned spend some money (same as if a Druid was replacing an animal companion) to form a link with a new eidolon.
Edit: to people saying outsiders don't eat. . . Where'd you get that? Undine, aasimar, tie flings, Suli, they all eat. Maybe non-native outsiders don't eat. . .
How exactly was the curse placed? Plot curse? Does the curse affect outsiders? (Keep in mind many of the demons and angels imprisoned on the material plane for one reason or another - and don't seem to need to eat). Would a remove curse spell be sufficient to solve the issue?
Is the curse placed on the Eidolon in its home plane, or only on the summoned Eidolon - there is a big difference. The summoned Eidolon is *not* the true being. The iffy part of this is that spells with permanent effects will continue to work on the summoned Eidolon until cured. If a summoned Eidolon is petrified, you can't just banish it and resummons it to fix the petrification - even though the "true" core being was never petrified.
Using the spell summon eidolon makes things more strange as it not only ignores the "permanent" effects on the ritually summoned eidolon, you can also use feats on the spell like augmented summoning. Of course, the spell only lasts rounds per level so it is rarely chosen and fairly niche.
Back to the question - let us ignore the starvation clause and just assume the Eidolon is under some effect that will kill it unless a curse is lifted. If said curse is on the ritually summoned Eidolon only (and it takes work to gate and find an Eidolon's "true" self), then the summoned Eidolon dies if a solution is not found in time. Good news, once dead, it can be resummoned again - even if it is still under the curse. This gives the PCs more time, and the problem of a weakening Eidolon until the solution can be found. The Eidolon will continue the cycle, and will likely encourage the Summoner to find a solution.
To permanently kill an Eidolon would mean having to planar travel and find the "true" self of the Eidolon (same with permanently equipping an Eidolon).
Edit: to people saying outsiders don't eat. . . Where'd you get that? Undine, aasimar, tie flings, Suli, they all eat. Maybe non-native outsiders don't eat. . .
Outsiders: "Outsiders breathe, but do not need to eat or sleep (although they can do so if they wish). Native outsiders breathe, eat, and sleep."
It sounds like a homebrewed curse. I'm sure the intent of your GM was not to give your eidelon a curse it is immune to. Talk to your GM about it.
The curse in question wasn't intended for the eidolon but rather a player with a possible quest reward not too far down the line to have a curse removed. Remove curse or break enchantment would both remove the curse but as the DM I seem to be the only one paying the starving eidolon any mind. I suppose having it come back in a permanent cycle of 1/2 hp and suffering the normal effects of starvation will work until they get it together enough to get it taken care of.
I mean I guess the bigger question is what happens if the Eidolon manages to die while unsummoned from the prime material? When an eidolon returns to it's home plane it becomes a native outsider. This means that it will need to eat on it's home plane and if the curse isn't handled in a timely manner then the Eidolon will die on it's home plane.
Yes, if that's the nature of the curse it seems quite deadly.
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The curse in question wasn't intended for the eidolon but rather a player with a possible quest reward not too far down the line to have a curse removed. Remove curse or break enchantment would both remove the curse but as the DM I seem to be the only one paying the starving eidolon any mind. I suppose having it come back in a permanent cycle of 1/2 hp and suffering the normal effects of starvation will work until they get it together enough to get it taken care of.
I mean I guess the bigger question is what happens if the Eidolon manages to die while unsummoned from the prime material? When an eidolon returns to it's home plane it becomes a native outsider. This means that it will need to eat on it's home plane and if the curse isn't handled in a timely manner then the Eidolon will die on it's home plane.
The Eidolon does not need to eat, and Outsiders don't change to Outsider (Native) on their home plane. (They still don't need to eat or drink.) It's like if you were cursed so that you couldn't photosynthesize any more. You never photosynthesized in the first place and you don't need to photosynthesize. You can still sit out in the sun like before, and you continue to not get any benefit from doing so.
When an eidolon returns to it's home plane it becomes a native outsider.
No, it does not. Native subtype is a designation of outsiders that are native to Material Plane, not something that is applied to any outsider on their native plane. You might be thinking about extraplanar subtype that works in the reverse way to what you described - applying to any creature not on its native plane and removed when returning to native plane.
This subtype is applied only to outsiders. These creatures have mortal ancestors or a strong connection to the Material Plane and can be raised, reincarnated, or resurrected just as other living creatures can be. Creatures with this subtype are native to the Material Plane. Unlike true outsiders, native outsiders need to eat and sleep.
EDIT: Ninja rabbit?
what happens if the Eidolon manages to die while unsummoned from the prime material?
