Magic and Ability Guidelines

Not all Final Fantasys have the same summoning system. Because of this, you’ll need to stay up to date on how each world handles them. This is a list of all of the summons in the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts universe and how we suggest they be handled on the site.

Summons are normal abilities, similar to powerful spells. They appear, attack, and vanish. Treat the process as if registering for a new attack.

No HP or duration, just a cooldown.

Example:

World: Surface World
Shiva - The empress of ice, wreathed in frost. She is known for her signature move, "Diamond Dust", which freezes everything in an instant. Shiva appears and fires a condensed ball of cold wind straight forward 50m, turning anything in its path into a blistering frozen wasteland. Enemies caught in the projectile's path take heavy Ice damage.
[Cooldown:] 4 posts

---

World: FF9
Ramuh: An older man raises his staff to the heavens, raining down lightning to a large area of the field. This attack causes heavy thunder elemental damage.
[Cooldown:] 4 posts

This world shares the same traits as the other worlds. Upon the Esper's death, the user is granted the esper's powers. The summoner can also change how the attack affects the actual battle, but this is optional. Be creative and think of something, maybe a status effect, change the terrain, etc.

No HP or duration, just a cooldown
Summons can only be summoned once per battle!

Example

World: World of Balance/Ruin
Shiva- The empress of ice, wreathed in frost. She is known for her signature move, "Diamond Dust", which freezes everything in an instant. When executing Diamond Dust, Shiva blows out a gust of artic winds in a wide arc in front of her that fans out to 45 degrees. All who are inside take heavy Ice damage if near Shiva, or medium if located towards the tip of the attack range. Diamond Dust will freeze the targeted area and cause the area to become slicked.
[Cooldown]: Once per battle.

This one has many variations to draw upon as there are many games to this genre.


Materia of that summon that has limited uses, but is treated like casting a power. The materia casts the spell, then dismisses them. Cooldowns can be a bit lower than those found for higher level magic, but are restricted by the amount of uses you can call upon it per battle. Be sure to add in the amount of uses in the power description. Materia summons are how the summons were called in Before Crisis as well as Final Fantasy VII.

No HP or duration, just a cooldown
Summons have limited uses per battle!

Example

World: Gaia [FF7]
Bahamut: Summons out the King of Dragons, Bahamut. The dragon king will swoop in and charge up a large amount of energy in its mouth. A few moments later, Bahamut will release it and cause heavy non-elemental damage to a large area on the field.
[Uses:] 2
[Cooldown:] 5 posts

Summon Minions - There are also individuals that are capable of summoning creatures to stay in battle. If you fit this category, add in both a duration, Uses, and HP to your summons. These summons are the ones found in Crisis Core, Advent Children, and Dirge of Cerberus. Obviously, the more powerful or bigger the summon is, the more HP it’ll have. You may suffer a shorter duration in return though, so be aware of this. Like most other HP oriented summons, Gaia's creatures do not dodge attacks either. Minion type 'summons' that are not official FF7 summons, such as Deepground soldiers, shadow creepers, and such, will be treated similar to Heartless. You can see the guidelines for these creatures further down under 'Heartless/Unversed/Nobodies/Minions/Lucavi'.

Need HP, Duration. No Cooldown Needed.
Summons limited uses per battle!
Cannot dodge attacks.

Example

Origins: Gaia [FF7]
Bahamut FURY: A much larger, golden version of Bahamut that uses the moon in conjunction with its skillset to lay waste to the opposition. Its flight capabilities are slightly different to the wingbeats of Bahamut, allowing it to travel about in space as necessary.

[HP]: 6
[Duration]: 3 Posts
[Uses]: 2 Uses
These creatures can not dodge attacks.

Abililties:
- Hexafang: Targeting a foe, Bahamut Fury releases his spikes from his body to missle down onto a single enemy.
[Cooldown]: 3 posts
- Exaflare: A blast from the planet's moon that's triggered by Bahamut Fury's own energy blast. Fury will fly up high into the planet's stratosphere and fire a large beam of energy at the moon. This will cause a lunar beam to rain down into a large blast radius to nuke the opposition with severe non-elemental damage. Using this ability will dismiss the summon.
[Cooldown]: Once per thread

Guardian Forces operate a bit differently than the other minions or pets. When you apply for one, you need to have HP in their power description. In addition to a cooldown this summon with also need a charge. This is because GFs take time to come out and shield the caster with their presence until they attack. Those who carry the GF will gain the ability to junction as well as have the shield for their health. Be wary though, because summoning will reduce your action count by 1 while calling out your GF. In exchange, your GF’s attack will only strike your foes by letting it pass harmlessly through your allies. This process is a charge, cast, and dismiss. These abilities are also higher in the scale of damage and duration when applicable. These summons will also need HP.

