Hello, first time around here. I tried asking my more serious/hardcore friends about certain things but they usually don't think it's worth bothering to answer, only replying "That's a horrible idea. Why would you even multiclass as a Summoner?"
Anyways, my question being a 2 parter actually.
1) If a Summoner was to multiclass for whatever reason, any reason. Can they use the Leadership Feat to make their Eidolon a Cohort to help give it levels?
Like if a lvl 10 player only has 4 levels as Summoner, the feat would let them strengthen said Eidolon with 4 levels of a class. I can't see why not as the Eidolon is a sentient being, especially the Unchained versions.
The second part is about the Genie Binder class. It mentions an option to obtain an Eidolon of the Genie type. Not only that but the PC stacks with the Summoner classes Eidolon if it's a Genie. Does that mean the Summoner/Genie Binder can have 2 Genie Eidolons at full power this way at the cost of 1-2 Caster levels?
Genie Mastery
"At 1st level, a genie binder must decide whether to bind a genie minion or pursue spellcasting power.
Once this decision is made, it can’t be changed. If she selects a genie minion, she gains an eidolon with the genie subtype, treating her genie binder level as her effective summoner level; her genie binder levels stack with any summoner levels she has for this purpose, but only for an eidolon with the genie subtype. If she selects spellcasting, she gains the benefits of her aligned spellcasting class feature (see below) at 3rd level, in addition to the other indicated levels."
For #1: No. "A cohort is generally an NPC with class levels", an Eidolon doesn't have class levels. "An eidolon’s abilities are determined by the summoner’s level", it doesn't gain experience on it's own, and it can't level up on its own. The only thing Leadership does regarding levelling up the cohort is by giving it a part of your XP, but no matter how many XP you give an eidolon, it doesn't get stronger.
For #2: No. If you have levels in unSummoner and have an eidolon with the genies subtype, you have one eidolon, with stacking levels. If the above is not true, you gain a new eidolon with the genies subtype, with non-stacking levels (and might have two eidolons). Otherwise, the line "but only for an eidolon with the genie subtype." makes no sense, because the eidolon gained from the prestige class would always benefit from summoner levels. Also, it says the levels stack "for this purpose", refering to the "genie minion", a different eidolon would not be your genie minion.
1. No. The closest you could get is to find/"create" an unfettered eidolon and convince your GM to let you make it a cohort. Maybe you die a bizarre death and the eidolon connection is severed, then you're brought back but retrained as a non-summoner? Either way, the cohort would no longer be "your" eidolon, so it wouldn't benefit from a lot of the summoner's abilities--it'd just be another NPC cohort.
2. No. It means that if you have a genie eidolon as a summoner, it continues to progress when you take levels in genie binder. If you have some other eidolon as a summoner, you'd have two separate eidolons, one for your summoner levels and one for your genie binder levels. If you aren't a summoner at all, you'd only have the genie eidolon with genie binder levels. Basically, the prestige class is designed to be an alternate progression path for genie summoners but can optionally be used as a sort of summoner multi-class for non-summoners.