Empedocles
2012-04-15, 10:37 PM
The Eidolon Handbook
http://i.imgur.com/37RJDl.jpg
The eidolon is an incredibly unique base class from the Ghostwalk supplement, which is designed as a character class for ghosts after a player dies. The eidolon is very customizable and is not a weak class, generally agreed to be mid Tier 3. Right at the ideal balance point. The formatting for this handbook will be as follows:
This option is perfect. If you don't take it, you better have a good reason :smalltongue:
This is a very solid option. Most builds will make use of it, and you generally need a reason not to include it.
Normal text is an average option, but you can do better. Generally only good for specific builds.[/color]
This is a below average option. Not recommended except for specific builds.
This is a terrible option. Don't take it.
Some Special Notes on the Eidolon
Since this class is for people who've died, you automatically have the ghost template from Ghostwalk (which is LA +1. NOT the MM ghost template) and at least 1 level in another class. This handbook assumes you only have 1 level in another class, but it does not assume your DM allows LA buyoff. If he does, you're just lucky :smallwink:
Also, the RAW rules for an eidolon state that you die when your levels of eidolon exceed those of your other classes. If your going to actually play an eidolon, you obviously need your DM to ignore this...
Attributes
Strength: It's nice to have a decent strength, but it's not really important. Many builds won't even be relying on strength, and shadow blade and weapon finesse made it so you don't need strength at all.
Dexterity: Your most important stat, since it regulates your touch attacks and is likely one of your main sources of AC.
Constitution: If you can afford a high constitution...great. If not, that's fine since a good eidolon doesn't take a whole lot of damage to begin with :smallwink:
Intelligence: This would be a complete dump stat if not for skills...as is, try to keep it at 12 or 13 at least so you can afford basic skills you'll need, but in general this stat is not a priority.
Wisdom: Primary dump stat. The only thing you could possibly need it for is your Will save, which is good anyways.
Charisma: This governs a lot of class features and you (as a ghost) get your charisma modifier as a bonus to AC. A 14 is fine for charisma, but it's nice to have a high one - 16 is ideal. Any saves (such as for your possession and debuffs, which are very important) will be based off of this.
Your First Class...
As previously stated, the eidolon needs to start out as a different class. When choosing your first class, you should look for something that will still be helpful later on in the game. Full spellcasters, the artificer, and manifesters are all terrible options because their bonuses won't scale at all. Keep in mind the choice of your first class will matter less and less as time goes on. This list will be constantly expanding.
Barbarian: A great choice. You get a free +1 BAB, a big HP boost (automatic 12, since this is level 1), and the rage ability which won't hurt many of your abilities. As a bonus, you get some extra skill points to work with (which you'll need) and a +10 ft. bonus to your speed, which you could also need.
Fighter: Meh. The bonus feat is nice, and you do get a nice HP boost and +1 BAB but there're better options.
Monk: You're surprised this isn't a bad choice. I know. But this has some nice bonuses for eidolons: first off, your flurry of blows will become actually useful since an eidolon gets full BAB. You get a nice little bonus feat and you get to start out with +2 to all saves. Unfortunately, you don't get a BAB and your HP will start out squishier then is ideal.
Scout: The eidolon moves all the time. He's a freakishly mobile class, and he'll pretty much always get that extra little +1d6 damage, which is nice. You get a lot of skills, but no BAB and mediocre saves, as well as sort of squishy health.
Bard: Weak choice. Good skills, which is really all it has going for it, but your class abilities won't ever be helpful and neither will your spells...and you'll start out with a d6 HD. Not a very good choice.
Warlock: The single only good things you'll get out of this is ranks in Use Magic Device and a utility invocation (darkness, for example, which can be handy). You're squishy, and your eldritch blast will be forgotten beyond level 3. Also, no BAB...
Incarnate: The nice thing about this is, whatever soulmelds you have will stay relevant regardless of your level because essentia capacity will increase with your level. Unfortunately, you'll need incarnum feats to keep being able to invest essentia at a relevant level. The shape soulmeld feat is a much better option, especially because this class will make you start out squishy.
Factotum: Very solid. Lots of skills to work with in the beginning and some special powers.
