Spell: Summon Avatar*, pt. 1

As I was recently working on Prayers (a small system to introduce Cleric spells for Knave), there was a rough equivalent between B/X systems (mainly taken from BFRPG and LotFP) and the essential Prayers. I chose 25 such divine powers, that in my eye capture what a Cleric should be capable of, and what makes them distinct. Prayers go up to 5 Clerical Implements, which roughly translates into spell Level 5.

But hold on, that means you allow Level 5 spells at PC Level 5? U crazy Hammer?!?!
Yes and no. The cost to use Prayers is bound to taking a Knack and more importantly owning Clerical Implements (CI). Filling up the precious Item Slots of the Knave PC. Oh, and CI break fairly easily. And their appearance in the game is completely up to referee's fiat.

There are exactly 3 Prayers out of the list of 25 that I put together myself rather than adapting from other OSR systems:

• CI 1: Divine Ceremony
• CI 3: Summon Avatar*
• CI 4: Consecrate Land*

Let's take a closer look at the second.

Its intent is twofold. The reversed spell (Dismiss Avatar, marked with the *), takes the form of a creature banishment. There are several equivalents we can find for this reversed form in other systems. For instance the Cleric Level 7 spell in LotFP Holy Word*, the Cleric Level 5 spell in BFRPG Dispel Evil, or the 5e Cleric Level 4 spell Banishment. Remove a being that doesn't belong to this place from existence, be it temporarily or permanently. The original of Summon Avatar* is in the title: you call the physical manifestation of your god (although one of their lackeys may suffice) to come to your aid. Of course, such a request will go through the tightest scrutiny, and could go awfully wrong.

But let's take a step back and take in some adjacent media, specifically the Die story line, which started as a comic book and (naturally) evolved into a ttrpg. In there, a bunch of kids are transported to the D&D stories they play in a Jumanji style tale, each taking up a class represented by a die (d4: Dictator, d6: Fool, d8: Grief Knight,...). The dice they take are not like your typical Fighter/Cleric/Thief/MU, but interesting twists coming close to these trope archetypes.

The Cleric in the group is instead called a Demonbinder (although Godbinder makes more sense, see below), and acts as a Summoner of Gods, giving and claiming favors from deities. Like a warlock dominatrix. I love it. This, perfectly embodied in the following excerpt from the comic book, is an accurate representation of what Summon Avatar* should feel like if saying the Prayer goes well:

From Die Issue #2

From Die Issue #2

"Godbinders are Clerics as demonologists."

Summon Avatar*

Duration: 1 round/[Level]
Range: 40'
Save: Yes|Yes
Clerical Implements: 3+. This is the only Prayer that allows you to use more CI at saying time. Minimum is 3, but you can go above that.
Effect:
This Prayer requires strenuous concentration. If at any point during the duration you take damage, do a Save. On a failure, the spell ends.
Summon Avatar
Choose number of [HD] to summon an Avatar of your deity, god(s) or authority. Up to double the CI used. Do a WIS save. Negative modifiers to the save for:

• -1 for each HD chosen.
• -1 if you've never summoned this Avatar before (blind call).

Positive modifiers to the save:

• +1 for each [CI] you choose to destroy during the summoning.
• +1 for each d12 HP you sacrifice.
• +1 for each other creature you sacrificed the last turn (live stock, humanoids, etc.).
• +1 if on appropriate Consecrated/Desecrated land (see the Consecrate Land* Prayer).
• Advantage if you know the Avatar's True Name.

If you get a Critical success on the roll, the Prayer duration is 1 turn/[Level] instead.

Dismiss Avatar
Target a creature that doesn't belong here (celestial, demon, elemental, etc). Its HD have to be up to double the CI used. Do an opposed WIS save against the creature's CHA. Modifiers:

• You have Disadvantage if target has more HD than your [Level].
• You have Advantage if you know the target's True Name.

If you succeed, the creature is dismissed to where they came from for the duration. If you get a Critical success on the roll, the creature is permanently dismissed and the spell ends.

But Hammer, what IS an Avatar??
Fear not, I will explain how I intend them to work in game (apart from HD, which is an obvious measure already baked in), and prepare some random tables to determine what Avatar you actually summon. They'll be linked here when they are finished in a coming article.

Reference Reading List

• Die comic book
• GLOG Summoner and Entities
• The Summon LotFP spell
• These handy monster and Christ figure generators (sorry, I just had to include the latter)