[Balage]

First, thanks for the reply.

Well i dont agree with you at some point in your opinions, but it dosent meen those were bad advices.
For example yes its good idea in basic to have more spell but it dosent really matter to the character yet. Later i wiil learn a few more spell to expend the character, but not in the begining.

The specs are good becouse its cost only 2 BP for 2 skill levels.

teh sustaining focus is a good idea also but i have only one spell what i use if nothing else i can do, so the focus going to be almost useless to me.

The deepweed, i going to look in to it thanks.

For counterspelling i use my spirits skills. level 8-10 counterspell is pretty good for me

[Ethan]

It's certainly a unique concept.

Just to clarify though, you're not getting 2 skill levels by specializing. You're getting 2 bonus dice. Your skill levels are still important. It's cheaper to get spells now than later, it takes about one good run for a spell, and that's with you using all your karma earned for that run plus any bonus.

But if that's not your focus, then more power to you.

[Balage]

Thanks.
You are right i used the wrong words i meant 2 dice not skill level.

As for the spells i said it before but is goning to again: the spells are not so important for the charater! I dont pump my char with everything i can, just becouse its usefull, i create the character by the concept and that meens He didnt use spells only if there is no other way. He use his spirits and skills and creativity instead.

[Orvich]

The point with specializations isn't about it being a good deal or not (it's a good deal), it's that the cost for a specizliation in BP and Karma is the same... but raising the skill is MUCH cheaper in BP. So, you can spend 2 bp to get a 2 karma value (specialization) or you can spend 4 bp to get up to 25 Karma!

Raising a skill from three to four is 4 bp, or TWENTY karma! You want to do more skill raising with bp, and take no specializations.

You'll get a lot more mileage out of your skill-based character that way.

Even with only one spell, remember that any time you're using that spell you're taking a -2 to nearly every single test in the game, including all of your skills! That's equivalent to having taken 6 boxes of health, and isn't something to pass of lightly.
Foci are also INCREDIBLY expensive and karma intensive to get after character creation compared to the BP cost. For that sustaining focus it's 4BP, but 8 karma and 80,000 ny!


The thing about counterspelling is that you can intuitively use it any time a spell is cast on you, no matter how off guard you are. You aren't going to practically be walking around possessed ALL the time, if you can take some counterspelling to up your defense so that you have time to call down a spirit and have it possess you before you get spell blasted. And it stacks of course, the more you have the better for you and anyone you like in your LOS. A strong blast mage can drop enormous quantities of damage on your entire party, if you're doubling up on counterspelling, all the better!

[Balage]

For the spirits counterspelling i dont have to be possessed. But now that you mentoined it the character likes to be possessed all the time, little paranoid.

[foolofsound]

For the spirits counterspelling i dont have to be possessed. But now that you mentoined it the character likes to be possessed all the time, little paranoid.

And going to become more paranoid when every other magically active person in the city starts giving him funny looks, including the wagemage cops, who have heard stories about these nasty things called the Shedim...

[Orvich]

Yeah, I wouldn't advise running around possessed all the time. Not only is this taxing on spirit services (And therefore on nuyen), being possessed makes you glowy.

And if you want your spirit to be counterspelling you, yeah it has to be possessing you! Can't counterspell people in the physical world from the astral plane, and possession spirits have no way of getting to the physical plane without possessing!

[UmaroVI]

Well, it has to be possessing something - doesn't have to be you.

[Orvich]

Of course. You could have it possessing some object or person nearby (who has LOS on you, of course). How does 'sight' work for spirits that are possessing random objects, anyways?

[JustADude]

Of course. You could have it possessing some object or person nearby (who has LOS on you, of course). How does 'sight' work for spirits that are possessing random objects, anyways?

They're Dual Natured when they Manifest / Possess something, so they'd still have Astral Sight if nothing else.

[Unahim]

You say you'll be summoning force 9-10 Spirits? Well, with 16 dice for the summoning you'll have a good chance of summoning one, but it'll only have 1-2 services average. That could be fine (you can summon one before every combat, after all) but it does mean you should be a little careful with the drain.

With only 8 drain resistance, you'll get 2.66 hits on that test on average. A force 9-10 spirit will, on average, deal you 6 physical drain damage. So on average, you'll get 3-4 unhealable damage for each one you summon, and of course those injuries make it more likely that you'll get even more drain damage for the next one.

When the numbers are that tight, it's easy for things to go wrong, too. If the spirit gets 5 hits and you get 2 on the drain resistance, that's going to be a nice headache. 8 damage right there. Consider raising your drain resistance stats to lower the risk.

[Orvich]

Oh yeah, force 9-10 spirits are going to be out of easy reach. Not to mention that when binding said spirits (remember, you can only have one unbound spirit at any time), they get to roll twice their force (20 dice).

