Allies
Allies
Variable
Many fictional heroes have partners – loyal comrades, faithful sidekicks, trusted retainers, or lifelong friends – who accompany them on adventures. These partners are "Allies."
The other PCs in your adventuring party are, in a sense, "allies." But they can be unreliable allies indeed. Often they are chance acquaintances, first encountered at a roadside tavern only hours ago. They have their own hidden goals, ethics, and motives, which might not coincide with your own.
An NPC Ally, on the other hand, is wholly reliable. Perhaps you fought side by side in a long war, trained under the same master, or grew up in the same village. The two of you trust each other implicitly. You travel together, fight back-to-back, share rations in hard times, and trade watches through the night.
Your Ally is usually agreeable to your suggestions, but he is not your puppet. He will disagree with you from time to time. An Ally may try to dissuade you from a plan that seems foolish to him – and if he can't talk you out of the plan, he may refuse to cooperate. An Ally may even cause problems for you: picking fights, landing in jail, insulting a high noble ... Of course, the Ally will also try to bail you out when you make mistakes.
The GM will not award you bonus character points for any play session in which you betray, attack, or unnecessarily endanger your Ally. Blatant, prolonged, or severe betrayal will break the trust between you and your Ally, and he will leave you permanently. If you drive your Ally off in this way, the points you spent on him are gone, reducing your point value. Leading your Ally into danger is all right, as long as you face the same danger and are a responsible leader.
The point cost for an Ally depends on his power and frequency of appearance. Only PCs who take NPCs as Allies pay points for the privilege. Two PCs can be mutual "allies" for free, as can two NPCs – and NPCs never pay points for PCs as Allies. An Ally is specifically a skilled NPC associate for one PC.
Ally's Power
Consult the following table to determine how many points you must spend on your Ally. "Point Total" is the Ally's point total expressed as a percentage of the PC's starting points; "Cost" is the cost of the Ally. If the Ally's point total falls between two percentages, use the higher.
| Point Total | Cost |
|---|---|
| 25% | 1 point |
| 50% | 2 points |
| 75% | 3 points |
| 100% | 5 points |
| 150% | 10 points |
Allies built on more than 150% of the PC's starting points are not allowed; treat such NPCs as Patrons.
Exception: The progression above extends indefinitely for nonsentient (IQ 0) Allies; each +50% of the PC's starting points costs a further +5 points. Allies built on no more than 100% of the PC's starting points may also be Dependents. Add the cost of Ally and Dependent together, and treat the combination as a single trait: an advantage if the total point cost is positive, a disadvantage if it is negative.
Ally Groups
You may purchase as many Allies as you can afford. Each Ally is normally a separate advantage, but you can treat a group of related Allies as a single trait to save space on your character sheet. For a group of individuals – with their own unique abilities and character sheets – add the costs of the individual Allies to find the cost of the group, adjust the total cost for frequency of appearance, and then apply any special modifiers.
For a group of more than five identical and interchangeable allies that share a single character sheet – for instance, an army of low-grade thugs or a swarm of robot drones – find the point cost to have one member of the group as an Ally, and then multiply that cost as follows to find the cost of the group:
| Size of Group | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| 6-10 | ×6 |
| 11-20 | ×8 |
| 21-50 | ×10 |
| 51-100 | ×12 |
Add ×6 to the multiplier per tenfold increase in number (e.g., 100,000 Allies would be ×30). The GM may require an Unusual Background if you wish to have hordes of Allies, or even prohibit groups larger than a certain size – although he might permit an army or other large group as a Patron.
Frequency of Appearance multipliers and special modifiers (if any) apply to the final cost of the entire group.
Frequency of Appearance
Choose a Frequency of Appearance. If your Ally appears at the start of an adventure, he accompanies you for the duration of that adventure.
Allies in Play
As with Dependents, the GM will adjust your Ally's abilities in order to keep his point total a fixed percentage of your own as you earn points. This will keep his value as an advantage constant. The GM decides how the Ally evolves, although he might ask you for your input.
If your Ally dies through no fault of yours, the GM will not penalize you. You may put the points spent on the deceased Ally toward a new Ally. The new relationship should normally develop gradually, but the GM might allow an NPC to become an Ally on the spot if you have done something that would win him over (e.g., saving his life). This is especially appropriate in cultures where debts of honor are taken seriously!
There is no penalty for amicably parting ways with your Ally. You may use the points spent on him to buy a new Ally met during play. At the GM's discretion, you may trade in any remaining points for money, reflecting parting gifts.
Familiars
Wizards, telepaths, and so on are often supernaturally linked to special Allies known as familiars. These are usually animals or spirits.
