and on the "I want a Bob" front. From Spirit of the century game.
✪ Spirit Companion [Mysteries] (Would be Lore in DFRPG)
You have a companion with three advances (see below). This companion is vulnerable to the flux of the spiritual aether, however, and must be summoned into your presence – either pay a fate point to get his immediate manifestation or take roughly a minute to roll Mysteries against a target equal to the companion’s quality as a more gentle summoning.
This companion can never act in physical conflict, but may be visible to others; this may limit what skills he can use with the Skilled advance. He automatically gains the Independent advance as well. The companion will need to take Skilled (Stealth) if he wishes to be undetectable on occasion; otherwise, visible or not, his presence in a location is an immediate call for people to roll Mysteries to notice something amiss.
If you take this stunt a second time (the maximum) you may provide another three advances to your companion. If you have not yet increased the companion’s quality to at least Fair, you must spend one of your advances to do so.
An advance can do one of the following:
Quality
Improve the quality of a companion by one step (from Average to Fair, Fair to Good, and so on). This advance may be taken several times up to the companion’s maximum quality, one step lower than that of her partner. (characters usually top out at Superb, so the most one of their companions could be is Great.)
Scope
Improve the scope of a companion, allowing them to assist in an additional type of conflict (e.g., Physical and Mental, Physical and Social, Social and Mental). This may be taken twice, allowing the companion to be effective in all three scopes.
Independent
The companion is able to act independently of her partner, allowing the character to send the companion off to perform tasks. An independent companion is treated as a minion if she’s caught out on her own (quality in this case indicates her capacity for stress), and is not useful for much unless she’s also skilled (see below).
Skilled
The companion may buy skills of her own. If attached, the companion may use these skills on behalf of her partner, instead of the partner using his skill at his rating. If the companion has also taken the Independent advance (above), the Skilled advance the companion can also use these skills when not attached. One advance can buy one skill at the companion’s quality, two skills at quality -1, or three skills at quality -2. The Skilled advance can be bought multiple times, but a different skill or set of skills must be chosen each time.
Keeping up
If the companion’s patron has a means of locomotion or stealth that makes it hard for the companion to keep up with him, then the companion with this advance has a similar ability, but it is useful only for keeping up with her patron when attached, and for no other purpose.
Communication
The companion has some means of communicating with her patron in even the strangest of circumstances – using secret decoder rings, ancient Atlantean secrets of telepathic trances, or what-have-you. This isn’t a guarantee, and without an aspect invested in a companion, a player isn’t going to get compensated on the occasion that the GM decides to short out the method of communication. Still, GMs should think twice before cutting off a character from his companion, when this advance is in play.
While characters are not obliged to take their companion as an aspect, it is highly recommended. Companions are the first people villains choose as hostages and targets, and by choosing to take an appropriate aspect, the player ensures that he’ll be rewarded for the inconvenience.