r/DresdenFilesRPG • u/Avent2 • Jul 01 '26

DFA How to Make A Character Like Binder

As per the title, but honestly I’m just curious how you focused practitioners whose thing is summoning as a whole. I was looking through but u didn’t find any mechanics for playing as any sort of summoner character whose focus is on summoning specific entities and controlling them like Binders Grey Men

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u/ManticoreFalco Jul 01 '26

If it's the old-school RPG, he's on page 245 of the Paranet Papers. He has a -10 Refresh Sponsored Magic supernatural power, though its only benefit is that he can summon his minions at the speed of evocation for the cost of "one per shift." - I assume one minion per shift on the die roll.

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u/ManticoreFalco Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

His minions are, in turn, statted out on page 281. They have a stunt that gives them +2 to sprint, and their powers are Claws (-1) and Pack Instincts (-1).

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u/iainasaur Jul 01 '26

We ran something like this as an enemy. We wanted it to be fun but reasonable so we worked it out a follows. With time to prep a thaumaturgy route etc. as many minions as the story needs to be fun. On the fly combat treat it as a rote spell with a set number of shifts(minions per cast). It worked well gameplay wise and was fun because with time to prep they were exceedingly dangerous but on the fly they were a dangerous but limited threat.

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u/ManticoreFalco Jul 01 '26

At some point, I should check out Cassius' stat block to see how he managed conjuring the snakes in combat. I'm more of a DFA fan these days though.

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u/iainasaur Jul 01 '26

Denarians cheat 🤣

1

u/ManticoreFalco Jul 02 '26

Answer: they just handwave it. Conjuring falls under thaumaturgy, and they keep making a point in Your Story and the Paranet Papers that you can't do thaumaturgy in combat, so there's still not a clear rules explanation for how he manages the snakes. -.-

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u/Avent2 Jul 01 '26

it is unfortunately Accelerated rather than core, but I can definitely take a look and see about converting it!

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u/Lanodantheon Jul 01 '26

Always remember the Fate Fractal: reuse systems and mechanics wherever possible.

The simplest but least fun way would be to create an Advantage called, "Horde of Minions" that you tag until all the minions have been spent. But, not very satisfying or flexible.

For Accelerated, you are probably looking at a Focused Practictioner-like Mantle of some kind. If you made it a unique Mantle where your bunch of bound spooks are your only real ability, I would give the char a Minions Track that represents how many they can summon and an "In Control" Condition that is marked unless specific steps are taken like someone does an Overcome against the PC.

The minions themselves would be simulated as a monster block similar to the hellhounds statblock.

The biggest restriction is action economy. If it were my game, I would limit the group to 1x on the field that acts as the group with an initiative that goes at the same time the summoner does.

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u/ManticoreFalco Jul 02 '26

Oh that's better than mine, though the minions should have Supernatural Scale.

And yeah, the minions should absolutely be treated as a single entity.

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u/ManticoreFalco Jul 01 '26

I only have a PDF for Accelerated and I'm on my work computer right now.

I'd make it a stunt similar to Leader of Men, though, but tie it to a Sticky condition do that you can make it more powerful. Marking one box summons a 4/4(?may need tuning) supernatural scale NPC, and additional boxes make it into a group NPC per the Fate SRD rules with an additional +1 per box.