Ok i've got this idea, for a antagonist, A free Spirit working for a bigger bad guy. I'm ripping this from a film. Now the motivation for the spirit is player, granted it's bound.

Now the question comes as to how hard to make it, i want it hard enough so a party of 4 with approx about 120 karma won't be able to just muscle there way past it. Spirit rules are not my forte (as i have mentioned before).

2 of the powers i know i want to give it are aura masking, till it does a fade im not wanting them to know it's a spirit, and metahuman form (well just plain human but hey).


Now im not really wanting it to have sorcery. but what other skills can i give it? I want it to be able to use Assault rifles. Help and ideas. Simply put i want it able to do everything a human could do, plus the suprise of it being a spirit.

Oh yes i am ripping this form a film........

The only movie I can think of where that would fit would only be if you had two of them that looked identical.

Well i thought 2 of them would be a touch much, besides there's no mages/ shamens in the group.

Simple answer: you just make it. You don't need to specifically take any steps, you just give it attributes and skills like any NPC. The only thing that resembles a stage is to decide what spirit type it was before it went free.

Powers-Wise: Metahuman form and Aura masking may be all you need. The spirit retains the powers it had from its original type (spirit of man, water elemental, TC...) so it should have a fair range of powers. Personal domain could make him hard sometimes but less hard (possibly even beatable) in a later encounter when not in his domain.

It's probably going to be hard for you to make him hard to kill and not so insanely hard that when the party get into combat with him they die immediately. Firstly: If you want the Human form to be hard enough to bounce bullets you'll want a spirit energy of 4-5. If you want the spirit to withstand spells targeting his willpower you'll need to give him force 6... That would make him all-but impervious to most attacks short of sniper rifles, and elemental attacks. Other ways to make him hard: Make him a great-form spirit with bonus Armor on his physical forms. Make him originally an Earth elemental, the extra reach could be conveyed to his metahuman form by making him a troll. Give him the Magical Guard power so the mage has troubble blasting him.

If he is a nature spirit then he will almost certanly have the Confusion power. from a force 6 spirit with 4 points of spirit energy it gives his opponents +10 to most TNs... A smartlinked sam with a skill of 7, full pool, and a karma reroll would on-average miss the spirit even before the spirit rolls his pool.

It's all about balancing the powers to make him non-walkoverable but not exceedingly ass-kickingly hard.

[edit=No mages/Shamans?] Drop that force down to 5 or so, with around 3 spirit energy. They can hurt him with Heavy Pistol bullets, but they'd need to be good shots as he has body 8 and 6 points of hardened armor (on-top of whatever he's wearing or any great-form bonus)

For what I think Shockwave has in mine, I would think Air or Water spirits would be more fitting.

Just so you know they were Wraiths. I think there are actual Wraiths in Shadowrun but I am not sure. You might want to find them and use it as a base if you aren't comfortable making the whole thing up.

Horrors? He. He he.

Thanks Lilt, just what i was looking for, and though Air spirits and Water spirits, or possibly even wraiths might fit better i don't actually want he/ it to be one. But as i mentioned untill he/ it does the whole shifting thing im not wanting them (the pc's) to know it's spirit. Though im stuck as to discribe it's somewhat immunty to bullets...

This all sprang from me watching it the other day (I only watch it for the twins, best part in my opinion) and thinking "im pretty sure i can get something to do that in SR" see my players have a tendentcy (though they do suprise me at times, just when i expect then to muscle through again) of bulldozering their way through things. So i wanted them to have to think past this one once they realise that they might not be able to fight through it. I'm not wanting it to die first time round.


Anyway back on topic, im not sure as to what type im wanting except that im wanting it to be one of the types that go free easliy (so thats Lond service award elementals and spirits of man) Air Elemental could do it, it's got the kinda of image to. But is there away that an spirit could heals its self if not cool, but if so im wanting to know. (im guessing its a trip to its home plane). Scratch that found it in MitS

My original guess for power is Force 8, Spirit energy 3-4, but im guessing that would be a little high. (We've the complusary lord of all hth adept). But saying that i am wanting the PC's to be hurting after this maybe even having to run away to fight another day. Basically im wanting it "end of story tough."

@Lilt. Theres is no mages at the moment, though im hoping i can get someone to start playing one soon. It's a bit to easy at times to slap them with a mage casting mana bolt.

Anyway hope that makes sense.

Ok, So i've desided it's an Air Elemental. Force 8 Spirit Energy 4 (yes it's Fecking hard)

So stat wise quite simple (mostly) astral Force straight out. Materailised, force modified as per the back of the book again simple.

It's metahuman form, i think im getting this wrong, cos it's so easy to "kill" it in this form.

So Erm help????

spirit energy is functionally equivalent to force except for those powers unique to free spirits. Metahuman form is defined as (racial norm)+SE. Thus a human shape with 4 spirit energy would have 7 in all physical stats. It also has the fun immunity to normal weapons, giving it some fun hardened armor.

The only advantage to a free spirit having significantly higher force than spirit energy is that it gets more powers. If you shifted the spirit to force 7, SE 5, it's human form would be 8 in all physical traits, but it would statistically have one less power.

Human form still has immunity to normal weapons.
If the human form is going to punch someone, the spirit should either learn some form of unarmed combat or the GM can decide to resort to using reaction. I prefer to give them skills if they have had a human form for any significant amount of their free time.

Ok cool, no issue with the skill thing. But the immunity as a spirit is normally not usable in HTH (hence why bloke with curtain rail has a chance). Or again have i missed something?? (Spirits so aren't my thing.... dispite being cool)

Spirits do indeed have immunity to normal weapons in close melee. Mundane opponents do have the option of attacking a spirit using their force of will, but that's not too effective (unless you are an albino gnome otaku). Adepts with killing hands or any awakened character with a weapon focus negates the invulnerability (another reason why they are screwed without any awakened characters).

a mundane can get more mileage out of attacking with willpower if he picks up something that's got reach (like, say, a curtain rail). see, since you're attacking with willpower, you don't need to worry about defaulting penalties--and you still get the reach bonus.

Oh there's an awakened character (the half compulsary lord of HTH adept) luckly without weapon focus, but killing hands. Thanks Glyph i thought the contest of wills was a way to by pass the immunity.

*Knowledge of spirit rules increased to 2.........*

lucky you're not my gm!

Hey it's how the maths work.

Who ever is rolling the most dice get's effected by the reach Tn modifier.

say what?

Regarding Spirit Energy and Force:

Can a Force 4 Bug Mother with Spirit Energy 2 summon force 6 bugs, or only force 4 bugs?

force 6. Magical Skill is a power that is based on Force, which means you add the spirit's SE to its Force.

Based on a simple conversion from constant attributes to Force based:
Wraith 3rd edition: