I don't seem to be able to search very well and keep getting side tracked by what I do find, so here is a question that may have already been handled:


1. What new optional powers from "Street Magic" are available to the base book spirits (I'm assuming that certain types of spirits would only have access to some of the new powers)?

Spirits:

Air
Beasts
Earth
Fire
Man
Water
Watcher*

New Powers:
Astral Gateway, Aura Masking, Banishing Resistance, Desire Reflection, Divining, Endowment, Energy Drain, Engulf, Inhabitation, Magical Guard, Mind Link, Quake, Realistic Form, Shadow Cloak, Silence, Storm. (SM pg98 to 103)

(*Possession appears to only be available to watcher spirits of possession traditions)

ASIDE: It appears that even the New Spirits (SM pg 96 to 98) don't have access to Astral Gateway, Aura Masking, Banishing Resistance, Desire Reflection, Endowment, Energy Drain, Inhabitation, Mind Link, Quake, Realistic Form or Storm.

The base book spirits don't get any of the new powers except for Possession and those that come with Invoking (SM p. 57), which metamagic accounts for many of the powers on your list, and is applicable to all spirits able to be summoned by PCs. Possession only applies to spirits summoned by a conjurer of a Possession Tradition, and can apply to the new spirits available to PCs as well as those in SR4.

The rest of the powers are available to the new spirits able to be summoned by PCs, except for those that are available only to Magical Threats (SM p. 134).

Peter

In the description of Spirits, GMs are urged to mix and match occasionally so that spirits aren't cookie cutter models. That said, it'd be perfectly reasonable to do a custom ritual for a different power or a metaplanar quest to learn how to imbue a specific type of spirit with a power.