I've got a wicked idea for an NPC for my game, she's a former contact for a PC who has since retired, and I want to step her up into the spotlight as either a new contact for another character, or possibly as an enemy. She's a free ally spirit conjured by a Magician's Way adept, although the players believe that she's 100% human.

Thing is, with the concept I have in mind, it just doesn't make sense for her to have Sorcery. I've pored over the books multiple times, and gone over all the novels, and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't specifically break canon for her to have adept powers in place of spells, which would fit the concept perfectly. However, I want to run it past the crew here to see if there's any ramifications I'm not thinking of, or any canon statements I missed which specifically deny this. I'd like to avoid the "DM fiat" handwaving of making it a unique once-in-a-lifetime spirit, if at all possible.

Any thoughts or comments are welcome...

Firstly, just to say it's an interesting and unusual idea that I like. Whether it turns out to be practical remains to be seen

As far as I know, it has never been done before; but, as you say, there doesn't at first glance appear to be any reason not to do it.

What sort of adept powers did you have in mind for the NPC? Some of them would be of less use to a spirit than to a "mere" human - Killing Hands, for example, since the other part of the power is the ability to attack manifested spirits without penalty - and of course stuff like Astral Perception is completely irrelevant.

Well, Killing Hands is in fact one of the powers I was going to throw in, as it's part of the concept. I figure that the "attack spirits" option is a small component of the Killing Hands power, relatively speaking, and that if ghouls, vampires, shifters, and SURGED dual-nature metahumans have to suck it up and spend full points, so will my spirit...

Anyway, I might as well spell out the concept I'm going for (and hope that my players won't read this thread). The NPC in question, Raksha Kali, is the fixer for the party's long gun, Deadeye. Said sniper has retired from my game, due to a conflicting work schedule. And this after I came up with the NPC cribsheet and background for her, so now I have an NPC which is just crying out for reuse...

Raksha Kali was the ally spirit of a Twisted Magician's Way adept, who believed himself the reincarnation of King Ravana of Lanka, the ruler of the "rakshasa" spirits of Hindu mythology. He was also a high-standing member of a neo-Thuggee cult who worshipped various aspects of Kali, and believed that assassination and murder-for-hire was a religious obligation and sacred trust. He instilled much of these beliefs in his ally, who he crafted in the traditional many-armed form attributed to Kali, and sent her on special missions that he could not entrust to his assassin followers. This sent her out into the world, where she gained a curiousity for the inner workings of the shadowy dealings of the metahuman underworld. After some time, she earned her freedom in the traditional way that most assassins advance -- by arranging the death of her master. Once freed, she gained the ability to materialize in human form and to mask herself, and used these abilities and her innate cunning to establish herself as one of Denver's top fixers for wetwork talent.

Her natural materialized form is that of a tall female figure with blue skin, six arms, and a wild mane of jet black hair, wearing a skirt of severed arms. Her tongue is red and almost serpentine, protruding down past her chin, and her eyes have a fearsome stare. She rarely adopts this form except when pursuing special wetwork contracts, instead appearing as a ravishing Indian beauty in her early 20's. During her years of freedom, she has studied the martial arts, and is particularly fond of escrima, wielding two dagger blades with deadly accuracy.

I thought the preferred weapon of Thuggees was the garrote?

one thing to keep in mind is that this character is going to be a horrifying, horrible, horrific monster in the Astral. she'll be way faster than anything else, she'll do more damage, she'll roll more dice. and, unlike the meatworld, there won't be guns to balance that out; everything in the Astral is melee, and she is the god of melee.

I think it breaks canon all over the place spirits don’t get adept powers, spirits always have sorcery (and magicians way adepts have sorcery so having it would not be out of place like it would be for a conjurer),

Of cause that is not to say you can not or should not do it unless your running a game with some reason to stay strictly canon (living world type stuff).

I say go for it. Sounds great.

Edward

Actually, you can't assume that if something is always true, that another non-opposing fact is thus false, if the original fact is non-exclusive.

It does in fact state that free allies always have the Sorcery power (MitS p. 118), and that they have a Sorcery skill equal to their Spirit Energy. However, this does not negate the possibility of co-existing adept powers. In fact, the Magician's Way is a specific case where Sorcery and adept powers can co-exist.

An ally spirit that is still bound has a Sorcery skill equal to their creator's, and a Spell Pool equal to their Force. The ally starts off with one randomly selected spell, and the creator must learn spells specifically for the purpose of adding them to the ally's repertoire. The ally cannot have the Conjuring skill, but can have Enchanting. (p. 109-110).

However, none of the above excludes the possibility of adding adept powers to an ally, nor is it explicitly stated under the Magician's Way adept that they cannot summon an ally, or that they cannot give them adept powers. These are what I'm looking for, places where I would be directly contradicting canon.

If a specific case rule hasn't been explicitly denied, I can add it to the system (as a number of supplements have proven). If, for example, I add a new metamagic technique for Magician's Way adepts to teach ally spirits their powers, it becomes valid if not explicitly denied. Granted, as the spirit is already conjured and free, I'm not too concerned over how it obtained the powers, only that it could do so without breaking any previously and explicitly declared rules.

Basically, I was mostly fishing for instances in novels, supplements, or adventures that I might not be recalling, where it either specifically denied it, or possibly have already created something similar.

That, and I wanted to show off a keen NPC concept...

hm. there's the Animal Affinity adept-only metamagic from SOTA:64, which allows adepts to permanently transfer adept powers to an animal. i could see that metamagic being expanded to include ally spirits.

*lights the AH beacon* WHat about them old ED ghost dudes that could teach adepts new powers.

I was not saying that sorcery and adept powers are mutually exclusive.

According to the rules

Ally spirits always have the sorcery power when summoned and thus always have the sorcery power when freed.

There is no facility to give an ally spirit adept powers in the ally spirit rules and the phiz mage rules don’t mention ally spirits to change that.

Anything you do to give a free ally spirit adept powers will be a house rule, as will be the fact that it doesn’t have sorcery. This is however not a bad thing. House rules are a legitimate way to get things you want into the game so show off your keen NPC concept all you want.

Just remember that in a SR event that is restricted to canon rules you can not use this concept.

Edward