GF's don't recover HP per summon. If they were injured during the summoning process, whatever HP remains (assuming that they survive) will transfer over to the next incantation in that thread. Summons originated on this world should have about 6HP in the power description initially and incapable of dodging. If the creature is countered or assaulted by the foe during the attack and their HP is depleted to 0, then it cannot be used for the remainder of the fight.

One can also add the 'Boost' skill to their arsenal. By adding 1-2 turns to your GF's charge, they'll gain additional benefits to their attack. This part is negotiable, but isn't necessarily restricted to just a damage buff.

Need HP, Charge, and Cooldown. No Duration Needed.
Summons can have 'boost' skill
These creatures can not dodge attacks.

Example

World: Archipelago
Leviathan: A massive sea serpent that effortlessly controls water and rules all who dwell in the oceans. The raging swell of his "Tsunami" is enough to consume even the fiercest of foes, dealing heavy water damage to all foes in the wave's path.

These creatures can not dodge attacks.

HP is the name of the game here. Spira's summons do not need a Duration. Aeons have their own moveset that can be later expanded upon. When invoked, the summons joins the party as an additional member and will leave only when dismissed or defeated. Their actions still count towards the summoner's legal moves per round in a sanctioned event. Certain Aeons have elemental resistances, this can be noted in the power description. Aeons don't usually dodge attacks, and will take double damage from opposing elements if the summoner has applied for elemental resistances/immunities. Please note that these summons WILL be automatically dismissed after they use their ultimate attack.

If you apply for an Aeon from this world, you must add "Dismiss" into your movelist in addition to the actual creature.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}Dismiss: A skill used to dismiss a personally summoned Aeon from battle prematurely. If this ability is used, no other action other than minor evasion can be used for this turn. The Aeon will fade away and return into the summoner's stock for re-use.
[Cooldown]: 2 posts

Needs HP and a cooldown. No Duration needed.
If given a elemental resistance/immunity, they take double damage from opposite elements!

Example:

Ifrit- A very large wolfish demon with horns and claws. Has the element of fire and either walks on all four, or can stand on two legs.
[HP: 10 Cooldown: 4 turns.]

Only summoners may use summons from this world as they are a forbidden art. They will have HP and Duration listed in the power description. Avatars are generally weaker physical attackers, but make up for it with much more damaging skills and abilities. Summons can be immediately dismissed if need be and can not be re-summoned if defeated in battle. Most appealing however, is that Vana'diel summons can dodge.

If you apply for an Aeon from this world, you must add "Exhaustion".

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}Exhaustion: Avatars require the mana power from their summoner in order to exist. In this time frame, you can not summon any other summons from your list. However, you may use Elementals. Curable with Remedy or Esuna. [Cooldown: 1 Post]

Needs HP and Duration. No cooldown needed.
If defeated, can not be resummoned!
Causes Exhaustion!

Example:

Fenrir - A large, sleek wolf with a affinity with the moon.
[HP: 10 Duration: 4 posts.]
Causes Exhaustion at the end of its Duration

Exhaustion: Avatars require the mana power from their summoner in order to exist. In this time frame, you can not summon any other summons from your list. However, you may use Elementals. Curable with Remedy or Esuna. [Cooldown: 1 Post]

Elementals: Minor forms of the summon, but only capable of casting spells they know. They have an HP and Duration, but do not draw upon mana from their caster. Thus, one does not get affected with exhaustion, if that is the case. Unlike Avatars however, they will not dodge.

Needs HP, duration, and a cooldown.
Summons can not dodge!

Example:

Ice Spirit - A ice elemental that floats in the air and composed of sharp ice crystals. [HP: 5 Duration: 3 turns Cooldown: 3 turns.]