Human Paragon: Awesome. You can take use magic device, and better yet, advance it through your levels as an eidolon! This is highly recommended, but there are downsides. You only have a d8 HD and no BAB to start with. It might be better to take the Cosmopolitan feat so you can have iaijutsu focus instead.
Rogue: Inferior to the scout, since you'll be getting the +1d6 from skirmish more often then from sneak attack. However, it's not completely off the table since you have 8 skill points to start with. Unfortunately, the d6 HD and medium BAB means this is rarely a good choice. Psychic rogue or scout is a much better option.
Cleric: Perfectly okay choice if you take the celerity domain and something else useful. You'll have some minor buffs through the levels which is good, and decent starting HD. The cloistered cleric alternative from Unearthed Arcana is highly recommended: you trade 2 hp for a starting out 6 skill points, an extra domain, and the lore ability.
Warblade: d12 HD, maneuvers that will always be useful, and a good BAB! This is one of the best choices.
Swordsage: An okay choice since you'll have a lot of maneuvers to work with. However, you probably don't need any more maneuvers then the warblade provides and this has a HD much lower and you won't get that +1 BAB at 1st level.
Binder: An okay choice, since the bonuses the vestiges provide will continue to help later on. However, there are definitely better options, although this is certainly a flavorful selection.
Psychic Rogue: A very nice choice. You can take the compression power, which will always be helpful and you'll have sneak attack which isn't as good as skirmish but can still be useful in flanking. As a bonus, you have a ton of skills. Unfortunately, this is still a d6 HD.
Race
Okay...you're a ghost. That's a given. But your base race can have a large impact on your character, especially early on. What follows is a list of some races, and the benefits and drawbacks of using one for an eidolon. The list is incomplete though, and will be expanded.
Elf: Although usually a crappy race, it gets the job done for eidolons. You have a bonus to dexterity, which is great, and a penalty to constitution, which is less then great but not horrible. The proficiencies are cool too (since eidolons aren't proficient with anything, not including their original class' proficiencies) if you didn't get many from your original class and if you can get a ghosttouched longbow.
Dwarf: The constitution bonus is always useful...but the speed is a serious deal breaker here. Eidolons need to be mobile, and although the fact that dwarves don't slowdown in medium armor is usually awesome, eidolons usually don't wear armor anyways. The nail in the coffin is the penalty to charisma, which hurts your AC (and people skills :smallbiggrin:)
Whisper Gnome: If not for the penalty to charisma, this would be purple. You have a bonus to dexterity, you're small, you have low-light vision and darkvision, a +4 bonus on two important skills, and silence to give spellcasters a giant needle in their asses!
Human: As always, an excellent choice. The bonus feat is awesome, and the skill points badly needed.
Azurin: The bonus feat is nice...but unless you plan on using a soulmeld in your build (which is a perfectly fine option) the skill points are better then the essentia.
Skarn: Bleh. Natural attacks are nice, but the penalty to dexterity hurts too much and you won't see a lot of use from those spines anyways.
Half-Orc: Almost red, really. Half-orcs have a bonus to strength...but you'll loose AC because of the penalty to charisma and much needed skill points because of intelligence. Bad choice.
Xeph: Nice choice. Bonus to dexterity is more valuable then the loss to strength, you'll have darkvision, and extra mobility via burst.
Maenad: The main issue with the maenad here is you won't see a lot of use from all those fancy racial abilities. It doesn't have anything going against it, but pretty much nothing going for it either...
Rilkan: Cool racial bonuses, and as you've seen above, the bonus to dexterity is more valuable then the penalty to strength.
Duskling: The bonus to constitution is cool, the the hit to skill points (via the penalty to intelligence) sucks. You get the speed bonuses, which is a big factor in this being a decent choice, but generally if that's what you're going for a xeph is a better choice.
Warforged: Penalty to charisma is...painful. However, you do get some good immunities, so this one is up in the air. Nothing wrong with it, really.
Shifter: Not a great choice. You get a bonus to your most important physical score but a penalty to your AC via the penalty to charisma and your tiny skill points take a hit. However, all of the shifter traits can be useful so...if you really want it, you can be a shifter. Not highly recommended though.
Half-Elf: You get absolutely nothing from this.
Halfling: A decent choice. A dexterity bonus is great and you're small. If you also take a level in psychic rogue, you can use compression to become tiny. Unfortunately, the low speed prevents this from being a blue option. Highly recommended to use the quick trait with this.
