Okay, so, I have been looking into making an enemy for a game. So, I pulled out the rules and decided to have it be a free spirit who moved into an uninhabited vessel (mage was out and about...best ruling I could find on this was that he wasn't there to contest so spirit auto succeeds....seem harsh!). Now, giving the mage average stats and a decent magic score (players are quite advanced) I have him summon a spirit and bind another, both force 6. Now, on possession I have read clarification that you increase the augmented maximums by the force of the spirit (so someone maxed out would add 6 in this case). That aside, a 3 strength mage now becomes 9 strength. He also increases his soak by the same amount, and gains 12 HARDENED armour.

Now, is it me or is this quite insanely hard? Give him a task spirit (which seems to be solely within the remit of the possession mage, but doesn't expressly state so in the books that I can see) and he can repair vehicles etc. You could even use the spirit to possess targets for wetwork and have them kill themselves (yes, this is likely an abuse...but still). Am I missing a rule or have I just made an enemy the team are about to cry at, even though it's a legal starting character?

I'm a little confused by your first part-- you are going to have a Free Spirit possess a mage? If so, the mage can no longer summon and bind, as the spirit can never have those skills and the spirit possessing him is in charge.

As for wetwork, the rub is, if you get the spirit to kill its vessel, that vessel still has the 12 hardened armor. We like getting the spirit to do something really dangerous, and then vacating the person when it's too late Note this also, a high force spirit will be seen while possessing a person, so you can't just have a F6 spirit posses a CEO and walk him out la-de-da. Security will notice.

My understanding is that they wouldn't see the spirit posessing (I recall the powerful possession power giving degrees where it becomes more spirit like, a hybrid or looks normal...I don't recall if this extends to regular possession).

As to the mage, yes, the mage will be astrally projecting (and hence won't be able to fight the possession) so it's kind of a body napping. The concept was it's a free fire spirit...and the mage has spirit bane...so the spirit decided to steal it.

The houserule I have applied is that the 12 hardened armour does NOT stack with other armours, but is this wrong of me? I mean, as it is, if a troll will max stats gets possessed, he can end up with around 50 dice of soak (if I add the 12). I am just asking if my understanding of this is correct as it seems a bit crazy. I looked for another thread directly related to this, but couldn't find one. Tho i have since found snide comments about snarky possession mages, so I am guessing they really are that powerful.

I think, here you are confusing possession with inhabitation. When someone is possessed by a spirit, this fact is visible on the physical plane, IIRC with a perception roll with threshold 6 - spirit force.

Also note, that in your example the astrally projecting magician could still try to recapture his body, by attacking the possessing spirit in astral combat. Once the spirit has its stun monitor filled, it must leave the physical plane and the possession is over.

-CJ

That's Inhabitation which is different. It also destroys the original mind of the vessel and is permanent. Unless a possessing spirit has the Realistic Form power, then it's going to be very obvious.
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As to the mage, yes, the mage will be astrally projecting (and hence won't be able to fight the possession) so it's kind of a body napping. The concept was it's a free fire spirit...and the mage has spirit bane...so the spirit decided to steal it.



Armour stacks, Hardened Quality doesn't. That's the most sensible and consistent interpretation. So something with normal armour 5 gets possessed by a Force 5, it's not got normal armour 15 and hardened armour 10.

K.

Okay, good, that's how I am running it. But still, you add 6 soak from being possessed by a force 6 spirit (due to attributes all increasing). Looks like it is right...I might reroll my living character (Not really...love my mundane cybered hacker...even if adepts can do it better...)