Work out a familiar's basic abilities with the GM, starting with the racial template of an ordinary creature of its kind. If its racial IQ is 5 or less, raise it to at least 6. Consider buying off Cannot Speak, if applicable. Most familiars have supernatural advantages: Extra Lives for a cat (it has nine lives, after all!), Mindlink and Telesend for a familiar that can transmit its thoughts, etc.
Once you have determined the familiar's abilities, work out its point total and its base value as an Ally. Select frequency of appearance as usual. This may be how often your familiar is available (on a failed appearance roll, it is sleeping, reporting to a demon lord, etc.) or how often its powers work (on a failure, it is no more capable than an ordinary member of its species, and cannot use or grant special powers) – your choice.
This kind of Ally usually has one or more special modifiers. Minion, Summonable, and Sympathy are common. Unwilling is typical of demonic or otherwise evil familiars. Take Special Abilities only if your familiar grants you powers; e.g., extra Fatigue Points with which to fuel spells or exotic or supernatural advantages that emulate the familiar's own abilities (such as Flight, for a bird). You have no access to these abilities on a failed appearance roll; if your familiar is stunned, unconscious, or dead; or in areas where your special link does not function (GM's decision). Buy these abilities with a -40% Accessibility limitation: "Granted by familiar."
You can apply the following enhancements and limitations after calculating group cost (if applicable) and multiplying for frequency of appearance:
Special Enhancements
Minion: Your Ally continues to serve you regardless of how well you treat him. This might be due to programming, fear, awe, or lack of self-awareness. Examples include robots, zombies, and magical slaves. You are free of the usual obligation to treat your Ally well. Mistreatment might result in an inconvenient breakdown (mental or physical), but the Ally will not leave. See Puppet for additional options. +0% if the Minion has IQ 0 or Slave Mentality, as the benefits of total loyalty are offset by the need for close supervision; +50% otherwise.
Special Abilities: Your Ally wields power out of proportion to his point value. Perhaps he has extensive political clout or access to equipment from a TL higher than your own; perhaps he grants you exotic powers. Don't apply this enhancement simply because your Ally has exotic abilities. If his powers are very uncommon, you will already be paying extra: your Ally requires an Unusual Background, which raises his point total and his value as an Ally. +50%.
Summonable: You conjure your Ally instead of rolling to see whether he appears at the start of an adventure. To do so, take a Concentrate maneuver and roll against frequency of appearance. On a success, your Ally appears nearby. On a failure, you cannot attempt to summon him again for one full day. Dismissing your Ally is a free action, but you may only dismiss him if he is physically present. +100%.
Special Limitations
Sympathy: If you are stunned, knocked out, mind-controlled, etc., your Ally is similarly affected. The reverse is also true, so you should take special care of your Ally! -25% if the death of one party reduces the other to 0 HP; -50% if the death of one party automatically kills the other. If your wounds affect your Ally, but your Ally's wounds don't affect you, reduce these values to -5% and -10%.
Unwilling: You have obtained your Ally through coercion (e.g., blackmail or magical binding). You do not have to treat him as well as you would a normal Ally. However, he hates you and is likely to act accordingly, reducing his overall reliability level. If you endanger such an Ally or order him to do something unpleasant, he may rebel (GM's option) if the consequences of doing so would be less severe than those of doing your bidding. An Ally who rebels is gone, along with the points you spent on him. -50%.
Powers Book
The Summonable enhancement converts Allies from a social trait to a supernatural ability to conjure beasts, monsters, spirits, etc. The GM, with the player's input, decides whether each use summons the same beings or new ones. In the latter case, the GM must make a reaction roll whenever new Allies appear, to determine their willingness to obey orders. If they're killed, the summoner must wait a full day to call replacements. The drawbacks of conjuring entities with no memory of or devotion to the summoner offset the benefits of being able to replace slain Allies; Summonable costs +100% either way.
Summonable often calls for the Minion enhancement as well. If it brings forth new Allies each time, the GM should require this, as the summoner won't know his charges well enough to have any special obligation to them. Other modifiers depend on the ability's origin; Accessibility and Costs Fatigue are common.
The GM determines how long it takes summoned beings to appear. This can vary with the circumstances: fire elementals might appear instantly in a volcano but not at all at sea, animals might need to reach the summoner on foot, and so on. This variability makes most modifiers that affect time requirements inappropriate.
Alternatives
Summoned entities that do little but harass and attack foes – insect swarms, animated shadows, etc. – work better as Afflictions or Innate Attacks with Area Effect, Homing, Mobile, and Persistent. To conjure illusionary creatures, take Illusion.
Powering Up
Summonable Allies suit many powers: elemental powers that conjure elemental spirits, magical powers that bring forth familiars, nature powers that call on animals, divine and spirit powers that summon servitor spirits, and so on. Talent never affects appearance rolls but does add to the summoner's rolls to influence his Allies and his Allies' reactions toward him.