Now..the Actual Eidolon: Part I (the Ghost)
Okay, so you've decided what you were before you were an eidolon. But...that's really only the tip of the iceberg. You're a ghost now, and you're milking that fact for all it's worth! So...let's start there. What can a ghostwalk ghost do, and how useful is it?
FLY. That's pretty awesome, although it does only work when incorporeal.
Charisma to AC. That makes you less squishy (what, with that d8 HD and all!) although it does kind of suck, since now you can't completely dump charisma.
None of your normal attacks work. Ever. That sucks, but it's not really a problem once you get your ghost feats.
Low-light vision. Yay! This doesn't really matter though...
Disembodied Soul. This means you can be resurrected without your body. This is actually kind of weird, since if you're resurrected wouldn't, you, uh, be resurrected being alive again? Like, no longer a ghost? Whatever. Hopefully you won't die.
No Discernible Anatomy: Yay! No criticals or sneak attacks against you.
Ectoplasmic Body: Flavor, mostly.
INCORPOREAL. That's really the bread and butter of the eidolon.
Ghost Weakness: This is even weirder then disembodied soul. It's an ability that makes you make a fortitude save or be stunned after taking a sneak attack or critical hit. But you're immune to those.................
+4 bonus to hide. Cool.
LA +1. DAMNIT. Hopefully, your DM allows LA buyoff...
The Actual Eidolon: Part II (The Chassis)
The chassis for the eidolon is really about as average as it gets. You have...
d8 HD. That's unfortunate, but you're not excessively squishy or in imminent danger of being squished.
Full BAB. Yay! This is very helpful for your touch attacks.
Crappy saves. Specifically, bad reflex and fortitude, and good will. Definitely not ideal, but at least the good will lets you dump wisdom completely.
No weapon or armor proficiencies. Not a huge issue. you get these from previous classes.
2 Skill points. This sucks. Not only could this class make excellent use of skill tricks, it'd also be nice to have some cross class skills (see below). What follows is a list of eidolon class skills, and how useful they are to you.
Balance. Not a bad skill, but you definitely don't have the points to spare.
Concentration. Absolutely useless for you.
Bluff. A nice skill if you have the points. Suggested that you nab a few ranks in it if you're a human, but otherwise ignore it.
Hide. So they can't see you coming! Probably max ranks in this.
Intimidate. Worth a few ranks, but you can't really afford to max it.
Knowledge (the planes) Not really useful.
Listen. Good skill to have. Possibly max this.
Sense Motive. Nothing wrong with a few ranks in this, but not worth maxing.
Spot. Another basic skill to have. You actually probably shouldn't max it but...you never know!
There're three other skills that are very helpful to you (more so then anything on your actual list of skills): Use Magic Device, Move Silently, and Iaijutsu Focus, listed in order of importance. A level in human paragon to start out with will let you take one of these, and the cosmopolitan feat at 1st level will let you take another. Iaijutsu Focus is mostly only useful for builds that don't use Path of the Corruptor feats, but are played instead like mobile, hard-to-hit warriors.
The Actual Eidolon: Part III (Paths)
Literally all of your class abilities are based on your selection of unique feats, known as "ghost feats." Feats are categorized into Paths, which are summarized and evaluated below. Keep a few things in mind while reading though: Not all of the feats of an excellent path are necessarily worth taking, you're not restricted just to feats from a specific path, and there are good eidolon builds for five of the six feat paths. This focuses on the best of those builds. Also, these paths assume that you are normally incorporeal and must use special powers to become corporeal. If you're actually playing in the city of Manifest, the natural state for you is solid, with the ability to become incorporeal being a special ghost feat.
Path of the Corruptor: In other words, the path of the debuffer. Corruptor eidolons are the simplest to play. You just use your flying and incorporealness to get behind an enemy and drain him away. Corruptor eidolons will want both their charisma and dexterity scores jacked up as high as possible, even more so then the average eidolon. This is a good Path and should always supplement the abilities of an optimized eidolon, although ideally it's not all they can do. No powerful characters I've heard of are complete 1 trick ponies, after all.
