Invocation of the Four Degrees [占卜四度]

[Cloudnine]

Ancestral Familiar

The Fú have maintained thousand-year relationships with their summoning familiars. From an early age, Fú summoners are taught to respect the longstanding celestial covenants they cultivate. There are centuries of rigorous statutes detailing misuse and mistreatment of the summoning pacts that every Fú commits to memory before learning summoning rites. As a result, the summoning call of a Fú family member is well-respected across summoning realms, and at times summons of great power respond to the call of a novice Fú. 

 

Effect: Add +5 to summoning rolls made by this character. The technique Kuchiyose no Jutsu may be purchased at gennin rank for 4JP. The character's first rank of Contract Manager pay be purchased at level 15 for -2SP. Character must meet normal rank/level requirements for additional ranks of Contract Manager. 
Restrictions: The skill taker may not have any hindering skills that negatively affect summoning rolls, chakra, stamina, or ninjutsu. Requires Fú family membership.
SP: -2

 

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Advanced System: Invocation of the Four Degrees  [占卜四度, Zhānbǔ Sìdù]

• Deactivating any Invocation degree requires a full setup phase. Deactivating a degree of Invocation deactivates all higher degrees of Invocation. 
• Invocation degrees must be activated in ascending order. 
• Each Invocation degree requires a full setup phase to activate.
• The summoner pays 5% chakra and stamina for activation, and then 5% chakra and stamina per turn afterwards as upkeep. 

 

Invocation: First Degree [Unity of Heaven and Earth]
Within the Fú, heaven and earth speak as one. The energies of Fú summoners are able to resonate on the same mystical plane as their allied summons, granting their partners a fraction of their own essence. On the shinobi continent, the celestial plane regarded by the Fú is referred to as the sagely regions.
Effect: On any turn that the user would regenerate chakra or stamina, they may instead divide that regeneration evenly between themselves and any summons they currently control. Chakra and stamina regeneration are calculated separately in this manner. This includes any advanced regeneration of the summoner.
Requirements: Ancestral Familiar
SP: -2

 

Invocation: Second Degree [Earthly Empowerment]
The realm of men empowers their own. As the energy of summons is considered celestial, they receive no boon for existing on the earthly plane. The Fú summoners are able to alter that, using runes and incantations traditionally used to bolster the luck of men just as efficiently on their partnered species. 
Effect: A summon under the user’s control gains +4x to its accuracy and defense, where x = the user’s  level. This may not raise a summon’s accuracy by more than 1.5 times its base stat. Each rank empowers one of the summoner's summons on the field. 
SP -3
Ranks: 3

 

Invocation: Third Degree [Heavenly Empowerment]
The rule of heaven is borrowed. Kuchiyose roughly interpreted means ‘to draw in spirits so they may speak,’ and the Fú have mastered just that over the long centuries of their servitude. An aura is often observed around the summoner at this point in the Invocation, one with the color and characteristics of the summon family’s element. The summoner is able to draw in the elements of the summon into their own body, and wield it using a shared wisdom. 
Effect: The summoner gains the starting elements of the summons they have on the field. The summoner cannot apply Subtle Elements bonuses to tier 1 elements learned in this manner if the summoner does not possess the Subtle Elements skill. The summoner may purchase up to 10x JP (per rank in this skill) worth of techniques from summons on the field under their control, and those learned techniques must be publicly posted in a ledger at the end of the summoner’s post where this skill is activated. Summer must meet any requirements for techniques learned in this way. Techniques may be learned in this manner as a free action in any of the summoner’s phases. The techniques ledger is cleared at the end of the battle, or if Invocation: Third Degree is deactivated. 
SP: -2 for the first rank, -1 for additional ranks
Ranks: 4, may be taken every 15 levels. 

 

Invocation: Fourth Degree [Cosmic Judgement]
The rule of heaven moves the hand of man. The Fú summoner continues to serve as a medium for the summon’s celestial energies. Beyond just shared wisdom, the summoner begins to take on physical traits of the summon families they partner with. In this state, the Fú summoner can dictate the wisdom of the ages and receive the celestial decree directly from the mouth of heaven.
Effect: The summoner may purchase up to 3 SP worth of skills from a summon in their control on the field, where x is the summoner’s rank in this skill.) The summoner must meet any requirements or restrictions for the summon’s skills. Skills learned in this manner must be publicly posted in a ledger at the end of the summoner’s post where this skill is activated. Skills may be purchased in this manner as a free action in any of the summoner’s phases. The skills gained using this skill are refunded and the ledger cleared at the end of the battle, or if Invocation: Fourth Degree is deactivated.  No path skills may be learned in this manner. 
SP: -2 per rank
Ranks: 3, may be taken every 30 levels.
 

Edited June 6, 2018 by Cloudnine

[Cloudnine]

Notes: 

Ancestral Familiar

-I felt it was pretty poo for all the bloodline effects to be locked until level 30 when Kuchiyose can be taken. The pet fulfills a pseudo-summon and poofs once the character can summon. I'm down to limit the amount of Invocation ranks that can apply to this pet to rank 1 of each Invocation degree, if needed. 

 

Advanced System Costing

-Starting at 5% chakra and stamina per turn since the bloodline is mainly focused on versatility, and on the weaker end stat bonus/throughput-wise. The intent of the bloodline is to provide summon-focus and a touch of versatility, assuming the summoner summons something that is built to counter certain opponents and 'borrow' some of those techs/skills for their own use. If needed, I can make activating each to increase upkeep by 1% per rank in it or something. 