They are usually obtainable by defeating them in combat, before needing to by a licence to use these creatures. There is no charge time to summon them. These creatures will have both HP, Cooldown and Duration in the power description. Each summon has their own moveset, and due to their pride, will never dodge an incoming attack towards them. They can utilize defensive skills to nullify an attack on them or even try to overpower the incoming skill. One thing that they will do is at the end of their duration ,they'll utilize their most powerful attack. If for whatever reason it is not there, then the next skill they use will have double damage.

Revanent Wings- The twelve Espers from FFXII are part of them, but also includes other familiar summons and monsters, which use the same format above but also along with an element are either one of three types: Melee, Flying, or Ranged. Melee is weak to Flying, Flying weak to Ranged, and Ranged weak to Melee if encountering the same type of Esper. There are also ranks from I to III, so a rank III Esper will have a longer cooldown than a Rank I Esper.

For this summon, you can only summon a max amount of HP worth of summons. Up to 10 HP where the 10 HP summon is the big boss like Ifrit. So if one summoned Ifrit with 10 HP, they wouldn't be able to summon anything else. However, if they summoned Carbuncle with 5 HP, they could summon another summon of 5HP or less still in battle.

Needs HP and cooldown. No Duration Needed.
Summons can not dodge!
Summon limit per thread

Tactics | Advanced- These Espers summoned by the Summoner job class act like the summons in FF 1-5, cast as a magic spell. The main difference is that they hit a wider area and also distinguish friend from foe. No duration or HP is needed because of this, but they still need a cooldown. Totemas and Scions on the other hand are different only by how they are summoned. Totemas are five beings which govern over each of five races, so only that race can summon their governing Totema. Scions are the same Espers that are encountered in FFXII, and are summoned from a item, where only one of each item must be chosen to take into battle. Both Totemas and Scions however are like Summons and Espers from their respective games, as all of them will unleash their ultimate attack and then disappear after being summoned. No duration or HP is needed because of this, but they still need a cooldown.

Needs cooldown. No HP or Duration needed.



Examples:

FFXII - Espers

Belias - A double-headed, four-armed demon with a staff, who's primary element is flames. [HP: 10 Duration: 4 turns Cooldown: 4 turns.]

Bomb - A spherical ignited being capable of exploding. [HP: 4 | Cooldown: 2 turns. Flying Fire type weak to Ranged and Water Revenant Wings Espers. Rank I Esper, can summon two of them.]

Moogle - Cute furry cat-like creature with a pom-pom antenna from Tactics Ivalice. Heals the caster and the party of minor wounds. Cooldown of one post.

Mateus [Totema]- The Totema of the Hume race in Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced. When summoned, it transforms the battlefield into a sphere momentarily before smashing it with his spear, doing major damage to all enemies. Four post cooldown.

Mateus [Scion]- The Scion summoned from the Corsage of Corruption item from Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced 2 of Ivalice. It's ultimate attack, Frostwave, is used upon it's summoning and does lethal major ice damage to all enemies on the battlefield. Four post cooldown.

Eidolons of Pulse have a Duration and HP. When invoked, the summons joins the party as an additional member and will leave only when their duration ends or defeated. Each eidolon's individual actions still count toward the summoner's legal moves per round. Because of this, they are allowed a higher HP. Please note that these summons WILL be automatically dismissed after they use their finisher in Gestalt mode. Instead of a gauge, the Gestalt mode will be treated similar to the paradigm shift. However, once shifting into Gestalt mode, you will not be able to shift back, however you may upgrade later to be able to switch between the two.

After the summon is used, you will also need a cooldown before you can resummon the eidolon again.

Needs HP, Duration, and a cooldown.
Can switch into Gestalt mode anytime, but stuck there (initially)

Example:

Shiva Sisters, Stiria and Nix: Two icy humanoid females that when combined together, allows their summoner Snow to ride them as a transformed motorbike. [HP: 8 (each) Duration: 5 turns Cooldown: 5 turns. Each individual action made by Stiria, or Nix counts as an action in a battle thread. Can switch to Gestault Mode but remains fixed once Gestault Mode's transformation is complete.]

Stiria

Curaga: Large healing spell. [Cooldown: 3 turns.]