Path of the Dominator: You get to possess people. Damn. Not only that, but you can possess multiple people. This is an incredibly powerful build and also allows for versatility for creative players (possessing dead monster corpses, anyone?). Most eidolons will have at least 2 feats from this Path.
Path of the Haunt: While it's not useless...this isn't really a highly recommended build. You get a lot of fear effects, but it takes a ton of feats to be decent and it's still not nearly as good as an average dominator or corruptor build.
Path of the Poltergeist: Worthless, stupid path. It lets you interact with the world...path of the corruptor lets you destroy the world and the dominator build lets you become part of the world. Ectoplasm lets you interact with the world in a much better way...all in all, this path has almost nothing to offer you. Its best feats are green, and most are red.
Path of the Shaper: This path is a mixed package. It has some useful stuff, some not-so useless stuff, but most eidolons will find themselves making use of a lot of the abilities here. It's just not usually going to be central to your build. Consider this path your little bag of tricks :smallwink:
Path of the Traveler: This path is very strong, almost gold in fact. The main problem with it is that its two main feats - ghost glide and fly - are rendered useless by the fact that an incorporeal ghost can already fly...However, it's still nice to be able to fly while corporeal, and more importantly this is the path that will let you become corporeal temporarily (or incorporeal temporarily, if you're in manifest). If you're playing in the actual Ghostwalk setting then this Path is gold, since it'll let you become incorporeal.
Ectoplasmic Bread and Butter: Ghost Feats
Ah. Ghost feats. The cornerstone of every single eidolon build possible, and its only class feature. Now, a few things deserve mentioning on the ghost feats before I go into a feat-by-feat description of them:
You receive 11 bonus ghost feats, free, at 20th level. However, a 20th level eidolon is technically epic since he has 1 level in another class and possibly +1 LA, depending on if your DM allows LA buyoff or not. In any case, no non-epic eidolon will receive more then 10 bonus ghost feats as a class feature.
In addition to the 10 bonus ghost feats from the class...you also receive 7 normal bonus feats through ECL 20 (regardless of prior class levels or LA). This puts you at a whopping 17 feats. Keep in mind though that your 1st level feat cannot possibly be a ghost feat, since it's impossible to be an ECL 1 eidolon. Therefore, you have 16 feats available as ghost feats, 1 bonus feat that cannot possibly be a bonus feat, and potentially 1 more if you're a human (this also cannot be a ghost feat).
Ghost feats take priority over normal feats...but that doesn't mean you shouldn't take them. Good non-ghost feats for eidolons and traps to avoid are included below.
What follows is an evaluation of each indiviudal ghost feat. They're organized by their feat path. Each feat also takes into account what it is a prerequisite for, which makes some feats more useful then they would otherwise be.
Path of the CorruptorAgony Touch: The core feat of a corruptor build, and worth it for even non-pure corruptors. Obviously best to deal constitution damage.
Corrupting Touch: By itself not a very good feat, although it does give you some damage. More importantly, this feat is the building block for all other corruptor feats.
Enervating Touch: This inflicts negative levels on the target. Not the best of the corruptor feats, but it is an option for a pure corruptor build. Unfortunately, there's a lot of stuff that's immune to negative levels or will always make the save.
Freezing Touch: Increases the damage of your touch. Not really the effect you're going for.
Nauseating Touch: An solid corruptor choice that lets you nauseate foes.
Rend Ghost: Absolutely useless. Not worth a feat.
Shriveling Touch: This is the eidolon corruptor feat. You'll need agony touch and corrupting touch, but this deals permanent ability score damage. Very mean. Keep in mind it's not really necessary for builds that aren't exclusively corruptor.
Touch Attack Specialization: There're better ways to do damage. Not worth the feat slot.
Path of the DominatorCorpse Malevolence:
Expanded Possession: Lets you take control of creatures besides humanoids. Very useful, but also specific so be careful what you choose and when you take this feat.
Ghost Ride: This allows you to ride inside other peoples bodies, but not control them...yet. This is the backbone feat of the dominator path, but by itself its not that powerful (still useful though).
Grand Malevolence: You can take control of multiple people at once. Dear god this is good! Even if you can't control the main villain you can steal every single one of his underlings.
Malevolence: Just minor malevolence, but better. Now you're an awesome enchanter!
