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Summon Modifiers
In addition to the modifiers from the Heros Handbook,
Gamemasters may find the following modifiers for the
Summon effect useful in creating summoning powers.
Responsive: You can command your summoned agent(s)
as a free action rather than a move action, although you
may only issue commands once per agent per turn. +1
point per rank.
Self-Powered: The summoned agent(s) do not appear
near the summoner but must instead travel to the summoner from wherever they are using their own movement
capabilities. 1 point per rank.
...Threes A crowd
As noted in the Heros Handbook, Gamemasters may wish
to have groups of homogeneous agents use team checks
to minimize the number of individual die rolls needed so
they do not clutter up encounters and take time and attention away from the main characters. This works well
with the limitations on issuing orders to agents: its easier
to tell all of your agents to attack a particular target (coordinating as a team check) than it is to issue them each
different orders, unless they are Responsive (see the previous modifier) and you can issue orders as a free action.
For truly large numbers of agents, Gamemasters may find
the mass combat rules from the Gamemasters Guide
useful, treating dozens or even hundreds of characters
as a single entity. Also see the Swarm power for treating
large numbers of agents as singular entities.
Summoning Descriptors
Exactly how the Summon effect brings agents into play,
and the type of agents it brings, are subject to the powers
descriptors.
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Summoning Features
Some potential Feature effects associated with Summoning Powers include the following:
Offensive Powers
Offensive summoning powers generally call or create
beings to fight on the summoners behalf. Some fight
alongside their summoner, while others allow the summoner to stay safely back from the conflict.
Animation
You can imbue objects in your line of sight with animation
and a semblance of life, making them constructs under
your control (see Constructs, Heros Handbook, page 179).
Create the object as a construct with (Summon rank x 15)
total power points. Constructslike other agentsare
subject to the series power level limits. The object gains
movement according to its form: statues can get up and
walk, for example, rugs can crawl, balls roll, cars drive, etc.
Some animators are additionally Limited to a particular
type of objects, such as pictures, statues, machines, stonework, and so forth.
Animation: Perception Range Summon Animated Object,
Limited to Available Objects 3 points per rank.
Constructs
You create mobile constructs out of a particular medium,
typically some type of energy: light, sound, shadows, and
so forth. Constructs act as you direct under your control
(with the standard Summon parameters of a move action
to issue orders and agents taking only a single action per
turn, unless modified).
Constructs: Ranged Summon Construct, Broad Type,
Controlled 5 points per rank.
Duplication
You can create a duplicate of yourself. Your duplicate is
an agent with the same capabilities as you, except for this
power and any hero points. You can spend your own hero
Necromancy
You can imbue corpses, even skeletal remains, with a
semblance of life, turning them into undead creatures
that rise up at your command. Use the zombie archetypes from the Gamemasters Guide (page 144) or apply
the zombie template (page 145) to a different archetype
for things like creating zombie or skeletal dinosaurs or
other creatures.
Although the power as listed has a substantial cost per
rank, only 1 or 2 ranks are needed to cover the undeads
power level and costs; Summon Zombies costs 14 points
while Summon Skeletons costs 28 points.
Necromancy: Summon Undead, Controlled, Horde, Multiple
Minions (32 total) 14 points per rank
Swarm
You summon a swarm of essentially identical agents, such
as insects, vermin, or even small machines. Rather than
racking up the tremendous (and expensive!) ranks of
Multiple Minions needed for, say, a swarm of a thousand
bees, its far easier to treat such swarms as single agents
which act as one and may also be fought (and potentially
defeated) as one entity.
A swarm is Insubstantial (Heros Handbook, page 114) at
the second rank of effect: the individual members of the
swarm can slip through small openings and flow out of
grabs and restraints, and the swarm as a whole is immune
to direct physical attacks like punches and slashes, but
still affected by area or energy attacks. Larger swarms
may have ranks of Growth and the Area modifier on their
Swarm Attack to represent their greater overall size. Applying the Multiple Minions modifier allows you to summon
multiple swarms able to split up and act independently of
each other.
Swarm: Summon Swarm (Active, Controlled) 4 points per rank.
Defensive Powers
Defensive summoning powers typically use summoned
beings as shields, even sacrificing them to protect the
summoner. This is of little concern when the beings are
mindless constructs but morally gray (to say the least)
when they are intelligent, living beings of some sort.
