Am I the only one that wishes that the "new" spirit powers were available for the "old" spirits, you know, the "old" spirits as listed in the SR4 BBB?

The opening sentence for the new spirit powers in Street magic starts off okay -

The new spirits also don't get access to some of the spirits available to the core spirits.

The Guardian, for example, is most comparable to Beast. Beast gets the option of Confusion, Noxious Breath, Search, Venom and has better senses. The Guardian can pick up a combat skill (if the weapon is handy), Magical Guard to provide counterspelling (if it's maintaining LOS and not attacking anyone on your behalf, and if most of the dice are wasted due to teamwork rules), Elemental Attack, and Psychokinesis.

The Beast does more melee damage (Venom) and can stun them with NB at short ranges. The Guardian is better at ranged combat and is more resistant to magic against itself, but that's really about the only difference. I've usually got better things for a spirit to do in a fight than just watch friendlies and provide spell defense.

Guidance has pretty much all the soft influence/utility/stealth powers Man has. But it doesn't have Innate Spell and instead gets Engulf, which isn't a terrible combat power but Fire/Water/Air with Energy Aura do it much better. Is Divination really that useful? Well, it depends on your GM. But why not just find and pay someone with the Metamagic through a contact? Is secrecy alway that importan? Ask your questions vaguely. As for Magical Guard, I once again suggest that it's greatest utility is in protecting the spirit itself while it attacks...which Guardians are relatively poor at. Shadowcloak makes Concealment even better against visual detection in certain light conditions. Well...ok. It's better than a poke in the eye.

Plant: Utility powers, another weak Engulf, Magical Guard (see above), Noxious Breath (underrated and widespread, but noteworthy in an offensive capacity), and...Silence. Which while nice for stealth operations, replicates a spell you can learn. As it's sole unique ability, it does not overwhelm.

Task: It's all about the Technical/Physical skills. Very nice, I'll admit, but the only three traditions that can use it are Possessory, which limits it significantly. And it's a one trick pony; besides Influence, it's got little of use on the utility side (and Influence costs you a Skill power) and the worst combat ability of all spirits. Do you bind a Task spirit with preset skills you may or may not need in the heat of the moment? Or summon one to spec and forgo having any Concealment, Guard, or offensive ability?

I'm not particularly jealous of any of this stuff except Task for certain eccentric character concepts. I think they're exceptionally well balanced. Yes, if you want to be free to run around like crazy tossing spells and not keep LOS on your team for spell defense, let you Guardian/Plant/Guidance take that over. But I'd rather have the guy with immunity to weapons on the frontlines while I hang back and handle that job, thanks.

Definitely not available only to magicians following the new traditions. The only overlap between the new and old list that I see is the Engulf power and the Energy Drain power. In both cases, it looks to me as though these are both merely clarifications of the original definition in SR4.

As to "old" spirits getting some of the new powers, I would say definitely no. Many of the new powers do have spirits that use them (I haven't the time to check each power), but these aren't the normally summonable types. E.g. If you're wondering who has the Desire Reflection power, it's the Succubus type of Shadow spirit under the Threats section. I think they're all together because it simply makes a great deal more sense for them to be gathered in one place.

Also the Harrow (Toxic Spirit of Man) gets Desire reflection ... I was so hoping there was some way to get it for a Mambo of Eruzle (sp?)

So, they list all these new powers, some of which wouldn' hurt a old spirit to have, but some that are obviously deadly and what you see on paracritters or super spirits, then they tell you: 'oh! here's some new powers!'.

You'd think they'd at least give you a few, rather than tease you with them, heh. Ah well. At least I know why I will never get endowment from one of my spirits (probably best anyways).

Guess I'll just have to find a way to bind a spirit I don't summon! *cackles*

A few of the new powers (ie, Quake and Storm) can be granted to old BBB spirits via Invoking.

Aye, but invoking involves going 'I want to drug up my spirit and watch it enjoy the buzz'.

Fraid what would happen if you use a orgasm spell on one of those.

And I don't believe in the invoke/ally spirit mix, because your tradition doesn't give you the super powers: the metamagic gives them to you AFTER you make the spirit when you do another check (or so I think it was. I guess I should re-read it first).

....although, I can apparently get a couple of the new powers with invoking if I bind a spirit, heh. Go figure. good price tag though, makes me hesitate.

It just strikes me as a little bit odd that these new rules would not be backwards compatible. I'm not saying all the new powers should be available to every old spirit. But the new spirits have access to some of the original spirit powers, and some of the new spirit powers, such as Realistic Form, are certainly not game unbalancing if it were made available to a Spirit of Man. In fact one could argue that such a power is perfectly reasonable.

My only point is that it seems like a small oversight that at least some these new powers are not available to the BBB spirits, and certainly not one that will destroy anyones enjoyment of the game either way.