Minor Malevolence: Now you take control of the enemy. Nice.
http://i.imgur.com/37RJDl.jpg
The eidolon is an incredibly unique base class from the Ghostwalk supplement, which is designed as a character class for ghosts after a player dies. The eidolon is very customizable and is not a weak class, generally agreed to be mid Tier 3. Right at the ideal balance point. The formatting for this handbook will be as follows:
This option is perfect. If you don't take it, you better have a good reason :smalltongue:
This is a very solid option. Most builds will make use of it, and you generally need a reason not to include it.
Normal text is an average option, but you can do better. Generally only good for specific builds.[/color]
This is a below average option. Not recommended except for specific builds.
This is a terrible option. Don't take it.
Some Special Notes on the Eidolon
Since this class is for people who've died, you automatically have the ghost template from Ghostwalk (which is LA +1. NOT the MM ghost template) and at least 1 level in another class. This handbook assumes you only have 1 level in another class, but it does not assume your DM allows LA buyoff. If he does, you're just lucky :smallwink:
Also, the RAW rules for an eidolon state that you die when your levels of eidolon exceed those of your other classes. If your going to actually play an eidolon, you obviously need your DM to ignore this...
Attributes
Strength: It's nice to have a decent strength, but it's not really important. Many builds won't even be relying on strength, and shadow blade and weapon finesse made it so you don't need strength at all.
Dexterity: Your most important stat, since it regulates your touch attacks and is likely one of your main sources of AC.
Constitution: If you can afford a high constitution...great. If not, that's fine since a good eidolon doesn't take a whole lot of damage to begin with :smallwink:
Intelligence: This would be a complete dump stat if not for skills...as is, try to keep it at 12 or 13 at least so you can afford basic skills you'll need, but in general this stat is not a priority.
Wisdom: Primary dump stat. The only thing you could possibly need it for is your Will save, which is good anyways.
Charisma: This governs a lot of class features and you (as a ghost) get your charisma modifier as a bonus to AC. A 14 is fine for charisma, but it's nice to have a high one - 16 is ideal. Any saves (such as for your possession and debuffs, which are very important) will be based off of this.
Your First Class...
As previously stated, the eidolon needs to start out as a different class. When choosing your first class, you should look for something that will still be helpful later on in the game. Full spellcasters, the artificer, and manifesters are all terrible options because their bonuses won't scale at all. Keep in mind the choice of your first class will matter less and less as time goes on. This list will be constantly expanding.
Barbarian: A great choice. You get a free +1 BAB, a big HP boost (automatic 12, since this is level 1), and the rage ability which won't hurt many of your abilities. As a bonus, you get some extra skill points to work with (which you'll need) and a +10 ft. bonus to your speed, which you could also need.
Fighter: Meh. The bonus feat is nice, and you do get a nice HP boost and +1 BAB but there're better options.
Monk: You're surprised this isn't a bad choice. I know. But this has some nice bonuses for eidolons: first off, your flurry of blows will become actually useful since an eidolon gets full BAB. You get a nice little bonus feat and you get to start out with +2 to all saves. Unfortunately, you don't get a BAB and your HP will start out squishier then is ideal.
Scout: The eidolon moves all the time. He's a freakishly mobile class, and he'll pretty much always get that extra little +1d6 damage, which is nice. You get a lot of skills, but no BAB and mediocre saves, as well as sort of squishy health.
Bard: Weak choice. Good skills, which is really all it has going for it, but your class abilities won't ever be helpful and neither will your spells...and you'll start out with a d6 HD. Not a very good choice.
Warlock: The single only good things you'll get out of this is ranks in Use Magic Device and a utility invocation (darkness, for example, which can be handy). You're squishy, and your eldritch blast will be forgotten beyond level 3. Also, no BAB...
Incarnate: The nice thing about this is, whatever soulmelds you have will stay relevant regardless of your level because essentia capacity will increase with your level. Unfortunately, you'll need incarnum feats to keep being able to invest essentia at a relevant level. The shape soulmeld feat is a much better option, especially because this class will make you start out squishy.
Factotum: Very solid. Lots of skills to work with in the beginning and some special powers.
