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The earth elemental eidolon does not have the elemental trait of not having to breath, so presumably when it gets sent to its home plane it will die a painful and (semi)permanent death (I mean, if I get to high enough level without an eidolon and then find a way to True Resurrect it or whatever presumably I can get it back but...)

Is this a thing that is possible in PFS? I know a lot of people don't like summoners, and I feel like that would be an extremely unpleasent thing to have to deal with if I ever made an earth-elemental summoner, so I'd simply rather not risk it.

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    \$\begingroup\$ With regards to PFS, a GM removing a character's main class feature on a whim because he does not like the class warrants reporting the GM to Mike Brock. \$\endgroup\$
    – MrLemon
    May 22, 2015 at 9:44
  • \$\begingroup\$ @MrLemon Yeah, I am fully confident that I would wind up winning; I'm more worried about what would happen in the mean time. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jeff
    May 22, 2015 at 9:46
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    \$\begingroup\$ Question's different, question's result and answer are the same. Although Pathfinder Society is unmentioned. \$\endgroup\$
    – Hey I Can Chan
    May 22, 2015 at 10:16
  • \$\begingroup\$ @HeyICanChan Very nice find - presumably the eidolon wasn't suffocating to death right before my summoner first called it, so when it returns to where it came from it should be safe. After that, the only thing a GM could really do is have a "rocks fall, eidolon dies" which I would, frankly, laught at. Feel like making that an answer? \$\endgroup\$
    – Jeff
    May 22, 2015 at 10:20

3 Answers 3

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Don't worry about it

The Pathfinder Unchained summoner, like the original summoner, has the following text describing the class feature eidolon:

The eidolon forms a link with the summoner, who forever after summons an aspect of the same creature.

Unless an effect's severed the link the eidolon forms with the summoner, the summoner brings forth only an aspect of the creature to whom the summoner's linked, not the actual creature to whom he's linked, just like a normal summoning spell (albeit with vastly increased complexity), not a calling spell. This makes permanent removal of the eidolon class feature a plot issue not a rules issue. (That is, the creature to whom the summoner is linked is never given a precise location or statistics, so what's preventing the eidolon from sending eidolon aspects when the summoner asks is GM fiat or specific effects that prevent summoning.)1

In other words, the linked eidolon can't die unless the DM just says such a thing happens. And unless that happens, the eidolon aspect probably can't permanently die either, but there's some debate in Pathfinder Society if an ability damaged or diseased eidolon that's resummoned remains ability damaged or diseased.2

I searched Paizo's Pathfinder Society messageboards for further information about this topic and found nothing addressing it directly (and it appears even eidolon deaths in combat are uncommon, so eidolon deaths by GM fiat even moreso?). However, if planning for long-term play, this thread and this thread wondering about tracking eidolon's injuries from scenario to scenario might be of interest.

1 A longer and even more extreme version of eidolon aspect destruction ("Your eidolon is stuck 100 years in the future," said DM Nelson. "Ha ha!") that I believe can still be remedied is detailed here.
2 I would argue a lot that The eidolon doesn't heal naturally applies only to hp, as that's the statement's context. Applying that to everything seems deeply against the statement spirit, and literally means, for example, any psychological trauma the eidolon suffers never heals, and that's just sad.

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The Plane of Earth does not work the way you think it does.

As described on this article, the Plane of Earth is full of caves and host to a number of populations of other, not "non-breathing" species.

Your eidolon will be alright waiting there to be summoned again the next day.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Doesn't it? On the Planar Adventures page on the Paizo website it says Travelers who arrive run the risk of suffocation if they don't reach a cavern or other pocket within the earth which seems somewhat more legitimate a source (no offense to the pathfinder wiki) \$\endgroup\$
    – Jeff
    May 22, 2015 at 9:45
  • \$\begingroup\$ Note that the wiki cites the official Paizo books as its sources in the References section. \$\endgroup\$
    – Nigralbus
    May 22, 2015 at 13:12
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This is not a credible concern.

There are many summoners in PFS play, and while they deservedly get a bad rap for being OP, they do not have chronic issues with GMs screwing them over. The Unchained summoner was designed to mitigate the OP problem in the first place.

"Can" one do so? Sure, they're GMs, they can do all kinds of stuff to you. But you appear to have no real reason to think they would do so, besides "I found an edge case in the rules."

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