Animal Powers (FiD)

Animals are an important part of mystic experience.

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

You will often have a special relationship to a particular kind of 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 use them to do stunts like grab, tackle, or knock back.

Animal spirits exist with all kinds of weird powers, often reminiscent of tribal myths. Animal creatures include all natural animals, including those that can be affected by elemental powers by virtue of living in that element. So a bird is affected by both Animal and Air powers. Animals with powers are tied to that power, not the animal power.

Animal Power Effects Table

Action	Basic No minimum 4 Stress	Advanced Minimum 2 Dice 5 Stress	Master Minimum 4 Dice 6 Stress	Apex Minimum 6 Dice 7 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 Message Communicate long-distance with or using animals.	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.	'Wild Ride Ride ignoring terrain.
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.	Herd Mind Influence many animals at once.	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	Animal Block Resist Animal damage.	Ravage Fine and potent animal attack.	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 an animal.
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 spirit or a disguised 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. You can force an animal spirit to materialize.

Dispelling can be used as a defense against others' use of powers, or it can be used to break the continuing effects of powers. 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.

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.

Forcing an Animal spirit to materialize is easy, but limited in range; if the creature can get away from you it can disappear again. Limited effect only works on spirits within reach. Standard effect can reach out up to a hundred meters. Great effect reaches out kilometers.

Wild Wrangling Summon animals and animal spirits.

Summoning brings 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 mundane animals from other planes, including extra large and legendary animals, but not animals with powers other than Animal. The limit is that animals are not Sapient or capable of speech. In order to summon an intelligent animal you need to also know the Mind power. Most animals 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.
The creature breaks things around you or demands concessions from you.
The creature deliberately does its tasks poorly.
The creature challenges you and will obey if put in its place.
A tightwire struggle to keep the creature under control.

Offering a creature appropriate food can make the position controlled, with consequences like half-hearted 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, 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. These animal lords are 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.

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 Sway: Read Animal, it allows two-way communication.

Beast Message Communicate long-distance with or using animals.

You can communicate with Animal creatures over 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, as is typical of the Command skill.

You can have animals carry messages for you to a specific place, or with great effect to specific people. The animal has to travel there by its own means.

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. 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. Ordering a creature that sees itself as your superior is a desperate position. Consequences often indicates rebellion, possibly leading to heat, misunderstood orders, or even violent attack.

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 something, 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 suffer unexpected handicaps.

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

You do minor physical changes to yourself, such as adding animal nose, ears, or tail. You can also more subtly make yourself reminiscent of an animal, such as making yourself ratlike or catlike while keeping your general form. 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 is an animal, including legendary animals.

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. Finally, you can run as an animal, which gives you a very fast sprint over short distances.

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

Claw, bite, smash, or 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. 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.

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 act through. 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.

Wild Ride Ride ignoring terrain.

You and vehicles and mounts you and your crew ride adapt to terrain, moving as if they were native to the terrain you are moving across. This does not apply to situations where you need to use Prowl, but lessens the Finesse penalty in situations where you might use either skill, but Prowl would be better.

Hunt

Track, attack, and unleash devastating barrages with the power of Hunt.

Throw spines or entire semi-material beasts at your targets at range. In melee 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.

Herd Mind Influence many animals at once.

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 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 Consort: 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 to another den you know. Both must be large enough to house the largest of you. If the den can't hold you all, early arrivals will be pushed out at the other end. This is regional travel within a city or county.

Skirmish

Prosper in the chaos of battle.

Animal Block: Resist Animal Harm.

This allows you to ignore harm from Animal powers and attacks by animals. Roll Skirmish when subject to harm from such energies. This is your inherent resistance, it does not require any activity on your part. Reduce the level of harm inflicted based on the level of success. 1-3: Nothing. 4-5: Reduce level of harm by one. 6: Reduce level of harm by two. Crit: Negate all harm and recover 1 stress.

Ravage Fine and potent animal attack.

Attack like an animal, temporarily manifesting physical or ethereal animal parts to attack with.

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 Ravage.

Pack Attack Attack all enemies in an area.

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

Study

Study and analyze and objects made by or from animals 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 the thing you are researching it dangerous in itself, worsening position. Consequences may give you knowledge that is faulty or lacks crucial details or depend on the situation such as a stray shot finding you when divining in battle.

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 hatchling of this snake is quite dangerous, what animal wove this web, that an 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.

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. 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.

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.

See Sense Animal for notes on animal senses. You can use an Advanced Command or Sway power to have the animal move into a new position.

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 animal with the best vantage point. 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 and gives you the ability to integrate all this into a metal image.

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.

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 an animal.

This power is permanent but blatant. The animal must be helpless or willing. Domesticate 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 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.

Manipulate animal parts as if you were in a workshop. You can do advanced crafting as a quick fix that lasts only for the score.

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

Destroy, dismantle, and obliterate animal products. Rip and rend like a wild beast.

The position depends on the situation. A quiet workspace is controlled, the general hustle of adventure risky, dealing with a fight, massive crowds, or dangerous construction is desperate.

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

Just as crude as it sounds. You destroy animal products and strike with the force of a bear paw in combat. What you can wreck depends on the size and structural strength of your target. Standard effect is a car-sized hole in a brick or mortar wall. Construction significantly weaker than this only demands limited effect. A smaller hole stil need the same effect. Something larger and/or stronger requires great effect.

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. As usual, Wreck may be at an advantage or disadvantage compared to Hunt, Finesse and Skirmish, depending on the situation.

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

This bypasses the strength of materials, allowing you to break even the strongest barrier, but it takes time. Minutes for organic barriers, hours for metals, days or weeks for stone. You can also use this to smash like a fine, potent claw.

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

The real difference here is that wrecking things is now silent. Leave less traces, as what you wreck disappears. Get rid of evidence, as long as that evidence are animal remains and products.

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

Rather straightforward, this just scales things up.