Decoys
You summon up a mass of seemingly identical duplicates, but they are not real and cannot physically interact,
but do provide useful cover, allowing you to lose yourself amongst them. You gain the defensive benefits of
total concealment (a 5 circumstance penalty to attacks
against you, and opponents must guess your location) although none of the other benefits.
Decoys: Concealment 4 (All Visual Senses), Limited to Decoy
Images 4 points.
Sacrifice
You can shift a successful attack on you to one of your
minions instead by spending a hero point. If a Gamemaster character uses this power, award the affected player
a hero point instead. Gamemasters may wish to prohibit
minions from having the Interpose advantage, requiring
this power instead.
Sacrifice: Add Sacrifice modifier to Summon 1 point.
Movement Powers
Summoning powers typically to bring agents instantly
into the summoners presence. They may provide other
types of movement as well.
Castling
You can swap places with one of your duplicates (see
Duplication, previously) instantly. You appear in the duplicates place and it appears in yours, so long as you are
within the Teleport effects range of each other. If you
apply the Subtle modifier, those around you may not even
be able to tell you have switched places!
Castling: Teleport, Accurate (wherever duplicate is), Easy,
Extended, Limited to Switching Places With Duplicate (2),
Medium (Duplicate) 2 points per rank
Duplicate Ladder
You summon a chain of duplicates to cover a distance, then
re-absorb them at the destination point, essentially allowing you to leap across a span like an instant, living bridge.
The number of duplicates is largely irrelevant, a descriptor
of the effect, although this power is most often connected
with Duplication (previously). A version of it might work
with other Summon effects as well. This is also an effective
power stunt for duplicators who occasionally find a need for
it and can expend the extra effort (and/or the hero point).
Duplicate Ladder: Leaping 1 point per rank
Summon Steed
You summon a steed with traits equal to the horse archetype (Gamemasters Guide, page 134) with 6 additional
power points of traitsmost likely effects such as Flight
or Movement. More unusual steeds should be created as
full characters to determine the Summon rank needed for
them.
Summon Steed: Summon Steed 1, Continuous 3 points
Summon Vehicle
You conjure up a vehicle to transport you (and possibly
others). Create it according to the usual vehicle rules (Heros
Handbook, page 169) based on (rank x 15 points). Cost-wise,
this is similar to the Equipment advantage (which costs 1
point per 5 points of the vehicles cost) but sustained rather
than continuous and with different descriptors.
You may pilot the vehicle yourself or have someone else
do so. If the vehicle is capable of driving itself, apply the
Responsive modifier of Summon; it essentially removes
the move action required to pilot. If the vehicle is remotecontrolled and must come to you, rather than simply appearing, apply the Self-Powered modifier.
Power: Summon Vehicle, Controlled 3 points per rank
Utility Powers
The utility uses of summoning are manifold, depending on the abilities, skills, and powers of the beings they
summon.
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Anatomic Split
You can split off different parts of your body without
harm, allowing them to act semi-independently. Their
movement abilities tend to be limited to crawling or shuffling, but a separated eye can still see and a separated ear
can still hear, and so forth.
The power format assumes the ability to make up to
eight splits, with each part as a relatively low-cost agent
(having only a portion of your capabilities) requiring only
1 or perhaps 2 ranks. If your separated parts have more
significant capabilities, increase the Summon rank to
account for the added cost.
Anatomic Split: Summon Body Part, Controlled, Mental Link,
Multiple Minions 3, Side-Effect (Lose use of the separated part)
1 point + 8 points per rank.
Combine
You and one or more other characters can combine to
summon a singular being. The components of the combined being disappear and cannot act while it exists but
the combined form has a full set of actions each turn. The
components also suffer whatever conditions the combined form does (Feedback) and countering or ending the
Summon effect causes the combined form to split back
into its components.
At the Gamemasters option, the components of the combined form can evenly divide the ranks (and cost) of the
power amongst themselves. The combined form must still
obey any series power level limits, although the GM is free
to set different limits for the component characters and
the combined form, as appropriate for the series.
This power best suits when a group of characters summons
an even more powerful combined agent; for instances where
a character has two or more normal components, consider
an Identity complication and Activation modifier instead.
