New negative quality, Must bind all spirits Options

[Da9iel]

Hermetic mages never used to be able to call up spirits on the fly (Damn magic SOTA!) if you gave them a quality wherein they had to bind all spirits, would that work? Of course it could only be taken by those capable of conjuring. I was thinking this could get some of the classic Hermetic feel back into mages. Does +5 BP sound right to mirror a classic shaman's +5 BP Incompetent: Binding? Does anyone have a better name for the quality?
K thx bye.

[Ol' Scratch]

Maybe something like this? It still gives them some use out of their Summoning skill, but not nearly as much as those without the quality.

Limited Summoning
Bonus: 10 BP

Magicians with this quality have difficulty summoning spirits on the fly and must bind them in order to retain their services. When using Summoning, the magician's spirits only remain in their service for one action phase. If their next action doesn't involve the start of a binding ritual, the spirit fades away just as if it were sunrise or sunset. This quality may only be taken by characters with the Magician or Mystic Adept qualities who possess the Summoning skill.

You can also create a Technomancer version where all sprites must be registered in order to survive for more than an action phase, but I'd lower the bonus to 5 BP for them since it's a lot cheaper to register than bind.

[Tarantula]

Of course, the powergamer inside says +10 bp for -4bp for 1 point in the skill.... win!

[Ol' Scratch]

You still need to summon a spirit to bind it, and the hits on the summoning test add to the overall services. So... your inner powergamer isn't a very good powergamer. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Tarantula]

I meant for taking a penalty free neg, if you don't plan on summoning with a mystic adept for example. 6BP for free if you never planned on summoning anything in the first place.

[Ol' Scratch]

Then it's up to the GM to veto it. There's plenty of qualities like that, some even worse. Incompetence being a prime example -- you can't even have the associated skill. Incompetent: Exotic Melee Weapon (Cyberhorns), for instance. But if it's really an issue (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohplease.gif) just make the restriction "...possess a Summoning skill of 3 or higher."

[NightmareX]

No offense, but I prefer this since it can duplicate both pre-4th Hermetics as well as other situations.

Situational Incompetence
Cost: 5 bp
A character with this negative quality is impaired in his ability to use a certain Active skill he or she possesses (chosen when this quality is taken) for some reason. The reasoning behind this, and the exact limitations are chosen by the player (subject to the gamemaster’s approval) but should generally preclude the character from using the skill to it’s full effectiveness or from using the majority of the skill’s applications as defined by it’s specializations. Reasons for such limitation can range from physical inadequacy, lack of knowledge or training, psychological limitation, or simply restriction due to belief, as the following examples show:
• Demolitions (Improvised Explosives only) – because the character is self taught
• Intimidation (Mental only) – because the character is physically unassuming
• Pilot Ground Craft (Bike only) – because the character never learned to drive anything else
• Summoning (Can only summon as part of a Binding ritual) – because the character is a Hermetic mage who learned his Conjuring skills prior to the popularity of UMT and refuses to modify his magical practice

Situational Incompetence may not be applied to Language or Knowledge skills. In cases where the character is limited to a single specialization, he or she is treated as having a skill level of “unaware� for that particular skill and must default in order to use any other specializations of said skill. Situational Incompetence may be purchased more than once, choosing a separate skill each time.

[Heath Robinson]

Of course, the powergamer inside says +10 bp for -4bp for 1 point in the skill.... win!

The most limited resource here is your Negative quality budget. This is terrible powergaming.

Let's take a look at your basic powergame build; they will, without variation, have a full Negative quality budget. It can come from any of the low impact negative qualities (Betel addictions are awesome), but they will be at 35 BPs of Negative qualities. A 10 BP negative quality is, therefore, completely replacable. Using this negative quality costs you 4 BPs for a skill you don't intend to use, all other factors are pretty much the same.

Another way of looking at it is that you paid 10 BP of your negative quality limit for 6 BP of benefit; is the fact that it doesn't much impact your initial concept really worth losing 4 BP of the bonus?

[HappyDaze]

Incompetence being a prime example -- you can't even have the associated skill. Incompetent: Exotic Melee Weapon (Cyberhorns), for instance.

However, this does give me the idea to take Incompentent (Exotic Melee Weapon: Horns) for my next Minotaur...

[Wasabi]

You still need to summon a spirit to bind it, and the hits on the summoning test add to the overall services. So... your inner powergamer isn't a very good powergamer. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

On BBB, p180 it says Banished spirits can immediately be summoned. If this was the only way the character could contact spirits to later Bind then sheer "If I make the spirit mad I may never find another to bind" factor could force some really great roleplay.