Okay... We've got Running Wild, which opens up a lot more possibilities for Ally Spirit Inhabitation. Are Vampires and Trolls still the way to go? Let's find out which body would be 'best' (read: most fun).

This is a thought experiment, and not supposed to be used in an actual game, so go nuts!

First thought to get the ball rolling...

Merlin Hawk
An awakened bird with AGI7 and INT6 is not a bad start. Add Animal Control (Avians) and the ability to cast *any* Detection or Illusion spell, and they start to look quite desirable. You could even buy an untrained one at 8000 and skip hunting for one entirely. Packs quite a magical punch in a small-enough package to get in the car with you.

People would look funny at the bird in the Car and start asking questions because of that.

Is there no limitation of beings that can be possessed? Can i really possess everything?

Pretty much.
Interesting Question would be, if a Mage that has been possessed can use banishing to get it out of his system.

That's where the illusion spells come in Although a shapeshift spell to something with hands might be useful anyway. Put all that agility into use with an automatic.

Besides, it's not like we're going for something that doesn't raise any eyebrows.

Plus I imagine in some places that if you said "Oh, I'm a Shaman. Thats my Animal Companion" quite a few people would just nod and go with it. Those magic users are weird people...

I still think its hard to top a Possessed Fomorii Ghoul Cyberzombie. Walking Background Counts be damned....

- J.

Damn, I like the merlin hawk idea...

Now I may have to write up a shaman.

It should be noted that this is not a posession question, it is an inhabitation one. I'm always a fan of Inhabiting yourself; see the link in my thread.

You could always have a(n ally) spirit Inhabit an item on your person, fit for your tradition (staff for hermetic, tomohawk/pipe/bone charm for shaman), and just walk around with +Force of ally spirit to spellcasting and being able to ask it for its powers whenever.

Fomorii Ghoul Cyberzombie. Now we're talking!
But can you Inhabit a body that's already Inhabited? And if you do, would the Cybermancy still hold?

Inhabiting something small you always have with you is a nice idea. Items are good, but so is...

Dog Asp
A 60cm long snake that weighs 150 grams is small enough to have on your person at all times. The attributes really come from the spirit, but using the body's innate Concealment, it can crawl down your sleeve and bite that tax collector with a Venom that has a Power of 10. The Spirit could levitate itself with Magic Hands.

or for something bigger...

Wooly Mammoth
5 meters tall and weighing 7000kg, you can camp in its shadow. BOD12 and STR12 (+ Spirit's stats) make sure that this thing is not easily stopped. An armor of 5/7 stacks with the Spirit's hardened armor, and if something gets through, it has regeneration! Not much else going for the big guy, but what more do you need?

According to Street Magic on "Spirits and Vessels"?(German pg. 94), the owning mind of the body is suppressed in case of possession. It is IMO cool enough to be allowed (in a special dramatic situation, but that goes almost without saying).

Yes, but we're talking about Inhabitation.

Edit: In Cybermancy, the individual's spirit is forced to Inhabit its own body through metamagical techniques. This is the only thing that keeps the thing alive. In Inhabitation, the vessel's original spirit is consumed, and for all intents and purposes that character is essentially lost. So it's really a question of whether the magic holding the original Inhabitation together gets transferred when the new Spirit takes over.

I'm not ruling it either way. Just pointing out that it might not be so straightforward.

The problem with possessing a body with cyberware, is that you cannot use that cyberware.

If you are going to possess something, why thing small? How about a dragon? Too big? How about a megaladon, talk about terror of the seas!

Here is a thought, how about possessing a colony of Krill? I'm not sure whether it would work, but as krill you could cover miles and miles of ocean looking for a given target before moving into it.

Even more interesting is, if the use of a critters powers also counts as additional service AND (like the books say: it can use passive cyber/bioware, but it cannot ACTIVATE it) if he is altogehter able to activate this powers and not only his own ones.
And to got a little bit farther: he cannot activate or switch modes of cyber, but what if the wired reflexes had been ON at the moment of possession?

If the dragonheart trilogy is any indication, I'd say a spirit possessing a cyberzombie creates a schizophrenic state where both entities vie for control and there's a significant chance of the resulting gestalt entity going batshit insane.

Juggernaut.

Or a Drop Bear.

Giant Robots.

