Well, dont forget that travel in the astral is very quick, one could zip over to Haiti and see if they can find a wiling mambo/houngan with Invoke. It wouldn't take very long at all to get there.

-edit-

I believe it would, at the very least it would act as a stopgap and maybe give enough time to pull an inhabitation trick, but Possession doesn't have a duration. I suppose you could rule that possession ends when the spirit stops endowing it.

RAW: I believe it would work.

possession might. Inhabitation almost definitely would since it would anchor the mages spirit to a body of flesh & blood. It's not going anywhere. Trouble is that inhabitation requires a prepared vessel. You dont have time to prepare a vessel with only Magic=Hours to live. I think an awakened person that is a WILLING vessel automatically counts as prepared.(if i remember correctly.) So in my dramatic example, it may come down to the PC mage being willing to sacrifice some or all of his self in order to save her. They'd become one entity, or the PC mage might be totally destroyed.

This is a case of being careful how you word your 'wish'. Some spirit powers can be Endowed in a way that is useless. Being Endowed with Materialization when you are already material is one such case.
(emphasis mine)

If you are in it, you cannot project into it. The transformation from astral to material is necessary for the benefits to accrue.

*Note* It's Hours = M*2.

Well, remember that the decision on whether or not the magician's spirit is consumed is up to you. You might be able to build a situation where the lover can exist on the astral for 11 or 12 hours at a time, and then needs to hole up in his body (and then possibly vie for control unless he has channeling) for a time to "rest". If this is the case I'd see about getting the GF possession power herself or maybe buying services from a powerful mambo at a high fee to lend Possession to her each time she needs to rest. It'd be hideously expensive and the situation would quickly become untenable however.




Which, while possibly true, doesn't really matter since we're talking about the magician gaining the materialization power himself in this case, not having it endowed by a spirit (the inhabitation might be endowed, but the benefits gained by the use of inhabitation are not, and materialization is one of those for a True Form merge).

In that situation all the mage (w/double inhabitation shenanigans) has to do is astrally project and use his Materialization power once he gets on scene.

Willing, prepared vessel or not, doesn't the Inhabit action take a very long time anyway? Too long.

That's another question: if you Inhabit using an Endowed power, does it all collapse when you lose that power? Maybe.

You could certainly rule it that way, which would invalidate this lovely thread, but as I see it nothing in the effect itself checks to make sure you still have the power. It only matters "in the moment" so to speak. If something where to cause such a check (and I cant think of any examples), then it would probably fall apart.

I'm just wondering. Is it a single action, like shooting a gun, or is it a continuous action, like flying? *shrug* It's hardly a question they'd answer in the book, because it's a stupid one. There are (almost!) no circumstances under which you'd lose the 'lynchpin' power while it was active.

Well, I can actually answer this question: Inhabitation is an Extended Test. Once the test is over I suppose you stop using the power.

The merging action is, yes. That's different. (Incidentally, it takes *days* even after the vessel is prepared. Dead mage!)

The Inhabitation power is an 'Auto' action and a 'Special' duration. I agree that Inhabitation *specifically* can't be ended for any reason other than the death of the vessel.

What about Possession? It can be ended by Banishing, but it doesn't have the same 'can't be ended' verbiage that Inhabitation has. If you (inexplicably) lost the Possession power… poof?

Yes, so you'd need a bound spirit with 1 service and endowment to endow materialization on the dead lover for the duration of the whole fiasco, no dead mage.

Banishing gets rid of services, and a mage with possession doesn't have any, so I suppose it would be a pretty effective way to end the possession since 1 hit on the banishing test would do it. She'd probably revert to a M*2 clock in that case.

Or insta-vanish. I mean, RAW, it doesn't say anything about reverting, right?

That reminds me of something: if you're 'effectively' a Free spirit *without* Banishing Resistance, would that be a huge problem?

In which case? The possession one? Yes, undoubtedly, in the True Form merge? I could see that being a problem as well. Flesh form merge? You dont actually have the Astral Form power so they cant banish you.

