Companions

Companions

Before we launch into how companions work, here is a short list of the terms we're using, including what a companion actually is.

• Companion: This is the term used to describe an animal or person a player character (PC) purchases OOCly to bring along in threads and events. Unlike NPCs, they can be used in any aspect of roleplay, including combat, and can be pretty much anything, from a brother or sister to a beloved cat or dog.
• Class: Class is used here more like we would for items, not for characters, and deals with how much a companion (OOCly) costs, along with what natural equipment they start out with, their size, and stats.
• Natural Equipment: Natural equipment refers to the equipment that companions receive for free. Natural in this case refers to equipment that is natural to the form of the companion, not natural in the more literal sense. This term encompasses a broad array of things, from fangs and horns to swords and shields. Natural equipment can be upgraded using credits and more equipment can bought using both credits and AP.
• Partner: This is the term used for the player character (PC) that the companion “belongs” to, although only in an OOC sense. Any purchases of items going toward the companion’s profile are purchased with their partner’s credits and/or AP, as companions cannot earn either of these themselves.

A companion, like all beings, has SP (and if they have a magic stat, TP). The amount of SP a companion has is half the total SP of their partner plus a small constant based on the companion’s class. Additionally, companions have a SP cap based on their class that cannot be exceeded regardless of how much SP the partner has. Just like PCs, a companion’s TP is based on their stat points, and they can purchase TP, however this TP can only be purchased once a month unlike PCs. Just like PCs, companions earn 1 TP for every 10 SP they earn past their base amount of SP, or every 20 SP their partner earns, along with having a starting amount. Also like PCs, their bought TP cannot exceed their earned TP.


Items: Items such as claws or teeth that would be considered ‘paired’ or ‘quaded’ count as a single item. For ammunition, two sets (cartridges, a quiverfull, etc) count as one item. In terms of upgrading existing equipment, subtract the lowest cost of the price bracket (20,000 credits for B class, for example) from the upgrade to account for the fact that items are purchased as a part of a companion.

Pets: Aside from Class E to S companions, there is one final type of companion that needs to be addressed. You may instead of buying a companion with stats buy a ‘pet’, with no stats or abilities. These pets cost 1,000 credits, but cannot have any effect in combat at all. They are also either too timid or weak to be usable for scouting or other significant out of combat uses. Pets can be literal small animals, or they can simply be a hired person (such as a butler or maid) that can do nothing outside of their basic job.

Additional Rules:

• Animals that would normally fly, such as birds, bats, or insects, are able to use one of their natural equipment slots as wings capable of flight, acting as a rank 2 passive flight technique. This cannot be nullified by any sort of anti-magic, and does not apply to E class companions or pets. Any animal that, in the real world, would not be able to fly, has to either purchase wings with this ability (although they can still have wings not capable of flight as base natural equipment) or make their flight a part of their magic.
• Only C class and above companions can be used as mounts if they are biologically able to be ridden, for example a horse or maybe a large wolf.
• Companions, unlike items, are not replaced if they are lost. If your companion dies, they die. Yes, seriously. Note however that companion death follows the same rules as PC death.
• Companions may be upgraded, like any other item, representing either the being literally growing, or, just gaining more strength as they adventure with you.
• If you sell your companion (you horrible monster), they're like any other item and you get 75% of their value back. Companions can be revamped/harvested, but if it crosses the line into a harvest, it takes out the partner's in character memories too and uses the partner’s cool down for it, or in other words it's the partner being harvested and you can make any changes you like to the companion, as you could any aspect of the profile.
• While companions have no strict size limitations, keep in mind a large companion with little Power would not be able to move, and one with little Toughness would die quite easily. A staff member will let you know if this may be a problem with your companion's chosen size.

Companion Template:


Note, this template is the bare minimum and if you would like to structure your companion's profile more like a PC's profile that is allowed.

Magic Limitations of Companions:

Companions cannot have the following magic -

• Anti-magic/nullification magic
• Summoning magic
• Support specialist magic

Temporary Companions:

Perhaps a constant, permanent companion doesn't suit your character, but you still want a being you can pull out to help in a tough fight without being a summoner. Enter temporary companions. Be it a construct called from a scroll, or a spirit bound to a weapon, nearly any concept can be made to work as a temporary companions. Though they don't have to be bound to an item, temporary companions normally are. If they are connected to an item, if the item has no function then the cost of the item is subsumed by the cost of the temporary companion, otherwise the cost of the companion is merely added to an item that already has a function, without the temporary companion counting as an effect. For items that solely act to summon a temporary companion their class is equal to the class of the temporary companion, mostly as a formality as the item still has no function. A temporary companion can't be added to a functional item if the temporary companion is a higher class than the item. Temporary companions work like normal companions, except in the following ways:

• Temporary companions are not constant, they must be summoned forth, at which point they have a limited duration before disappearing. A temporary companion can only be summoned once per thread.
• Temporary companions, while having the same SP cap as companions equal to their class, automatically have SP equal to their cap regardless of the partner's SP, and for S-class they will have 600 SP. The only exception is that a temporary companion can't have more SP than their partner. If they would, for their class, have more SP than their partner, their total SP is downgraded to that level.
• A temporary companion has a duration of 7 posts, if the partner has enough SP to max out a companion of that class normally. If they have at least 90% of the SP needed the duration is 6 posts, at least 80% 5 posts, and so on until anything under 60% is 2 posts of duration.
• A temporary companion costs 60% of a normal companion.
• Temporary companions have a minimum class of C.
• If you die, the temporary companion is immediately unsummoned.