So, by request of my players, my next Savage Worlds game is actually going to be a conversion of Pathfinder's Council of Thieves. I asked the group if they felt like they wanted custom arcane backgrounds or if the standard ones would be sufficient and the only answer was that they wanted devil binding to be something special.

If you are not familiar, Council of Thieves takes place in Cheliax, a country that feels to me like the Borgias' Italy. It used to be a holy place devoted to the god of humanity, but he died and now Cheliax is a decadent place ruled by a noble family of devil binders. So, devil binding is a common thing...its a cultural fascination with hell and the thought that Chelaxians are above the devils. Like, they view themselves as superior in the relationship... they "enslave" the devils and make them work for them (and the devils let them think that).

So, I want to provide a lot of tempting power, but have great cost associated with it. So, here's how I am doing it.

Devik Binding

Skill: Binding (Smarts)

Powers Known: Summon Ally and two others

Power Points: 5 (and they recover at half speed)

You can Bargain with a devil to get power points, just like a huckster in Deadlands (we're just going to call the poker game Harrow instead...its a setting thing).

You can also use Summon Ally to duplicate a power you don't know. You basically use Summon at the same tier that the power is (so, Novice for Burst, Seasoned for Blast, etc) and it calls a devil up that uses the power on your behalf. If the power costs more power points than Summon at that tier, you have to cover the difference as well. The devil you summoned for this purpose will stick around and repeat the power if you provide the pp, but otherwise, it goes away again.

I really want to treat 1s more like mad science than spellcasting, with catastrophic backlashes because of what you're dealing with. I might just use the huckster rules though. I forget their backlash and I am away from my books.

What do you think? Will this work? Too powerful? Too costly? I want to hit that sweet spot where its strong enough to tempt, but dangerous enough to make it risky.