Animal Powers (FiD)

Starfox's Blades in the Dark fan page

Animals are an important part of mystic experience.

The entire domain of living creatures is governed by the animal power. Humans and other social folk are a special case, governed by Mind instead, and plants are not animals, but other than that, all natural creatures are considered animals.

You will often have a particular animal, and your relation to other animals is colored by the totem. Wolf totem is respected and feared by other animals, sheep totem is liked and regarded as harmless, and so on.

Animal attacks create phantom animal features such as teeth, claws, antlers, or horns to attack with. You can do things like grab, tackle, or knock back.

Animal spirits exist with all kinds of weird powers, often reminiscent of tribal society myths. Naturally animal creatures include all natural animals, including those that can be affected by elemental powers by virtue of living in that element. Animals with power abilities related to other powers are tied to that power, not the animal power.

Animal Power Effects Table

Action	Basic No minimum 3 Stress	Advanced Minimum 2 Dice 5 Stress	Master Minimum 4 Dice 7 Stress	Apex Minimum 6 Dice 13 Stress
Attune	Wild Watch Detect Animal powers and animals with powers.	Wild Ward Dismiss animals. End Animal powers.	Wild Wrangling Summon animals and animal spirits.	Wild Window You can create a portal that allows travel to and from the animal spirit realm.
Command	Beast Command Command animals. They understand you but you don't understand them.	Beast Master Crew can communicate with animals. Command animals to act as if trained.	Animal Authority Commands to animals as if you were their alpha.	Enslave Animals Permanently bind creatures to service.
Consort	Animal Mask Gain cosmetic animal traits to mask your identity or create a fabulous look.	Animal Shape Assume animal form or human-animal hybrid form.	Animal Transformation You can use Animal Shape on a willing or helpless creature.	Wild Hunt Transform a number of willing or non-sentient creatures and give them a simple instruction.
Finesse	Beastly Bridle Ride any animal or animal-powered vehicle, as if trained.	Fine Claw A fine and potent close-range attack. Give crew Beastly Bridle.	Control Animal Control an animal like a string puppet.	Storm of Fangs A storm of fangs, suppressing scale.
Hunt	Scent Seeker Track by scent, similar to a well-trained tracking dog.	Beast Bolt Flying fangs, similar in effect to a fine and potent rifle.	Annoy Animal You can irritate animals, causing them to buck and make noise.	Beastly Barrage Attack like fine and potent grenade.
Prowl	Camouflage Assume the camouflage pattern of an animal, hide where that animal could.	Beast Stride Use the movement of animals. Move through herds or packs of animals.	Pack Prowl Bring crew when you use Camouflage and Beast Stride.	Roaming You and allies teleport from one animal den to another.
Skirmish	Ravage Close-range attack, similar in effect to a melee weapon or pistol.	Potent Ravage Ravage, except the attack is fine and potent.	Onslaught Create distractions that prevents scale.	Pack Attack Attack all enemies in an area.
Study	Animal Analyze You can identify animals and objects relating to animals.	Animal Lore Learn the powers and abilities of something you analyze with Animal Analyze.	Pedigree Read past events of an animal or animal product.	Omniscience Animal Lore in a wide area, then Pedigree on chosen targets.
Survey	Sense Animal Sense animals and animal remains at a distance. Gain the senses of a chosen animal.	Beast Perception Tap into the perception of an animal you know is there and perceive as if you were that animal.	Pet Perception Choose a location or creature. You gain Beast Perception at the nearest animal.	Wild Sense You perceive from all animals over a wide area.
Sway	Read Animal Understand animal motives and what they are about to do and to avoid provoking them.	Animal Tunges Your crew can communicate with animals. Influence folk to be lustful and competitive.	Program Animal Post suggestions in the mind of an animal.	Domesticate Permanently change the personality and motivations of animals.
Tinker	Animal Crafts Work animal products as if you had the appropriate tools and protective devices.	Animal Shaping You can shape materials that manifest your power as if they were of clay.	Beastcraft Create objects made from animal parts out of nothing, or transform an object from one material to another.	Wild Fabrication Similar to Beastcraft, but you mass produce objects or make something large, such as a vehicle or building.
Wreck	Mangle Jimmy organic materials that animals could destroy. Noisy and leaves a twisted remains.	Decompose Apply the effect of reducers like bacteria and insects like woodworms. Slow but powerful.	Wildwarp Decompose or Mangle, but destroyed targets silently disappear or are reduced to a fine dust.	Infestation Decompose or Mangle over a large area. This can do massive destruction over time.

Expanded Animal Powers

Connect with the natural world and harness the power of animals for various purposes.

