Understanding Allies Limitation: Sympathy & Applying other Modifiers

[Hide]

I like creating PCs with allies, but I have never taken sympathy.
I want to understand how each "clause" interacts with the others. Some of them seem mutually exclusive, but others do not... Can you tell?

Sympathy:

(A) If you are stunned, knocked out, mind-controlled, etc., your Ally is similarly affected. The reverse is also true, so you should take special care of your Ally!
(B) -25% if the death of one party reduces the other to 0 HP
(C) -50% if the death of one party automatically kills the other.
(D) If your wounds affect your Ally, but your Ally’s wounds don’t affect you, reduce these values to -5% and -10%.

Questions:

(1) What is included by "wounds", is this including situations such as "stunned, knock out, etc."?

(2) And what would be the modifier of sympathy if the death of one party automatically kills the other, and wounds of either party do not affect each other? -60%, -40% or -10%?

(3) I want to modify the cost of the ally’s additional attributes scores to –40%, following the modifier “Granted by Other”. If the master and the ally share the same area, the ally has additional ST, HT, DX, etc. bought 40% cheaper. How about this?

(4) I want to modify the cost of the ally trough a "Required Disadvantage - Great Vow (-15%)". What do you think?

(5) What can I do if I want the Ally to be capable of summoning/dismissing itself? (additionally to being summoned by the PC). I want both "types" of summon to avoid concentrate maneuvers.

- Hide

[Hide]

Also, what happens if for example, my PC is scared (fear) but the ally has unfazeable?

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Hide

(1) What is included by "wounds", is this including situations such as "stunned, knock out, etc."?

Normally "wounds" means hit point damage. I think from context in this case it means the effects of wounds and other bad conditions (it wouldn't make sense to apply 6 points of sympathetic wound damage to your 20 HP and then also cause you to be knocked out when your 6 HP Ally falls unconscious!). In that case I think the reduced costs should apply to all sympathetic effects; in other words they make it into one-way sympathy.

(2) And what would be the modifier of sympathy if the death of one party automatically kills the other, and wounds of either party do not affect each other?

That doesn't make any sense. If wounds of neither party effect each other then there's no sympathy (and no modifier). One party dying when the other dies is definitely not "no effect".

Are you asking for a limitation where the Ally dies if the PC dies, but otherwise there are no sympathetic effects? That's going to be less than the -10% value, and probably less than the -5% value. It actually isn't worth much at all, because if the PC dies the death of the ally isn't really limiting to the PC (who is now dead and past caring), unless they get resurrected (and in which case there probably exists the possibility of resurrecting the ally too). I'd say -2% is pretty generous, maybe -4%, but no higher.

-60%

Why would it be more than normal sympathy for less of a limitation? That's not sensible.

(3) I want to modify the cost of the ally’s additional attributes scores to –40%, following the modifier “Granted by Other”. If the master and the ally share the same area, the ally has additional ST, HT, DX, etc. bought 40% cheaper. How about this?

You can do this, but if this is for your ally concept that can't leave the master, then no you can't, because it literally is a condition that can never occur.

(4) I want to modify the cost of the ally trough a "Required Disadvantage - Great Vow (-15%)". What do you think?

If the player violates the Vow the Ally leaves? Sure. Essentially that's a normal Pact.

(5) What can I do if I want the Ally to be capable of summoning/dismissing itself? (additionally to being summoned by the PC). I want both "types" of summon to avoid concentrate maneuvers.

Being able to summon, or dismiss yourself isn't an enhancement, it's just a consequence of free will. However if this is the same Ally from the other thread, this is also suicide.

Originally Posted by Hide

Also, what happens if for example, my PC is scared (fear) but the ally has unfazeable?

"Scared" isn't a meaningful condition in GURPS. Unfazeable isn't immunity to mental stun, so if your Ally is stunned from a fright check so are you. Similarly it's not immunity to vomiting, or fainting, or whatever.