 You're looking at a nice 5k ny price for an average of 12 physical drain to resist with your 8 dice. That means you take an average of 10 physical. You've only got 10 boxes, and if you go unconscious (As you would from losing your entire physical track), the spirit goes free. When a force 10 spirit goes free, it has a fair chance to become a free spirit, who can then do whatever it wants, and it's got a nice little summoner who is unconscious at its feet.

Also, remember that spirits get edge equal to their force, that they CAN use to resist summoning and binding, and that more powerful spirits have more individuality. A force 10 spirit may not take kindly to a random guy summoning it, much less trying to bind it. (And once it becomes a free spirit, it may just squish your overflow track.)

Summoning that powerful of a spirit isn't really advisable, binding it even less so. It's likely to draw GM aggro (no matter how  much your gm avoids such things), unbalance your campaign, and/or get you very very dead.

EDIT: I wouldn't advise summoning/binding anything stronger than the 4-6 range. 6 is kinda pushing it usually. Remember that the drain you take is independant of your summoning/binding skill. You have to resist twice the hits of the spirit when it rolls force x 2 for binding. For a force 6 spirit, it'll get an average of 4 hits, so that's an average of 8 drain to resist. You'll take more than half of your physical condition in drain damage (on average) any time you try to bind one!

[Balage]

You say you'll be summoning force 9-10 Spirits? Well, with 16 dice for the summoning you'll have a good chance of summoning one, but it'll only have 1-2 services average. That could be fine (you can summon one before every combat, after all) but it does mean you should be a little careful with the drain.

Hi for daily unbound spirit i summon only with force 6 7 8 top and than i can resist the drain much easier with more services..

[Balage]

Oh yeah, force 9-10 spirits are going to be out of easy reach. Not to mention that when binding said spirits (remember, you can only have one unbound spirit at any time), they get to roll twice their force (20 dice).

 You're looking at a nice 5k ny price for an average of 12 physical drain to resist with your 8 dice. That means you take an average of 10 physical. You've only got 10 boxes, and if you go unconscious (As you would from losing your entire physical track), the spirit goes free. When a force 10 spirit goes free, it has a fair chance to become a free spirit, who can then do whatever it wants, and it's got a nice little summoner who is unconscious at its feet.

Also, remember that spirits get edge equal to their force, that they CAN use to resist summoning and binding, and that more powerful spirits have more individuality. A force 10 spirit may not take kindly to a random guy summoning it, much less trying to bind it. (And once it becomes a free spirit, it may just squish your overflow track.)

Summoning that powerful of a spirit isn't really advisable, binding it even less so. It's likely to draw GM aggro (no matter how  much your gm avoids such things), unbalance your campaign, and/or get you very very dead.

EDIT: I wouldn't advise summoning/binding anything stronger than the 4-6 range. 6 is kinda pushing it usually. Remember that the drain you take is independant of your summoning/binding skill. You have to resist twice the hits of the spirit when it rolls force x 2 for binding. For a force 6 spirit, it'll get an average of 4 hits, so that's an average of 8 drain to resist. You'll take more than half of your physical condition in drain damage (on average) any time you try to bind one!

For unbound spirit i summon only with force 8 spirit every midnight and often i can heal or rest the drain what i get from the less drain damage becous of the force 8.

For bound spirits its enough to have one box remain and than i have planty of tiem to rest or heal the damage after i bound the spirits. And even i get only 2 3 services its enough for some funny tricks

As for My GM and the game being unbalanced,  He can handle it, and the other players have similar powerfull characters. Well i got suprised sometimes the GM at first but we over it

[Orvich]

He's got body 3, which means he uses 6 dice (average two hits per roll) to heal with. This means that to full heal up 10-12 drain (about the average amount of drain that binding a force 9-10 spirit would give him) it'll take him 5 days of doing nothing but resting, assuming he has no stun drain. Remember that he's only got 10 boxes of physical condition total anyways!

For a force 8 spirit, you're looking at 8 physical drain on average if you're lucky. Again, that's an average of 4 days enforced downtime to fully heal up.

If you aren't lucky, that force 10 spirit rolls higher than their average of ~7 hits, and you splat. Even if it rolls even a single hit higher than average, he's looking at having to resist 6 drain, or die. Remember, spirits can spend edge just like players. With that many more dice and much much more edge than the player, it's just not that good of an idea. Even a force 8 spirit getting 1 hit above average (taking its average to ~6.3) can spell doom to a binding mage, if they don't get lucky with their roll.

Just a friendly word of caution! Don't expect to summon and bind high force spirits (6+) with no disregard for the consequences. If Ifni sneezes, you'll fry yourself faster than an egg on the sidewalk in Texas during July (that's fast), and there won't be a thing you can do about it.

EDIT: Speaking of free spirits. All your spirits are possession spirits. When they break free and become free spirits, they're gonna want a nice body. The conjurer always counts as a prepared vessel, after all!