Attune

Harness the power of Attune to perceive and manipulate supernatural energies, allowing you to detect and interact with beings and phenomena from other planes of existence.

The consequences usually depends on what happens around you when you do it. Having helpers and bodyguards reduces the consequences, and sometimes a creature wants to be dismissed and the consequence might be that it loses control of itself, or that other creatures appear to intervene.

Wild Watch Detect Animal powers and animals with powers.

This is usually done to spot a disguised summoned creature. However, it can also help identify a creature's connection to powers, providing valuable insights into their nature. Limited effect suffices against a creature you can clearly see. You need greater effect against against a creature that is hidden (standard effect) or behind a wall (great effect).

Wild Ward Dismiss animals. End Animal powers.

Dismissing a creature is hard and usually requires great effect. A creature that has been wounded or otherwise weakened only needs standard effect. A creature that wants to be dismissed requires only limited effect.

Dispelling is usually easier. You can dispel Animal effects and powers that affect animals.

Dispelling is often used as a setup action to help another character in a situation when the opposition is using powers. This improves the position of the supported action. It can be used as a defense against others' use of power, or it can be used to break the continuing effects of powers.

When used directly, the effect is usually limited unless the opponent is relying on powers for their safety. Against an opponent that uses Animal wings to fly or turned into a fish to breathe underwater you can have a better effect.

When dramatically appropriate that a power is hard to dispel, often because it is the crux of the situation, this will not negate the power but instead give you a clue to what you need to do to resolve the situation.

Wild Wrangling Summon animals and animal spirits.

Summoning can bring you allies to fight or labor for you, giving you scale. Summons can use simple effects of their power and maintain power effects you have created.

You must know what you are to summon. In general, you can summon generic creatures one tier lower than yourself without having to do a flashback. Such a creature is similar to a gang member in ability and are often summoned in groups to add scale.

To summon a particular creature, similar to a cohort, you need its unique identity, often called true name in the mystical power traditions. For a technomancer this would be a type id number, a blueprint, or a block of data. Learning about the right creature to summon is a task in its own right, often requiring a flashback or downtime activity to use Command, Consort, Study, or Sway to gain information.

It might be worth the extra effort to summon a creature of higher tier, but this is also much more demanding, using the usual rules for tiers.

You can summon include mundane animals, but may if they exist in the setting you can also summon animals with powers. These include beasts like unicorns and dragons, which can have a wide range of powers. Animals with powers resemble normal creatures, having a biological body, metabolism, and functioning as ordinary living creatures but also some exceptional abilities related to their power. A fire dragon is impossibly large, flies, and breathes fire. An air turtle hovers and can grow to massive size, to the point where a city can be built on top of them. And so on. This makes animal summons very versatile, the limit is that animals are not intelligent or capable of speech. In order to summon an intelligent animal you need to also know the Mind power.

Not all animals with powers are summonable or dismissible, many are native to this world and have no special vulnerability to Attune power effects.

Depending on your degree of effect the creature is willing to do different things. Limited effect allows you to demand a service that aligns with the animal's nature. A beaver will cut down trees, a horse will carry riders or pull loads, a predator will hunt. Standard effect allows you to ask for any service not alien to the animal. Great effect allows actions any action that does not require intelligence.

Typical consequences are: The creature strikes out at you once. A tightwire struggle to keep the creature under control The creature breaks things around you, demands concessions from you. The creature deliberately does its tasks poorly. It challenges you and will obey if put in its place.

Offering a creature appropriate food can make the position controlled, with consequences like half-heated efforts, demanding not to be summoned again until some time or event has passed, or just general sulkiness.

Wild Window You can create a portal that allows travel to and from the animal spirit realm.

This is situational, but can be vital in exceptional circumstances. There are things that are possible to do on these planes that are not allowed in the regular world, most effects are reduced one step in difficulty, from advanced to basic, master to advanced, and apex to master. This opens the possibility of new super-apex powers that have to be negotiated with the game master. Such effects rarely reach outside the plane where you perform them, but if they affect creatures on that plane, the effect may remain when you return to the mundane world.

Gating can allow access to creatures too powerful to summon, so you instead ask for an audience. The creature may then use the gate to come to you, call you into its presence, or just communicate with you. Unlike animals you summon, these are often intelligent.

Using a gate is often played out as a score, which means there is an engagement roll. Depending on how quickly the matter is resolved, the game master may require a separate use of the power to return home again. However if you do this in a scene that is dangerous, such as asking for help against an enemy too powerful for you to defeat, the position is usually much worse. Once you have established a connection to a certain place or audience with a certain creature, you can usually do so again from a controlled position.

