Due to various story reasons*, my wizard/beastmaster has just used his level 9 feat to multiclass into summoner. I don't particularly want to have two minions, so I was wondering if someone smarter than me can design some way of combining my eidolon and my animal companion into one for me to propose to the gm.
My initial thought was to make it as per my normal companion when the eidolon isn't manifested, but when I do manifest it, it possesses my animal companion or something and uses the eidolon's mental stats (and gains skills) and maybe boosts the animal companions advanced maneuver somehow?
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Eidolon from the archetype is hard to use in combat. You don't (and can't) get Act Together to assist in the action economy, and it doesn't have the Minion trait to help with the action economy. So you generally don't have enough actions to have both the Eidolon doing something useful and your main character doing something useful in the same turn.
So to start out with, you might just adjust to the idea that your Eidolon is only going to be used in emergencies or for out-of-combat abilities such as using your Wizard's athletics skill with a relevant STR bonus.
That said, if you find that unsatisfying, I could see having the Animal Companion/Eidolon being an either/or type of thing in combat. That isn't much of a houserule even. The only mechanical difference would be removing the token for the Animal Companion from the battle grid when the Eidolon is summoned - meaning that it won't take damage from AOE attacks or be targeted by enemies directly.
Trying to combine the two will be more difficult. That may cause balance problems, but it is hard to tell. I'm not entirely sure where to start with trying to balance that. Mostly because I think that the Summoner Archetype Eidolon is rather under-performing, so trying to balance the houserule to that level would feel bad.
So either the Eidolon can do something, or I can do something, but not both on the same turn? That's a pain.
So either the Eidolon can do something, or I can do something, but not both on the same turn? That's a pain.
Something useful.
You still have all three actions (plus any extras from Haste or the like) that you can share between your Wizard and your Eidolon.
But if the Wizard casts a 2-action spell, that will leave only one action left. Command the Animal Companion, or give it to the Eidolon, or use it yourself - choose one.
Eidolon without Act Together is tough. But the balance problem is that giving the archetype Eidolon the Minion trait would be too strong. At that point the Wizard could cast a 2-action spell, and command the Eidolon. That would give the Eidolon two actions that it could then use to cast a 2-action spell of its own.
That is more powerful than what a main-class Summoner can do with Act Together.
So either the Eidolon can do something, or I can do something, but not both on the same turn? That's a pain.Something useful.
You still have all three actions (plus any extras from Haste or the like) that you can share between your Wizard and your Eidolon.
But if the Wizard casts a 2-action spell, that will leave only one action left. Command the Animal Companion, or give it to the Eidolon, or use it yourself - choose one.
Isn't that how Act Together already works...?
Nevermind, I see now that it allows for 3+1. Still seems like something of a niche case.
Yes, Act Together allows a total of 4 actions, but both the Summoner and the Eidolon have to use at least one of them, and there is no way to have both of them do a 2-action activity such as spellcasting.
Minion trait also gives a total of 4 actions, but is more limited - each character gets two of them. But it is also less limited in that they can both do 2-action activities.
Archetype Eidolon only gives 3 actions in total. *sad face*
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For the most part allowing a player to combine and Eidolon with a Beastmaster animal companion is a huge buff and imo too powerful. Animal companions are already quite powerful for their cost.
As mentioned Eidolons from the Summoner dedication are very very hard to use effectively in combat.
They are more just a little out of combat utility and for fun roleplay. Luckily it didn't really cost you anything to get though.
I wouldn't really expect much more though since all it takes is one feat to get one.
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I could absolutely see homebrewing a feat based on Meld Into Eidolon that instead of replacing you with your Eidolon replaces your Animal Companion with your Eidolon. But it would need to be a full replacement, not a hybrid merging of the two.
And in fact, I am not sure that it would be powerful enough to actually warrant a feat cost for. Without replacing the Animal Companion, you can still just ignore it. So replacing it isn't actually adding any power - just removing a bit of risk to the Animal Companion.