Summoning

• Point Cost: 1-5
• Page Reference: B:UE p53
• Power Category: Mastery

• Actions: Using Summon to summon creatures is an Attack-Equivalent Action that requires Concentration. Controlling creatures that you have previously summoned does not require any action. The summoned creatures get their own Panel(s) and Priority - but only ONE can make an Attack Action each panel.
• Duration: One Action Scene. The power lasts until the summoned creatures are all reduced to 0 Hits, the Summoner is knocked out, the Summoner loses contact with the creatures for more than a Page, or until the end of the Scene.
• Range: None. The summoned creatures appear in any adjacent squares.
• Attack/Defence: None required (although ONE summoned creature can make an attack per Panel, as described below).

Rules Commentary

The rules are a little vague about how you and your summoned creatures act, and what happens if you use Summon more than once. These notes are suggestions on handling those cases.

If you want to keep things simple, just Concentrate for a Page and Summon one 60 Hits creature. Then you don't have to worry about the minion rules or the stuff about multiple creatures discussed below.

Designing Types of Summoned Creatures

As per the rules on p53.

Summoning Creatures

When you take an Attack-Equivalent Action to summon creatures you must Concentrate. Your Panel is delayed until the end of the Page. You cannot make an Attack Action or any Non-Attack Actions during the Panel. You can make one Move Action, but you only travel half the usual distance.

At the end of the delayed Panel, the summoned creatures appear in any unoccupied adjacent squares of your choice.

When you Summon, you can only summon a set of creatures of the same type and the same number of Hits each. You can Summon one creature with 60 Hits, two creatures of the same type with 30 Hits each, three creatures of the same type with 20 Hits each, or six creatures of the same type with 10 Hits each.

You can dismiss (unsummon) any or all of your summoned creatures as a Free Action during any of your Panels (including a delayed Panel before you use Summon to summon other creatures).

If you have any creatures currently summoned, if you use Summon again you can only summon more creatures of the same type and Hits, up the maximum number you were originally able to summon. If you want to Summon creatures of a different type and/or Hits, you must first dismiss the existing creatures.¹

To be clear: At no time can you exceed the limit of one creature with 60 Hits, two creatures of the same type with 30 Hits each, three creatures of the same type with 20 Hits each, or six creatures of the same type with 10 Hits each. At no time can you have a mixed set of creatures of different types and/or Hits each.

Your Panels After Summoning Creatures

After you have summoned creatures, you can act normally during your subsequent Panels. You do not need to Concentrate to control your creatures - only when you take an action to Summon more creatures.²

Your Summoned Creatures' Panels

Immediately after summoning creatures, roll for the summoned creatures' Priority; they take their first Panel on the next Page. If you later summon more creatures of the same type, use the same Priority as the existing creatures.

Your summoned creatures act on their Priority, behaving as you desire. (You can assume that you are shouting commands, or that your creatures are smart enough to act in your interests, or that you have a kind of telepathic link with your creatures. Worrying about how you communicate with your creatures, whether they understand or misinterpret your orders, whether you can see what they see or vice versa, is no fun and leads to tedious arguments.)

Only ONE Summoned Creature Gets An Attack Action Per Panel

Summoned creatures act normally during their Panel with one exception - only ONE of ALL your summoned creatures can make an Attack Action or Attack-Equivalent Action per Panel. Each of your creatures can make Move Actions and make Non-Attack Actions independently, but only ONE gets to make an Attack Action or Attack-Equivalent Action per Panel, no matter how many creatures you have summoned.

Creatures with Super Speed get extra Panels per Page, but they still are limited to only ONE making an Attack Action or Attack-Equivalent Action during that Panel.³

The 'One Attack' rule also applies to passive/reactive attacks, such as Damage Aura, which don't count as actions. In such cases, a character can only trigger a given passive/reactive power from ONE of your summoned creatures per page.

