One Character to Rule Them All, A theoretical character build question Options

[Seerow]

Nope, he would die in Chargen. Drain is a Bitch. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I do not buy the "I got it 20 years ago when he was a lowly Force 1 Ally Spirit." No way in hell.

Nonsense, if the player wants to say "I got it 20 years ago as a force 1 ally spirit", I'd say let him. Just make sure to enforce the double karma cost of advancing a spirit as opposed to binding a new one. 16 karma per instead of 8 karma per means taking him all the way to force 20 is 312 karma, compared to 160 he'd normally pay for it. Add on to that the 406 karma for 4 initiations + magic 10, and he's already over his 750 bp limit without any other attributes or skills.


On the other hand, getting a magical lodge at force 6, summoning him at force 6, and advancing it to force 10, while having only 6 magic and 2-3 initiation grades is far more efficient and leaves the majority of your points for getting other things.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

You have to summon and bind a spirit back to back to make it a ally spirit (SM pg 104), which involves facing hits on 20 dice as drain, followed by 40 dice as drain, so even if you could have a rating 20 spirit, you'd have to resist 6P drain on average, then 13P drain on average, good luck surviving that.


Also, a Force 20 Spirit costs a ton of karma and has almost no skills. If you really want to break the game, make it a force 10 spirit instead, then use that extra karma you spent buying rank 1 in a bunch of skill groups, and then granting those skills to the spirit at 5 karma a piece. Any skill you grant the spirit the spirit gains at a rating equal to its force. You want to be a gun bunny? 9 karma gets you rank 10 in whatever firearm skill you want. This works for basically any skill you want to grant it. And don't forget the 10 free spirit powers you get, at force 10. Want to be a super stealth specialist? How about giving a -10 penalty to everyone's perception test to see you, then have rating 10 stealth, and 11+ agility?

Of course, if you really want to be silly, make the spirit an Inhabitation Spirit rather than possession. Go for the hybrid form, and put it into a Chimeric Warform. Those things are surprisingly cheap. They're expensive to train, but you're just going to prepare them for Inhabitation, so who needs to train them? If you want something with hands get yourself a gorilla or something, but a wolf with a cybergun or something is just as effective. You can also give them a internal commlink, since inhabiting spirits can use cyberware/DNI from their host. Yep, that's right, now your ally spirit can also be the world's best hacker (rating 10 hacking skills). Just do runs as the ally spirit rather than the mage.

Well... By RAW, an Ally Spirit can ONLY be a Materialization Spirit OR an Inhabitation Spirit. No Possession Spirits are allowed. See Street Magic for more details. It is right there in the book.

[Seerow]

Well... By RAW, an Ally Spirit can ONLY be a Materialization Spirit OR an Inhabitation Spirit. No Possession Spirits are allowed. See Street Magic for more details. It is right there in the book.

So that makes what I said as far as inhabitation work, but not the possession from the original poster, so whatever lol.


And to clarify my last post, I just checked and apparently you do need a higher rating magical lodge to upgrade ally spirits, just like if you're summoning them. So that means burning a quality on restricted gear for it (force 10 I believe is availability 20 right within availability)

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Nonsense, if the player wants to say "I got it 20 years ago as a force 1 ally spirit", I'd say let him. Just make sure to enforce the double karma cost of advancing a spirit as opposed to binding a new one. 16 karma per instead of 8 karma per means taking him all the way to force 20 is 312 karma, compared to 160 he'd normally pay for it. Add on to that the 406 karma for 4 initiations + magic 10, and he's already over his 750 bp limit without any other attributes or skills.

Please provide your sources for your rule above. I have never seen such a rule for SR4A. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

[Seerow]

Please provide your sources for your rule above. I have never seen such a rule for SR4A. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

Enhancing an Ally, Street Magic pg 105.

At least in the version of the book I have it says: "Karma must be spent on the relevant changes at the costs outlined above. Raising Force, however, is twice as expensive this way (1 point costs 16 Karma)."

[longbowrocks]

Nonsense, if the player wants to say "I got it 20 years ago as a force 1 ally spirit", I'd say let him. Just make sure to enforce the double karma cost of advancing a spirit as opposed to binding a new one. 16 karma per instead of 8 karma per means taking him all the way to force 20 is 312 karma, compared to 160 he'd normally pay for it. Add on to that the 406 karma for 4 initiations + magic 10, and he's already over his 750 bp limit without any other attributes or skills.


On the other hand, getting a magical lodge at force 6, summoning him at force 6, and advancing it to force 10, while having only 6 magic and 2-3 initiation grades is far more efficient and leaves the majority of your points for getting other things.

I think that would be worth it even if you couldn't use the spirit for anything but edge. You could instantly get the ultimate dice pool 20 times a day for any skill or test.

[Seerow]

I think that would be worth it even if you couldn't use the spirit for anything but edge. You could instantly get the ultimate dice pool 20 times a day for any skill or test.

Ally Spirits get edge equal to your edge, not their force. (SM105 under Attributes)

[longbowrocks]

Ah.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Enhancing an Ally, Street Magic pg 105.

At least in the version of the book I have it says: "Karma must be spent on the relevant changes at the costs outlined above. Raising Force, however, is twice as expensive this way (1 point costs 16 Karma)."

Gotcha... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Sephiroth]

Well... By RAW, an Ally Spirit can ONLY be a Materialization Spirit OR an Inhabitation Spirit. No Possession Spirits are allowed. See Street Magic for more details. It is right there in the book.

Umm...False?

Step 2: Choose Form(s)--The ally spirit may have one (and only one) of the following powers: Inhabitation (p. 100), Materialization (p. 289, SR4), or Possession (p. 101).

Please read more closely in the future.

[Glyph]

That line shows up in the errata, so he probably has an older version of Street Magic. Mine is like that - it only says Materialization and Inhabitation.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Umm...False?


Please read more closely in the future.

Mine shows only Inhabitation and Materialization... So...