There were various references in the powers to taking control of other creatures. Let’s talk about how that works.
For an action, you may roll the ability mentioned in the power. For instance, in the Primal power Speech of the Beasts, it says that you may attempt to control Beasts within five inches of you. You would make a Primal roll, and for every success, the target would roll a d10, with the target number being their morale score. Each success they have reduces your success pool by 1. Reduce the willpower of the creature by 1 for each success the user of the power has left.
If the creature reaches 0 willpower, it can take no other action on its turn than attacking a random creature within range. It has no allies at this point; it’ll attack anyone.
The power can then be used in the same way to restore willpower. Once any willpower is restored to the creature, it is then under the control of the person who restored its willpower. It’s important to denote who that is, in case multiple people are fighting for control of the same beast. The user of the power can imbue the creature with new willpower in this manner up to the level of the power they are using. (i.e., a character with Speech of the Beasts at level 2 can give a beast up to 2 willpower.)
The more willpower that can be restored in this way, the more the beast is under the control of the power’s wielder. The beast cannot be restored to more willpower than it started with.
The beasts will always be wild, however. If ever they reach 0 willpower for any reason, they are no longer under the control of their master. In addition, the creature must make a morale test whenever they come across the situations noted in the following table. The difficulty of each test is listed. The beast loses willpower by the amount of which they fail the test. If successful, they lose no willpower—they are well-trained.
Situation | Difficulty |
The creature is commanded to go into battle | 1 |
The creature takes damage | 1 per damage taken |
The creature is commanded to do something dangerous (go near fire, get close to a cliff’s edge, sniff a sleeping T. Rex) | 1-5, GM’s discretion |
Is commanded to do something against its instincts (Don’t eat that raw meat, stop chasing that stegosaurus) | 2 |
I’m sure I’ll find more of these situations through playtesting.
Commanding Multiple Creatures
The amount of willpower you can invest in all creatures you control is equal to the level of the power you are using. A character with Speech of the Beasts at level 3 could choose to imbue three beasts with one willpower each, or two beasts with one and two points respectively, or one beast with all three. However, spreading your control this way makes it more difficult to control any one beast.
Sure, a character with Speech of the Tyrant Lizards at level 1 could control a T. Rex by imbuing it with one willpower, but that giant freaking lizard would likely be pretty resentful if that small bit of control slipped.
