Hey, im playing an occult investigator type character in shadowrun 4th edition (with all the latest udates) and i was wanting to supplement some of his lack of combat ability with spirit summoning.

I sat down and tried to read the rules for summoning and basically blanked out in confusion .

I was wondering if someone could write me an easy step by step to summoning spirits, and what spirits work well in what situations.

At the moment my character is a mystic adept with magic 5 (2 in adept abilities) and he has a 3 in the conjuring skill group.

(if there is a topic about this already can someone please link me it because i cant find it)

-Thanks

oh and one other thing, whats a good mentor spirit for an occult investigator?

To summon a spirit, choose the type and force of the spirit. Then roll your Magic 3 + Summoning 3 vs. the spirit's Force. That's an Opposed test, not a Threshold test, so if you chose a Force 3 spirit, the spirit uses 3 dice to resist your 6 dice.

Every net hit compels one service from the spirit. If you have 0 or no net hits, the spirit simply doesn't appear. You still have to resist drain either way.

The Drain Damage Value is equal to the spirit's hits x 2, whether you succeeded in summoning it or not. So if the spirit rolled 1 hit, you'd be resisting 2 DV. The Drain Test equals Willpower + (Your tradition's drain attribute). Each hit reduces the DV by 1. The damage is Physical if spirit's Force > your Magic, or Stun if not.

For an idea of what spirit works best in which situation, look at where the spirits differ from each other: attributes, skills, and powers.

Pick up a mentor spirit that appeals to how you want to roleplay and which spirit type you like the best. They're all about functionally the same.

Sure thing:

Before starting, note that your Magic has a rating of 3; since you're a mystic adept and 2 points of magic are for the 'Adept' side, that leaves 3 points of Magic to your 'Mage' side. This is very important as you'll see.

1- Determine the spirit's force. If that number is beyond your mage Magic rating (3 in your case), the drain will be physical instead of stun.
2- Roll your Summoning + Magic (again, 3 in your case)
3- The GM rolls the spirit's force
4- Your successes minus the spirit's successes, aka net hits, becomes the number of services the spirit owes you
5- The summoning drain equals the number of successes the spirit had times 2 (this is what the GM rolled on step 3). Minimum drain is 2. The drain is Stun if the spirit's force is equal or less to your Magic (3 in your case). Otherwise, it is Physical.
6- Resist drain (like Willpower + Logic if your Hermetic)

Example:
1- You decide to summon a Force 3 spirit
2- On your summoning test, you get 5 hits
3- The spirit's Force test generates 2 hits
4- The spirit owes you 3 services (your 5 hits minus its 2 hits)
5- Summoning drain is 4S (2 hits the spirit had, times 2. The drain is Stun because the spirit's force is equal or less than your Magic of 3).
6- Resist drain with Willpower + Logic and get 3 successes, giving you 1 box of stun damage

Note: when binding, use the same steps, but at Step 3, use Force x2 instead.

Hope this helps

I'm still getting the hang of 4e rules, but I can help with this.

Dog - The loyalty disadvantage should be a requirement for an Occult Investigator...read any hardboiled detective book. That and the Detection spell bonus should cement this as the front-runner.

Dragonslayer - More if you want to go the Spenser route than the Dresden route with the character.

Wise Warrior - Detection spell bonus and a good role-play reason for the disadvantage as hardboiled detectives are supposed to hold a strict code of honor.

Oak - More for role-play reasons than for game stat reasons, unless your campaign takes place in or will regularly go into a NAN country or somewhere less urban than Seattle/Denver/New York/etc. sprawls.

Owl - Take this one if you want to be more straight investigation because of the Combat Spell penalty.

Ones to avoid:

Any of the ones where avenging an insult or not backing down from a challenge are the disadvantage. As an investigator, you're going to get insulted, challenged, or need to retreat. Wolf, Sky Father, Lion, Bear, etc. are all bad choices.

Cat, Raven, Trickster, or any of the others that require that you taunt or play with your enemies. Sure, Spenser, Dresden, Marlowe, Spade, etc. are unrepentant smart-asses, they also tend to know when to keep their mouths shut and when to not escalate a situation.

Personally, unless you have another character-related reason, I can't see using any totem other than Dog. It was built for the dogged (no pun intended) investigator that methodically hunts down his prey and is loyal to a fault to those he cares about (or his paying clients).

thanks both of you for the help, there is just one other thing, what sort of spirits work best for combat would u say?

All spirits can fight. Typically Beasts are the physical combat spirits.

Air spirits are excellent at distance, but can't take/resist punishment
Fire spirits are very versatile and balanced, being average/good both at close and range distance
Man can be excellent for a second spellcaster (say, give it a stun bolt)