Ally Spirits and You: A guide to Magical Goodness, What have you done with them in your games? Options

[Athanatos]

Hey, I've been wondering what other people have done with their Allied Spirits in their games, and the various thoughts they've had on how they'd create/develope one. Being the only person in my gaming group who actually has summoned one(In my case 2 as of last few games) I find that I don't have much of a frame of reference as I don't seem to be able to find any examples of one in any of the books I have. The closest I have found seems to be the Free Spirit in the SR Novel Nosferatu, and he's a former ally and not a free spirit. I believe DoTSW has A Ryumyo having one(that can't be right, what's up with my spelling today?), but it doesn't go into that much detail other than that he has enhanced him throughout the millennia.

[Malicant]

I've never been to hot about Allies and in SR4 I had not much opportunity to test one. If you look for ideas in novels, how about the books written by Steve Kenson. Tommy Talon has an Ally, who can turn into a motorcycle. Awesome. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/spin.gif)

[Athanatos]

Which books? And I'm looking for information from any players/GM's(Which lets face it tends to be the same thing lol) as well as any Shadowrun books, novels, etc.

*Edited to now include such mighties as Synner, AH, Fist.... well you get it, Bibliophile(I think that's it anyways) and other personages. Though they fall in the other categories too.) <<<< well it does here lol.

[Dashifen]

My wife made a character had an Ally. The character was a Zoroastrian Magus and with a guardian-eske ally. The spirit started out as a bound spirit (paid for with BP at character generation) and rebound continually until an ally formula could be written that would "reform" the bound spirit into an Ally. We handwaved the fact that the ally formula technically creates a new spirit not converts an old one, but that was for story and coolness factor.

Thus, Akasha was born. She had the elemental effect of Light for attacks and manifested as a chainmail bikini-clad Amazon-eske fighter. And, yes, my wife did determine the form (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) Honestly, she didn't do too much. My wife made her Force 3 and was nervous about sending her into dangerous situations because of the karma sink she was. Most of the time, she was there for Aid Sorcery actions and Drain Resist. Unfortunately, the ally ended up with less personality than the bound spirit because my wife didn't utilize her for as many crazy stunts and spirit power-based capabilities after making her ally.

[Malicant]

Crossroads, Ragnarock and The Burning Time are about good old Tommy. They are quite good (IMO), since Kenson also worked in the magic department of SR rules, if I remember correctly.

Dashifen, your wife just got added to my Awesome list. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Ravor]

>>>>> The bond between an Ally Spirit and a Mage is the most precious and unbreakable bond in all of time and space. Any wizard worthy of the title would glady wade through the Nine Hells for his Ally, knowing that his companion would rip it's very Pattern asunder to save him if given the chance. I would slit the throats of my chummers in a heartbeat if that was what was required to save Alice. <<<<< -Bot

>>>>> And people wonder why I hate working with this fragging slot. <<<<< -Void

[Particle_Beam]

The Ally Spirit of my character's asking annoying questions, running up his credit accounts, watches Trideo all the time, wants to emulate the crazy texan gunbunny in the team and demands more spirit powers. Of course, since the summoner is one heck of a spineless guy, the Ally Spirit gets away with all of it, and enjoys existence, "serving" under such a weakling. Life couldn't be better for the Ally Spirit.

[Ravor]

>>>>> Frag, if spirits weren't creepy enough, that slitch "Alice" could easily pass as my sister! Bot if I didn't owe you for helping me a while back you'd be a fragging popsickle!! <<<<< -Rabbit

>>>>> Aw, I think that they make a cute couple. <<<<< -Little Red Riding Hood with a Gun

>>>>> Slot off you fragging wanna-be slitch! <<<<< -Rabbit

>>>>> Play nice Rabbit, anyone could have misread the chart. <<<<< -Jack the Doc

>>>>> Besides, now I'm more woman than you'll ever be honey! <<<<< -Little Red Riding Hood with a Gun

[DTFarstar]

My character is a Hedge Witch whose child was stillborn and she kind of went nuts and attempts to bind his spirit into a wicker man to keep him with her, but she ended up failing and failing no matter how she tried till she finally got a Force 1 ally. She treats him like her son and often Physical Masks him as such. No one is sure if it is her son's soul or just a spirit. Not even me.

Chris

[Ravor]

Well personally I subscribe to the idea that spirits are created by a Mage at the time of summoning and their personality is shaped from the Mage's own mind.

[tisoz]

In Welcome to the Shadows, Misfit Toy, aka Doctor Funkenstein, aka etc., has a character that makes extensive use of his ally.

Burning Bright by Tom Dowd has a magician with an ally. A good read for the events concerning Bug City, too.

