Question about Kaja Stewart (Digging for Lies)

[Jeff palmer]

Just finishing up Digging For Lies (loving it!!), but I had a question. How are people thinking about Kaja Stewart being a summoner? I get that they made her a summoner as a method of tying the golem to her as her eidolon, but not sure if that makes sense... The world has a great steam punk feel and a clockwork body guard works great, but not getting the summoner vibe, particularly when some kind of technologist flavored class could have worked.
I suspect I'll play her as a technologist who crafted the golem personally, rather than as a traditional summoner.... Any thoughts?

 

[RangerWickett]

[MENTION=53273]Rugult[/MENTION] could probably answer your question. My recollection, though, is that we figured the sin of 'reskinning' was made up for by the mechanical ease of pulling it off.

In hindsight I guess you could make her a gunslinger.

 

[Cheezmo Miner]

I've no problem with it so long as the numbers on the eidolon work out. I've skinned summoners as golemancers before.

EDIT: It's not quite legal. An eidolon can't get DR unless the summoner is 9th level, and then only DR 5 against a specific alignment weapon. Construct traits aren't "official" but you could probably argue they'd be equal to undead traits, which is a 2-point evolution. Following is what I came up with after trying to square it away with the statblock in the adventure (which didn't list all its feats, btw, and placed one of its evolutions in the feat section).

Spoiler

IRON BODYGUARD EIDOLON CR 5
Male Biped (Slam)
LN Medium Outsider
Init +2; Senses Darkvision (60 feet); Perception +7
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DEFENSE
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AC 22, touch 12, flat-footed 20 (+2 Dex, +10 natural)
hp 45 (+20)
Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +4
Defensive Abilities Evasion
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OFFENSE
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Spd 30 ft.
Melee Slam (Slam) +9 (2d6+6/20/x2)
Special Attacks Grab
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STATISTICS
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Str 18, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 7, Wis 10, Cha 11
Base Atk +5; CMB +9 (+13 Grappling); CMD 21
Feats Improved Natural Attack: Slam (Slam), Lightning Reflexes, Toughness +5
Skills Acrobatics +7, Intimidate +5, Perception +7, Stealth +8, Survival +3
Languages Common
SQ Devotion +4 (Ex), Construct Appearance +2
Evolutions: Slam, Ability Increase (CON), Imp Nat Armor, Imp Nat Armor, Grab, Construct Appearance
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SPECIAL ABILITIES
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Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Devotion +4 (Ex) +4 Morale bonus on Will Saves vs. Enchantments.
Evasion (Ex) No damage on successful reflex save.
Grab (Medium) (Ex) You can start a grapple as a free action if you hit with the designated weapon.
Construct Appearance +2 This eidolon appears as construct creature, and mimics some of construct's abilities and weaknesses.

Note that the AC is 2 lower, and no DR.
Note also that Kaja's statblock doesn't specify it, but she should have 4 feats listed, the missing one is Martial Weapon Prof: Pistol.

 

[Rugult]

Yes, the intention was to make her a summoner to work in the golem in a way that would not require making some 'minor golem monster' that would accomplish basically the same thing. It went back to a discussion that Ryan and I had about making a technologist summoner when the original player's guide came out, and seemed like a good idea to incorporate.

The 'Eidolon' is not entirely legal as Cheezmo pointed out, and was tweaked here/there to make it fit more into the role of a 'golem'. The issue comes with conversion, where in 4e it's easy to put in a lesser golem-type opponent, where in PF the only option that really presents itself is having Kaja be a summoner, or creating an entirely new monster.

 

[Falkus]

The only thing I'm regretting is that she can't summon a cannon in Pathfinder as a surprise attack; something that I will rectify when I run her

 

[Jeff palmer]

Love hearing the inner thoughts about what we see in print! I figured the reasoning was something like this. It actually makes me want to make some kind of summoner archetype that has the role of technologist summoner. Some kind of "craft the clockwork golem/device" and then summon the intelligence or soul into the waiting shell, so you can stil have an intelligent, speaking eidolon, but is more consistent with the Pathfinder steampunk feel you've got going on.