Difference between revisions of "Companions and Summons"

Latest revision as of 14:07, 25 February 2016

Average quality, 2 stress boxes, requires a Fate point to act alone, and while they are attached they provide +1 group bonus to their leader in the skills they know, and the leader may substitute their skill level in place of his own if it’s higher.

A companion or summon costs a Stunt slot, in addition a Summon costs drain (see Summoning)

Advances for Companions or Summons

Extra stunts may be spent to increase the power of your Ally or Summon.

• Attachment: Only one companion may “attach” to a character at a time, the same as a minion might, taking hits to its stress track in substitute for the character’s own. An attached companion can’t take actions of his or her own, though the companion’s skills are available to the character while attached.
• Quality: Companions start with a base quality of Average, and its quality may be increased by one step for each advance spent on Quality. The quality of a companion reflects how skilled he, she, or it is, and how resilient the companion is. Companions have a base of one stress plus one box per point of quality. The companion gets a single skill column (instead of a pyramid) with an apex equal to its quality and counting down from there.

Therefore:

An Average quality companion has 1 Average skill and 2 stress. A Fair quality companion has 1 Fair and 1 Average skill and 3 stress. A Good quality companion has 1 Good, 1 Fair, and 1 Average skill and 4 stress. A Great quality companion has 1 Great, 1 Good, 1 Fair, and 1 Average skill, and 5 stress.

• Communication: One advance may be spent on Communication (for Summons this is magical). Attempts to disrupt the method of communication between companion and character face a difficulty equal to the companion’s quality rating, or the character’s skill that yielded the companion, whichever is higher. Additional advances spent on Communication increase this difficulty by 2.

• Independent: All companions are now able to act on their own without needing to spend an advance on it; however, in order to send a companion off on an independent mission, the character must spend a fate point in order to do so. Only one fate point needs to be spent per significant mission (there’s no need to spend fate points when the companion is getting sent off to do something trivial). That said, the Independent advance may still be purchased for a companion, removing this fate point cost.

While the companion is separated, the Independent advance also allows him or her access to the main character’s fate points and up to 2 Aspects of the main character that would also apply as well. “My Faithful Companion Hang Chi!” would apply as it is describing the companion himself, and you might also choose something like “Trained in the secret martial arts of the Far East!” or “Sacred mission to stop Lo Pan from taking over the world!”

• Keeping Up: If the companion or summon’s patron has a means of locomotion or stealth that makes it hard for the companion to keep up with him, then the companion with this advance has a similar ability, but it is useful only for keeping up with her patron when attached, and for no other purpose. (No change with respect to SOTC p.78).
• Locomotion: If the summon has a special form of locomotion or stealth (ie flight, phasing,....) it can take the Summoner along at the cost of a fate-point per use.
• Skilled: Each time this advance is taken, an additional “column” of skills is added to the companion’s sheet. But this is at diminishing returns; each column after the first starts one rank lower than the previous. So a Good quality companion with the Skilled advance taken twice would have 2 Good, 3 Fair, and 3 Average skills in total. A third advance would only add 1 Average skill, and a fourth advance would be wasted. A Great quality companion who takes the Skilled advance 4 times would end up with a “blunted” skill pyramid that’s 1 Superb shy of being equal to a PC!
• Strength in Numbers: You have more than one ally or summon! The first time this advance is taken, you gain 2 additional allies (for a total of 3) that are all identical (statistically, anyway). Each additional time this advance is taken gives you 3 more allies. However, there is a drawback: These hordes of minions are limited to the Leader’s Quality-2, not -1 as is typical for a single companion. Also, Minions only get a number of Stress boxes equal to their Quality, not their Quality +1.
• Stunt: This advance may be taken a maximum of two times. Each time it is taken, the companion gains the use of a single stunt. The stunt may not confer companions or minions of its own.
• Summonable: No matter where you are, you can summon your ally to you. This normally takes at least 1 minute or more, but you may usually spend a Fate Point to accomplish it in a single round. A Summoned companion vanishes or leaves if the summoning character is Taken Out, and usually doesn’t last more than 1 scene anyway, though he may be summoned again in a later scene if needed again. This advance may only be taken once, but see Variable Summons below.
• Variable Summons: (Requires Summonable): Normally, the same or an identical companion is summoned each time, but this advance allows the character to allocate his advances when the companion is first summoned. This may only be done once per adventure, same as a Universal Gadget, unless the summoner spends a Fate point to reallocate the points again (Note: Spending a Fate pt to reallocate the points is a rule I use for Universal Gadgets as well). This advance may only be taken once. Note that while this is most often a mystical ability, it can instead in some cases represent a vast network of friends, allies, or members of a group, such that almost anywhere in the world he can call on someone who just happens to be in the neighborhood.

