Hey all.

I've been playing shadowrun since 3rd edition, but I've always played cybernetic combat type characters, but recently I have felt the need to stretch myself a bit with my roleplaying and have started to play magical characters.

One of the characters I am thinking about is an Adept (not much of a stretch but it's in the right direction). I was wondering if I take the Formula Spirit Pact positive quality is it possible for the Adept, providing she is on good terms with the spirit in question, to make the Free Spirit she has the pact with into an Inhabiting Ally Spirit? I would need to purchase the appropriate Arcana, Enchanting and Binding skills, and sink the appropriate Karma into it, but is it possible? Or are ally spirits only restricted to Mystic Adepts and Mages?

For the record I was thinking of Witchblade the whole time.

There are several kinds of pacts described in Street Magic, and if I recall, any character could get into such a Pact, not just full mages. The thing to keep in mind is that while the character may get certain abilities, varying with the kind of Pact, there is always a cost, again varying with the Pact. You can count on the spirit taking some of the character's Karma though, since that is what the spirit wants.

Spirits can't earn Karma on their own, so they have to get it from mortals. Thus the Spirit Pacts: a little power in exchange for Karma.

Unfortunately I don't have Street Magic to hand so I can't detail the Pacts.

RAW-fu, anyone?

You can't have it as an ally spirit in the strict rules sense of the word. You could get the character style and backstory that you wanted with a Free Spirit, though. Just keep feeding it karma to develop it. This is something that you will need to discuss with your GM. If a player came to me with that concept, then I would allow it if I trusted the player that they were intending to play it as they described it and weren't going to seek to exploit loopholes left, right and centre.

The biggest problem would be that for the price of a Spirit Pact (Formula) quality and a Force 1 spirit, at 5BP, the character has bought herself a +1 to all physical attributes via possession. Of course it's balanced because all of your mental stats then drop to 1. Eeek! (That's because you take the lowest mental stats of either the possessed or the possessor). Also, until you initiated and acquired the channelling metamagic, possession would have all sorts of negatives attached to it. I'm not familiar with Witchblade, but I'm assuming that you're talking about the spirit possessing or inhabiting (effectively killing her) your character to get the bonuses. If you're talking about the spirit inhabiting or possessing an item in your possession, then go for it, but I'm not sure what bonuses or effect you expect to get. At best, as a GM, I'd allow you to get better armour of sort when your possessed outfit gained Immunity to Normal Weapons (and it would be for the sake of a character build, rather than for the sake of RAW).

If you want an inhabited item as a Physical Adept, I would recommend getting the Spirit Pact (Formula) quality and specifying a weapon focus as the host. Free spirits have the magician quality so pay for a useful spell for it, such as Attribute Increase. You can feed the thing karma as you go, just like an Ally Spirit. Your GM should insist on using Inhabitation rather than Possession as otherwise your spirit will be far too useful. I think it would be balanced, but your GM is going to have to approve things and set a couple of BP costs for the non-RAW aspect such as designing your spirit. He'll also probably lay down some conditions stemming from the spirit's motivation and what it wants.

Hope this helps,

-K.

The witchblade, for those who are unaware, is a sentient bracelet. Its primary ability allows alter its form, becoming armor and weapons for its wielder. It is also an absurdly powerful magical artifact with that can, among other things, heal, fire energy bolts, raise the dead, and turn back time (in the television series continuity).
It can only be wielded by a woman and will cause great arm to any man who tries to wear it, with the exception of a fellow who is a genetically altered clone of a woman from the bloodline which had a strong connection to the weapon. It is also very difficult to control. It will turn a weak-willed or unprepared wielder in to a bloodthirsty killer, can choose not to be used, and has a tendency to abandon its wielders at bad times, turning their certain victories into horrific deaths.

Certainly, it would be a Free Spirit. If your GM lets you stat your own contacts then he should also let you stat the Free Spirit that you have the pact with so long as you don't go overboard. Nothing stops a free spirit from being an inhabitating spirit, although it will have difficulty coming back if its body is destroyed.

Wow... Awesome feedback guys.

I conlude that my idea had been PWND, and rightly so (Bad powergamer).

I guess it won't work for an Adept, because I need to make the unique spirit formula to shapes the Ally Spirits abilities, and know the Ally Spirit Metamagic thingy. My GM tends t be very flexable (infact we all take turns, so it pays to be flexable) so I might run the idea of a ready-made Ally Spirit buy him and see if I can subsitute the Karma cost for BPs at character creation (It should work because the Ally Spirit Karma costs are linear, like BPs). It's good to know I was picking bits that suited me though. Hussah for forums!

On a completely different note I want to say (to everyone with pants out there) that this could equally apply to the Venom symbiote from Spiderman fame, or something similar, so the Witchblade thing is neither here nor there (but still sucpiciously lacking in pants...)

I feel the need to point out that whilst pants are trousers in the USA and France, in the UK they are underwear. Quite whether your character wears underwear or not and the backstory behind that, I might consider taking the role-playing a little too far.

I have no pants.

(hey! It's a saturday and I'm alone:D)