Ally Spirit rules, v 1.0.

Allies: (Adapted from FASA's Grimoire, 2nd Ed.)

Recently, magicians in the Rifts and Nightspawn dimensions have discovered how to summon familar spirits, commonly referred to as ally spirits or allies. These spirits are created to serve as servants or companions. An ally can also provide its master with extra punch, both physically and magically.

Each ally is unique, created according to the needs and desires of each individual magician. Creation of an ally spirit requires five things:

1. Time: Creation of an ally is a time-consuming process.
2. PPE: In addition to the PPE that must be expended to summon the ally, creation of the ally requires a permanent expenditure of 15 PPE.
3. H.P.: The creation of an ally also requires the summoner to permanently give up 5 hit points.
4. Experience: In order to create an ally, the summoner must give up experience points.
5. The Lore: Magic skill. This skill must be used to design the ritual used to summon the ally.

Allies have no set appearance. Their appearance is determined by their creator. However, all allies share some common characteristics.

Native Planes of Allies:
No one is quite sure exactly where allies come from, but it is known that they come from the astral plane.

Powers of Allies:
While each ally is unique, they all share several powers.

• Manifestation: Ally spirits are naturally invisible bodiless spirits that reside in the presence of their master. If their master orders them to, or sometimes on their own, they can manifest physically, drawing in available ectoplasm to form a physical body. This gives them power to physically affect the physical plane. All allies have one "true" manifestation form, and may have others.
• Immunity to normal weapons: Normal, non-magical missile weapons do NO damage to an Ally spirit, either in its ethereal or manifested forms. This includes mega-damage weaponry. Both bows and arrows and Mega-damage rail guns do no damage. Non-magical hand to hand weapons, like clubs or vibro-swords, do damage based on the willpower of the attacker. Use the supernatural strength damage table, except use M.E. to find the damage. The normal damage of the weapon does not add to this damage. Magical weapons do full damage, as does psionics.
• Telepathic Link: As long as the ally spirit and its master have a line of sight, they can communicate telepathically. The master does not have to be psionic.
• Sorcery: All ally spirits are natural sorcerers, with an experience level equal to their creator. They share the same bonuses and saves against magic that their creator did at the time of their creation. However, they do not know any spells when they are created. In order to gain spells, the spellcaster must learn the spell specifically for the ally. If the spell is learned for the ally, the spellcaster does not learn the spell.
• See the invisible: Like the psionic power, but is perpetually on.
• Supernatural Strength: When manifested, the ally has supernatural strength.
• Three-dimensional movement: This power permits an ally to move freely in three dimensions, "walking on air" at their normal movement rate. They can also walk through solid, non-living objects. This power works in both manifested and ethereal forms.

Optional Power:

Sense Link: Some ally spirits have the power of sense link. If it does, the master is able to perceive with the spirit's senses, no matter how far apart the two might be. (The two must be in the same dimension, though.) The magicians own senses are blocked when using the sense link. If the ally is in astral space (not the astral plane) then the magician assenses what the spirit sees without being astrally active. Astral attacks cannot reach the magician through the sense link power.

Services of Allies
As a rule, allies are always astrally present in the company of their master. Of course, an ally cannot be in two places at once, so if the magician sends it off to do a job, it cannot be with him at the same time. Ordering the spirit to perform a service takes an attack, although the magician can tell the ally to be ready to perform a specific service for him without using an attack. As a spirit becomes more independant, it may perform some needed services without being told. A spirit that resents its treatment is unlikely to do this.

• Astral Watch: Performing this service, an ally will watch astral space for its master, contacting him telepathically if anything significant occurs on the astral plane. The master can also order the spirit to guard a specific site and to attack astral intruders.
• Aid Power: Performing the service of aid power, the ally acts as a power focus, adding its force rating to its master spell strength.
• Restore Power: The ally spirit may transfer P.P.E. to its master, but it must retain at least 10 P.P.E. for its own use.
• Resist Magic: Performing the service of resist magic, the ally can help the magician resist the effects of a spell, giving the magician a bonus equal to the spirit's force to save vs. magic.
• By permanently sacrificing 10 PPE, the ally can give its master a re-roll on a failed save vs. magic roll. If the spirit is reduced to 0 PPE or below, the spirit fades away and is destroyed. Note: If a magician uses this option often, and the ally later becomes free, the magician had best watch out. This service is particularly agonizing to the spirit, and it may decide to take revenge for the pain suffered.
• Other Service: The magician may also send the ally off to perform physical services (i.e opening doors, fighting opponents), engage in astral combat, conduct astral reconnaisance, and so on.

Alignment:
Ally spirits begin with an alignment of Abberant. This reflects the fact that at first they unquestioningly obey the orders given to them by their master. As the ally spirit gains experiences, its alignment might change. If the spirit is treated well, its alignment might shift towards the "good" alignment, which would be reflected in the ally spirit taking more initiative to help its master. If the ally spirit is treated poorly, the spirit will become more evil, and will try to escape its master's control whenever possible.

Designing the Ally:

Before the character can conjure the ally, the player must choose the ally's attributes, skills, and power levels.

When calculating the costs for summoning the ally, the cost is listed in XP that the magician must sacrifice. If the player wishes, for every 400 XP that the magician must sacrifice, he may instead permanently sacrifice 1 P.P.E. point.

Appearance
The magician may choose one manifest form for the ally free of charge. The allies true form and any of its additional forms can be anything at all.

The spirit can manifest physically in any of its forms, but its form will not affect its attributes. The attributes retain the ratings assigned by the ally's creator. An ally with a PS of 20 keeps that rating whether it appears as a gurgling infants or a two-meeter-tall white rabbit.

Costs:

• True Form: 0 (free)
• Each Additional Form: 400 XP

Attributes:
The ally starts out with 15 P.P.E. The magician gives up 15 P.P.E. to give this to the ally.

To raise the Allies P.P.E., the cost is 100 XP for each point of P.P.E. added to the Ally's P.P.E. pool.

The Ally's Physical Attributes all begin at 15. For every 15 P.P.E. added to the base, 1 is added to every physical attribute. The magican can also increase a specific attribute. Each +1 increase costs the ally's current attribute rating x 10 in XP. So, raising PS from 20 to 25 would cost 1100 XP [(20+21+22+23+24)x10].

Mental attributes are equal to the magicians own at the time of the ally's creation. Mental attributes can never be changed.

Costs:

• P.P.E.: First 15 points paid for by the 15 PPE permanently sacrificed by creator.
  Per 1 P.P.E. point: 100 XP
• Physical Attributes: Inital attributes all 15.
  +1 to every physical attribute for every 15 P.P.E. points added. per +1 to an attribute: Current rating x 10 XP
• Mental Attributes: Equal to creators, no cost
  Cannot be changed.

Skills:
As noted, an ally can cast spells at a level equal to its creator at the time of conjuring. Other non-magical skills may be purchased at that time at a cost of (skill percentage x 50 XP). The Ally's master may later increase thte spirit's skills up to the Master's maximum by paying XP equal to (desired percentage - current percentage) x 50. The ally may never have skill percentages higher than its master.

Costs:

Skills: Initial skills equal to creator's: Skill percentage x 50
Increasing ally's skill percentages up to creator's: (desired percentage - current percentage) x 50

Powers:
It costs nothing to give the powers of manifestation, immunity to normal weapons, telepathic link, sorcery, see the invisible, supernatural strength, and three-dimensional movement. Designing an ally with the sense link power costs 2000 XP.

Cost:

Powers: Sense Link - 2000 XP
Other powers - 0

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* Reese, the Ley Line Walker, decides to create an ally spirit  *

* to help him walk the way of magic.  The player who runs Reese *

* sits down to design the spirits abilities.                	*

* 	He decides that the Ally's true form will be that of a	*

* gray wolf.  He also gives the ally the additional form of a	*

* man dressed in a black suit.					*

* 	He decides that he wants the Ally to have a P.P.E. base *

* of 100.  This gives his physical skills a base of 20.  He 	*

* decides that he wants his Ally to be physically stronger, and *

* he wants the ally to have a PS of 30.  			*

* 	He decides that he wants his Ally to have a tracking    *

* skill, a computer operations skill, and a cooking skill.  He  *

* has tracking at 60%, computer operations at 65%, and cooking  *

* at 55%.  He decides to give his Ally his full skill abilities *

* in those skills.  						*

*	He also decides that he wants his ally to have the 	*

* Sense Link power.  						*

* Total Cost: 							*

*	Additional Form: 	400 XP				*

*	P.P.E.:			8500 XP (first 15 are paid for  *

*				       by permanent sacrifice)	*

*	Attributes:		1100 XP				*

*	Skills:			9000 XP				*

*	Sense Link power:	2000 XP				*

*	Total:			21000 XP			*

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Ally Formula:
Before the magician can summon the ally, he must first design the formula for the ritual. To do this, the player must make a skill roll using his Lore: Magic skill modified by the complexity of the Ally. The complexity of the ally is found by dividing the total cost of the ally by 2000, and rounding down all fractions. The complexity is then subtracted from the magicians Lore: Magic skill to get a target number for the roll.

The base time for the creation of the formula is the complexity of the ally multiplied by two, measured in days. For every percentage point of success, the time is reduced by one. If the skill roll fails, than the formula takes double the normal time to complete. If the roll is a a 96-00, than the player is completely stumped, and must change the basic design of the ally before trying again.

