Spirits of Man - better than sustaining focus?, Minmaxers, start your engines Options

[Spookymonster]

At character creation, a Force 2 sustaining focus for health spells costs 6 BP: 4BP for the 20,000 :nuyen: , and another 2BP for bonding. If you were to cast Increase Reflexes into this focus, the best you could hope to achieve is the threshold(2) effect (+1 Init, +1 Init Phase). This focus could only be use on one person at a time.

For the same cost, a Force 6 (assuming a maxed-out magician) can start with a bound Force 6 Spirit of Man with 6 services due. This spirit can have 2 Innate Spells, say Increase Reflexes and Armor. At any time, the controlling magician can use a service to have the spirit cast a Force 4 Increase Reflexes on any target, with a good chance of achieving maximum results (+3 Init, +3 Init Phase). The controller can use additional services to repeat this action (or cast another innate spell), but with penalties for sustaining multiple spells obviously.

This service does not diminish the sustaining spirit as would Spell Binding, so spirits shouldn't be as reluctant to do it. Likewise, there is no limitation to the spell chosen as the innate spell, unlike Spell Binding spells (i.e., spirits can only bind spells of a specific class).