Party and Companions

Party & Companions

Recruiting Allies

Allies are not collected through menus or optimized recruitment paths. They enter your journey through circumstance. Some become available because you intervened when it mattered. Others are encountered by chance, pointed out by people you trust, or found lingering at the edges of factions they no longer agree with. A few are simply willing to travel with anyone who can afford them.

Recruitment reflects the state of the world rather than a player checklist. Who becomes available, when, and under what conditions depends on what you have done, what you ignored, and what survived without you. Some companions may leave if the path you take no longer aligns with theirs. Joining is never guaranteed, and remaining is never automatic.

Traveling Party vs Active Combat Party

You may travel with up to ten companions at once, but only four can fight together at a time. The traveling party represents the wider group moving through the world with you: waiting for the right moment to step forward. The active combat party represents the four you choose when violence begins.

Choosing who enters combat is not about favor or permanence. It is a situational decision shaped by environment, threat, and tolerance. Those not selected still exist, still react, and still carry consequences forward, even when they are not on the battlefield.

Team Composition and Coherence

Strength in Ash & Light comes from capable individuals, shaped by progression and preparation, but it only endures when those individuals form groups that function under the pressures they face.

A team can be individually capable yet inefficient against certain encounters. Capabilities must align with the demands of the situation, and not all combinations endure sustained strain equally. Some groups lack the means to respond to particular threats. Others falter because their approaches interfere with one another.

Coherence is the measure of how well a group’s abilities, tolerances, and responses fit together when tested. It cannot be reduced to a single attribute and cannot be solved universally. What works in one encounter may fail completely in another.

Why Some Encounters Require Specific Teams

Encounters are not designed as generalized obstacles. They are situations that make concrete demands.

Some environments, enemies, or conditions cannot be overcome through force alone. They require particular responses, ways of acting, or methods of disruption. When a group lacks what an encounter demands, the failure is not numerical but structural.

These encounters function as assessments. They test whether the player understood what the situation required and whether the chosen group was capable of meeting that requirement. Victory comes not from repetition, but from recognition and adaptation. Failure persists, reshaping what follows rather than resetting the attempt.

Who stands together matters. Strength is common. Endurance, in the right combination, is not.