*****************************************************************

*	Reese will summon an Ally costing 21000 XP.  The 	*

* complexity of this spirit is 21000 / 2000, or 10.5, which 	*

* rounds down to 10.  Reese has a Lore: Magic skill of 50%.   	*

* Applying the complexity as a modifier, his target is a 40%.	*

* He rolls a 34%.  						*

* 	The base time for the design is the 2 times the 	*

* complexity, measured in days: 2 x 10 = 20 days.  Because he   *

* beat his target by 6%, it only takes him 14 days (20 - 6) to  *

* design the Ally formula.  					*

* 	After 14 days of work, Reese has completed his formula	*

* for summoning an Ally spirit.  Because Reese is somewhat 	*

* artistic, his formula is in the form of a painting, ornately  *

* done, and framed in the wood from a oak tree.			*

*****************************************************************

Ritual of Summoning:
The ritual of summoning actually summons the ally. The base time is equal to 1/2 of the complexity of the spirit, in days. Each day, the magician must make a Lore: Magic skill roll modified by the complexity, the same as the creation of the Ally formula.

The magician must succesfully make the Lore: Magic skill roll for a number of days equal to the base time. He can fail a roll, but that day is not added to his successes. If he fails a roll by rolling a 96-00, he botches the ritual, and must start over again from the beginning. Once he begins the ritual, he cannot take days off to do other things (like adventuring).

Each day that the ritual goes on does damage to the magician. This damage is mental, not physical, but does damage direct to the magician's hit points. If the magician is reduced to below 0 hit points, he passes out, and the ritual has failed. Each day, the player must save against non-lethal poison (base of 16) in order to avoid taking 1d6 damage direct to hit points.

Once the player has accumulated the required number of successes, the ally spirit appears. At this point, the magician permanently sacrifices 15 PPE to give life to the spirit, and also pays the XP cost.

The spirit gets one chance to resist being bound to its master. The GM makes a savings roll for the newly created ally, rolling a straight twenty-sided die against a target number of 16. The magician can make this roll more difficult by permanently sacrificing 5 PPE for every +1 to the target (i.e. 10 PPE sacrificed means that the Ally must save against a target of 18).

Regardless of the outcome of this last roll, the magician does not get permanently sacrificed PPE back! As a side effect, the ritual also drains the magician of all of his remaining PPE, which returns as normal.

*****************************************************************

* Reese has prepared a ritual area to summon his ally, bringing *

* along all of his ritual materials.  (GM's this is your chance *

* to send the magician off on quests to get the needed ritual	*

* materials).  							*

*	He starts rolling to see how many days it takes to	*

* summon the Ally.  The first roll is a 20%, good enough to 	*

* add a successful day to the tally.  Two days of failures are  *

* followed by four more successes.				*

* 	On each of the days that Reese works on the summoning, 	*

* he makes a savings roll against non-lethal poison.  He failed *

* four of those rolls, and takes 14 points of damage direct to 	*

* hit points.  He's still in positive HP, though, so everything *

* is OK.							*

* 	At the end of seven days, the spirit appears.  Reese	*

* grunts as he feels a part of himself being ripped away, and 	*

* he permanently sacrifices the PPE and XP.  Because he really  *

* wants the spirit, he sacrifices and additional 10 PPE, to	*

* make it harder for the Ally to escape.  The Ally tries to 	*

* avoid being bound, and rolls a 17.  Good thing that Reese	*

* sacrificed the extra PPE.  The spirit is now bound to Reese.	*

*	The gray wolf nuzzles Reese's leg.  Reese greets the 	*

* spirit politely, and asks if it likes the name Gray Shadow.  	*

* it howls in affirmation, and Reese knows that it means yes.   *

* Reese leaves his ritual area, an invisible ally spirit at his *

* side.								*

*****************************************************************

Ritual of Change:
A Ritual of Change is used when a player wishes to increase an Ally's attributes, skills, or PPE. To do this, the magician must have a copy of the original formula, and have sufficient XP for the desired changes. XP costs are the same as for the Ritual of Summoning, and the complexity of the Ritual of Change is based only on the stats being improved.

If the ritual works, the magician must pay the XP for the changes to the ally. Then the ally must attempt to resist the changes being done to it. If the ally succesfully resists, it MAY attempt to go free, although it does not have to. If the ally has been treated well, and its master has set aside XP on a regular basis to improve it, it may decide to stay in the service of its master.

If the spirit decides to go free, both it and its master roll a twenty sided die. The master adds his bonus to save vs. magic to his roll. High roll wins. If the master wins, he retains the spirit, and if the spirit wins, it goes free.

Losing the Ally:
The Ally always has a complexity. As long as the spirit's complexity is less than the magicians, M.A., it can only attempt to go free if the magician is reduced to zero hit points or less.

If the Ally's complexity exceeds the magician's M.A., the spirit will attempt to go free whenever the magician is rendered unconscious.

If the spirit attempts to go free, both it and its master roll a twenty sided die. The master adds his bonus to save vs. magic to his roll. High roll wins. If the master wins, he retains the spirit, and if the spirit wins, it goes free.

Note that the spirit does not have to escape control. If the magician has treated the spirit well, learned spells for it, and otherwise been a good master, it may not want to go off on its own.

By Harrier