Affinity

Affinity is a Power Skill. Characters with The Affinity manifest a deep bond with the natural world, finding themselves able to call and command the creatures of the wild, invoke natural forces of the land, sea, and sky, and even take on aspects of the world.

Uses of the skill

Rank	Skill Use	Description
1	Speak With Animals	You can communicate with animals. At higher ranks, bridge greater gaps.
1	Wild Friend	Animals react more positively to you (scales with rank).
1	Forecast Weather	Predict the weather (accuracy and forecast length scales with rank).
2	Commune with Nature	Gain an intuitive sense of the land in a wide radius.

Powers

Each of the below is a Power. Each can be gained by spending one Power Point, assuming the prerequisites are met.

Power	Prereqs	Description
Warg	Affinity 5 points	Jump into an animal's body. At higher ranks, take command, jump into humans, etc.
Animal Companion	Affinity 5 points	Gain a faithful animal servant.
Call Animals	Affinity 5 points	Summon animals from the wild.
Plant Command	Affinity 5 points	Cause plants to grow, move, etc.
Wild Aspect	Affinity 5 points	Gain various enhancements with a wild theme.

Everything below this point is old content

OLD CONTENT - Feats

Rank 1

Control

Command Beast: At-will, swift, short range; by speaking directly to a beast, you can issue simple commands that it will attempt to accomplish to the best of its ability (Hostility ends, will ends). Can be Widened to become an area effect.
Command Plants: At-will, swift, short range; you command plants. This does not require a verbal command, nor do the plants need to possess any natural motility. You can command a plant to entangle or trip your enemies; see description.

Enhancement

Wild Aspect: At-will, free, reserve; you take on an aspect of the wild, gaining enhancements to your abilities. See description.

Utility

Plant Growth: At-will, swift, short range, reserve; you cause a targeted plant to increase or reduce in size by one category by reserving 1 Mana. Stackable once per rank.

Meta

Wild Friend: Natural animals are reluctant to attack or threaten you. All natural beasts are considered to be one step higher on the relationship scale as regards you than they normally would be.

Rank 2

Enhancement

Empower Plants: At-will, swift, short range, reserve; you imbue targeted plant with motility, abilities, actions, etc, under your command. (TBD)

Shaping

Evoke Plants: As Command Plants, but there need not be any plants at hand. Roots and vines spring forth from cracks in the ground, through windows, etc, for the duration of the power, then retreat afterward.

Summoning

Call of the Wild: At-will, std, long range; you send a mental call, calling to you a beast capable of supporting a purpose you choose, natural to the region in which you find yourself. Special duration power requires slotting 1 Mana to maintain service. See Calling.

Meta

Beast Tongue: You may speak the language of beasts. Beasts so commanded can perform more complex tasks as they are better able to understand your intentions.
Shout of Command: Your commands can be expressed at greater distance, turning into a burst 3 at long range. (Dev note: this feat is not necessary, as it can be accomplished with Widen and Enlarge)
Swarm Caller: You may call a Swarm creature with Call of the Wild.
Utility Caller: You may call a Utility creature with Call of the Wild.

Rank 3

Meta

Mental Command: You can communicate with beasts without words, bonding with a beast merely by thought alone. Beasts so commanded are able to accomplish complex tasks, within the limits of their physiology.
Pack Hunting: Augments Call of the Wild. You are able to call multiple beasts of a type you can summon. Each additional beast requires double the energy expenditure of the one before.
Beast Bond: You may permanently bestow an amount of energy upon a called or encountered beast in order to bond with the creature until death or release. Encountered creatures must be at least friendly with you in order to accept the bond. Called creatures are automatically considered friendly. A bonded creature will follow you, accept your commands freely, and will give its life to defend yours. (TBD)
Supernature: Your roster of abilities can be expanded to encompass supernatural, psionically or scientifically augmented, or magical beasts. Example such beasts include griffons, unicorns, psionically endowed gorillas, or magically attuned alien creatures.
Sight Beyond Sight: Your ability to commune with nature goes beyond mere vague senses of the world around you. You are able to clearly perceive all things that intrude upon the natural world within the radius of your ability.

Rank 4

Unorganized

Unbarred Command: Your ability to command is limited only by your perception. If you can perceive a creature, you can command it.
Riding Will: Creatures commanded by your ability may instead be "possessed" by your will. Your command ability changes to a duration of concentration. You are able to perceive through a creatures senses, override their natural instincts at will, use their attacks and abilities, and even utilize your own powers and abilities through them (limited by physiological limitations of the beast).
Form in Flux: Your aspect ability allows you to gain a special trait or power of a chosen animal while active. (i.e. Climb speed, Swim speed, a Breath Weapon, Trip ability, Poison spines or bite, etc.)
Destroyer Caller: You may call a Destroyer creature.

Rank 5

Unorganized

Leader Caller: Prerequisite - Supernature, You may call a Leader creature.

Other Rules

Calling

Calling sends a mental command out into the natural world, beseeching the wild beasts to come to your aid. Depending on your need, a creature of a beneficial type will arrive within 1 round to assist you. The creature's abilities are determined by the purpose to which your need sets it, and the creatures themselves are of a type appropriate to the surrounding region (i.e. a horse or dog in civilized lands, a deer or wolf in temperate woodlands, etc.) The creature is a minion of equivalent level to the caster and serves while the caster maintains the bond through devoting 1 slot of energy to the calling. The caster may only have one called beast at any given time. Many of the strictures of calling can be modified by techniques (see below).

The available types (by purpose) are Combat or Transport. The additional types of Swarm, Utility, Destroyer, and Commander are available through techniques.

Combat

Combat creatures are almost always predators or perhaps large and dangerous herbivorous animals capable of holding their own in a fight. Example Combat beasts include wolves, lions, bulls, tigers, crocodiles, and sharks.

Transport

Transport creatures are always of a type simplest to task of moving across the region at hand. For example, in a forest, a stag may be called to swiftly transport the caster across the woodland floor, but not a gorilla to carry them through the trees. On a plain, a horse would be the simplest creature to carry the caster across the grass, not an eagle to wing them through the sky. Example transport beasts include horses, deer, camels, bison, mountain goats, and dolphins.

Swarm

Swarm creatures are usually tiny or smaller beasts that are dangerous in large numbers. Their danger lies in their ability to attack from multiple directions and avoid most forms of directly damaging attacks. Example swarms include rats, bats, bees, wasps, flies, beetles, ravens, and piranha.

Utility

Utility creatures are highly variable and usually have some important purpose to serve. For example, a monkey may be called to help reach high places, a badger to help burrow through the ground, a snake to reach things in narrow spaces, a raven to carry a message, or even leeches to assist with healing. The purpose is usually specific and non-combat related, but is up to game master adjudication.

Destroyer

Destroyer creatures are the wrecking balls of nature, capable of turning the tide of a battle by their very presence. They are almost always large or greater in size and require 3x the amount of energy to maintain their presence from round to round. Example destroyer creatures include bull elephants, great bears, dinosaurs or great lizards, aurochs, dire animals of many types, or even whales.

Leader

Leader creatures are controllers of a type. Difficult to bring down and empowering not only for other called beasts but for all allies in general. They are capable of granting buffs to their friends and debuffs to the enemy forces and can change the course of even large scale conflicts. As such, they are always of a greater nature than normal beasts, thus requiring the Supernature technique as a prerequisite to the Call Leader technique. Example Leader creatures include treants, paragon animals, scientifically or psionically enhanced beasts, and legendary mythological creatures.