Warhammer cultists are granted by their divine patrons the power to summon various magical creatures and spirit beings. Cultists don't need to prepare pentagrams or engage in contests of wills to control divine summonations -- the divine patron guarantees the summoning’s willing service -- but summonings may be more or less cooperative in fulfilling the cultist's request for specific services according to temperament,
circumstances, and cult doctrine. The four basic varieties of magical creatures and spirit beings summonable with divine magic -- numina, Khaine’s Undead, elementals and demons -- are described in the sections that follow.
Many divine summonings are intelligent creatures with distinctive magical powers.
As such, they require the same forethought and development as other important non-player characters in your scenarios.
Numina_________________________________________________
Numina (singular numen; Classical Old Worlder -- "divine will" or "divine power") are divine spirit and magical entities summoned from the shadowrealms to aid, protect, and counsel cult priests. The characteristics and abilities of numina vary from cult to cult, but they all fall into four categories:
Divine Counselors: ghostlike spirits, typically of deceased cultists, who may share their experience, wisdom, and practical knowledge, but who have little or no power to act on this plane
Divine Guardians : magical creatures or ghostlike spirits which protect cultists or sacred ground from enemies or intruders
Divine Servants: ghostlike spirits, typically of deceased cultists, who may provide both counsel and magical assistance to a cultist
Divine Avatars : immensely powerful divine spirits which embody the virtues and principles of the divine patron
Abilities and Limitations of Numina
Abilities: All numina have the following abilities, including those listed in the specific descriptions below:
1. A magical attack (spell, prayer, enchanted or blessed weapon, etc.) or a weapon forged or coated with True Silver is required to hit a numen.
2. A numen's attack is magical, and therefore may affect beings affected only by magical attacks.
3. Numina sense magical emanations and recognize cult alignments of creatures.
These abilities work the same way as the petty prayer detect magic and the third rank prayer know alignment, but numina may exercise these abilities at will, without expending MP.
4. Numina with other magical abilities (i.e., the ability to invoke prayers or create other special magical effects) expend MP to produce those effects, just like clerics, unless stated otherwise.
Limitations : All numina have the following limitations, including those listed in the specific descriptions below:
1. Numina are subject to instability (see Rules, page ??).
2. When reduced to zero wounds, numina are unable to maintain their magical and substantial manifestations on this plane and must return immediately to the shadowrealm of their divine patron.
Basic Profiles of Numina
The following are general descriptions of the characteristics and abilities of each class of numina. See each cult description for any additional divine instruments,
trappings, skills, prayers, and special magical abilities that may be available to a numen of that specific cult. [[Uh.. right now there isn’t a trace of such a level of detail in the cult descriptions. It would be swell if we had the time and room, but... we’ll see.]]
Divine Counselors__________________________________________
Divine counselors generally appear as ghostly apparitions of deceased cultists who have served their divine patrons well in life, and who have been chosen as spiritual guides to advise and chasten the cult's mortal followers. Divine counselors are like ghosts in that they: 1. can pass through solid objects without penalty, 2. cannot be wounded by non-magical weapons and 3. cannot cause damage to mortal beings or objects in the material plane. However, they are unlike ghosts in that they are visible only to cultists of the counselor's divine patron, and in that they do not cause fear in those who gaze upon them. Divine counselors must also remain within the bounds of the sacred ground where they were summoned, and may not move beyond those bounds.
Divine counselors are summoned to share the benefits of their life experience, wisdom, and common sense with the petitioning cultist. Though they are occasionally knowledgeable, particularly in the skills favored by the cult, and often make useful observations and suggestions, they also seem to take a great delight in chastising cultists for their folly and carelessness in adherence to cult doctrine. Like all teachers and counselors, they vary in the quality and charm of their advice. (See summon counselor prayer, page ??, and Staging Divin e Magics, "Hints and Guidelines for Presenting Divine Counselors, Servants, and Avatars," page ??, for further details on summoning divine counselors.)
Divine Counselor
M WS BS S T W I A Dex Ld Int Cl WP Fel MP 4 10 10 2 5 10 60 1 50 50 50 60 60 50 10
Fly as swoopers. Skills: (Own) Cult Doctrine, Cult Lore, all layman cult skills, other skills at GM discretion.
Divine Guardians
Guardians are magical beasts summoned to guard sacred ground and any cultists there, or may serve as a mount for the summoning cleric. Guardians come in various forms according to cult, often fierce four-legged creatures or riding beasts or flying mounts. Their forms are physical and substantial, permitting them to cause damage to material beings and objects, but because of their magical nature magical attacks or true -silver are required to damage them, and their attacks affect beings damaged only by magical attacks. Guardians cause fear in creatures under 10 foot tall. (Note: Divine guardians automatically return to their divine patrons if they move beyond the bounds of sacred ground. For this reason, the cleric using a divine guardians as a mount must possess a blessed token to keep his mount from disappearing.)
The profiles of divine guardians follow those of normal animals, but with
Intelligence of 20 and 10 Magic Points. See each cult description for the types of animal forms available as divine guardians; the basic profile may include weapons, armor, instruments, trappings, skills, prayers, and special magical abilities specific to each cult.
(See summon guardian prayer, page ??, for further details on summoning divine guardians.)
Spirit Guardians
Spirit Guardians are immaterial spirit forms similar to ghosts, and may be human, animal, monstrous, or Daemonic in form, though most typically appear as apparitions of deceased cultists. Spirit guardians cause fear in creatures under 10 foot tall. Spirit guardians are bound to sacred ground to defend it from intruders.
Any cult enemy or intruder (as defined by the summoning cultist when the spirit guardian is summoned) must test vs. WP each round or be possessed by the guardian spirit. If the spirit wins, it possesses the intruder and forces the intruder either to leave the area, for example, or to punish itself, or to imprison or bind itself for later collection by living guards. If the intruder does not resist the spirit’s attempt to possess him, the spirit may exercise a "friendly" possession; the possessing spirit gains control of the body, but the victim’s spirit is aware and able to converse with the possessing spirit, and may be able to cooperate with the spirit, satisfying its needs to protect the sacred ground while achieving the intruder's goals; for example, if the spirit's orders are to possess intruders, walk them away from the sacred ground, then release them with a warning, an unresisting intruder may remain self-aware as he is walked out away from the sacred ground, and may be able to inquire of the spirit guardian where the sacred ground's boundaries lie and to what divine being the ground is sacred. Spirit guardians have no physical attacks, and can be harmed only with magical or true-silvered weapons.
See each cult description; the basic profile below may include weapons, armor, instruments, trappings, skills, prayers, and special magical abilities specific to each cult.
(See summon guardian prayer, page ??, for further details on summoning divine spirit guardians.)
Spirit Guardian
M WS BS S T W I A Dex Ld Int Cl WP Fel MP 8 - - - 5* 15 60 - 20 20 30 60 60 20 10
* to resist damage from magical attacks.
Fly as swoopers.
Divine Servants
Divine Servants generally appear as magica l manifestations of deceased cult initiates, priests, champions, or fanatics who have distinguished themselves as mortals and who now have been selected as the divine patron's spiritual agents in mortal affairs.
Their forms are physical and substantial, permitting them to cause damage to material beings and objects, but because of their magical nature magical attacks or true-silver are required to damage them.
Divine Servants often retain the power to invoke prayers that their mortal forms had in life, and may also retain the divine instruments or other magical abilities of their earthly forms. Their magical powers vary greatly; for example, the manifested spirit of an initiate will only be able to invoke petty prayers, but the manifested spirit of a fourth rank priest might be able to invoke any variety of petty, first, second, third, or fourth-rank prayers. The basic profile below should be thought of as a rough average; the gamemaster should design his own divine counselors to include weapons, armor, instruments,
trappings, skills, prayers, and special magical abilities according to the cult and according to the advanced clerical careers completed by the divine servant in life. (See summon servant prayer, page ??, for further details on summoning divine servants.)
Divine Servant
M WS BS S T W I A Dex Ld Int Cl WP Fel MP 6 70 70 5 6 20 70 3 70 70 70 70 70 70 15
Fly as swoopers. Cause terror in all creatures. Skills, Prayers, and Trappings:
According to cult and advanced careers completed.
Divine Avatars
A Divine Avatar is a spiritual manifestation of the divine patron which takes friendly possession of the summoning cleric; the cleric assumes the larger-than-life physical features of his divine patron in a form ten-foot-tall, and may call upon the enhanced powers and abilities of the avatar. Divine avatars have access to all prayers, gifts, and skills favored by the cult, and the cleric's enhanced body temporarily gains the characteristics of the basic profile below. Divine Avatars also typically possess the trappings and divine instruments most closely identified with the divine patron and its cult.
Divine Avatars are unique magical beings of great power; the avatar for each cult should be a distinctive creation. Using the basic profile and guidelines below for the cleric's enhanced abilities, the gamemaster must design his own divine avatars to include weapons, armor, divine instruments, trappings, skills, prayers, and special magical abilities according to the cult and according to the legendary abilities and personality of the divine patron. (See summon guardian prayer, page ??, for further details on
summoning divine guardian spirits.)
Divine Avatar
M WS BS S T W I A Dex Ld Int Cl WP Fel MP 6 90 90 6 7 25 90 6 90 90 90 90 90 90 30
Fly as swoopers. Cause terror in all creatures. Skills, Prayers, and Trappings : According to cult. An avatar has all skills, gifts, and prayers of his cult, and should have a variety of lesser and greater divine instruments
[[Numina may include elementals (for the Old Faith), demons (for the Chaos cults), and divine undead (for the Khaine cult).
We may print elemental and Daemonic stats (see below) in this Divine
Summonings chapter, or may require folks to refer to the Sorcery book, which they ought to have anyway, right?]]