[RHat]

Something along those lines, it does seem a bit harsh to need 2 skills (both of them with their dangers in executing) in order to use 1 part of the tri-fecta of mage abilities.

It's well beyond a bit harsh, for reasons well beyond just the number of skills needed.

[IKerensky]

I am sorry but you still be able to have a Spirit help you in combat.

Either:
  1- You actually prepare for an intense fight and bind the spirit in advance.
  2- You summon a Spirit on the spot but then he is restrained to one combat round by service.

I really found spirits to be far too common, especially when you realise that every non-spec mage could have 3-4 spirit with him at all time, and as much as 7 for specialised mage.

[Michael Chandra]

Leaving aside the debate on whether you can have more than 1 spirit active at any given time, you do realize that each service from a bound spirit will cost you an easy 500 nuyen and if you bind spirits too often and too much, they'll start getting pissy at you? Plus you're screwing over the people that do not WANT to bind spirits, rather than the ones that bind them?

[ZeConster]

I really found spirits to be far too common, especially when you realise that every non-spec mage could have 3-4 spirit with him at all time, and as much as 7 for specialised mage.

You do realize you only can have multiple spirits if they're bound, right? Plain summoning is explicitly limited to 1 at a time.

[Shaktari]

Indeed. Athabaskan Council Mounted Police. He first came to Chicago on the trail of his father's killers, and for reasons that don't need further exploring at this juncture, remained, on unpaid suspension. Sadly, no Mentor Spirit (Wolf), and since I went with a specialization in Illusion rather than Combat, and need to get that first, it's going to be a few runs before I can get it.

The fact that you got Due South in shadow run in my mind makes you a genius, thats awsome, and sorry to de-rail jsut had to say somethign about that

[RHat]

I am sorry but you still be able to have a Spirit help you in combat.

Either:
  1- You actually prepare for an intense fight and bind the spirit in advance.
  2- You summon a Spirit on the spot but then he is restrained to one combat round by service.

I really found spirits to be far too common, especially when you realise that every non-spec mage could have 3-4 spirit with him at all time, and as much as 7 for specialised mage.

...  You're completely missing to point.  If this is the only option, that completely kills conjuring as a specialty, which is unacceptable to many of us.

[Shade]

I really found spirits to be far too common, especially when you realise that every non-spec mage could have 3-4 spirit with him at all time, and as much as 7 for specialised mage.

Understand when I say this, it's not to be asinine. I just think that your statement could be applied to nearly anything in this setting. For instance:

I really found guns to be far too common, especially when you realize that every non-spec mage could easily have 3-4 guns with him at all times...
I really found drones to be far too common, especially when you realize that every non-spec rigger could easily have 3-4 drones with him at all times...

I get where you are coming from with regards to how often you see spirits in fluff....but I will again reiterate, those are only the spirits that are mentioned, not necessarily the only ones that exist. Who knows how often a mage throws a fireball that his the weight of his fire elemental slave behind it?

[Shinobi Killfist]

Hermetics only had binding in 1-3e and it worked.  Still I think the change is a bit too big.  Really it comes down to balancing the spirits in play.  Yeah I'd prefer they just balance the damn skill instead of letting it remain broken with the a good gm will fix it solution but making the summoning part borderline useless isn't a great fix either it just breaks it on the other end.