-It takes 4 setup phases for the summoner to reach Fourth Degree. 

 

Invocation: First Degree

-If the summoner has no advanced regeneration, they pay 5% of chakra&stamina a turn and don't regenerate anything. This skill just splits any advanced regeneration the summoner's taken and shares a piece of it with the summon. 

 

Invocation: Second Degree

-This totals to giving 480 accuracy and 480 defense to a summon, and 240 accuracy and 240 defense to a second summon. I was thinking of doing something involving the summon's level as well. Something like gaining an additional 25x% bonus stats per summon level?

 

Proposed altered equation (all hail drunk math, I gave up halfway)

Stats per rank= (.5x) + (.5x * .25(y-1)), where x = character's level and y = summon's level.

Cleaning it up = .5x (1 + .25(y-1))... does that look too messy?

 

At level 120 and rank 4 in Second Degree with a level 4 summon, you get +420 Accuracy and Defense. 

At level 30 and rank 2 in Second Degree with a level 2 summon, you get + 38 Accuracy and Defense. 

 

I'm gonna leave it at this now because I'd prefer not to factor in summon level at this point. :c

Alternatively, I feel I can just keep it 1x per rank.

 

Other

-I didn't slap any path restrictions on this, although Second Degree and beyond are in favor of Path of the Mystic that brings a second summon to the field. Figure keeping it open sticks to the versatility intent. 

[Kouta]

Ancestral Familiar: Honestly, I'd prefer if you just dropped the summon level requirement to 15 so they can summon early. Maybe add a little bonus (+5?) to the summon roll. -2. Adding a pet is A; A lot of work and B; Not worth it if the pet isn't going to exist past level 30. And even if you dont have an AS for your first 15 levels...it really won't hurt you. If you want to add RP flavor, you can say that the Level 0 of your summon family just hangs around you all the time in threads, but you don't summon them. They come visit you.

 

First Degree: Three variables. Can you simplify this? Yes. Because summons cant have advanced regeneration. So their regen is always 5%. So you just say "on any turn that the user would regenerate chakra or stamina, they may instead divide that regeneration evenly between themselves and any summons they currently control." Bam! ZERO variables! Achieves the same effect.

Second Degree: "+x to it's accuracy and defense PER RANK IN THIS SKILL, where x = the user's level." Please add the bolded, otherwise your skill only provides 120 accuracy and defense. As for other summons...I say fuck it. You're gonna be the summon clan? Apply it fully to every little monster.

 

My recommendation: I'd say make this -3, make each rank just always say 4x, and allow you take it one time for each summon you can control. That way if you never get a second summon through shaman or whatever that path choice is, you only buy this once. But then all your summons can be big and bulky. And if you ever manage to pull out three summons somehow, you can take it three times.

Third Degree: This is a lot of work to do in the middle of battle. But it is very cool, so if you are okay doing that then I won't stop you. I will say however, that 4xJP is 16 JP. Thats ONE senin jutsu from your Level 4, or TWO Jounin Jutsu. Thats not a lot. You might want to look at increasing this number. 10x feels more right. Thats 40 JP, or 1/3 of your level 4's jutsu pool (120). Or you might want to ditch the variables again and just make solid numbers, since Summon JP Totals never change. You get 5 JP from Level 1, 15 JP from Level 2, etc, etc...And then each rank of this lets you buy them from a higher level of summon, so Rank 1 you can only buy from Level 1 Summons, Rank 2 you can only buy from Level 2 Summons. And so forth.

Fourth Degree: Similar comments as Degree 3. You don't really gain anything from this. It costs 4 SP and you buy 4 SP. You'd be better served to never take this and just...spend your 4 SP on skills you want. Because those Skills will be up 100% of the time, while summon skills may only be up for 4-5 turns in battle. I'm not sure how you want to add value to this, but right now its just slightly worse than simply buying 4 SP worth of skills all of the time.

Edited February 4, 2018 by Kouta

[Cloudnine]

Thanks for the feedback! Lots of good points. I like the early summoning idea a lot better. 

 

-General: Changed some of the deactivation wording so it's not a free action and requires a setup phase. This can interact with the skill/jutsu ledgers from Invocation 3 and 4. This way, additional turns are required if the summoner made a skill/JP purchasing mistake and wants to reset the ledgers. 

 

-Ancestral Familiar: Removed the pet from Ancestral Familiar. Changed to Kouta's recommendation: small bonus roll and summoning at level 15. Also added included 1 SP reduction to Contract Manager so the skill still has a -2SP value at later levels.  Basically for 4 SP you get Contract Manager, early level summoning, and +5 summon roll. 

 

-Second Degree: Changed to Kouta's recommendation! Three ranks for the base summon, one for the extra optional path summon, and the last rank for like... the Flash Summon skill and for posterity. Didn't add in wording for rank requirements, since not having the extra summon skills is sort of the limiter. Let me know if I didn't interpret something correctly.

 

-Third Degree: Changed to 10x per rank. Changed some of the wording so the elemental bonuses are dependent on which summons are on the field, but the JP ledger stays even after the summons leave the field. 

 

-Fourth Degree: The first version was pretty... lame/underpowered. I changed the SP cost to -2 and gave it a +3 SP gain per rank. Also changed it like Third Degree where the skill ledger persists after the summon leaves the field. It's a two-way buff so let me know if that's too much the other way.