Possession Power, Task spirits, and do vessels need to be prepared? Options

[Panzergeist]

I've been contemplating creating a Qabbalist magician, and have run into a couple of snags. On page 95 of Street Magic, it says that possession may be facilitated by prior preparation of the vessel, but doesn't have to be. Preparing the vessel costs a bunch of time and money, and it's not clear what advantage this gives. What is the point of preparing a vessel if you don't need to?

Also, task spirits seem incredibly useful what with their ability to have any technical skill added on. I can see a couple of ways in which they may be overpowered. First off, are spirit skills capped at 6, or do they go as high as the force you can summon them at? Second, although I see that all traditions listed which have task spirits are possession traditions, you can still make up your own tradition. Would you guys consider task spirits in a materialization tradition overpowered? It seems so to me, since you could essentially summon an instant mechanic to substitute for any needed technical skills on the team.

[pbangarth]

I've been contemplating creating a Qabbalist magician, and have run into a couple of snags. On page 95 of Street Magic, it says that possession may be facilitated by prior preparation of the vessel, but doesn't have to be. Preparing the vessel costs a bunch of time and money, and it's not clear what advantage this gives. What is the point of preparing a vessel if you don't need to?

A prepared vessel is easier to possess. The possessing spirit gets +6 dice to its roll to take possession of a prepared vessel.

Also, task spirits seem incredibly useful what with their ability to have any technical skill added on. I can see a couple of ways in which they may be overpowered. First off, are spirit skills capped at 6, or do they go as high as the force you can summon them at? Second, although I see that all traditions listed which have task spirits are possession traditions, you can still make up your own tradition. Would you guys consider task spirits in a materialization tradition overpowered? It seems so to me, since you could essentially summon an instant mechanic to substitute for any needed technical skills on the team.

Skill = Force. So, yeah, they can be very useful. No, task spirits in a materialization tradition would not be any more overpowered than in a possession tradition.

[TheOOB]

Possession and materialization traditions are fairly well balanced. Possession traditions allow you to give spirits large stat boosts, and possess various targets to control them/give them special abilities, but possession is never 100% guaranteed, even with prepared vessels.

A materialized spirit will always be there for you, but there isn't as many cool tricks you can play with them.