• Example: Summoner summons six Chlorine Elementals, which have the Damage Field power (p.44) with the Burst Enhancement (a cloud of poisonous gas). He sends all six creatures to move close to Dr Naughty and a Thug. Normally, Dr Naughty and the Thug would both be subject to six attack rolls as the chlorine gas cloud envelops them. But because the Chlorine Elementals are summoned creatures, Dr Naughty and the Thug each only trigger the Damage Aura once, and only suffer one attack roll.

Only ONE Summoned Creature Gets An Attack-Equivalent Action Per Panel

An Attack-Equivalent action counts as an Attack Action. So, only ONE summoned creature can make an Attack Action or use Restore or any other Attack-Equivalent action during a Panel.

• Example: Summoner summons three Angels, which have the Special Attack and Restore powers. Each Panel the Angels can make ONE Attack Action or ONE Attack-Equivalent Action to use Restore, but not both.

Only ONE Summoned Creature Can Activate a Concentration Power Per Panel

Only ONE of the summoned creatures can use Concentration to activate a power per Panel. That creature is affected by Concentration (its Panel drops to the end of the Page, it can only make a half-move, cannot activate any other powers, and it gets no attack action unless the Concentration power is an attack). The power then activates for that creature only.

• Example: Summoner summons three Imps, which have the Force Field power (which requires Concentration). On their Panel Imp #1 Concentrates, so its Panel is delayed until the end of the Page. Imps #2 and #3 take their Panel on their usual Priority, including making one attack. At the end of the Page, Imp #1 can then make a half-move action, cannot activate any other powers, and then a Force Field appears around Imp #1 only.

This limitation may combine with the 'only one attack action' limit, if the Concentration power is also an Attack Action (like throwing a Force Field on an unwilling target). In this case, the non-concentrating creatures can't make an Attack Action.

• Example: Summoner summons three Imps, which have the Force Field power (which requires Concentration). On their Panel Imp #1 Concentrates, so its Panel is delayed until the end of the Page. Imps #2 and #3 take their Panel on their usual Priority, but do not make an attack action. At the end of the Page, Imp #1 can then make a half-move action, cannot activate any other powers, and then throw a Force Field (as an Attack Action) over an unwilling target.

Minions and Gangs

Creatures with less than 50 Hits are treated as Minions, with fixed Attack, Defense and Soak. You may opt to use the Gang rules to simplify running groups of Minions.

When Summoned Creatures Disappear

Summoned creatures instantly disappear if their summoner is knocked out (at 0 Hits).

Summoned creatures disappear at the end of the Action Scene in which they were summoned. (You can't have a group of creatures permanently summoned… you have to call them when you need them.)

Summoned creatures require your presence to maintain your control over them. If you send them far away (out of sight and communication) after a Page they will disappear or flee. (Essentially, you have to be in the same scene and face the same risks as your creatures… summoning creatures and sending them to the other side of the city to attack your enemy while you stay safe at home is no fun.)

Common Enhancements

• Area: You can't add Area to Summon.
• Range: Summon does not have Range, so it costs +1 point to grant it Range, then +1 to +4 additional points for Close/Mind/Long/Extreme range. The range applies to the distance at which you can summon creatures - you are no longer limited to summoning creatures into the squares adjacent to you. Each of the summoned creatures can appear anywhere within range - they don't all have to appear grouped together. (This is very useful for dropping creatures next to your enemies all over the battlefield.) You still need to be able to perceive the locations where the creatures will appear.
• Second Nature: This removes the Concentration requirement when summoning creatures. Your Panel is not delayed to the end of the Page, you can make a full Move action, and you can activate other Non-Attack powers. Summon still counts as an Attack-Equivalent Action, so you can't make an Attack Action this Panel. Your newly summoned creatures appear instantly, and they have Priority immediately after you (so don't roll for their Priority); they will get their first Panel immediately after yours on this Page.

Power Example

Summoner has Summoning-3, with a +1 point enhancement so that he can summon three types of creatures. Each type will have a stat pool of 5 and a power pool of 3. He can summon the following types of creatures:

• Earth Elemental: Agility 1, Brawn 3, Mind 1. Armor 2, Special Attack 1 (+1 to hit with hand-to-hand attacks).
• Water Elemental: Agility 2, Brawn 2, Mind 1. Ghost Form 2, Special Attack 1 (+1 to hit with hand-to-hand attacks).
• Fire Elemental: Agility 2, Brawn 2, Mind 1. Super Speed 3.

When he uses Summoning, he can summon one type of creature with 60 Hits (which does not count as a Minion), two creatures of the same type with 30 Hits each, three creatures of the same type with 20 Hits each, or six creatures of the same type with 10 Hits each. Creatures with less than 50 Hits count as Minions.

Page 1
Summoner rolls for Priority and gets 14.

Priority 14: Summoner decides to Summon some creatures. He Concentrates, so his Panel is delayed until the end of the Page.

End of Page: Summoner's delayed Panel happens at the end of the Page. He decides to Summon six Earth Elementals with 10 Hits each. He finishes Concentrating on Summon, and the Earth Elementals appears next to him. He can now also do a half-move and make non-attack actions.

Summoner rolls for the Priority for the Earth Elementals, and gets 7. They don't get to act until the next Page.

Page 2
Priority 14: Summoner takes his Panel normally (probably a move action, actions to activate non-attack powers, then an attack action). Summoner doesn't have to concentrate to direct his creature's actions.

Priority 7: Each of the six Earth Elementals act normally (usually a move action and actions to activate non-attack powers)… BUT only ONE of the creatures can make an attack action. Summoner has Earth Elemental #1 attack an enemy.

Later on Page 2, two of the Earth Elementals are hit by attacks and drop to 0 Hits, so there are only four Earth Elementals left. One of the remaining Earth Elementals also gets hit and loses most of its Hits.

Page 3
Priority 14: Summoner decides to use Summon again to replace the lost or injured creatures. He Concentrates, and his Panel is delayed until the end of the Page.

Priority 7: Each of the four Earth Elementals act normally (usually a move action and actions to activate non-attack powers)… BUT only ONE of the creatures can make an attack action. Summoner has Earth Elemental #3 attack an enemy.

End of Page: Summoner's delayed Panel happens at the end of the Page. He dismisses the injured Earth Elemental as a Free Action. Her then summons three more Earth Elementals with 10 Hits each, bringing him back up to the original six. The three new Elementals appear next to him.

The six Earth Elementals continue to act on Priority 7.

Page 4
Priority 14: Summoner concludes that the Earth Elementals aren't proving very effective against his foes, so he decides to Summon Fire Elementals instead. He Concentrates, and his Panel is delayed until the end of the Page.

Priority 7: Each of the four Earth Elementals act normally (usually a move action and actions to activate non-attack powers)… BUT only ONE of the creatures can make an attack action. Summoner has Earth Elemental #3 attack an enemy.

End of Page: Summoner's delayed Panel happens at the end of the Page. He dismisses the six Earth Elementals (as a Free Action). He Summons two Fire Elementals with 30 Hits each. He rolls for Priority for the Fire Elementals and gets 21. The Fire Elementals have Super Speed 3 which will give them an extra Panel at Priority 11 (half of 21, rounded in hero's favor). They don't get to act until the next Page.

Page 5
Priority 21: Each of the two Fire Elementals act normally (usually a move action and actions to activate non-attack powers)… BUT only ONE of the creatures can make an attack action. Summoner has Fire Elemental #1 attack an enemy.

Priority 14: Summoner takes his Panel normally.

Priority 11: Because they have Super Speed, the Fire Elementals get an extra Panel. Each of the two Fire Elementals act normally (usually a move action and actions to activate non-attack powers)… BUT only ONE of the creatures can make an attack action. Summoner has Fire Elemental #2 attack an enemy.

Footnotes

1. http://bashtalk.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=14662#14662

2. http://bashtalk.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=19937#19937

3. http://bashtalk.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=19936#19936