If a force 1 Greater Form Guardian Spirit endows me with the Magical Guard ability at what force is the power used? Is this addressed in the book anywhere?

After re-reading, I think it is force 1. The level at which the spirit has the power.

I thought this was going to be something totally different and infinitely more entertaining when I clicked it.

Yup.

My personal favorite Great Form power. Such potential...

Like, Endowment - Astral Form.

Or materialization... allows you to appear from astral space and throw some magic around while also gaining immunity to normal weapons.

Or... have two Great form spirits! The second one would be Plant. Have the first endow it with Endowment, and then have it endow your whole party with Regeneration.

{Let's see who can come up with the most egregious use of Endowment!}

Hardened armor at obscene levels.

Endowing Endowment, obviously. I was making an image chart of a theoretical party, but it would just be really confusing and not really help me explain anything.

Great Form Task Spirit gives its summoner (a houngan) and the rest of the party Endowment. The houngan could summon a Spirit of Man and give it the optional power Innate Spell and endow it with Endowment. Suddenly the entire rest of the party could get a spell. Or give everyone the Concealment power (is there anything that prevents it from stacking?). Alternatively, if you have adepts around, share some of their nifty tricks (which are powers, and hence can be shared by Endowment). Heightened Concentration sure would be good on a mage.

Or you could do something like the Regeneration suggestion, except that since you're doing more sharing, the whole party has Regeneration, Energy Aura, Hardened Armor, and 4 passes, and the decker has Innate Spell (Analyze Device).

It's a P2P network of magical power.

Endowment to grant Sapience to puppies, kittens, or mice means that your HMHVV character can use Essence Drain to keep on living without ever having to take Essence from a metahuman. Congrats, you're legal even if PETA is after you.

Fun with endowment (some methods are more powerful than others, but they all have their uses):

1.) “I might not look like it, but I am Endowed with 12 Hard(ened).” Steps: Possession tradition with Invoking metamagic and access to Endowment via great form spirits -> Invoke Force 6 Spirit -> Use Service to have it Endow you with Possession spirit power -> Astrally Project -> Possess your own body -> Enjoy most of the benefits of Channeling metamagic without having to learn it with karma. +6 to all physical attributes and +12 Immunity to Normal Weapons will make you harder, stronger and last longer when you tussle. Just make sure you have a Physical Mask or something handy to make sure you don’t scare off all the ladies with your obvious possession.

Alternative to Possessing yourself: Astrally project and possess an enemy, or that troll down the street and take him for a joy ride with your hardened 12 and massive body and strength.

2.) “You can clearly see I am Endowed with 12 Hard(ened), and I guess I could put on some pants, but where’s the fun in that?.” Steps: Materialization tradition with Invoking metamagic and access to Endowment via great form spirits -> Invoke Force 6 Spirit -> Use Service to have it Endow you with Materialization spirit power -> Astrally Project -> Travel to wherever you want via the Astral Plane -> Materialize at your location -> Show off your probably naked Ectoplasmic form complete with 12 hardened armor.

Probably not as powerful as with the Possession tradition, but maybe you’re more of an exhibitionist. Also, note for 1 and 2, you may need to Invoke 2 different spirits in order to first be Endowed with Astral Form and then Possession or Materialization depending upon your Gamemaster’s interpretations.

3.) “For the low, low price of 500 bucks you’ll never Glitch again! But wait, there’s more!” Steps: Get Invoking -> Invoke a force 1 Spirit with the Guard power -> Have it Endow you with Guard. -> Send it off to standbye for the rest of your life. Now you never have to worry about Glitches again. You can also substitute other simpler powers like Improved Senses here to get cheap Low-Light, Thermal and possibly other senses.

To avoid running into the Charisma cap on Bound Spirits you can spend a point of Karma and use Long-Term Binding to get these powers for a year and a day. That applies to any of the Endowment tricks, really.

4.) “Cash for Counterspelling for you and your friends.” Invoke a spirit with the Magical Guard power at a force equal to whatever you want everyone’s Counterspelling to be at -> Have the spirit Endow you all with Magical Guard -> Make team-work tests to Counterspell enemy magic. This is another candidate for Long-Term binding although more expensive since you’ll probably want a 3+ spirit.

5.) “I Choose *You! (*Note: ‘You’ means any spirit power available.)” As has already been mentioned, you can chain Endow with other spirits to get basically any spirit power available. However, you’ll probably have to Pokemon those spirits outside your tradition with Banishing. Or you might be able to buy some magician contacts of different traditions and convince them to loan you services from their spirits.

I’m sure there are more fun tricks to be had, but Endowment really is the gift that keeps on giving!

Nice to know that one GF spirit can turn those lovely toxics and blood mages into a challenge for your runners.

Sadly, neither of these work, as Posession and Materialization are explicitly powers that cannot be Endowed. As far as I recall, anyway.

I don't see anything in the Endowment power description that would stop you from Endowing Materialization.

You are somewhat rather limited in that you may only have a single endowed power at any given time, though.

Ahh, It was based on my misremembering of an earlier thread - AH had said they were considering adding some errata to the effect of "No, you can't get that power."

But dammit, once again, after I looked at the old thread, I'm sold on being able to use Endowment with Materialization. Check AH's spoilered comment to see why.

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...mp;hl=Endowment

yeah, it's odd that they blocked the power pact, but not the endowment power...

(edit: on a side note, it'd be pretty funny to start endowing your enemies with weaknesses...)

hah, I'm totally with you on the Endowed Materialization thing. -2 dice to interaction is a small price to pay for essentially being able to teleport.

OK, so on page 186 of SR4A, under Spirit Forms, it tells us that all spirits are dual-natured. But it doesn't say that they have the Dual Nature critter power. Similarly, under the descriptions of spirits on page 302 ff., the Dual Nature power is not listed for any of the spirits. Same in Street Magic for the newer spirits (page 96 ff.). So, do spirits have the Dual Nature power, or are they just dual-natured? And if the latter... what is that?

If they have the Dual Nature power, then a second Great Form spirit could Endow the character previously endowed with Materialization with Dual Nature, and then he would not suffer the -2 penalty.

"Mystic Adepts aren't quite as gimpy." Steps: Get Invoking -> Invoke Force 1 Spirit with Astral Form and Endowment -> service to Endow you with Astral Form -> See how full magicians experience the astral plane for 500 bucks, one metamagic and maybe a point of karma for long term binding. Probably gonna want to follow this one up with a second Invoked spirit with Endowment to give you possession or materialization though, unless your character concept was Casper the friendly ghost.

I would think that one could potentially use the Astral Form power via Endowment to avoid dying while astral projecting if your body gets gakked.

Then again, if you had that power, would your time limit for astral projection still apply?