I'm not seeing that being particularily ambiguous.

Ally spirits are slightly more ambiguous. Emphasis all mine.

So Cain, is your justification that an ally spirit provides you services without actually owing you any? I can't think of any other justification.

Actually you are wrong, Doc. The remaining services are removed at the end of the channeling. If you lose the remaining services at the moment you channel as you posited, you may rebond the spirit while you are channeling it, since you retain all your abilities while channeling.

I don't like that as much as I like the idea of a necromancer type mage, compelling the same tortured spirit to boost his powers over and over again.

I don't think the rules intend channeling a bound spirit to free it - I think it's an oversight. I have to question the wisdom of enforcing the letter of the rule if that's how you read it - the spirit's already getting more of a chance then normal by making you take drain. If you ordered the spirit to do the same action or use the same powers for without channeling, it'd just have to do it - I just think channeling a spectre would be rob zombie creepy.

I think the rule I'd use would be if the drain knocks you out it can try to go free, just so the guy can't keep the thing channeled all the time - that's the real issue, right?

I don't think the rules intended channeling a bound free spirit or ally. The provision for no longer owing any services and departing to the metaplanes makes for a heavy cost for those that wish to cheese it up.

Where does it say that channeling a Great Form gives you the Immunity to Normal weapons? I must have over-read that one. Can you give page references? I know the debate on channeling Ally spirits have been discussed in the past and when I e-mailed Fanpro this is what they said:

You can't channel a watcher. They can't handle it. They can't even materialize on the physical plane.

For now, the channeling metamagic can only be used with spirits that owe services, so you can't do it with Ally spirits or bound (formerly Free) Spirits. Though we may come out with an expansion of the rules at some future time.

You can, of course, make house rules that work in your campaign if you want some other outcome.

Good luck.

Signed,
ShadowFaq


I hope that helps clarify some of the points being made or assumed.

Sorry Tisoz. Didn't mean to confuse that part. We knew that astral quests had a minimum of one karma, I was combining the karma limit on exclusive spells with the munchkin effect of learning every spell at force one once you can do astral quests. There is no reason a mage wouldn't have every spell at force one when you can do astral quests in virtually a few seconds with the cost of one karma each.

EDIT\ Here is te link to the previous thread I referred to: http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...wtopic=5732&hl=

In the text for Channeling (see the first full paragraph on T:AL p. 110).

While I agree that watchers, free spirits, and ally spirits shouldn't be able to be used since none of them owe services, that last point is sort of silly since 1) loa spirits can't materialize either, and 2) the text for Channeling describes it as drawing the astral form of the spirit into their body.

The only real gain in taking Force 6 Stunbolt with a fetish for Drain is if you plan to cast it while sustaining other spells, or have some other Drain Resistance TN penalty. Drain for Stunbolt at Force 6 is already 2 (-1[DL]).

It's a great list Doc. Excellent advice!

The only thing I would add as a necessity (and which I haven't seen mentioned yet) would be Oxygenate at Force 1. I would pay the Spell Point though, and not get it with any restrictions.

As was said, Catalog (Exclusive) and Mindlink (Extended) are nice at minimal Force, as is Physical Camouflage.

A good thing to remember are the spell modifiers, especially when it comes to Detection spells. The Caster Only and Extended modifiers can be combined to good effect without raising the Drain Code of the spell.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Drain rounds down, so unless you are taking a spell at Force 6 (or Force 2 Exclusive), odds are you'd be well-served to take it at a Force of 3 or 5 (or, of course, Force 1).