Command

Command and intimidate animals, projecting authority. Position and effect depend on the situation and your relationship with the listeners.

Beast Command Command animals. They understand you but you don't understand them.

This is useful for intimidating creatures under your power and commanding foreign or alien subordinates. Combined with the basic power of Sway, it allows two-way communication.

Beast Master Crew can communicate with animals. Command animals to act as if trained.

You can communicate with animals any distance as long as you know the target, and a line-of-sight even if you do not. You can communicate with the most powerful creature related to your power in a vehicle or installation as long as you can see the exterior. The communication is simple and direct, suitable for the Command skill.

Animal Authority Commands to animals as if you were their alpha.

Animals will see you as an alpha or as if you just successfully faced them down. Limited effect makes the creature do what it usually does, but in a way you decide, like a predator attacking or a pack animal fleeing. Standard effect means targets will ignore their normal routine and go out of their way to please you, like acting as a guide and escort. Great effect makes the animal do anything it is physically capable of doing.

The position depends on the creatures' actual relationship to you—ordering a creature that sees itself as your superior is a desperate position. A controlled position comes from a creature that agrees you are superior, usually just making retrying harder. A risky position is typical against a creature that sees itself as your equal and not your enemy, possibly leading to heat, misunderstood orders, or small rebellions.

Enslave Animals Permanently bind creatures to service.

Animal Authority, but permanent. These orders have to be direct and specific. You can tell an animal to escort and guard you, but if you then want it to do something different, you have to Command it again.

Consort

Consort powers changes your form and later that of other creatures. These powers might also be used as a set-up action for a later Consort roll. This will often give a bonus to effect or improved position or even allow an action that a human could not do.

A common consequences is that you are mistaken for someone, or that your assumed form is somehow a hindrance. You might be obnoxiously attractive, trigger prejudices, or have unexpected handicaps.

Animal Mask Gain cosmetic animal traits to mask your identity or create a fabulous look.

You do not physically change yourself, you change your accessorize and outfit. The effect is usually limited and the position controlled.

Animal Shape Assume animal form or human-animal hybrid form.

This is a true physical transmutation. You need not assume the form of an existing creature, as long as the gamemaster agrees your new form matches the power you use.

Shapechange can work as a set-up action for a number of other actions but may penalize other things, as appropriate to your new form. When appropriate, your new form can use Basic and Advanced Animal powers inherently without risking stress.

With limited effect you can transform into yourself like you would have been, had you grown up as the creature whose form you assume. Those familiar with you will recognize you. Standard effect can make you a generic creature, very hard to recognize as yourself. Great effect allows you to assume the shape and some of the personality of a specific creature you have studied.

Animal Transformation You can use Animal Shape on a willing or helpless creature.

This is Shapechange applied to another creature. The duration depends of the effect, limited effect is very temporary. Standard effect lasts for the duration of a score. Great effect lasts a long time and potentially become permanent, depending on the the story. If you also want to make the target unrecognizable, that requires additional effect, see Shapechange.

This is sometimes used as a kind of poetic justice, transforming the target as a punishment, a curse that is very hard to break.

Wild Hunt Transform a number of willing or non-sentient creatures and give them a simple instruction.

This is where Consort becomes a combination of the Shapechange and Summon power effects. You transform a number of existing creatures and give them a task that they will perform with gusto, turning them into single-minded minions. Targets must be willing, non-sentient like animals, or just very minor figures in the plot, many tiers below you.

This is usually used to create a host of goons that will fight and chase for you. Such goons are more interested in chasing and cornering targets than in actual combat. Or they can be given bit parts, like a reverse of the scene with the fairy godmother from Disney's Cinderella turning footmen into animals.

Finesse

Exercise finesse with your power, manipulating and attacking with precision

Beastly Bridle Ride any animal or animal-powered vehicle, as if trained.

This allows you to use Finesse with mounts and animal-drawn vehicles you are not familiar with. You can ride beasts even if they are not trained to carry a rider. They must still be physically able to carry you.

Fine Claw A fine and potent close-range attack. Give crew Beastly Bridle.

Claw, bite, smash, and crush like an animal. Besides variety, this only substitutes for equipment, fine and potent finesse weapon is just as effective. In a fight, using this does not take any more time, activating your attack power is equivalent to drawing a weapon.

Control Animal Control an animal like a string puppet.

Make an animal do a small and precise movement. This is often an animal that is not involved in the scene, like a pet, mount, or vermin that happens to be in the area. The control is very precise, but only momentary. The animal's intelligence and agility is not a factor, but it needs a suitable body part for you to control. This can cause an animal to fumble its attack, but more likely this is to activate, open, or close something like a door or button.

