Not again, please not again!

The way that I see it is that with a True Form, the host's spirit is destroyed. That's what you get for not having much willpower to fend off the invasion with. I also think that this is the result that an insect spirit Queen / Mother actually wants as it's the true representation of a the insect form (along with being pretty powerful). But I see a closer match between the contest of wills to mean that an actual merge of some sort is taking place. The insect fails to completely obliterate the hosts original form which survives to some extent, even if only in physical body. A good merge I see as the host managing to preserve much of the original mind as well as the body. So they may be irrevocably possessed, but they have fought the spirit into a position of unification rather than being completely overwhelmed. In this case, I think it would be possible for for magic to be preserved.

Heh. He should watch himself. I mean we all get a little peckish after sex, but with a mantid, pizza might not be enough, if you get me.

Not necessarily. Her stats were for an unaugmented ork, and to "summon" a spirit the way she does in dead Run, she didn't need to be a mage, per se.

Of course, this gets really sick when you get the high-level initiate vampire to use his enhanced attributes on his willpower to get a ridiculous number of successes, so that all his powers and magic come through his transition to a good merge intact. Just think: a force 5 or 6 bug, that also has high-level magic, mist form, essence drain, regeneration...

then let it go free when you kill the mother spirit...

The paranormal creatures used as examples in Threats II were non-sapient, but there was nothing in the rules or fluff text indicating that it only worked on non-sentients. All the examples were four-legged mammals as well, but I wouldn't assume that this meant I couldn't invest a novoscorpion or an embracer.

[fixed]

You've got that backwards. Good Merges require hosts with Willpower 5+

Well, it seems SR3 is fading away, isn't it.

I still stand by the rest of my post.

You just have to practice safe sex. In this case, that means having a very well-stocked refrigerator before bringing home any insect-spirit girls.

But reading posts here, is it fair to say that most of us have been in a game where a female mantid has attempted to seduce a player character? Just seems that they might be one of those universal character types.

Eh. In D&D our party once stepped in a clearly Ravenloft themed inn.

Very, very obviously our DM suggested there was something weird and sinister with the owner, bar tender and waiter(ress). The males were a bit hairy and male and females alike looked feral (in his words).

Okay, so, werewolves.

A 'feral' waitress lay the seduction thick on my PC and to everyone's surprise I respond favorably (But I figured he would, being a low wisdom womanizer). A female PC tries to warn me, a waiter NPC starts laying the seduction on her. She's low charisma as hell and decide she's desperate for attention so she too starts responding favorably (Cue in groans from the rest of the party).

Then my PC exclaim : ''Wait, no one would be interested in her. Maybe this IS a tr...''

But the DM interrupt and says our PC are invited to join the waiters in the back of the inn for some fun...

Me and the other player look at each other in silence for two seconds. Then we exclaim simulteneously :

''WE GONNA SCORE TONIGHT!''

And we joined them, giggling all the while. Another PC said ''I give them five minutes before we hear them screaming like little girls''.

Since that scene had sanked so low into comedy already, the DM decided to simply state that 5 minutes later the rest of the party heard us scream like little girl and they rushed in the back to find us fighting for our life buck naked. Roll initiative.

It was funny.

In SR, it might be a bit less appropriate but then again, fun is fun. Of course, you have to trust the GM not to deal instant death on you just for one bit of comedy so you might ask first.

Well the usual portrayal of the merge process is that it's a contest of wills between the spirit and the host with the spirit aiming to achieve true spirit status. Strong willed people resist this and the very strongest force the spirit into a semblance of themselves (good merge). Is there any reason why the investing spirit, if it were instructed to by the Queen or Shaman, couldn't fail its roll on purpose? Normally in an opposed contest you could do this if you wished. This would allow high force spirits to achieve good merges. It fits fluff, rules and cannon so why not? It's normally a disadvantage because you've wasted a high force spirit that counts towards your total as a weak incarnation. But if the shaman can persuade the queen that it's necessary...

EDIT: The host still needs to get five successes mind you, which would explain in 2XS, why the insects were scouring for strong willed people.