If the summoner wants the eidolon to take an action in any given round, she needs to spend her own action to order the eidolon to act.
This means that only one of them will do a maneuver, strike, etc., in any round (unless you spend Awesome Tokens for extra actions). In your description, the summoner doesn’t have to be just standing around idly, though; she could be riding on the eidolon, running for cover and dodging attacks while giving orders, or something similar.
Eidolons have their own Action Pool, which is full by default when the eidolon is summoned.
When the summoner orders the eidolon to act, the eidolon can take the 1-3 action dice for Maneuvers from any combination of both the summoner’s and the eidolon’s Action Pools (but the total still can’t be more than 3).
Eidolons also have their own Strike Pools and Charge Pools, but as with action dice, they can use the summoner’s strike and charge dice in addition to their own, up to the usual dice limit for the particular action. The summoner, on the other hand, can’t ever access the dice in the eidolon’s pools.
Summoners can unmark one of their own traits to reroll failed dice when the eidolon is acting.
By default, eidolons have 1 skill, like most enemies. This means they do not mark the skill and never gain bonus dice in the way that characters with 3 skills do. There is a special eidolon power called Skill Set that grants them three skills instead, in which case they work just like regular skill sets.
The summoner and her eidolon can’t both do a combined maneuver or combined achievement together, but either one of them can do so with other PCs (and possibly eidolons). However, eidolons can never be leaders in a combined maneuver or combined achievement, so there always needs to be at least one PC involved.
The summoner can still be targeted with strikes while the eidolon is around, unless the eidolon has the Auto Guard power (or uses the Guard power).
If the eidolon is defeated (that is, if it takes enough wounds to fill up all of its wound circles), it immediately disappears back to its home world and can’t be summoned back until at least 1 of its wounds has been healed.
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Eidolons do not retain their pools after a conflict.
Instead, their Action Pool is filled up and their Charge and Strike Pools are emptied. Eidolons do retain their wounds, however, which can be healed through character scene benefits.
Powers
Summoning Type: Action
Cost: 1+Eidolon Level Charge Dice
Effect: The summoner conjures an eidolon with which she has a bond (i.e., the power is useless without a bonded eidolon). The eidolon appears instantaneously. She can only have 1 eidolon summoned at any one time. The eidolon only acts when the summoner orders it to, which uses up the summoner’s action.
Open Bond
The character can bond with an eidolon, in which case the power is renamed to Bond: [name of the eidolon]. Most of the time, this happens during character creation, where the player can select a common eidolon or create a custom
one. The character can fill an Open Bond with a common eidolon as a scene benefit during the game as well, after spending the scene with appropriate rituals (which the player makes up).
If she wants to bond a custom eidolon during the game, she needs to work out the details with the GM, including whether it takes more time or requires traveling Beyond. This power can be taken multiple times and is required every time that the summoner wants to add a new eidolon to her collection. Summoners can, under rare circumstances, break a bond with an eidolon to free up a bond for a new eidolon. However, this could have very bad consequences (story-wise) and should not happen more than once in any given story arc. Note that this power is useless without the Summoning power. You can take this power up to 3 times. Unless you take the Empower Eidolon power, you can only bond with Level 0 eidolons.
Battlefield Summoning
Any summoned eidolon has its Level in strike dice in its Strike Pool when you summon it for the first time in a conflict.
Charged Summoning
Any summoned eidolon has half of its Level in charge dice in its Charge Pool when you
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Ch. 14: Summoning
summon it for the first time in a conflict.
Natural Summoner
The charge dice cost for summoning eidolons of Levels 3 and above is reduced to 3.
Empower Eidolon
This power has 2 effects. First, it is a requirement for bonding with higher-level eidolons. In order to bond with a Level 2 eidolon, for example, the character needs to have Summoning as well as Empower Eidolon II. Second, each eidolon with which the summoner has bonded receives an additional eidolon power for each Empower Eidolon level above the one required to bond with it. For example, the Level 0 eidolons of a summoner with Empower Eidolon II would have 2 extra powers, any of her Level 1 eidolons would have 1 additional power, and her Level 2 eidolons would not have any powers other than the standard ones. The additional powers are selected by the summoner when she acquires a new level of Empower Eidolon or bonds with a new eidolon, and they can’t be changed later.
Companion
One of your Level 0 eidolons can remain in your world for prolonged periods of time. It stays by your side and does not need to be
summoned at the beginning of a conflict. If the eidolon is defeated or banished, it returns once at least 1 of its wound circles is healed (for example through character scene benefits).
The companion cannot be changed unless the summoner permanently loses their companion (in other words, the bond is broken and the eidolon is no longer available to the summoner).
This power requires the Summoning power.
Magnificent Companion
The summoner’s companion can be a Level 1 or Level 2 eidolon. Note that this power requires the Companion power and the appropriate level in Empower Eidolon.
Unbreakable Bond
Your companion is immune to being banished by powers or weapon effects. Note that this power is useless without the Companion power, and it only works on companions, not regularly summoned eidolons.
Warfare Summoning
Any summoned eidolon gets to take an action in the same turn in which it is summoned. If this action is a Strike, the eidolon gains two bonus dice to the strike roll.