Shifter Communication Rift

[Witchcraft]

in the RUE it's a little unclear:

When a shifter opens a communication rift to a lesser supernatural creature the book says, if the creature succeeds in a save versus the Battle of Wills, he may use it as a dimensional teleport to the shifter.

The book doesn't say anything about using the communication rift to friends, relatives, NPCs, gods, etc. If you make your successful skill roll and you open it successfully to the right person...can that person use it as a dimensional teleport to the shifter...just like it describes in the Battle of Wills? Thus, effectively making it a "summon" spell like the Summon Ally spell? What if the person doesn't enter a battle of wills because he's already the shifter's friend. Does that mean he can't be pulled through?

[Nekira Sudacne]

in the RUE it's a little unclear:

When a shifter opens a communication rift to a lesser supernatural creature the book says, if the creature succeeds in a save versus the Battle of Wills, he may use it as a dimensional teleport to the shifter.

The book doesn't say anything about using the communication rift to friends, relatives, NPCs, gods, etc.

Page 122 makes it clear. a complete success allows you to open the rift to any desired location anywhere in the megaverse, and talk to "the person" on the other end with no specifications that it has to be supernatural in nature. it does say that this is typically how shifters speak with alien intelligences to make pacts, but it does nothing to say or imply this is it's only function, and in fact, the poer under number 5: communciation rift dosn't mention the battle of wills at all, only a precentile roll.

In short, shifters use the communication rift to summon supernatural beings, but the communication rift power itself is in no way retricted to use during summoning, as it has it's own entry entirely seperate from their summoning ability.

If you make your successful skill roll and you open it successfully to the right person...can that person use it as a dimensional teleport to the shifter...just like it describes in the Battle of Wills?

No, again, the communication rift spell is not inherently related to summoning rituals.

[Witchcraft]

thank you for the reply...however it's still a little unclear. Perhaps I'm a little thick -- do I have an outdated version of the RUE?

RUE page 122 section 9: Summoning states ( after describing the nature of this ability and some examples of creatures...next to battle of wills) that
" This summoning is accomplished through the use of the Communication Rift in which the Shifter probes dimensions until he makes contact with a lesser supernatural being...." It then goes on to discuss the battle of wills and what happens on a failed battle of wills on the creatures part:
" If it fails to save, the creature will be totally subservient to the Shifter, obeying all commands except to reveal its true name or to commit suicide."
subsequent paragraphs outline a successful will battle on the creatures behalf.

If he SUCCEEDS in his save and is agitated he may use the Com Rift as a B-LINE straight to the shifter even if he normally doesn't have dimension spanning abilities.

Does that mean that after opening a Communication Rift the shifter then wins in a battle of wills...he has to still open a portal to that creature? But if the creature is angry and saves he can come automatically? The mechanic seems really convoluted.

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TLDR version:
Can the shifter summon demons / minions / friends by using the communication rift ability alone?

[Nekira Sudacne]

thank you for the reply...however it's still a little unclear. Perhaps I'm a little thick -- do I have an outdated version of the RUE?

RUE page 122 section 9: Summoning states ( after describing the nature of this ability and some examples of creatures...next to battle of wills) that
" This summoning is accomplished through the use of the Communication Rift in which the Shifter probes dimensions until he makes contact with a lesser supernatural being...." It then goes on to discuss the battle of wills and what happens on a failed battle of wills on the creatures part:
" If it fails to save, the creature will be totally subservient to the Shifter, obeying all commands except to reveal its true name or to commit suicide."
subsequent paragraphs outline a successful will battle on the creatures behalf.

If he SUCCEEDS in his save and is agitated he may use the Com Rift as a B-LINE straight to the shifter even if he normally doesn't have dimension spanning abilities.

Does that mean that after opening a Communication Rift the shifter then wins in a battle of wills...he has to still open a portal to that creature? But if the creature is angry and saves he can come automatically? The mechanic seems really convoluted.

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TLDR version:
Can the shifter summon demons / minions / friends by using the communication rift ability alone?

EDIT: Note: bolding below is solely for emphasis, not anger. the terseness is because I'm posting this at 2 AM.

No. The power to summon demons/minions is a seperate magical power entirely from the communication rift, however it relys on the communication rift to locate it's target. or put it this way

If you use communication rift alone: THEN, you cannot summon anything, period. the communication rift cannot itself summon anything. the communciation rift has no power whatsoever to summon anything. the shifter has a seperate and unrelated ability to open a communciation rift AND summon the target.

IF you use communication rift alone, you cannot summon the target, period
IF you use communication rift WITH summon ability, IF your roll puts you in contact with a summonable creature, THEN the rolls listed under summoning occur.

the communication rift power is ability number 5 on the shifter OCC list. Summoning is ability nine. IF YOU USE SUMMONING power #9, then you use the rules under power number 9. IN ALL OTHER CASES, you use the ability under power number 5. and power number 5 does not require a battle of wills roll. it instead uses a straight percentile.

If you are talking to someone that you can not summon, then you cannot apply the rules under ability 9 to it, as you are instead using the rules under ability 5. The rules in 9 do NOT alter the rules in 5, rather they are a different set of rules used only for summoning valid target and can NOT in any way be applyed to a standard communication rift under 5.

Is this better?

[Witchcraft]

I read ya loud and clear. The point of contention / miscommunication is the ambiguous wording in ability number 9 that says the target may use the communication rift to come straight to the shifter's location even if it doesn't have dimension-spanning abilities normally. So that image in my mind is very poorly written when I take into account that your answer is the true and accurate one. A shifter opens a com rift to a brodkil, the brodkil makes his save, then he appears right next to the shifter when a summoning circle / spell was never even cast in the first place. So, they clearly mucked that one up.

Thank you for your patience and your expedient replies.

[Nekira Sudacne]

I agree it is a bit vauge, but sinse it's clearly ment to target demons and other supernatural critters, even taken at face value applying it to the shifters old friend Joe the Vagabond is a bit much. but still irrelevent, you can't target joe the vagabond under power 9, so the situation where it may apply will never come up.

Also note: gods and alien intelligences have the explicit ability to rip open a communication rift into a full one to step through, but this has nothing to do with battle of wills or summoning, just a power most godlike beings possess to open a smaller rift into a bigger one.