Angel Summoner, quick and easy Force 9 spirits Options

[kerbarian]

It takes a bit of investment, but it's not that hard to regularly summon Force 9 spirits with minimal drain from a starting character. The main ingredients are Magic 9 (natural 6 + Force 3 Power Focus) and a large drain pool -- Edge helps, too.

Force 9 spirits are, of course, rather ridiculously powerful. An air spirit has a ranged attack of 18P/-9 (Elemental Attack, electricity) with 21 dice and a melee attack of 27S/special (Engulf + Energy Aura). It also has initiative of 22 + 2d6 (before boosting with Increased Reflexes), 18 hardened armor against most attacks, and a defense pool (Rea + Int) of 22. Oh, and it makes your whole team invisible with Concealment (-9 dice to enemy perception rolls). Other spirit types are comparable.

Here's a sample character built for summoning them (among other things):

[ Spoiler ]

Thorn

Metatype: Elf

Body 1, Agi 2, Rea 2, Str 1, Wil 5, Log 2, Int 4, Cha 8
Edge 6, Ess 6, Magic 6 (Magician, Shaman)

Condition monitor: 9 physical, 11 stun
Armor: 9

Limits: Physical 2, Mental 5, Social 9
Initiative: 6 + 1d6 (typically boosted much higher)
Astral initiative: 8 + 2d6

Active skills: Spellcasting (detection) 6 (+2), Summoning (air) 6 (+4), Counterspelling 6, Intimidation 3 (+2), Assensing 2, Perception 2, Astral Combat 1

Knowledge skills: Magical theory 3, Free spirits 3, Seattle gardens 2, Psychology 2
Languages: English N, Sperethiel 4

Qualities: Focused Concentration 5, Mentor Spirit (Thunderbird), Allergy (pollutants, mild), Incompetent (Athletics), Weak Immune System

Spells: Combat Sense, Control Thoughts, Detect Life - Extended, Detect Magic - Extended, Heal, Increase Body, Increase Reflexes, Increase Willpower, Resist Pain, Trid Phantasm

Gear: Power focus 3 (bonded), sustaining focus 1 (bonded) (x3), 1000 drams reagents, fake SIN 4 (w/fake licenses for foci, practicing magic) (x2), Transys Avalon commlink (device rating 6), lined coat w/fire resistance 6, armor clothing w/nonconductivity 6, glasses (image link, vision enhancement 3), earbuds (audio enhancement 3), trauma patch, medium lifestyle (3 months)

Contacts: Talismonger (Connection 3, Loyalty 3), club owner (Connection 2, Loyalty 3), Mr. Johnson (Connection 4, Loyalty 2), Ancients member (brother) (Connection 2, Loyalty 5)

Increased Willpower can be sustained with Focused Concentration, giving him a Willpower of 9 (maxxed out at natural +4). That plus his natural Charisma of 8 is a drain pool of 17. Summoning a Force 9 air spirit with 19 dice and then resisting drain with 17 dice results in an average of 3.3 services and 1.5 stun damage from drain (53% chance of no drain at all). If he's about to take drain damage, he can spend Edge (of which he has plenty) on Second Chance -- that reduces things to an average of 0.3 stun damage (87% chance of no drain at all). With some extra time, he can also quickly rest it off (adding Increased Body via a sustaining focus plus reagents gets him to 14 dice for healing stun damage).

Binding a Force 9 spirit is scary stuff, but just summoning a new one whenever you run out of services is very doable and incredibly powerful.

A couple other notes about the character: While he's incredibly frail physically, he's actually very hard to hit unless he's had to shut down his sustaining foci. If he's expecting combat, he'll generally be sustaining Increased Willpower (via Focused Concentration) and then Combat Sense on himself and Increased Reflexes on both himself and his summoned spirit (using sustaining foci). Those last three would be cast at Force 1 so they can fit in the sustaining foci but with reagents to increase their limits to 9 -- reagents are basically ammo for spellcasters. That gives him plenty of initiative to use Full Defense; that plus Combat Sense that typically gives him 21 dice for avoiding attacks, plus lots of Edge if things look ugly.

He doesn't have any weapons or combat spells. He'd be perfectly competent with combat spells, but the spirit will still hit much harder and Control Thoughts (with a decent Initiative) actually seems like a more useful spell in a fight -- I haven't tried that in actual play, though.

Edit: Since the sample character above seems particularly contentious, here's another one that's more well-rounded. He still won't do well at arm wrestling, but he's only a bit below average physically, and he adds some interesting capabilities: He's a great scout (strong detection spells plus perception to go with spirit Concealment) and all-around healer (17 dice for First Aid with a medkit, plus Heal and Resist Pain). He can still summon Force 9 spirits -- only 2.7 average services with no Mentor Spirit, but he's the same on drain resistance. Instead of a natural 8 charisma, he boosts both of his drain attributes via spells for the same total of 17 dice. He's tougher in combat with the same suite of defensive spells (Combat Sense, Increase Reflexes, Increase Willpower) plus better Body and Int + Rea.

[ Spoiler ]

Kazimir

Metatype: Human

Body 3, Agi 2, Rea 3, Str 2, Wil 5, Log 4, Int 6, Cha 3
Edge 5, Ess 6, Magic 6 (Magician, Hermetic)

Condition monitor: 10 physical, 11 stun
Armor: 12

Limits: Physical 4, Mental 7, Social 7
Initiative: 9 + 1d6
Astral initiative: 12 + 2d6

Active skills: Spellcasting 6, Summoning (air) 6 (+2), Counterspelling 5, First Aid 3, Perception 3, Assensing 2, Astral Combat 1, Sneaking 1

Knowledge skills: Magical security 5, Parazoology 3, Architecture 2, Chess 3, Corporate politics 2
Languages: English N, Russian 3, Mandarin 2

Qualities: Focused Concentration 5, Code of Honor (civilians and noncombatants), Spirit Bane (beasts), Prejudiced (mild, against shamans)

Spells: Combat Sense, Control Thoughts, Detect Life - Extended, Detect Magic - Extended, Heal, Increase Logic, Increase Reflexes, Increase Willpower, Resist Pain, Trid Phantasm

Gear: Power focus 3 (bonded), sustaining focus 4 (bonded), sustaining focus 1 (bonded) (x2), 1000 drams reagents, fake SIN 4 (w/fake licenses for foci, practicing magic), Transys Avalon commlink (device rating 6), armor jacket w/fire resistance 6, armor clothing w/nonconductivity 6, glasses (image link, vision enhancement 3), earbuds (audio enhancement 3), medkit (rating 3), medkit (rating 6), trauma patch, medium lifestyle (2 months)

Contacts: Security mage (Connection 3, Loyalty 3), Talismonger (Connection 2, Loyalty 1)