Hopefully this will clear the confusion - the Eidolon is NOT the original outsider, just a magical shade of it. If the Eidolon is petrified, the main creature is unaffected - though every time a summoner uses the ritual to summon the Eidolon, the magical shade is still petrified until the condition is reversed. The outsider that is the basis of the Eidolon is somewhere in some other plane, totally fine.
Why is this an important distinction? It is when you try to equip an Eidolon. If the summoner hands over an item to a summoned Eidolon and says "Here, take it" - that item will remain behind in the material plane whenever the Eidolon winks out. Its up to the summoner to retrieve and lug around the stuff now. The game changes at high level, when planar travel becomes a thing. Now the summoner can gate to visit the Eidolon's true self and hand it that magical item, or whatever. Once the "main" outsider has the item "for real", then the item always appears with the summoned Eidolon - and always vanishes with it, even if the Eidolon is slain or the summoner falls asleep. No looting the Eidolon after winning a fight, in other words. This to can lead to shenanigans, so watch out.
Now, if you are asking what happens if someone planar travels to meet the true outsider that forms the basis of the Eidolon, and slays it - then the Eidolon is slain, and it opens up a whole bunch of metaphysical headaches should the group try to resurrect it. Things like, can non-native outsiders be resurrected? Can we follow the Eidolon's spirit to its afterlife plane and just gate it home? If play happens at a level where planar travel is a thing, be ready for other shenanigans like wish and miracle being on the table.
The big picture here. an Eidolon is kind of like "summon monster" rather than "planar ally". One is just a carbon copy (if a rather unique one), while the other (planar ally) is the actual outsider itself. The Eidolon is in no permanent risk if summoned to the material plane. The Eidolon is only at risk should someone planar travel to it, or allow it to planar travel to the material plane. This should not happen at the level I'm guessing your PCs are at. If they can't just sneeze a remove curse spell, they are not at a level where they should be hopping into other dimensions under their own power, or having to worry about some being planar travelling to an Eidolon to kill someone's class feature.
My advice, if your game is at a level where planar travel is a PC option, the game is already weird enough that the Eidolon is the least of your worries.
Hopefully this will clear the confusion - the Eidolon is NOT the original outsider, just a magical shade of it. If the Eidolon is petrified, the main creature is unaffected - though every time a summoner uses the ritual to summon the Eidolon, the magical shade is still petrified until the condition is reversed. The outsider that is the basis of the Eidolon is somewhere in some other plane, totally fine.
Why is this an important distinction? It is when you try to equip an Eidolon. If the summoner hands over an item to a summoned Eidolon and says "Here, take it" - that item will remain behind in the material plane whenever the Eidolon winks out. Its up to the summoner to retrieve and lug around the stuff now. The game changes at high level, when planar travel becomes a thing. Now the summoner can gate to visit the Eidolon's true self and hand it that magical item, or whatever. Once the "main" outsider has the item "for real", then the item always appears with the summoned Eidolon - and always vanishes with it, even if the Eidolon is slain or the summoner falls asleep. No looting the Eidolon after winning a fight, in other words. This to can lead to shenanigans, so watch out.
While I certainly don't want to deny you the ability to rule on the way your own metaphysical laws of your campaign world, I'm not sure that everything you're saying here is supported by the rules.
I was under the impression that you could equip your eidolon with magical gear, which takes up the summoner's slots, but I don't recall anything about those items being left behind when the eidolon is sent back to its plane.
I do agree that you give a decent GM ruling to prevent players from treating the eidolon like a magical pick-proof pocket (such as holding the campaign McGuffin to remove any danger of the BBEG getting it).
As for Eidolons and gear, it was a progression from the statement that "Eidolons are treated as summoned creatures" (APG, page 55).
A summoned creature could have weapons (such as an astral deva's weapon). This weapon will vanish along with the summoned creature once it is dispelled, destroyed, or when the spell duration runs out.
If you gave a summoned astral deva another weapon, it could use it while active. Once the astral deva is dispelled, destroyed, or the spell duration runs out, the borrowed weapon remains behind.
The Eidolon is similar to a summon monster spell in that regard, only the duration is much, much longer. This comes up a lot with quadruped Eidolons being used as mounts - and the saddle is left behind once it is dispelled.
Need... cookies... It's the curse!
On a more serious note: The other players likely don't care about the eidolon because for them it's just an extension of the summoner, not a fellow adventurer. It's possible to build a connection between your companion and another party member, but it needs some roleplay and open-minded players. You could start with that now, but it would look like you are just doing it to get help.
I hope your GM gives you the tools to fix it soon. If he doesn't, a talk might help. Appearantly the curse just impacts the fun and doesn't improve it in any way.
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I think having an eidolon that must be constantly eating even though it can't starve to death is a great RP opportunity.