Human Paragon: Awesome. You can take use magic device, and better yet, advance it through your levels as an eidolon! This is highly recommended, but there are downsides. You only have a d8 HD and no BAB to start with. It might be better to take the Cosmopolitan feat so you can have iaijutsu focus instead.
Rogue: Inferior to the scout, since you'll be getting the +1d6 from skirmish more often then from sneak attack. However, it's not completely off the table since you have 8 skill points to start with. Unfortunately, the d6 HD and medium BAB means this is rarely a good choice. Psychic rogue or scout is a much better option.
Cleric: Perfectly okay choice if you take the celerity domain and something else useful. You'll have some minor buffs through the levels which is good, and decent starting HD. The cloistered cleric alternative from Unearthed Arcana is highly recommended: you trade 2 hp for a starting out 6 skill points, an extra domain, and the lore ability.
Warblade: d12 HD, maneuvers that will always be useful, and a good BAB! This is one of the best choices.
Swordsage: An okay choice since you'll have a lot of maneuvers to work with. However, you probably don't need any more maneuvers then the warblade provides and this has a HD much lower and you won't get that +1 BAB at 1st level.
Binder: An okay choice, since the bonuses the vestiges provide will continue to help later on. However, there are definitely better options, although this is certainly a flavorful selection.
Psychic Rogue: A very nice choice. You can take the compression power, which will always be helpful and you'll have sneak attack which isn't as good as skirmish but can still be useful in flanking. As a bonus, you have a ton of skills. Unfortunately, this is still a d6 HD.
Race
Okay...you're a ghost. That's a given. But your base race can have a large impact on your character, especially early on. What follows is a list of some races, and the benefits and drawbacks of using one for an eidolon. The list is incomplete though, and will be expanded.
Elf: Although usually a crappy race, it gets the job done for eidolons. You have a bonus to dexterity, which is great, and a penalty to constitution, which is less then great but not horrible. The proficiencies are cool too (since eidolons aren't proficient with anything, not including their original class' proficiencies) if you didn't get many from your original class and if you can get a ghosttouched longbow.
Dwarf: The constitution bonus is always useful...but the speed is a serious deal breaker here. Eidolons need to be mobile, and although the fact that dwarves don't slowdown in medium armor is usually awesome, eidolons usually don't wear armor anyways. The nail in the coffin is the penalty to charisma, which hurts your AC (and people skills :smallbiggrin:)
Whisper Gnome: If not for the penalty to charisma, this would be purple. You have a bonus to dexterity, you're small, you have low-light vision and darkvision, a +4 bonus on two important skills, and silence to give spellcasters a giant needle in their asses!
Human: As always, an excellent choice. The bonus feat is awesome, and the skill points badly needed.
Azurin: The bonus feat is nice...but unless you plan on using a soulmeld in your build (which is a perfectly fine option) the skill points are better then the essentia.
Skarn: Bleh. Natural attacks are nice, but the penalty to dexterity hurts too much and you won't see a lot of use from those spines anyways.
Half-Orc: Almost red, really. Half-orcs have a bonus to strength...but you'll loose AC because of the penalty to charisma and much needed skill points because of intelligence. Bad choice.
Xeph: Nice choice. Bonus to dexterity is more valuable then the loss to strength, you'll have darkvision, and extra mobility via burst.
Maenad: The main issue with the maenad here is you won't see a lot of use from all those fancy racial abilities. It doesn't have anything going against it, but pretty much nothing going for it either...
Rilkan: Cool racial bonuses, and as you've seen above, the bonus to dexterity is more valuable then the penalty to strength.
Duskling: The bonus to constitution is cool, the the hit to skill points (via the penalty to intelligence) sucks. You get the speed bonuses, which is a big factor in this being a decent choice, but generally if that's what you're going for a xeph is a better choice.
Warforged: Penalty to charisma is...painful. However, you do get some good immunities, so this one is up in the air. Nothing wrong with it, really.
Shifter: Not a great choice. You get a bonus to your most important physical score but a penalty to your AC via the penalty to charisma and your tiny skill points take a hit. However, all of the shifter traits can be useful so...if you really want it, you can be a shifter. Not highly recommended though.
Half-Elf: You get absolutely nothing from this.
Halfling: A decent choice. A dexterity bonus is great and you're small. If you also take a level in psychic rogue, you can use compression to become tiny. Unfortunately, the low speed prevents this from being a blue option. Highly recommended to use the quick trait with this.