I have had characters using allies for everything from lovers to slaves to power foci to ... Lover is self explanetory, the slave was constantly enchanting, the power foci was used extensively to Aid Power. One interesting use was for the ally to have a Sustaining Focus bonded to it, then casting a beneficial sustained spell on the master through the focus - all to avoid focus addiction (SR3.)

It seems like a lot of people think of having an ally as having an attack dog, but what I have seen in practice is that an ally is too valuable to risk just to have for the purpose of fighting. The ally is usually supporting the magician and keeping its head low.

[Stahlseele]

ok, because someone has to . . dikote him *g* (yes, i know, there is no more dikote in SR4)
but at least you can now make a sword-ally or motorized vehicle ally *g*

[Athanatos]

Two allies, and I forgot to give one a Cape Form so that I can Fly lol. I guess I was relatively lacking Imagination with the forms I gave my allies, no black steed, no sword/scythe of doom(Dark Goddess Mentor Spirit lol), no Ghost Rider Motorcycle. I did give both a draconic form(though not very big) a meta-human form, and a few misc. forms.

Dikote, must not forget to have GM house-rule the "New Improved Dikote"!

[CrystalBlue]

Currently working on getting an NPC his Ally spirit. He used to be my character, way back when I actually got to PLAY. Fox Shaman with 9 magic. Going on 10 soon. Having the group of runners try and locate the lost pieces of his ally's formula. They SO don't know what they're trying to get me. ^.^ I just want a pet fox...with nine tails...that can rip open holes on the material plane and suck people into a random meta-plane. He'll look all fluffy and cute...and 3 stories tall. Well, that's what size he NORMALLY comes in...gotta give him a power to grow bigger. ^.^;;

[Stahlseele]

lol, narutard! *runs for cover*
(just kidding of course *g*)

[Athanatos]

Lol, that would go over great with my GM. "I know I said I wasn't going to power-game, but can my Allies' Draconic forms be Ghostwalker sized?!!!" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/devil.gif) "All I really want is my own personal flying Gojiira Honest!" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/devil.gif)

What is a Narutard? Something to do with Naruto?

Hey, I got it! I'll save up enough and meta-game it so that my 2 allies have a Black Cloak and Scythe form respectively and then get 1 that has "The Flaming Skeletal Demon Cycle Thing" going lol. <<<< or I can just go back to what I really enjoy and actually Play My Character Properly.

[bibliophile20]

What is a Narutard? Something to do with Naruto?

Someone obsessed with Kishimoto's Gary Stu trainwreck is the typical definition.

(and, no, I'm not bitter. Much.)

[tisoz]

Lol, that would go over great with my GM. "I know I said I wasn't going to power-game, but can my Allies' Draconic forms be Ghostwalker sized?!!!" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/devil.gif)

We always played it did not matter what size the ally was - its attributes were going to be what got bought. One could have a Great Dragon sized ally with attributes of 1. Or the ally could have the form of a mouse and double digit attributes.

As far as Kenson's motorcycle form ally, I always thought it was a cheat. A neat idea, but it broke the rules. Unless somewhere between the lines the thing was limited to performance based off its stats, foremost being encumbrance.

[vollmond]

This thread is confusing me - if your ally is disrupted, he/she/it comes back automatically after the (28 days - force) period like any other bound spirit, right? You don't have to resummon/pay more karma, do you?

EDIT: also, my apologies for digging up a year-old thread (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) forgot i was reading it from a search, instead of the frontpage

[Morrigana]

Imagine an ally spirit that happens to be a man in a suit... and which, often, is used to pose as a tax man, lawyer, government agent, international spy, car salesman...

[Cain]

This thread is confusing me - if your ally is disrupted, he/she/it comes back automatically after the (28 days - force) period like any other bound spirit, right? You don't have to resummon/pay more karma, do you?

Correct, but if you want it back faster, you need to go on a Metaplanar Quest.

I had an ally who had one form exactly like the character. They could pass for twins. That meant she was a very good body double if I ever needed it.

[vollmond]

Correct, but if you want it back faster, you need to go on a Metaplanar Quest.

Ok, I'm glad to hear that. Some previous poster(s) said they were reluctant to send their ally into combat for fear of losing the Karma spent - that was confusing me.

[Hagga]

The only time I've ever had one was in a silly series, where the GM let us launch an assault on the Aztech Seattle Pyramid with obscenely high karma characters.

This was very, very over the top, and everything was a pun or bad joke of some sort, so of course it had to look like Hard Gay. Three guesses how it moved and used it's abilities.

[toturi]

The only time I've ever had one was in a silly series, where the GM let us launch an assault on the Aztech Seattle Pyramid with obscenely high karma characters.

This was very, very over the top, and everything was a pun or bad joke of some sort, so of course it had to look like Hard Gay. Three guesses how it moved and used it's abilities.

Say say say... Haaardoo GAY! Hooo!

My players are going to hate you. Fooo!