Spirits Inhabiting Drones, Rigger Mage the Ultimate Munchkin Options

[V-Origin]

So I have been exploring some old threads today and I came up with this potentially game changing idea.

What if there is a Rigger Mage who construct a drone and calls a Spirit to INHABIT THE DRONE?!

Yeah that will take care of spirits mucking around with the drones wouldn't it? Plus that gives each drone Spiritual Powers!

So say you have an army (100+) of such spirit inhabited drones. You wouldn't actually have to control them directly as the inhabited spirits are already controlling those drones. And the spirits can communicate with each other and the PCs via the communication devices inherent in each drone. Thus allowing for the PCs to create an army of intelligent, PC-like soldiers.

I shiver at the mayhem.

[X-Kalibur]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you're trying too hard.

[sabs]

What if there is a Rigger Mage who construct a drone and calls a Spirit to INHABIT THE DRONE?!

Yeah that will take care of spirits mucking around with the drones wouldn't it? Plus that gives each drone Spiritual Powers!

So say a corp has an army (100+) of such spirit inhabited drones. They wouldn't actually have to control them directly as the inhabited spirits are already controlling those drones. And the spirits can communicate with each other and the Security Riggers via the communication devices inherent in each drone. Thus allowing for the Corps to create an army of intelligent, PC-like soldiers.

I shiver at the mayhem.

FTFY

[Yerameyahu]

It's not a new idea. Here are some problems that came up last thread: the spirit can't use any of the technology, so what's the point of using a drone at all? No VR-grade IPs, no guns, no sensors, etc. No comms, which you mention. Might as well just inhabit piles of sand, critters, or people.

[Johnny B. Good]

As far as I know only free spirits have inhabitation. So you'd have to convince a free spirit to inhabit that drone. And once you do that, well, you have a free spirit inhabiting a drone that probably hates you for making it inhabit that goddamn chunk of metal.

And as per Yera's post, the spirit wouldn't have access to any of the 'ware in the drone. That only applies to metahumans that have paid for 'ware via essence.

[sabs]

It would be easier to spend the cash money on response upgrades and pilot 6 with maneuver 6, targeting 6, and tactical: 3
those drones would have 15 dice for their gunnery checks

[V-Origin]

Why can't the spirit use any of the technology?

Says here in the spirit guide that "A spirit possessing or inhibiting a vessel can do anything the
vessel can do normally. A car vessel can drive and play the radio,
a toaster can make toast, and a dead body without legs can pull
itself along by its arms."

As long as the spirit can move the drone and fire a gun, which are the normal actions of a drone, why can't the spirit use the drone?

[Yerameyahu]

*shrug* I dunno, I'm just reporting from the last thread. Honestly, my group rarely uses spirits, so maybe I was misled. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

What skills does the inhabiting spirit use for Gunnery, Piloting, Elec Warfare, etc?

Hmm. There's this:

While the spirit may use all of its powers on the physical plane through such a vessel, it may only animate it to perform actions the vessel could otherwise mechanically perform. For instance, a possessed gun would be able to fire or eject a clip, but would be unable to move by itself or access its smartgun functions. Likewise, a possessed bright-red SAAB Fury would be able to drive itself, but not access GridLink, use a Pilot program, or target weapons with sensors. As a rule of thumb, spirits can control mechanical functions, and not those which require complex electronic, DNI, or wireless controls.

[V-Origin]

As far as I know only free spirits have inhabitation. So you'd have to convince a free spirit to inhabit that drone. And once you do that, well, you have a free spirit inhabiting a drone that probably hates you for making it inhabit that goddamn chunk of metal.

And as per Yera's post, the spirit wouldn't have access to any of the 'ware in the drone. That only applies to metahumans that have paid for 'ware via essence.

Says here in the SM, "A new Inhabitation Test is not required for inhabiting
ally spirits, though the conjurer can provide a new vessel and
have the spirit merge with it instead (leaving the old vessel a
discarded husk)."

So it seems that ally spirits do inhabit too.

Now, as I mentioned before, an inhabited spirit would need to use the software in order to move and use the drone. The homunculus doesn't have any software, does it? Yet it moves about just fine

[V-Origin]

It would be easier to spend the cash money on response upgrades and pilot 6 with maneuver 6, targeting 6, and tactical: 3
those drones would have 15 dice for their gunnery checks

But there would be nothing to prevent spirits from attacking the drones then. The main purpose of this tactic is to defend against spirits and astral attacks.

[Yerameyahu]

Per my quote above, it seems like you could move and fire, but no sensors, smartlink, comms, software, etc.

[Johnny B. Good]

Says here in the SM, "A new Inhabitation Test is not required for inhabiting
ally spirits, though the conjurer can provide a new vessel and
have the spirit merge with it instead (leaving the old vessel a
discarded husk)."

So it seems that ally spirits do inhabit too.

Now, as I mentioned before, an inhabited spirit would need to use the software in order to move and use the drone. The homunculus doesn't have any software, does it? Yet it moves about just fine

Okay, so you get one AllyDroneSpirit. That's not so bad, but remember what happens if your Ally get ganked.

And I guess you can use the mechanics, but not the software. So no comm devices. You could always have an agent operating those though.