Stunts

• Ally You have a single, exceptional companion, well equipped to handle leadership duties in your stead. He is Fair quality, and has the Independent and Skilled advances for free, plus 1 other Advance.You need not take this stunt multiple times, but you may if you want. Each additional time it is taken gives 3 advances.
• Animal Companion Your character has cultivated a close companion from the animal kingdom. This companion is designed using the Allies rules, with a few changes and limitations.

Animal companions are designed using four advances. This companion must spend at least two of its advances on “Skilled” or “Quality”. Any “Skilled” advances must be taken from a short list: Athletics, Fists, Might, Stealth, and Survival. You may take only one skill outside of that list, within reason, as based on the animal type. A raccoon might have Sleight of Hand, representing its ability to perform fine manipulation; a lion might have Intimidation (this is unsubtle, and not considered a violation of the physical scope). If the animal is of an appropriate size, this creature may be ridden as a mount, at +1 to Survival.

If the companion is a mount, such as a horse, or a more exotic beast that has been persuaded to allow you to ride it, you may use that mount’s Athletics skill (at +1) instead of Survival in order to ride it. Athletics would also be used to pour on the speed when the rider is too busy to “steer” the animal himself.

• Bound Demon Bound Demons start at Great Quality, with the Summonable, Communication and Independent advances. You may take this stunt multiple times, giving your Demon 3 more advances each time.[Limitation: You need to be a Diabolist and get this stunt as part of the High Aspect]
• Contact [Contacts] At the time your character takes this stunt, you must define a specific contact, with a name, a brief sentence about the contact’s personality, and her relationship to your character. This contact is a companion as described on Allies and Summons, willing and capable to accompany you on your adventures, with three advances for you to spend as you wish and the "Independent" advance for free. For maximum effect, you may wish to allocate one of your aspects to this contact as well. This stunt may be taken multiple times, defining a different contact each time.
• Contracted Demon Contracted Demons start at Good Quality, with the Summonable, Communication and Independent advances. You may take this stunt multiple times, giving your Demon 3 more advances each time. [Limitation: You need to be a Diabolist and get this stunt as part of the High Aspect]
• Network of Contacts [Contacts]

Requires at least one other Contacting stunt. The character can choose from a large number of companions available to him when he needs them. With this stunt, when the character begins an adventure, his companion doesn’t need to be defined. Instead, at the point where he decides he needs the companion, he may reveal her, giving her a name and a few brief cues to the GM to base a personality on. This companion starts out at Average quality and may have up to two advances and the “Summonable” and “Variable Summons” advances for free. Only one “reveal” of this kind may be done per scene. Once revealed, the companion will be involved and reasonably available at least until the end of the adventure. If, instead, you choose to have the companion available to you for only one scene before the companion is called away to other things, you may build the companion with three advances instead of two. Once the scene ends, the companion is removed from the adventure, one way or another.

• Summon You can summon a basic companion with the "Summonable" advance and two other Advances. Your summon stays active until the end of the scene or Sunrise / Sundown, whichever comes first. Each additional time you take this stunt it allows you to summon an additional creature with a different set of advances and skills.[Limitation: You need to be a Witch, Diabolist, Wizard or Shepherd]