Combine: Summon Combined Form, Active, Heroic, Feedback,
Limited (requires all components be present), Limited
(components vanish while combined form is present) 2
points per rank
Empower
You grant an otherwise ordinary being power to become
your agent. Examples of this power include transforming ordinary animals or insects into giant, super-powered
monsters, or granting normal human thugs temporary
super-human strength and toughness. You might use a
mad-science growth ray or invest subjects with magical
power or divine archetypes. Once the effect lapses, the
subjects revert back to their normal form. If you can
empower multiple subjects at the same time, apply the
Multiple Minions and Horde modifiers, as appropriate.
This ability is primarily intended to work on background
characters, not to further empower other player characters. It is best reserved for concepts such as summoning
powerful agents from ordinary creatures in the environ-
Summoning Complications
Calling upon and commanding other beings can create
complications; so can relying on summoning to handle
certain problems. In addition, summoners also deal with
their agents complications as well as their own: a demon
summoner might have minions unable to enter sacred
ground, for example, while a necromancers agents only
go out at night. This is no more than a plot device for
Gamemaster-controlled characters, but player characters
dealing with their agents complicationsessentially limiting their summoner in various waysshould receive a
hero point award.
Enemy
Calling up other beings to do your dirty work for you does
not necessarily make you any friends. While a lot of summoning powers involve mindless and utterly loyal agents,
some of which arent even real beings at all, it is possible for the power to literally create enemies over time.
Imagine an agent which develops free will and a sense of
resentment towards the summoner, perhaps managing to
escape in order to plot revenge or to find a way to free its
summoned brethren.
This type of enemy can range from a disgruntled demon
to a duplicate with independence convinced it is the real
person, who must kill the summoner in order to ensure it
is the one true individual.
Power Loss
In addition to countering a Summon effect to banish or
remove its agents, summoners may face power loss in different ways.
The most common is for the characters summoning power
to require some particular components or ritual: a magic
word, a grand gesture, a mystic diagram or circuit, or the
like. If the summoner is not able to fulfill this requirement,
the power wont work.
Likewise, there may be circumstances in which the summoning power is ineffective, or where the agents themselves suffer from power loss, reducing their usefulness,
and awarding the summoner for the complication.
Relationship
Summoning powers mean having an entourage of some
sort, even if it is just a summoned sidekick or ally. Summoners may have various connections with their agents,
especially if the agents are beings in their own right, and
this can lead to complications. On the one hand, the summoner is responsible for the agents, and may have to deal
with them getting into trouble or even going off on their
own. A summoner may also have a relationship with a
particular agent beyond just business. Consider a summoner able to invest the power of a legendary hero into
various mortal vessels (via Empower) falling in love with
that hero, but unable to be with him because he just an
incorporeal spirit, except for the rare occasions when he is
borrowing someone elses body.
Another unique type of Relationship is for the summoner to be a supporting character while the agent is
the actual player character! An example is a genie-type
with various powers, who has a mortal master who
summons and commands the genie but otherwise has
no powers and is an ordinary person; in terms of gameplay, the player controls both characters, but the summoner functions more as a relationship complication for
the genie than anything else, similar in some ways to a
normal identity but existing simultaneously (see Identity, Heros Handbook, page 28).
Reputation
Depending on who or what a character summoners, how
they are summoned, and how the agents are treated, its
not difficult for summoners to get a problematic reputation. Nobody is likely to enjoy the idea of having a necromancer who animates the dead around, for example, even
if his intentions are noble and heroic. Modern people are
likely to question summoners about the nature and wellbeing of their agents: are they calling up mindless automatons or enslaving intelligent beings?
Weakness
One of the primary weaknesses of many summoners
is their reliance on their agents. With a great number of
points invested in Summon, they often have less left over
for their own traits. This fits the genre, as superhero summoners tend to rely most heavily on their agents (supervillain masterminds are another case). This design is not
a complication in and of itself, although it often leads to
other complications, particularly the summoner being incapacitated or captured.
Summoners may also have weaknesses based on the
source of their power and their agents: a summoner
connected with hellish netherworlds may be vulnerable
to holy or divine powers while a necromancer could be
weakened or harmed by symbols and powers of life and
light.
Lastly, there are weaknesses associated with the summoned agents rather than the summoner: these can also
constitute complications for the summoner, if a weakness prevents agents from accomplishing a task or banishes them prematurely. So, for example, if a cunningly
placed wrought-iron fence keeps a faerie summoners
agents at bay, award the player a hero point for the complication.
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