This allows you to open doors, trigger or hinder mechanisms, or perform other minor manipulations, as long as the target is appropriate to your power.

Storm of Fangs A storm of fangs, suppressing scale.

As Fine Claw above, and you also create distractions. The effect is like having a number of trusty but entirely defensive allies in the fight. This negates any scale advantage an enemy gets for having allies of their own.

Hunt

Track, attack, and unleash devastating barrages with the power of Hunt. At short range, this can be dangerous to you and yours.

Scent Seeker Track by scent, similar to a well-trained tracking dog.

Consequences here are mainly to lose the trail, but depending on the environment and targets, it might lead you to get lost, into traps, or even into an ambush.

Beast Bolt Flying fangs, similar in effect to a fine and potent rifle.

A claw, bite, bash, or other animal attack, but at long range. How this looks is a matter of taste and setting; ephemeral claws or teeth, or even very temporary animals you summon to attack. This serves as a replacement for traditional equipment; a fine and potent ranged weapon would be equally effective in combat.

Annoy Animal You can irritate animals, causing them to buck and make noise.

Imprecise control of many animals over an entire scene. This can make mounts unruly, make herd animals stampede, livestock become unruly and make noise, dogs and other guard animals to bark or stay silent. This is not a direct attack, it gives control of animals who in turn affect the environment.

Beastly Barrage Attack like a fine and potent grenade.

An escalation of Beast Bolt. Less precise, this affects all creatures at a location, with a risk of collateral damage. Targets in trenches, behind walls, or otherwise shielded are not in direct damage, but tend to keep their heads down, which gives your side the initiative.

Prowl

Sneak and move with stealth and agility.

Camouflage Assume the camouflage pattern of an animal, hide where that animal could.

This allows you to hide in impossible places as long as you know of animals that can do so. This is never perfect but especially good in natural settings. It otherwise works just like any other attempt to use Prowl to avoid notice.

Beast Stride Use the movement of animals. Move through herds or packs of animals.

This allows you to run, climb, jump, and swim like an animal. This is better than a normal human, but not on par with animals hyper-specialized in this kind of movement. To gain the full movement capabilities of an animal, see Animal Shape.

Pack Prowl Bring crew when you use Camouflage and Beast Stride.

You can now share Camouflage and Beast Stride with your crew, but they still use their own Prowl action.

Roaming You and crew teleport from one animal den to another.

This is regional travel from one animal den you know to another. Both must be large enough to house all of you. This is regional travel within a city or county.

Skirmish

Prosper in the chaos of battle.

Ravage Close-range attack, similar in effect to a melee weapon or pistol.

Bite, claw, smash, or make another animal attack. This substitutes for equipment, mundane weapons are just as effective.

Potent Ravage Ravage, except the attack is fine and potent.

Channel power into your attack to smack that exceptional threat.

Onslaught Create distractions that prevent scale.

You create or call animals to participate in the fight. They don't actually attack, but they prevent the enemy from benefitting from scale. You yourself gain the benefits of Potent Ravage.

Pack Attack Attack all enemies in an area.

Like Onslaught, but the animals actually attack, letting you hurt all your enemies in the skirmish.

Study

Study and analyze objects and creatures imbued with your power to gain insight and knowledge. The effect required depends on range, limited effect for touch, standard effect for line-of-sight, and great effect to reach a target you know of or have some link to, but which is out of line-of-sight.

Position depends on the situation. Safely in your base the position is controlled. In the middle of a fight or when pinned down the position is desperate. Sometimes thing you are researching it dangerous in itself, worsening position, consequences may give you knowledge that lacks crucial details.

Animal Analyze You can identify animals and objects relating to animals.

This gives the name and very basic information in narrative terms, but not details or actual rules. You can tell which animal left certain spoor, that this is the shed skin of a certain type of snake, that a bird spider made this well, and the like.

Animal Lore Learn the powers and abilities of something you analyze with Animal Analyze.

You learn of any powers or special abilities the creature has. This includes actual rules and game effects. Examples include that the mature form of this worm is quite dangerous, that this animal weaves dangerous webs, what is needed to counteract this venom, and so on.

Pedigree Read past events of an animal or animal product.

This includes previous owners of an item and how the object or animal has moved around as well as significant scenes from its history. It also gives breeding information and shows the relationship between animals. The power zooms in on events of interest to you.

Omniscience Animal Lore in a wide area, then Pedigree on chosen targets.

Provides a detailed view of events involving animals as far as you can see, pinpointing locations of interest like territory, dens, and stables. You can then use Pedigree to learn the history of up to three such locations.

