2
\$\begingroup\$

There is a lot of unanswered questions revolving around the Evolved Companion that I cant seem to find an answer to anywhere else. Although I've found this helpful but it doesn't address everything. For example the evolution Magic Attacks states:

"An eidolon is infused with magic, allowing it to treat all of its natural attacks as if they were magic for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. If the summoner is 10th level or higher, all of the eidolon’s weapons are treated as the alignment of the eidolon for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction."

How would this be handled or would it just be ignored? Another Example is the Claws evolution which says:

"The eidolon must have the limbs evolution to take this evolution."

I ask this because I'm utilizing the evolution pool quite readily to boost the power of my companion. In particular I would like to give my big kitty an extra pair of claws on its back legs and magical attacks. But have no clue if its even possible due to wording. Is there something I've been missing that tells you how to solve for this?

Improve this question
\$\endgroup\$

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
6
\$\begingroup\$

One thing you should note is that a creature cannot use claws on the back limbs if they use those limbs to walk around, this is a limitation on a creature's natural attacks, as seen on this FAQ entry:

Claws and Talons: If I gain claw attacks, can I put those claw attacks on my feet?

If you are a bipedal creature (roughly humanoid-shaped, with two arms and two legs), your claws must go on your hands; you can not assign them to any other limb or body part.

If you are a quadruped (or have more than four legs), you can have claws on your feet. If you have claws on all of your feet, normally you can't use all of those claw attacks on your turn unless you have a special ability such as pounce or rake.

Talons are much like claws, but go on a creature's feet, usually a bipedal creature (especially a flying bipedal creature such as a giant eagle or harpy). An ability that grants you claw attacks cannot be used as if they were talon attacks (in other words, you can't "re-skin" the ability's game mechanics so you can use it on a different limb).

Example, a tiger (big cat) actually has four claws, but can only attack with two of them at once. The other two claws can only be used with the Rake ability. So, even if your GM does allow you to take extra claw attacks, the creature cannot use them (except for raking), unless he also creates a house-rule to ignore this limitation.

That said, looking at Evolve Companion we see that the possible evolutions are limited to the form of the animal:

Select a 1-point evolution other than pounce or reach from those available to a summoner’s eidolon. Your animal companion gains this evolution. The animal companion must conform to any limitations of the evolution. For instance, only an animal companion of an appropriate size and base form can have the mount evolution.

This means that you cannot take the Wing Buffet evolution if you do not have wings, or Tail Slap and Sting without having a tail, or, like the example given on the feat, be used as a Mount without being of the appropriate size and form (quadruped/serpentine) for that.

If the creature does not gain pounce or rend from another source, adding extra claws to her legs will not make any effect on her combat statistics. A wolf would benefit from claws on the front legs, for instance, but a tiger would not gain anything from adding extra claws to her feet.

Improve this answer
\$\endgroup\$
5
  • \$\begingroup\$ This is very helpful I had no clue there was a ruling against using claws like that. I do understand the part about physical limitations for the feat but that still doesn't address the issues that I stated above unless Anne Aunyme was correct and they should be ignored RAW. \$\endgroup\$
    – Tanki
    Jul 10, 2017 at 22:10
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Tanki RAW stands for rules-as-written, we cannot assume something is raw if it is not written. From my reading of all those abilities and the feat, claw is one of the evolutions you cannot take using Evolve Companion without house-ruling it. \$\endgroup\$
    – ShadowKras
    Jul 10, 2017 at 22:58
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Tanki it would help if we knew what animal we are talking about. Like, a dog/wolf could physically obtain a set of claws, though the rules are clear that they first need the limbs evolution. The question mentioned a kitty, but the FAQ confirms your cat can only use two claws to attack. \$\endgroup\$
    – ShadowKras
    Jul 11, 2017 at 11:56
  • \$\begingroup\$ An actual Eidolon could potentially be built with multiple sets of legs, and so could also make use of leg claw attacks in addition to 'arm' claw attacks. Plus, Eidolons have a built-in maximum number of attacks allowed. Also to note, there could be animal companions available with more than four legs (i.e. vermin). \$\endgroup\$
    – YogoZuno
    Jul 12, 2017 at 1:29
  • \$\begingroup\$ @YogoZuno but eidolons have two separate type of limbs, they can take limbs (legs) and limbs (arms) separately. Legs are required for pounce and rake (must be quadruped), arms are required for claw attacks, and you can apply claws to limbs (legs) once. If they have two pairs of limbs (arms), they could also take two pairs of claws on their hands, but even if they have two pairs of legs (by taking limbs (legs) twice), they can only have one pair of claws on their feet. If they have two pairs of legs (quadruped), then they could use two of those legs to make claw attacks,. \$\endgroup\$
    – ShadowKras
    Jul 12, 2017 at 1:53
-1
\$\begingroup\$

RAW you won't be able to take these evolutions, because you don't met the prerequisites.

However your GM could choose to make a houserule of this, something like adding to the Evolved Companion feat: "The PC treat his druid level as a summoner level to determine the conditions and effects of this evolution".

For the case of the Claws I would houserule that the creature don't need the Limbs evolution but to effectively have available limbs to get claws on them. It seems intended to work that way even if it doesn't by raw.

Improve this answer
\$\endgroup\$
2
  • \$\begingroup\$ I just realized I had written the opposite of what I meant. It's fixed. \$\endgroup\$
    – Anne Aunyme
    Jul 11, 2017 at 11:52
  • \$\begingroup\$ I still find that first sentence of yours totally confusing. What 'it' are you actually referring to? The feat? One of the evolutions? Not to mention that 'won't be able to' doesn't seem to gel with 'no reason not to'. I would guess you're referring to just the Magic Attacks Evolution, but it really isn't clear. \$\endgroup\$
    – YogoZuno
    Jul 12, 2017 at 1:19

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .