New Spell: Zelda’s Phantom

When we were making new Spells in a previous article, there was one that demanded lots of extra attention: Zelda’s ability to summon a Phantom in Super Smash Bros. It’s a Spell we’ve long wanted to include in Reclaim the Wild, but we always knew it’d be a little more complicated than most other Spells.

Well, what’s a better start to the Halloween season than summoning a warrior spawned from darkness? Zelda’s Phantom is a long-winded Spell, but we hope it provides all the fun you’d expect from creating a hulking, heavily-armored spirit to command on the battlefield. (You’ll have to provide the Jojo references yourself, I’m afraid.)

Check it out below!

Zelda’s Phantom

9 Tokens
Learn Requirement: One other Spell that creates an object or a persistent-until-dispelled effect
Cost: Up to (2 x Willpower) Magic (Bind)
Range: One unoccupied square adjacent to you
Full-Turn Action (Consumes your Standard and Minor Actions)
Effect: You begin summoning a Medium-sized Phantom in the target square. You finish summoning the Phantom at the beginning of your next turn. By default, this Phantom is armed with an ephemeral sword and shield. The Phantom functions as a temporary Companion allied with you: you share your Actions with it, and it cannot act without your say-so. The Phantom has a Vulnerability to Light damage.

Any damage done to the Phantom is instead Burned from your MP, after accounting for the Phantom’s Defense. If an attack would take you to 0 Magic or below, then any remaining damage after taking you to 0 Magic is done to your Health, and the Phantom disappears. (You may also dismiss the Phantom as a Free Action during your turn after you’ve summoned it; it cannot be dismissed on the same turn it is summoned.) However the Phantom is made to disappear, the Magic Bound in it is returned.

When you finish summoning the Phantom (at the start of the turn after you cast this Spell), the Phantom may, as a Free Action, perform a Basic Attack, the Charge action, or the Defend action. It may take this Free Action before or after moving, as desired.

The Phantom is of Limited intelligence. It can equip weapons and use most Tools, if directly told how to do so. It cannot craft items, speak with others, or think up new ideas on its own. Phantoms cannot equip armor (since they are made of armor). Phantoms do not know anything that their caster doesn’t know. Phantoms can perform simple actions, but not overly complex ones – roughly, they can do the kinds of things you could reasonably ask a silent, obedient child to do. For example, a Phantom can trot over to a Treasure Chest and open it (and even use a Small Key to do so), but it cannot pick the Chest’s lock or search it for traps.

The Phantom is capable of using the Charge, Defend, Deflect, Intercept, and Parry actions, as well as the Basic Attacks appropriate to its wielded weapon(s), but it cannot use Spells or Techniques.

The Phantom’s equipment is as ephemeral as it is; if the Phantom drops its sword or shield, those items will disappear at the end of its next turn. However, if you hand the Phantom other weapons to use, it may equip and wield that gear just like any Hero could.

You may only have one Phantom summoned at a time. If you summon a second Phantom, your previous Phantom is automatically dispelled, as if you had dismissed it.

The Phantom’s stats are based upon how much MP you Bind to it. The more MP Bound to the Phantom, the more powerful it is.

• Defense: 6 + (3 * (MP Bound / 4))
• Evasion: 4 + (MP Bound / 4)
• Concentration: 10 + (MP Bound / 4)
• Vitality: 10 + (MP Bound / 2)
• Strike To-Hit Roll: 3 + (MP Bound / 2) + 2d6
• Strike Damage: (MP Bound x 1.5), rounded down
• Power Traits: (MP Bound / 2)
• Courage and Wisdom Traits: (MP Bound / 4)

Customizing Phantoms

The Phantom’s exact appearance is defined by you when you learn this spell. Typically, Phantoms appear as burly suits of armor, empty but for glowing eyes. The circumstances of how you learn the spell, or who you learn it from, might impact how your Phantom appears – as might its default equipment or its stat loadout.

GMs may, as an option, allow the Hero learning the Zelda’s Phantom spell to wield a different set of default weapons. For instance, one Hero’s Phantom might use a Staff, while another might use a Bow. (If a Phantom uses a weapon that consumes Ammunition, such as a Bow or Crossbow, it can fire an infinite amount of generic shots. If you wanted it to use fancier ammo, like Fire Arrows, you’d need to obtain those elsewhere and then hand them to the Phantom once it’s summoned.)

Another option at the GM’s disposal is to alter the stats of the summoned Phantom. For instance, the Phantom might be a more nimble assassin-type rather than the classical heavily-armored warrior. Of course, the GM could decide to grant the Phantom even further modifications: an elemental theme, the benefits of some particular Race or monster, and so on.

Below are two further stat-blocks for simple “Rogue” and “Wizard”-archetype Phantoms. They use different weapons, and have slightly different statistics, than the classic, heavily-armored “Fighter” archetype (above).

Rogue

Wields a Dagger and Crossbow (and thus, is capable of using both the “Strike” and the “Shoot Arrow” Basic Attacks).

• Defense: 4 + (2 * (MP Bound / 4))
• Evasion: 8 + (MP Bound / 2)
• Concentration: 10 + (MP Bound / 3)
• Vitality: 10 + (MP Bound / 3)
• Basic Attack To-Hit Roll: 4 + (MP Bound / 2) + 2d6
• Basic Attack Damage: (MP Bound x 1.5), rounded down
• Courage Traits: (MP Bound / 2)
• Power and Wisdom Traits: (MP Bound / 4)

Wizard

Wields a Staff (and thus, is capable of using the Basic Attack “Use Staff”).

• Defense: 2 + (MP Bound / 4)
• Evasion: 10 + (MP Bound / 4)
• Concentration: 10 + (MP Bound / 2)
• Vitality: 10 + (MP Bound / 4)
• Basic Attack To-Hit Roll: 4 + (MP Bound / 2) + 2d6
• Basic Attack Damage: (MP Bound x 1.5), rounded down
• Wisdom Traits: (MP Bound / 2)
• Courage and Power Traits: (MP Bound / 4)

Regardless of how the GM changes up the Spell, it should be considered a wholly separate Spell from any other instances of Zelda’s Phantom that a character knows. Once a Hero knows any version of Zelda’s Phantom, further variations should be considered 6-Token Spells, rather than 9-Token – after all, different types of Phantoms don’t offer quite as much additional utility as being able to summon one in the first place.

Tools & Thoughts

If you intend to use the Summon Phantom Spell, please keep in mind that it requires a little bit of math, to determine the Phantom’s stats. We recommend trying to do this math ahead of time, at whatever Magic amount you feel comfortable pre-generating – this results in a speedier, friendlier experience at the table!

However, if you decide to summon a Phantom, and don’t have the math done ahead of time, then you’re in luck! Milly has made a quick Google Sheet for calculating a Phantom’s stats. You can make a copy for your own use, when you check it out here!