Nix

Wheel Grind: Nix spins the wheel attached to her into enemies. [Cooldown: 1 turn]

Gestault Mode: Motorcycle

Ice Ramp: Creates a ramp made out of ice and launches off it to damage enemies. [Cooldown: 3]

Diamond Dust: Ultimate attack, doughnuts on the bike is repeatedly performed through the target(s), freezing them momentarily in ice before the ice snaps, damaging them for severe ice damage. [Cooldown: Shared with Shiva as five turns, begins when this finisher ends its execution, instantly dismisses Stiria and Nix]

These are either Carbuncles, Egis, or Faeries. There are the Primals, but these aren’t regular types of “Summons”. They can be summoned, yes, but in most cases will take control of the people around them and are difficult to deal with. Also require a lot of crystals to even summon in the first place. Carbuncle is the main type of summon used by Arcanists. Both Summoners and Scholars can use Carbuncle too, but most will change to the Egi or the Fairy type of summon.

Summoners summon the essences of the Primals rather than the Primals themselves. Drawing upon the power of a Primal, they summon an arcanima form known as an Egi. Using the right aspect of aether, a summoner can perform a ritual known as the “Austerities” to summon an Egi of a Primal. When defeating the Egi, the Summoner gains the ability to summon this Egi as a companion from then onward. However, a Summoner can only gain as many Egis as their aetheric reserve allows them. Once they have enough Egi, the Aesterities would fail and, thus, no new Egis can be called.

Scholars can call upon faeries. Unlike Carbuncle and the Egi, Faeries do not attack enemies and only perform Support and Healing. These spell-weaving creatures aid a scholar in their tasks.

Needs HP and cooldown. No Duration Needed.
These summons require a charge.
Only one summon can be active at once.

Example:

Emerald Carbuncle: Summons the mage-type Carbuncle. The Emerald Carbuncle uses wind-aspected abilities and attacks from range, aiding the summoner. If another summon is active when Emerald Carbuncle is summoned, that summon will end and go on cooldown. [Charge: 1 post | HP: 5 | Cooldown: 3 posts]

Gust: Deals weak wind damage to one target. [Cooldown: 1 post]
Backdraft: Deals weak wind damage to one target and causes knockback, sending the target flying back. [Cooldown: 2 posts]
Downburst: Deals weak wind damage to one target and hits any enemies nearby this target in a burst around it. [Cooldown: 2 posts]
Shining Emerald: Weakens the target’s magic defense, causing the target to gain more damage from magical attacks for 2 posts. [Duration: 2 posts | Cooldown: 3 posts]

Selene: Summons the faery Selene. Her focus is on support magic. If another summon is active when Selene is summoned, that summon will end and go on cooldown. [Charge: 1 post | HP: 5 | Cooldown: 3 posts]

Embrace: Heals a target for medium amount of wounds. [Cooldown: 2 posts]
Silent Dusk: Silences a target for 1 post. [Duration: 1 post | Cooldown: 2 posts]
Fey Caress: Removes one negative status ailment from all allies nearby. The newest status ailment will be removed in case of multiple negative status effects. [Cooldown: 2 posts]
Fey Wind: All cooldowns of any allies nearby are lowered by one while this ability is active on Selene and they stay near Selene. [Duration: 2 posts | Cooldown: 3 posts]

Through ancient Allagan technology, also lesser versions that are greater than the Egi have been created. These beings are only learned from ancient Allag and created using technology. These Demi-Primals only last a short duration due to the power they hold. While these Demi-Primals are out, any other summons will temporarily disappear.

Needs duration and cooldown. No HP Needed.
These summons require a charge.
Will replace any summons the Summoner has active for the duration.

Example:

Summon Bahamut: Summons a Demi-Bahamut to fight by your side. This dragon was created by the Allagans as a modified version of the Dreadwyrm himself. This summon can deal a lot of damage quickly. When Demi-Bahamut is summoned, any other summon is replaced by it until after Demi-Bahamut has left. At which point they will return as they were before they were replaced. [Charge: 1 post | Duration: 3 posts | Cooldown: 5 posts]

Wyrmwave: Heavy unaspected damage to one enemy. This is Demi-Bahamut's standard attack.
Akh Morn: Deals massive unaspected damage to an area and all targets within that area. Can only be used once per time summoned.

High risk, high reward. When you summon these creatures, these eidolons of the Suzaku Crystal only have Duration to place in the variable section! What's the catch, if they cannot be defeated in battle from HP? Simple, they take yours! When you summon an Orience Eidolon, the player character is replaced for the Eidolon summoned with the duration. The Eidolon is then considered to be the 'player' character and absorb the damage for their summoner much like Guardian Forces from FFVIII. These summons tend to not have a very long duration, so make every move count!

