Essence¶
Essence
You and your minions have a unique reserve of essence as your Heroic Resource. You use this magic to sculpt your forces and maintain control over the battlefield.
Essence in Combat
At the start of a combat encounter or some other stressful situation tracked in combat rounds (as determined by the Director), you gain essence equal to your Victories.
At the start of each of your turns during combat, you gain 2 essence.
The first time each round that any minion (either yours or an enemy) dies unwillingly within your Summoner's Range, you gain 1 essence.
Whenever you use a heroic ability or call forth a minion that costs essence, you can willingly sacrifice one or more of your minions within your Summoner's Range to reduce the cost by 1. You can't kill minions this way if they used a main action or maneuver during the turn. You can sacrifice more minions than you would reduce the cost by.
You lose any remaining essence at the end of the encounter.
Essence Outside of Combat
Though you can't gain essence outside of combat, you can use your heroic abilities and effects that cost essence without spending it. Whenever you use an ability or effect outside of combat that costs essence, you can't use that same ability or effect outside of combat again until you gain at least 1 Victory or finish a respite.
> More Wielders of Quintessence > > Essence is the "stuff of creation." Just as the elementalist uses essence to conjure fire, lightning, or warp space and time, the summoner uses essence to manifest skeletons, conjure pixies, and call forth demons from the Abyssal Waste. > > There may be more magicians in the future that also rely on essence for their magic.