So if I am taking spirit bane for a toxic spirit is it Spirit Bane (toxic) or Spirit Bane (Acid) or is it Spirit Bane (Water)? Same with insects or shadows? Do you allow a bane against Shedim?

I'm just trying to figure out how other GMs have done this in the past.

I would only allow the bane to function against "normal" spirit types: water, man, task, etc.

Toxics already want to kill. A toxic bane would be ... well, let me put it this way. If there were a toxic variety nearby I would simply tell the player that his PC might want to bend over and kiss his .... I think you get the point.

Well, really having Spirit Bane just makes you the highest-priority target for the spirit. If your party is being attacked by a Toxic Spirit or by a regular Fire Spirit, being the one he likes least is going to be bad news either way.

I thought about the idea of just disallowing it. However, when I read the rules I think that for the most part it wouldn't matter if it were toxic or fire or what have you. I was thinking "Well toxics are all evil already" but then I realized that the quality didn't disallow summoning, just made the spirits upset and when they were in combat the character would get signaled out. This would remain even with other spirit types. In combat a toxic spirit will signal the character out, etc.

I guess it also makes spirits that wouldn't bother you normally, harass you as well though.

Instead of disallowing it altogether, just make it a blanket Bane for all Toxic Spirits. If you think that's too much, you could always up the BP 'cost' to 15 or so.

The problem is that when a player comes to you with spirit bane, it is a formal request for you to throw said spirit at them. WOW! I'd almost pay to have my players ask for Toxic spirit bane! It would make planning runs sooooo much easier (Well, I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen, but I'm sure it's got a toxic spirit involved! ). If I was the player I'd be asking for Watcher spirit bane.

I'd almost pay to have my players ask for Watcher spirit bane!
They might not do damage but boy can they be annoying, and there's lots of them floating around.
Imagine being pestered by the Watcher, banishing it, and then being harassed by its PO'd owner because an important message didn't arrive.

The horror, he'd never sleep without warding ever again.

It'd be like... Magical Spam. He'd probably want to kill himself after a week or two.

Wow, I never thought about that! Seriously, though, Spirit bane is no good!

I want to believe there is some way to inflict this upon players. Maybe if they burn up too many watcher spirits?

It'd be like being hounded by an almost infinite number of gibbering retarded children. The sound alone would make you implant cyber just to drive your magic score down