Free spirit. Use cyberware. Cast spells. Increase physical stats by force. Use natural powers of host. Is there a down side to this?

Technically, you don't get to choose (the results of a merge). All bets are already off as soon as you play any free spirit, let alone possession, *let alone* inhabitation. Can they even get inhabitation?

From what I read it is just a spirit power and you do seem to get to pick and choose what powers you wish for your spirit. So it would seem that one COULD have possession and inhabitation. And I know it is up to the dice, but still... Seems very favorable. Especially if you take a critter with ware and hump it's spirit into submission.

Mana Static

Would that apply to the abilities of the host critter, or the hybrid stats? I know in the book it says critter powers can be lost, up to GM discretion. And that a spirit's force is reduced, but would that still apply with a hybrid? Even with it, not THAT bad if the force of the free spirit is high enough, I guess.

Edit: Furthermore, would the force adding to physical stats be subject to the maximum ratings?

You would need to be allowed to choose an Inhabitation tradition. GM Permission not to be taken for granted.

You have to be careful what you merge with - you roll Force*2 vs. Willpower + Intuition and want the victim to have two net hits.

What is your idea behind tying yourself to a body instead of exploring a bit of the "free" part? Possession is much faster and permits a change of vessels. I would prefer Materialisation, Break&Entry would change forever. The downside is having an actual body to care about. Think IDs for whomever you are impersonating, visible signs of inhabitation, partially unknown friends and enemies. Do you inform your contacts if you needed a change of bodies? How do they deal with that? "Meet Carl. Carl is my body of the week. His family seems to be nice."

Comes down to my desire, almost need, to play something different. "Has anyone tried this type of character? No? Good stuff".

Plus I'm thinking of merging with a critter or somekind. Take a Hell Hound or some such and have the group each have a licence for it/me. Or a ferret with a strength of Force, hehe.

Novell... You don´t want to "win" the inhabitation test. Try force 3-4. The more common Force 6 spirits roll 12 dice, resulting in a mean of 4 hits and a high likelihood of true forms. Skills like

Athletics, Unarmed Combat and Stealth are useable in Animal Form and benefit from improved physical attributes.

But the magician who helps out can add their dice to either the spirit or the vessel, which helps balance the roll a little. To bad you can't "pull punches" with those rolls.

You do also lose a lot of the really crazy Free Spirit abilities (teleport, for one). Inhabitation (if the GM allows, it's pretty far out) is pretty powerful, but it's at least a tradeoff.

Aye, no more astral travel. And being strictly dual natured. Damn you SnS. Hehe

How would an inhabitation tradition even work? What happens when a spirit's services expire? It can't return to its home metaplane, because it's stuck in a vessel. Does it just toddle off as a free spirit?

Good question. The closest I've seen to an Inhabitation Tradition was the insects in the novel 2XS, I believe.

Runner's Companion is pretty clear that Free Spirit PCs can be Materialization or Possession tradition only. I don't see any option for Inhabitation in the manual, so it would really need GM fiat to allow. It also prohibits implants. (Which makes sense for something that dematerializes.)

In a previous discussion on Dumpshock about this, the issue with the level of merge seemed to be the biggest problem with PCs being Inhabitation tradition. This is determined randomly at the time of merge for 'regular' spirits, and would have to be fudged somehow by the GM and player for a PC.

Yes, the RC does say they can't be that tradition but I never understood why I spirit can't do multiple manifestations. It would be like having a major in and minor in college." Yeah, I ride meat-suits but when one goes down and there isn't one available I can make my own body... If I have to... Grumble." But you are right, it would need a little GM hand waving to get it going. I guess it's back to my mage who attempt to have a life long spirit in service.

AFAIK, it's specifically for Insects, and possibly Toxics (which are merely GM-playtime territory). The whole point is that they don't leave, cuz they're evil invaders.

But this is Shadowrun. EXTREME EVIL, I can see. But when you have rules for high-explosives, covering people with acid, and using a body as a weapon.... I think the line between good and evil is something we don't even look for.

And Spirit Allies (every tradition).
The only usefull Lvl. 1 Ally Variant... Just capture an enemy streetsam.

Just. Say. No.

I wasn't saying 'you can't have inhabitation cuz it's evil'. I was explaining why it doesn't matter if insect spirits have it (re: not leaving when they're done).

Ah, my bad.

Insect spirits are not bound by services once they inhabitate stuff. See Street Magic under the header Insect Shamans (German pg. 166).

I think when a PC free spirit inhabits or possesses a vessel it adds what its stats are, not force to each attribute. Some people think that their stats as PC free spirits equal force which is the only stat they need to buy pay for. But I don't think that is the case. It is just that summoned spirits normally have stats equal to force modified by what vessel or form they materialize into. There are already a lot of topics going over this. Just bringing it to your attention, but you are probably well aware of peoples differing opinion on this, now that I think about it. I don't want to derail this topic. Every argument on the topic is not conclusive enough that it can convince everyone, one way or the other.