Spirits too Powerful?, Are spirits too powrful? Options

[chazuli]

I have been running a few sessions of SR 4th and so far I like it quite a bit. I just ran my fourth session and had occasion to deal with spirits amongst the opposition. The PCs have been using spirits and I've noted they're pretty potent, but didn't realize their full potential until I started playing with them.

I used the occasion of a critical glitch on a summoning to have a spirit show up to attack the mage (and the party as a consequence). I discovered that the fact the spirit's skills and edge are all equal to its force left me with a nigh unstoppable juggernaut that the characters wouldn't have been able to deal with had they not gotten some lucky rolls. That of course got the characters thinking and soon they were summoning up spirits that pretty much trashed any mundane opposition I threw at them. Now of course, I can always ratchet up the magic, or throw in opposing spirits, but 3/4 of the party can do absolutely nothing to a spirit with a force of say 5 or 6 (let alone an even more powerful one).

Obviously, spirits are meant to be majorly powerful and few things should cause fear amongst a player than a free spirit who's angry at the party. but given the relative ease a mage can summon up such an unstoppable force, does anyone have any suggestions as to more balanced ways to tone down spirit a bit?

Best,
Charles Millar