So if a rigger tried to jack an inhabited drone via jumping in, how would that work?

[sabs]

But there would be nothing to prevent spirits from attacking the drones then. The main purpose of this tactic is to defend against spirits and astral attacks.

Drones are immune to astral attacks.
You /cannot/ target a drone while astral or from astral space.
Drones also use object rules for resisting spells.
Drones have an object threshhold of 6+ for spells. It's one of the ways to deal with Magicians/Spirits



Sadly I don't have street magic, so I can't figure out what it looks like when a spirit inhabits a drone with a pilot of 6.

[Simon Kerimov]

You aren't trying hard enough.

Summon a Guardian Spirit with the Heavy Weapons Skill power, stick it inside of a suit of heavy milspec armor.

Get a Lockheed Sparrow with an upgraded Pilot, Fuzzy Logic, and a pile of combat autosofts.

Put commlinks on the heavy weapon, the armor, and the drone, cluster them, and put an AI in charge of the whole mess.

Have a spirit inhabit the armor suit, the drone, and the heavy weapon.

Get a Holocaust Cloak.

Set it all on fire.

Politely ask your Apocalypse Monster to smite your enemies.

[Yerameyahu]

There was a thread about that, Johnny B. Good. Some people suggested that the spirit controls the mechanicals and the rigger/Pilot/whatever controls the technologicals; others thought maybe they'd fight over control; others said they could share control based on their IPs (spirits only get 2, riggers get at least 3). You should look up the thread if you want better details, but I can't recall the title. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[Johnny B. Good]

Get a Holocaust Cloak.

A what now?

[sabs]

A what now?

turn in your geek badge at the door, and don't disgrace us with your presence ever again.

Heathen devil worshiping impersonator

Not recognizing a Princess Bride DnD quote!

off with his head!

[Yerameyahu]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yokQ0_8__ts Skip to 1:44

[V-Origin]

*shrug* I dunno, I'm just reporting from the last thread. Honestly, my group rarely uses spirits, so maybe I was misled. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

What skills does the inhabiting spirit use for Gunnery, Piloting, Elec Warfare, etc?

Hmm. There's this:

Here are the rules for spirits possessing inanimate objects. I will just state the relevant parts.

"If the vessel is inanimate or dead, the spirit’s
Force is added to any appropriate Physical
ratings (at the gamemaster’s discretion). For
instance, a corpse’s attributes would be appropriate,
as would a jar’s Barrier rating, or a vehicle’s
Body, Armor, and Speed—though not it’s
Handling."

"The spirit does not enhance any techor
software-based statistics such as an object’s
Device rating or a vehicle’s Pilot software. While
the spirit may use all of its powers on the physical
plane through such a vessel, it may only
animate it to perform actions the vessel could
otherwise mechanically perform."

"For instance,
a possessed gun would be able to fire or eject
a clip, but would be unable to move by itself or
access its smartgun functions. Likewise, a possessed
bright-red SAAB Fury would be able to
drive itself, but not access GridLink, use a Pilot
program, or target weapons with sensors. As
a rule of thumb, spirits can control mechanical
functions, and not those which require complex
electronic, DNI, or wireless controls."

So mechanical actions are allowed as I previously stated..

[V-Origin]

Double

[Yerameyahu]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I just posted that (prettier, too). You quoted all of my post except the redundant part… bu-wha?

Anyway, to reiterate: move, shoot mechanical guns, but no sensors, comms, etc. Anyway, I was asking what skills the spirit is using for that. I feel like it doesn't necessarily know Gunnery.

[V-Origin]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I just posted that (prettier, too). You quoted all of my post except the redundant part… bu-wha?

Anyway, to reiterate: move, shoot mechanical guns, but no sensors, comms, etc. Anyway, I was asking what skills the spirit is using for that. I feel like it doesn't necessarily know Gunnery.

Suppose the spirit inhabit the drone for defensive purposes but leave the handling of the movement and weapons to the drone ware?

Thus the drone will still be in charge of the movement and aiming of the weapons. But the Body, Armour, Speed of the drone would be increased. Since it did mention that the physical attributes of the vessel would be enhanced by the force of the spirit.

Inhabited Spirit would focus of defending against spiritual attacks or use its powers to add more attacks of its own or complement the efficiency of the drone.

Hmmm.. I see a two-pronged defense coming up..

Said drone attack mage.
Mage order spirit to attack drone. Mage use fire spell on Drone.
Drone spirit attack Mage spirit. Drone ware dodges out of fire spell.
Drone ware move drone and aim/fire gun.

Or.. a two-pronged offense..

Said drone attack troll.
Drone ware move drone and aim/fire gun.
Drone spirit use fire spell on troll.
Troll becomes bbq troll meat.

You get the idea..

[V-Origin]

And if the drone gets hacked, then the spirit will take over the mechanical actions of the drone and deny control of the drone to the enemy hacker

[X-Kalibur]

I will restate - you are trying too hard. There are plenty of ways to break the game. Spending that much time and energy could be easily spent in other areas breaking the game more easily. Just summon a guardian spirit and give it an HVAR loaded with stick n shock ammo.

[Doc Byte]

What happens if you turn a fleshform spirit into a jarhead drone? Any ideas apart from "the universe implodes"?