Trying a Free Spirit, Because I'm enamored with the concept and a glutton for punishment Options

[Larme]

/sigh.
You have a Body 3 spirit. You cast Shapechange to become a Bod 5 creature. You get 5 successes. Your animal form has Bod 10. With the Shapechange spell you add the successes from the Spellcasting Test to the attributes of the creature.

Oh, really? I totally forgot about that. Don't sigh at me >:X

1) You're assuming they die. Think Prince Arthas from the Warcraft setting.

It says pretty clearly that their soul is consumed. I guess that might not fit within at least someone's definition of death. I wasn't trying to say that no mage would ever do it, I just personally can't imagine what it takes to want to let a spirit consume you in order for your body to live on with a merged spirit-person entity controlling it. The RAW even says that someone who gets inhabited is considered to be "lost," i.e. the character is gone, and is now an NPC. You'd have to have a nice GM who wants to let you continue controlling the merged hybrid entity instead of ruling that you become an NPC.

That last sentence doesn't even make sense. Where's the ally spirit stuck in a weapon going to go? And what if he's from a hermetic tradition, and was created as a living enchantment of a Wizard's Staff? Or a kannushi awakening the spirit of the katana?

Especially with that last one the spirit would just get to deal with it; that's its entire purpose of existing. And don't forget: you can go on a short metaplanar quest to get the spirit formula of the "spirit of the sword" for that katana, grabbing a F2 or F3 Inhabitation Free Spirit formula in a few short hours to complete the ritual ceremonies surrounding the forging of a new blade.

What do you mean it doesn't make sense? Allies don't want to be tools, they want to be companions. Being used as mere tools by a mere mundane could make them angry, and they could try to break free. See "losing an ally" in Street Magic, p.105. Being "cruel" or "callous" can make your ally try to escape. Putting it inside a weapon, and giving it away to a mundane, could easily qualify as callous. Maybe if the mage put the ally in an item that he used himself, it would be fine. I can indeed imagine a Qaballic ally spirit being perfectly happy if you stick it into your mystical 10 sided wand, which you use all the time. Or a hedge witch's ally could be just fine with being stuck into a gnarled old staff of mandrake root. But giving the object away seems, IMO, like abuse of an ally spirit that would qualify for it to start trying to escape.

Now, as for finding a free spirit that actually desires to live inside of weapons, and then binding it? That would work. That would actually be pretty cool. Bound spirits don't have the same loyalty, nor do they have the ability to break away when they feel unloved. Plus, if it's the right kind of spirit, then it probably wouldn't even be that angry at being bound.

[Neraph]

First off, I apologize about sighing at you, I've had to explain how that spell works many many times. It gets old after a while.

It says pretty clearly that their soul is consumed. I guess that might not fit within at least someone's definition of death. I wasn't trying to say that no mage would ever do it, I just personally can't imagine what it takes to want to let a spirit consume you in order for your body to live on with a merged spirit-person entity controlling it. The RAW even says that someone who gets inhabited is considered to be "lost," i.e. the character is gone, and is now an NPC. You'd have to have a nice GM who wants to let you continue controlling the merged hybrid entity instead of ruling that you become an NPC.

It also says that unless the story is good, the character is completely consumed. If it makes for a good story that the mage and the spirit fuse into a new entity in which the mage is no longer fully the old mage and the spirit is no longer fully the old spirit, but a permanent combination of the two (again, think Prince Arthas from Warcraft or any of the fusion dances from DBZ, only permanent), then those lines of text are fulfilled.

Now I will cede your point on True Form merges, because they specifically state the vessel is destroyed. Hypothetically, Hybrid Forms, and especially Flesh Forms, have the potential of retaining enough of the original player (especially Flesh Form) to continue playing it, no problem, especially if the spirit was an ally spirit, and the characteristics of the ally spirit were similar to your own character.

And nowhere within the rules does it state that you become an NPC. It does not even suggest that.

Now, as for finding a free spirit that actually desires to live inside of weapons, and then binding it? That would work. That would actually be pretty cool. Bound spirits don't have the same loyalty, nor do they have the ability to break away when they feel unloved. Plus, if it's the right kind of spirit, then it probably wouldn't even be that angry at being bound.

That was my point exactly.

[Larme]

And nowhere within the rules does it state that you become an NPC. It does not even suggest that.

I dunno, it directly states that the character is "lost" for all intents and purposes. To me, that means you died, and the thing in your place is now an NPC. Again, the GM can rule otherwise, it says so. But that's not how it works by default.

[Prime Mover]

Thought I'd toss up a Free Spirit in action. In our last game (an alt group). The free spirit provided secure communication via mindlink, fire support by manifesting near solo targets and fearing them, a movement power that got the team to safety before a SWAT team ruined there day. All in all a valuable member of this team. Being a beast spirit and manifesting as an unassuming dog let's him wander around drawing much less attention them an armored troll boxer, a coma patient in a wheel chair and the cybered up gunman.

[The Jake]

Hybrid form inhabitation merges are the only way spirits can utilyze AR or the 'trix.

Cheers. Thanks. I know this is in SM but I don't have my book handy.

- J.

[The Jake]

If you try to get all the 5 core spirit powers at a rating = your force, and keep your stats basically in line with your force, you end up being a Force 2.5 spirit. You're pretty much as cool as a standard Force 3 Spirit that has a lot of "F-1" and few "F" stats, and not nearly as many spirit powers. That's why I prefer to think of Free Spirit PCs as Wild Spirit PCs. You have to be really clever for them to work for you, such as being a Materialization tradition and taking Shapechange.

I've been toying with the idea of having a 350 BP free spirit base cost, starting at F2 like normal, but gaining the 5 core spirit powers at a rating = your force and having your stats = your force, allowing you to raise stats over your force as desired (lots of spirits have "F+3" stats)(and possibly not Edge-having to raise that one from 1 to a max of your Force), and gaining one spirit power per point of force (as opposed to Spirit Points as written). That way you're pretty much playing a real freaking spirit, or at least an Ally Spirit lookalike that went free.

This would make free spirits playable IMHO - and on par with summoned spirits. Personally, I'd like to see a way to cherry pick powers and/or get additional powers like a free spirit... but that's probably a bit out of the question.

Shame it is a house rule and not RAW however. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

- J.