Spirit Bargaining
Rote · Mage
roleplaying and possibly a few rolls. Unless someone botches a roll, each party must give something to the other. The deciding factor, however, is the Contest of Wills.
Story-wise, a Contest of Wills pits the magus against his would-be servant in order to see who’s commanding what from whom.
Game-wise, the player and Storyteller share a resisted Willpower roll; the difficulty of each roll is the opponent’s permanent Willpower, with each party trying to roll at least one success for each dot in the opponent’s Willpower Trait. If, for example, the Hermetic magus Iyeoka Sophia, bani Shaea, wants to forge a Pact with an astral servitor whose Willpower is 6, then she needs to get at least six successes at difficulty 6 before that spirit manages to equal or exceed Iyeoka’s Willpower Trait with his own Willpower rolls. For modifiers on this roll,