-edit-

Though I dont think you can banish an astrally projecting mage anyway.

Right, but we're not talking about an astral projecting mage. It's a possessing or Astral Form mage. Hmm.

We've clearly left the realm of RAW, awhile ago. The only thing to discuss here is the metaphysics of the 6th world and their logical ends.

Right. Welcome.

Well… the logical ends of the rules, not the metaphysics themselves. Oops! Those poor rules, they never deserved this.

I would allow this with limits imposed...

for example.. a character has an ally spirit with a suck essence(magic).. i allowed him to get cyberware which naturally depletes his essence and magic.. yet he is able to suck essence and magic attributes from enemies to boost his essence and magic up to 6... when they get up to 6, then it would be a waste of time and effort for him to suck anymore essence

i would say you cannot carry the bonuses from the first victim to the 2nd victim..

http://www.shadowrun4.com/resources/faq.shtml#6

When a spirit uses Possession or Inhabitation on a character, are the dual entity's attributes limited by the character's maximum augmented attribute values?

Yes. The dual entity's Physical attribute + Force of the spirit cannot be greater than the vessel's maximum augmented attribute. Inanimate vessels have no maximum limits.

Can a spirit with Endowment use it to grant a character Materialization?

A spirit with Endowment can share any power it possesses. When using the power the character uses the spirit's attributes for any tests necessary for the power, as the power originates from the spirit.

btw a character using endowment/inhabitation to gain more skills/stats is different from a spirit using inhabitation to gain more skills/stats..

furthermore, when the character/spirit leaves his first victim for the 2nd victim, he can't carry the bonuses with him from the first victim to the 2nd victim..

Can you back up your claim with a quote anywhere? Because in my book it says "The combined entity retains all of the memories, abilities, and skills (both Active and Knowledge) of the host..." and it has no mention of a duration.

Inhabitation Spirits are Illithid Savants.

Right, but it's not longer a COMBINED entity, when the vessel is discarded.

BINGO!

Can you show me where it says the Inhabited person's soul is tied to their body? The whole semantics behind Inhabitation is that the spirit eats the target's soul (if living vessel) - if this happens and the vessel dies, the soul/Inhabited spirit is no longer tied to the flesh.

Or do mages automatically die when they try to Astrally Project in your games also?

You're not inhabiting their soul. you're inhabiting their meat. Their spirit is destroyed.

We've gone over this before, and their spirit is not exactly destroyed. If that's the case, how exactly can a flesh form merge know everything about the host, including knowledge and active skills and spells?

It had a good meal of the vessel's very soul?

Ok, then it is still logical to say that they "forget" their "meal" when they get "evicted?"

It isn't. From what I understand of the power, isn't the host screwed anyway once that spirit leaves?

It's all arbitrary. You can fluff the rules *any* way you want. If you say that the merge is *sharing* the memories/etc., then it makes sense not to 'keep' them when there's no more merge. Pick a crunch, fluff to fit.

Your memories and knowledge and skills are stored with your meat. We are all just thinking meat. An astrally projecting form is still connected to their meat, so they still have their knowledge and skills.

Except that an astrally projecting mage's body can die, and he will live on in the astral for Magic x 2 Hours. This implies that your meat body isn't the only place where your knowledge and memories are stored since that same magician doesn't loose all of his memories and skills over the course of his remaining time "alive".

-edit-

Also, the fact that a possession spirit doesn't gain any of your knowledge implies this as well. The only type of spirits that can do so are inhabitation spirits, and they have to consume a creatures spirit entirely and make a perfect merge with the body in order to do so. This implies that both body and spirit are needed to store the totality of a person... which actually makes sense.

Bodies of astrally projecting mages can also be 'napped by shedim.

Wait wait wait… the meat *thinks*? Are you sure? Maybe they're only part meat. You know, like the Weddilei.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaFZTAOb7IE

And they don't know everything the body does.

Also, re-read the text for Inhabitation. The spirit "permanently merges" with the vessel and the "combined entity" retains all memories, skills, and powers. That doesn't imply - it specifically states that the effect is permanent.