Syndicates Got a Lot Friendlier

If you've spent any time in a Syndicate, you've probably wished your healer could actually heal you, not just narrate a heal across the table. Or that your Templar's protective aura did something on your sheet besides remind you it exists.

This update wires all of that up. A bunch of feats and spells that used to be reminder text are now live, cross-character effects. Here's what's new.

Healing actually heals your allies

Single-target ally heals were already in (Med-School Graduate, Lesser Renewal, Faith's Armor, etc.). What's new is area heals:

• Sashay, You Stay (Monarch) now lets you pick the allies in radius and rolls one 2d8 that lands on each of them
• Healing Burst (Neomachinist) opens a picker for up to 6 targets and fans the 2d8+WAM to each
• Rejuvenating Verse and Fortissimo Guard (First Harmonic releases) now pick the allies you're channeling for, then the rolled HP / THP goes to each one

If a spell heals or buffs a specific ally, picking them now actually moves their HP bar, drops their chip on their sheet, and pops a toast for them. Online testing showed it in action; offline allies pick up the changes on their next character load.

Auras

Activated and passive auras both push their effect to allies on demand:

• Inspiring Presence, Siren's Buff, Resonant Aura, Fortitude Reinforcement all surface a "Select Allies" button. Pick who's in range and each gets a chip with the bonus. Resonant Aura's +1 to Spell Attack and Spell Weaving Checks actually folds into their rolls now, not just rides on the chip as text.

The bonus stays until they walk out (they dismiss their chip when they leave range). Range tracking stays verbal because we still don't have positional tracking, but the chip and the math are real.

Damage-redirect feats

Big one. Anything that says "you take the damage for them" actually works now:

• Resonant Empathy (Herald): pick the ally, they get +1 HP and a chip with a "Redirect Incoming Damage to <you>" button
• Shield-Arm (L1 base): pick allies in your STR-mod range; their next damage transfers to you on tap
• Bloodbound Pact (Bloodbound Pinnacle): touch one ally, damage splits 50/50 either direction
• Spell Eater (Merkabah Master): same redirect chip, full transfer
• Blood of the Martyr (Herald Pinnacle): full transfer, narrative "when reduced to 0 HP" trigger

When the ally takes a hit, they enter the damage on their chip, tap Redirect, and the HP cost lands on your sheet instead. No more "...wait, did I take that?" at the table.

A few intercept feats (Grand Entrance, Hallucinogenic Mist, For a Friend) need different infrastructure (an attack-reroll model, third-party redirects, or routing damage to your Ethereal Companion). Those are post-launch.

Vye'mis' Circle of Life works end-to-end

This was the standout feature. Activate it, pick allies in your 3m radius, and you all get linked chips:

• You see a pool counter. When you take damage, type in the HP loss and the pool absorbs half. Pool also has a "Draw to Yourself" button for self-healing from it.
• Each picked ally sees a green "Draw from <your name>'s Pool" button. When they tap it, the picker shows "X HP available" (live from your sheet), they type how much they want, and it instantly removes it from your pool and adds it to their HP.

The pool depletes for everyone at once. When it hits zero, all chips clear.

Concentration on ally buffs

When you weave a concentration buff onto an ally, your sheet now drops a tracker chip too. It counts against your concentration slot (so you can't sneakily double-up by buffing an ally + yourself), and dismissing it on your end automatically clears the buff on the ally's sheet. Breaking concentration by weaving another concentration spell does the same.

Quality-of-life

A pile of smaller things you'll notice:

• "Delivered by X" badge appears on incoming chips so you know who sent them. Aura chips read "Aura From X" instead.
• One-Use Tokens and Damage Tokens sections appear in your roll modals when you have applicable ally-granted chips. Tap Apply and they fold into the roll.
• Volatile Rounds (Bloodbound Gunslinger) now opens a chooser when you activate it. Pick Armor Piercing, Armor Shredder, Pulse, or Ice Shatter; the typed Blood Dice rides into your next damage roll automatically.
• Weapon Augmenter now fires both halves on the next attack: +1 attack and +1d4 damage, no manual tracking.
• HP cap is now system-wide. Any heal that would push you over max HP just clamps. You won't accidentally show 32/30 from a stacked heal.
• Healing Burst no longer flickers on the result modal after rolling.

What's next

A lot of "engine ready, content waiting" stuff:

• Hostile Creature targeting is built into the planning but waiting on the new creature virtual sheets to land. Once those exist, hostile-side feats like Battle Cry, Disarming Blow, Vocal Intrigue, and Calculated Strike's "marked target" bonus all start working through the engine.
• Higher-tier (Adept/Master/Pinnacle) subclass feats with ally effects will get tagged into the engine as we audit them.
• A few summons-related abilities (Dreamwalker's "For a Friend" routing damage to your Ethereal Companion) need a separate summons-delivery system that's on the docket.

If you find something that doesn't work the way the rules describe, please report it; nothing teaches us faster than your tables breaking it.