Survey

Perceive and locate animals and animal powers. The effect you need depends on the target's concealment. Limited effect finds targets in concealment. Standard effect finds those hiding behind cover and in far places you can only barely see. Great effect can look behind walls and into hard cover.

Sense Animal Sense animals and animal remains at a distance. Gain the senses of a chosen animal.

This is a basic spotting power, selectively sensing things related to your power. You can also choose an animal and gain its sensory abilities. A dog's perception focuses on scent, a cat's on hearing and the ability see motion even in the dark, and so on.

Beast Perception Tap into the perception of an animal you know is there and perceive as if you were that animal.

Tap into the perception of an animal you know is there and perceive as if you were that animal, see Sense Animal for notes on animal senses.

Pet Perception Choose a location or creature. You gain Beast Perception at the nearest animal.

Similar to Beast Perception but allows you to focus on a specific creature or position—these need not be animal-related. Automatically targets the best vantage point provided by a suitable animal. Fails if no suitable animal is available.

Wild Sense You perceive from all animals over a wide area.

Enhances your senses impossibly, as if you were all of the animals spread across the scene. Creates a comprehensive mental image of the area, revealing numerous details simultaneously.

Sway

Communicate, mesmerize, and manipulate animals. Position and effect are determined normally, depending on the situation and your relation to listeners.

Limited effect can convince a target with no particular stake in the matter. Standard effect will convince a reluctant target, but not a passionate one. Great effect can convince any animal physically capable of what you want them to do.

Read Animal Understand animal motives and what they are about to do and to avoid provoking them.

Gauge the mood and motivations of animals and read the signs they give. This does not allow you to be understood. Used together with the basic Command power, this allows full communication.

Animal Tongues Your crew can communicate with animals. Influence folk to be lustful and competitive.

This allows you to use the Sway action with full effect, communing with animals better than they can communicate with each other. Unless you also use the advanced Command effect, you are persuading, not speaking with authority. In addition you can influence folk to be more animalistic, lustful, and competitive.

Program Animal Post suggestions in the mind of an animal.

Post suggestions in the mind of an animal, which will be triggered under conditions you specify. Common suggestions are to steal something, attack someone, or ignore some event. This is a subtle power, but easier to spot once triggered.

This is essentially an enhanced Animal Tongues, allowing you to implant suggestions that will trigger under conditions you set. The power remains subtle until the suggestion is activated.

Suggestions cannot be absurd to the target. A typical use would be to sway a guard animal to stay in its den or to attack someone. Suggestions fade over time depending on the level of effect achieved: limited effect lasts for the immediate situation, normal effect lasts for the duration of the score, and great effect can extend beyond the score if it fits the story.

Domesticate Permanently change the personality and motivations of animals.

This power is permanent but blatant. It changes the animal on a deep level, altering their priorities and loyalties. Target remember their past but considers it unimportant compared to their new motivations. Exceptional creatures and circumstances can break this change.

Tinker

Manipulate, shape, and create objects made from animals, including skin, bone, leather, feathers, and fur. The effectiveness and durability of your constructions depend on the effect. More powerful devices are harder to sustain and will not last as long. Most creations will endure until the end of a score. Long-lasting and permanent effects require downtime projects.

Position depends on the tranquility of your workspace and if you are working on something dangerous in itself.

For long-term projects, Tinker powers can substitute for missing tools, but that is all they do until you can use Wild Fabrication.

Animal Crafts Work animal products as if you had the appropriate tools and protective devices.

Work animal products like leather, bone, teeth, sinew, and horn as if you had the appropriate tools and protective devices. Items you work with can have small parts made of other materials, such as metal eyelets or synthetic thread.

Animal Shaping You can shape materials that manifest your power as if they were of clay.

Beastcraft Create objects made from animal parts out of nothing, or transform an object from one material to another.

You can create objects made from animal parts out of nothing, or transform an object from one material to another as long as you know the power required for both the starting and final form. This can create complex tools, such as fine and potent items.

Wild Fabrication Similar to Beastcraft, but you mass produce objects or make something large, such as a vehicle or building.

You can mass produce objects or create large structures like ships or buildings that normally require a work force and facilities. In long-term projects involving construction or crafting, Wild Fabrication makes many dozens of items with the same effort as one item, but with a stress cost.

Wreck

Mangle Jimmy organic materials that animals could destroy. Noisy and leaves a twisted remains.

Decompose Apply the effect of reducers like bacteria and insects like woodworms. Slow but powerful.

Wildwarp Decompose or Mangle, but destroyed targets silently disappear or are reduced to a fine dust.

Infestation Decompose or Mangle over a large area. This can do massive destruction over time.