How to best handle SUMMON ALLY

[Topdecker]

The power SUMMON ALLY is kinda cool because it scales, becoming more powerful as you go.

This scaling presents a number of problems. First, there are 5 or 6 critters you can summon from the suggested table - and chances are that a player will want a more character-centric group of summonable minions. Anyhow, the list of summonable allies is pretty lengthy.

The next problem is that the number of a summoned creatures varies depending power points spent and the experience of the caster.

So you have a list of say 6 summonables that arrive in differing numbers.

inside FG, the only way we have gotten this to work smoothly is to...

1. Create an NPC for the minion.
2. Drag the right number of allies over to the character sheet's ALLIES section.
3. Use the ADD ALL ALLIES option to put them in the tracker

Is there a better way? I am using the power as a player, but I have some reluctance to use it because it is pretty disruptive to the otherwise smooth flow of combat.

THe system that that I would like to see is that you pre-populate the ALLIES section and then have a checkbox to mark your active ALLIES. This handles warhorses that might not follow you into a dungeon, multiple players with varied situations, and just about anything that you can toss at it. Just day dreaming...

Thanks!

[goodmanje]

Never have even tried using the Allies feature in SW. That's pretty cool. Doesn't seem to work when I click "add all allies" but I may be doing something wrong. I like your idea though I could see a number of situations where that would come in handy.

[Topdecker]

I am pretty sure for it to work, you have to create your own NPC (you can drag and drop a creature from a bestiary into the local NPCs table), and then it has to be dragged and dropped to the player's character sheet into the ALLIES panel.

If you drag from a bestiary, it will not work as it seems to require a local, writable copy. This caused a bit of confusion for us :). Anyhow, once this is done, you add the players to the combat track and then add the allies. This will group the allies under the player character - so they take their action immediately after the player.

[goodmanje]

Cool, I'll try it again. I have an adventure I converted where each player has control of an NPC throughout the game. Having them linked to the character like that will just make things easier.

[Doswelk]

The power SUMMON ALLY is kinda cool because it scales, becoming more powerful as you go.

This scaling presents a number of problems. First, there are 5 or 6 critters you can summon from the suggested table - and chances are that a player will want a more character-centric group of summonable minions. Anyhow, the list of summonable allies is pretty lengthy.

The next problem is that the number of a summoned creatures varies depending power points spent and the experience of the caster.

So you have a list of say 6 summonables that arrive in differing numbers.

inside FG, the only way we have gotten this to work smoothly is to...

1. Create an NPC for the minion.
2. Drag the right number of allies over to the character sheet's ALLIES section.
3. Use the ADD ALL ALLIES option to put them in the tracker

Is there a better way? I am using the power as a player, but I have some reluctance to use it because it is pretty disruptive to the otherwise smooth flow of combat.

THe system that that I would like to see is that you pre-populate the ALLIES section and then have a checkbox to mark your active ALLIES. This handles warhorses that might not follow you into a dungeon, multiple players with varied situations, and just about anything that you can toss at it. Just day dreaming...

Thanks!

Basically in the past I have had the player have one entry of each type of ally on her character sheet and when they summon I dragged the creature to the combat tracker then used Alt-drag to create additional entries.

This was before the add allies button existed, been a while since I have run SW outside of a FG Daze...

[goodmanje]

Hmmm.... still not working for me. I have four characters and four NPCs I created. I added one NPC to each character in the Allies panel then I dragged the characters into the combat tracker. When I click on Menu and select Add All Allies nothing happens. I'd like each Ally to be added to the individual character's group so they act on the same initiative.

[Ikael]

Did you manually add those NPC allies to CT? Or does they otherwise exist in the tracker?

[goodmanje]

I manually added the characters to the tracker but not the NPCs. I thought selecting Add All Allies would add them to the combat tracker.

[Ikael]

I manually added the characters to the tracker but not the NPCs. I thought selecting Add All Allies would add them to the combat tracker.

That's the idea. I was just asking if you had done it manually which would prevent the action. I will have to check if there is bug regarding the feature

[goodmanje]

That's the idea. I was just asking if you had done it manually which would prevent the action. I will have to check if there is bug regarding the feature

Awesome, thank you!

[Ikael]

That's the idea. I was just asking if you had done it manually which would prevent the action. I will have to check if there is bug regarding the feature

Checked the CT's "Add all Allies" feature and it works as currently expected. The trick is that it will only work when clients have connected to your session. The feature will check all clients who have connected to your session, get their activated characters and include their allies from the sheet.

This logic is probably going to change to be more userfriendly in the near future. I will add it to my todo list.

[goodmanje]

Ok, that's what I was doing wrong, I didn't actually have a client connected. Thanks for following up, I can make good use of this feature!

I hope I didn't hijack this thread and draw focus away from the original post. The suggestions that were made sound like useful additions.

[Topdecker]

Nah, you did great, goodmanje. I hadn't considered placing temporary NPCs adds into the allied section on the PC sheets before this and that will be helpful.