[Poindexter]

Aspected summoners suck. Spirits you summon can only cast spells you "know" (I'll explain the scarequotes in a minute) and if you're aspected, you aint never learning no spells.
SO... What if, I played a mystic adept, didn't buy him any power points, no magey skills other than summoning, binding, and banishing and just pretended he was an aspected summoner? I still start off the game with a few spells that I "know", even though I can't cast them cause I don't have the spellcasting skill. (Scarequotes explained?) The spirits I summon could cast them though, right?

I mean, technically, they ARE spells that i "know" right?

thoughts?

[Whiskeyjack]

It wouldn't be breaking anything since you'll be paying more for MysAd in priority, and having no ranks in stuff you can't/don't do. And you'll never make up the PP loss if you regret it.

I would say change how aspected summoners work before you do this, because this is throwing points away for very little return value.

[Reaver]

There is only one spirit type that can actually cast spells (Spirit of Man).

So first, do you even HAVE access to Spirit of Man? (Check your tradition).

If you don't, then this was a wasted post 

If you do, then that is a question for your GM.

Personally, if you want to play an aspected summoner, you get what you pay for.... (no spells!)

If you want to play a mystic adept, then cripple yourself by NOT taking power points OR spellcasting.... well fly at it...

[Hobbes]

... why couldn't you just play a regular mage with a crappy spell casting skill?

My own house rules for Aspected Mages: 

Magic B: Aspected Magician: Magic 6, one Rating 6 Magical skill group; 10 Formula or 35 Karma of Bound Spirits
Magic C: Aspected Magician: Magic 4, three rating 3 magic skills from one group; 7 Formula or 25 Karma of Bound Spirits
Magic D: Magic 2. 

As a starting point for discussion with your GM.  Aspected mages got a real RAW deal in 5th.  I strongly encourage house rule corrections when possible.

[Ryo]

Yeah, just go straight mage. Every time I have ever wanted to play an Aspected Magician in 5th, I just took Magician and only learned one school of skills. You get more for less cost, it's poorly balanced.  If you want to get one step further, take Incompetent for the two skill groups you don't plan to use.

[Rift_0f_Bladz]

I believe incompetent can only be taken once.

[falar]

I believe incompetent can only be taken once.

That is correct.

Which is why Spirit Pariah is great if you're not going for an actually functional Aspected Summoner.

[Poindexter]

He does indeed have access to spirits of man, and i considered going straight mage, but strangely enough, NOT being able to astrally project is kinda part of his "thing".

[Ryo]

He does indeed have access to spirits of man, and i considered going straight mage, but strangely enough, NOT being able to astrally project is kinda part of his "thing".

Just choose not to? Self imposed limit, or ask your GM to make up a proper Geas negative quality you could take if you need to mechanically restrict your ability to project.

[Reaver]

In world, mental limitations and beliefs seem to have a huge impact on spell casters.

It affects the way their spirits look, and in some cases the visual effects of spells.

Street magic really did a good job of talking about this if you have access to the book.

So basically, because you  mage "believes" he can not project, he can't.

(A nice, neat little way to sum it up and take Mage, without asking for a bunch of 'snowflake' rights out of your GM)

[Novocrane]

Can spirits of man know ritual spells?

[FST_Gemstar]

They don't have Ritual Spellcasting skill, so they couldn't do much with a Ritual.

It might be interesting to houserule that they can learn alchemical spells and rituals but then also learn the alchemy or ritual spellcasting instead of regular spellcasting.

Though... on more thought... a mage with a gaggle of spirits of man with ritual spellcasting and can potentially throw a lot of dice at a ritual. Or better yet, just have the spirits perform a ritual and avoid the drain risk...

[Novocrane]

I was thinking of the calling rituals, by which you could summon a spirit of man, then negotiate for it to summon another spirit of man. Who would then negotiate with the first SoM. And so on.