Now..the Actual Eidolon: Part I (the Ghost)
Okay, so you've decided what you were before you were an eidolon. But...that's really only the tip of the iceberg. You're a ghost now, and you're milking that fact for all it's worth! So...let's start there. What can a ghostwalk ghost do, and how useful is it?
FLY. That's pretty awesome, although it does only work when incorporeal.
Charisma to AC. That makes you less squishy (what, with that d8 HD and all!) although it does kind of suck, since now you can't completely dump charisma.
None of your normal attacks work. Ever. That sucks, but it's not really a problem once you get your ghost feats.
Low-light vision. Yay! This doesn't really matter though...
Disembodied Soul. This means you can be resurrected without your body. This is actually kind of weird, since if you're resurrected wouldn't, you, uh, be resurrected being alive again? Like, no longer a ghost? Whatever. Hopefully you won't die.
No Discernible Anatomy: Yay! No criticals or sneak attacks against you.
Ectoplasmic Body: Flavor, mostly.
INCORPOREAL. That's really the bread and butter of the eidolon.
Ghost Weakness: This is even weirder then disembodied soul. It's an ability that makes you make a fortitude save or be stunned after taking a sneak attack or critical hit. But you're immune to those.................
+4 bonus to hide. Cool.
LA +1. DAMNIT. Hopefully, your DM allows LA buyoff...
The Actual Eidolon: Part II (The Chassis)
The chassis for the eidolon is really about as average as it gets. You have...
d8 HD. That's unfortunate, but you're not excessively squishy or in imminent danger of being squished.
Full BAB. Yay! This is very helpful for your touch attacks.
Crappy saves. Specifically, bad reflex and fortitude, and good will. Definitely not ideal, but at least the good will lets you dump wisdom completely.
No weapon or armor proficiencies. Not a huge issue. you get these from previous classes.
2 Skill points. This sucks. Not only could this class make excellent use of skill tricks, it'd also be nice to have some cross class skills (see below). What follows is a list of eidolon class skills, and how useful they are to you.
Balance. Not a bad skill, but you definitely don't have the points to spare.
Concentration. Absolutely useless for you.
Bluff. A nice skill if you have the points. Suggested that you nab a few ranks in it if you're a human, but otherwise ignore it.
Hide. So they can't see you coming! Probably max ranks in this.
Intimidate. Worth a few ranks, but you can't really afford to max it.
Knowledge (the planes) Not really useful.
Listen. Good skill to have. Possibly max this.
Sense Motive. Nothing wrong with a few ranks in this, but not worth maxing.
Spot. Another basic skill to have. You actually probably shouldn't max it but...you never know!
There're three other skills that are very helpful to you (more so then anything on your actual list of skills): Use Magic Device, Move Silently, and Iaijutsu Focus, listed in order of importance. A level in human paragon to start out with will let you take one of these, and the cosmopolitan feat at 1st level will let you take another. Iaijutsu Focus is mostly only useful for builds that don't use Path of the Corruptor feats, but are played instead like mobile, hard-to-hit warriors.
The Actual Eidolon: Part III (Paths)
Literally all of your class abilities are based on your selection of unique feats, known as "ghost feats." Feats are categorized into Paths, which are summarized and evaluated below. Keep a few things in mind while reading though: Not all of the feats of an excellent path are necessarily worth taking, you're not restricted just to feats from a specific path, and there are good eidolon builds for five of the six feat paths. This focuses on the best of those builds. Also, these paths assume that you are normally incorporeal and must use special powers to become corporeal. If you're actually playing in the city of Manifest, the natural state for you is solid, with the ability to become incorporeal being a special ghost feat.
Path of the Corruptor: In other words, the path of the debuffer. Corruptor eidolons are the simplest to play. You just use your flying and incorporealness to get behind an enemy and drain him away. Corruptor eidolons will want both their charisma and dexterity scores jacked up as high as possible, even more so then the average eidolon. This is a good Path and should always supplement the abilities of an optimized eidolon, although ideally it's not all they can do. No powerful characters I've heard of are complete 1 trick ponies, after all.