Even if they don't count, they should.




-karma

Damn Muspellsheimr, I was going to say the "I'm the Juggernaut bitch!". Actually, an inhabited one is about the only way to get it to the power level it should actually be at.

Inhabitation merges with the host spirit. So yes, you can Inhabit a Cyberzombie.

Imagine an Insect spirit merging with a CZ to become a hybrid or flesh form if you want a real nasty scenario...

- J.

Thank you Jake, I am going to have some interesting nightmares now.

A homunculus designed to look like a child's toy would be cool. Just have the little girl get a present and tell the spirit to off her father when everyone goes to bed. In the morning they find him flayed with a message written on the wall in his own blood.

"Daddy wouldn't play with me"

Chucky be damned.

Again, see my signature thread. That idea was spawned from that thread. If it wasn't posted, I meant to.

1) Get 130-ish Karma for F8 Ally spirit (with skills/spells, and Inhabitation).

2) Along this trail, you will have gained a substantial amount of cash. Use it to put in for a cybermantic ritual.

3) BEFORE the ritual, create your ally spirit and place it in an object (glass figurette, puppy, whatever).

4) After the CZ process, get someone of the same tradition as yourself to Geomance your backround count.

5) Return to figurette/puppy, kill it, and have your Ally spirit Inhabit your new and improved CZ-body (while making sure it results in a Hybrid form; buying successes works best here)!

Heh... And I thought running into a CZ was a doomsday scenario all by itself


With Inhabitation, you can use cyberware. So making an Ally Spirit with a tradition that has Task Spirits, you could get computer skills at Force, plug in a datajack and you've got yourself a great hacker.

A dragon might be fun A normal dragon has Assessing 8, Sorcery (G) 8, Enhanced Senses, Elemental Attack, Hardened AND Mystic armor at 8, plus they "know most spells". Attributes are horrific, with several in the double digits, and strength at 35+

Would be a *bit* difficult to take one down and keep it sedated for the duration of the Inhabitation ritual, though



Not much to do with Inhabiting Ally Spirits, but interesting questions. With a normal spirit you'd run quickly through services using Powers. I'd say that any cyber that's on stays on. When it breaks or shuts down, though, you're out of luck.


Edit: Just wanted to give props to Muspellsheimr (b^^)b

Yes, this would result in a megalomaniac character, if your GM allows you to bend the rules. Geomancy usually works on ambient mana flow, not on an object or person creating a background count. You'd also need to talk your GM into letting you play the Spirit, after your Character is lost in the merge.

I'd like to keep to RAW as much as possible, in this exercise.

I want to see an inhabited CZ vs. an inhabited dragon. Or haven't I seen that already? I think it was called "godzilla vs. mechagodzilla." The loser was Tokyo.

Wouldn't really go down the CZ route, as it is unclear wether the background count of CZs (or Astral Hazers) can be aspected to anything.
Please don't open that can of worms again.

Until now, my favourite vessel for Inhabitation was a SURGEd sasabonsam fomori with six arms, Satyr Legs, Elongated Limbs and Granite Shell (stacks with other Hardened Armor! about the only thing Granite Shell is good for) inhabited by a Warrior class Beetle Spirit (for even more hardened armor).
Ending up with a giant, maneating beetle made of stone...with a span of about 7 meters from fingertip to fingertip...
Practically unreachable in melee combat, striking harder than a large railgun, quick enough to not be caught outside of melee range, with better protection against bullets than an MBT...plus Arcane Arrester on top.
And the fact that you've just stacked 3 excellent sets of bonus points for physical stats on top of each other while you can completely ignore the massive drawbacks troll ghouls suffer for their mental stats.
Oh, and half a ton of cyber- and bioware.
Delta-grade MBWIII, Synthacardium, Trauma Damper, Muscle Toner and Augmentation and so on, the usual tankware.

Of course, turning the poor SURGEling into a Dzoo Noo Qua instead of a sasabonsam would lead to Regeneration goodnes on top of other benefits...and given the powers of Warrior Insect Spirits, why not go for a Thunderstruck instead of melee combat?

Don't know wether Running Wild offers anything better at being an insanely tough and strong monstrosity in CQC, but by what i've heard, this seems to be better at tanking than a juggernaut...which is, admittedly, kinda disappointing for all juggernaut fans.