Example:

Bahamut - King of Dragons. [HP: 10 Duration: 4 turns Cooldown: 4 turns.]

Stomp: Stomps on one enemy for moderate damage. Two turn cooldown.

Aerial Charge: Charges all enemies for heavy damage. Three turn cooldown.

Mega Flare: It's ultimate attack, shoots a large blue fireball that inflicts severe critical damage on all enemies.This ability dismisses the summon.

Summons from this world are called Astrals. They are beings that may decide to aid you in battle if they feel so gracious to do so. They are random in design and a dice roll will determine if they appear that round or not. Some appear only when you are critical in health while other appear depending on the terrain. Some have a higher chance of appearing the lower your health or the longer you have been in battle. The astral will appear, activate it's ability, and leave. You may only have one of each astral type per thread, but you may roll for a summon each post. So, if your summon has a 10% chance of appearing, you can roll a 10 or 100 sided die. If you get 1-10 on that 100 sided die or a 1 on a 10 sided die, your summon appears.

No charge, HP, or duration, just a cooldown
Each type of astral can only be summoned once per battle!

Example

Leviathan- The water beast burst out of the water when the caster's HP becomes critical. It approaches the caster and picks them up, summoning a huge tidal wave. to damage enemies.

Type: Attack [Attack or Support]
Danger State Required: Yes
Useable Location: Near Water [Does the summon require certain locations to appear?]
Appearance Rate: 10% Chance - [Dice Roll]
Cooldown: Once per battle.

Summoning out a buddy or heartless from the Disney realm? They'll appear to do your bidding as a minion classed creature for the most part, and have a separate skillset for keybladers to utilize. These summons are unable to dodge, and must have a duration. Skills that they utilize do not have cooldown as they only have one or two. Because of this, the user can not attack while the summon is on the field and can only dodge. There are some exceptions such as Tinkerbell and Genie who simply add magical support rather than attack the opponents directly. If this is the case, there is no need to add the 'no attacking' clause.

No HP. Just a cooldown and Duration
Users cannot attack while using certain summons
Users cannot use limits/drives with certain summons


Examples:

Ukelele Charm: Summons Experiment 626, aka Stitch, who hails from the world Deep Space.
[Duration: 3 Posts | Cooldown: 3 Post]

User cannot use Drive/Limits with summon

Random Beam: Stitch will shoot green beams at enemies with all four of his laser blasters held by his four arms to do space-elemental damage, and can also attempt to shoot down enemy projectiles such as spells to negate/deflect them. [Passive]

Ohana: Stitch's Limit, aka Ultimate attack, he gets out his Ukelele and jams on it, using the large and powerful soundwaves to blast his enemies. [Cooldown: Dismisses Summon]

Feather Charm: Summons Tinkerbell, as small fairy from Neverland.
[Duration: 3 Posts | Cooldown: 5 Posts]

Regen: The fairy continuously heals the user and other party members a very small amount per turn, similar to Regen. [Duration: While Tinkerbell is on the field]

Auto-Life: While Tinkerbell is on the field and if the user's HP falls to 0, Tinkerbell can bring ONLY the user back from death. [Cooldown: Dismisses Summon]

This can be applied to the lot of them, but each one will have a separate summoning skill and a list of what they can do. Outside of evasive skills, Heartless cannot dodge or block. Defender types or similar skilled creatures will note of any defensive skills and be handled on a case-by-case basis. Boss types will be handled on a case by case too, the basic rules of no block/dodge will still be in effect. These creatures only have HP, so be ready for that!

Needs HP and Cooldown. No Duration

1 HP: Small, minor heartless, unverse, nobodies, nightmares or fragile bruisers (ex. Shadow, Samurai, Tatsu Blaze, Scrapper)
3 HP: Medium, Normal heartless, advanced mages, advanced nobodies, most pure types. (ex. Darkball, Wizard, Dragoon, Yoggy Ram, Chrono Twister)
5 HP: Large, Bulky and/or advanced enemies, (ex. Large Bodies, Berserkers, Bruiser, Invisibles, Cera Terror)
10 HP: Boss Heartless (ex. Behemoths, Guard armors, Storm Riders)