Path of the Dominator: You get to possess people. Damn. Not only that, but you can possess multiple people. This is an incredibly powerful build and also allows for versatility for creative players (possessing dead monster corpses, anyone?). Most eidolons will have at least 2 feats from this Path.
Path of the Haunt: While it's not useless...this isn't really a highly recommended build. You get a lot of fear effects, but it takes a ton of feats to be decent and it's still not nearly as good as an average dominator or corruptor build.
Path of the Poltergeist: Worthless, stupid path. It lets you interact with the world...path of the corruptor lets you destroy the world and the dominator build lets you become part of the world. Ectoplasm lets you interact with the world in a much better way...all in all, this path has almost nothing to offer you. Its best feats are green, and most are red.
Path of the Shaper: This path is a mixed package. It has some useful stuff, some not-so useless stuff, but most eidolons will find themselves making use of a lot of the abilities here. It's just not usually going to be central to your build. Consider this path your little bag of tricks :smallwink:
Path of the Traveler: This path is very strong, almost gold in fact. The main problem with it is that its two main feats - ghost glide and fly - are rendered useless by the fact that an incorporeal ghost can already fly...However, it's still nice to be able to fly while corporeal, and more importantly this is the path that will let you become corporeal temporarily (or incorporeal temporarily, if you're in manifest). If you're playing in the actual Ghostwalk setting then this Path is gold, since it'll let you become incorporeal.
Ectoplasmic Bread and Butter: Ghost Feats
Ah. Ghost feats. The cornerstone of every single eidolon build possible, and its only class feature. Now, a few things deserve mentioning on the ghost feats before I go into a feat-by-feat description of them:
You receive 11 bonus ghost feats, free, at 20th level. However, a 20th level eidolon is technically epic since he has 1 level in another class and possibly +1 LA, depending on if your DM allows LA buyoff or not. In any case, no non-epic eidolon will receive more then 10 bonus ghost feats as a class feature.
In addition to the 10 bonus ghost feats from the class...you also receive 7 normal bonus feats through ECL 20 (regardless of prior class levels or LA). This puts you at a whopping 17 feats. Keep in mind though that your 1st level feat cannot possibly be a ghost feat, since it's impossible to be an ECL 1 eidolon. Therefore, you have 16 feats available as ghost feats, 1 bonus feat that cannot possibly be a bonus feat, and potentially 1 more if you're a human (this also cannot be a ghost feat).
Ghost feats take priority over normal feats...but that doesn't mean you shouldn't take them. Good non-ghost feats for eidolons and traps to avoid are included below.
What follows is an evaluation of each indiviudal ghost feat. They're organized by their feat path. Each feat also takes into account what it is a prerequisite for, which makes some feats more useful then they would otherwise be.
Path of the CorruptorAgony Touch: The core feat of a corruptor build, and worth it for even non-pure corruptors. Obviously best to deal constitution damage.
Corrupting Touch: By itself not a very good feat, although it does give you some damage. More importantly, this feat is the building block for all other corruptor feats.
Enervating Touch: This inflicts negative levels on the target. Not the best of the corruptor feats, but it is an option for a pure corruptor build. Unfortunately, there's a lot of stuff that's immune to negative levels or will always make the save.
Freezing Touch: Increases the damage of your touch. Not really the effect you're going for.
Nauseating Touch: An solid corruptor choice that lets you nauseate foes.
Rend Ghost: Absolutely useless. Not worth a feat.
Shriveling Touch: This is the eidolon corruptor feat. You'll need agony touch and corrupting touch, but this deals permanent ability score damage. Very mean. Keep in mind it's not really necessary for builds that aren't exclusively corruptor.
Touch Attack Specialization: There're better ways to do damage. Not worth the feat slot.
Path of the DominatorCorpse Malevolence:
Expanded Possession: Lets you take control of creatures besides humanoids. Very useful, but also specific so be careful what you choose and when you take this feat.
Ghost Ride: This allows you to ride inside other peoples bodies, but not control them...yet. This is the backbone feat of the dominator path, but by itself its not that powerful (still useful though).
Grand Malevolence: You can take control of multiple people at once. Dear god this is good! Even if you can't control the main villain you can steal every single one of his underlings.
Malevolence: Just minor malevolence, but better. Now you're an awesome enchanter!
Minor Malevolence: Now you take control of the enemy. Nice.