A question of Possession

[ericthered]

It seems the main effect is a slightly larger than normal class of shells. I'd call that benefit from +5% to +20% depending on the setting's life support tech.

[Rupert]

Thinking about it, the effect on dead bodies is pretty close to being able to create Puppets, which is +20%, but not as good - there's still some chance of failure to repossess each time, and when unoccupied the shells aren't even useful as IQ0 servitors.

[starslayer]

Ally- Summon-able, Requires body, minion (mindless), maximum stats dictated by body
Linked with
Racial memory, active, only for memories of possessed body

Use possession on your ally after you create it.

Resurrection is overkill for what is almost a special effect.

If you need a stock of mindless bodies that won't even know to eat, turn it to an ally group.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by starslayer

Ally- Summon-able, Requires body, minion (mindless), maximum stats dictated by body
Linked with
Racial memory, active, only for memories of possessed body

Use possession on your ally after you create it.

This might work. Ditching the body for a new one would come under 'amicably parting', so no need to buy a new ally each time. I don't think Racial Memory would be necessary - the spirit doesn't have full access to the possessed memories. It'll need some levels of cosmic to get round having to wait a day on a failure - I'd want the spirit to be able to try another body right away.

On the other hand, an IQ0 ally can't have any skills, making Assimilation useless. On yet another hand, that means that being able to assimilate skills from a revived but mindless body would also be not as the rules are written, so it's a non-standard ability anyway. Gah. Some kind of Reawakened, perhaps?

Calling any stock of bodies stored away an ally group makes sense. Given their mindlessness, unless they're physically very spectacular they'll be pretty cheap, too, as the spirit has a considerable number of character points. OTOH, given that only one is available at a time, I'm not sure this quite works. Hmm.

[starslayer]

Originally Posted by Rupert

On the other hand, an IQ0 ally can't have any skills, making Assimilation useless. On yet another hand, that means that being able to assimilate skills from a revived but mindless body would also be not as the rules are written, so it's a non-standard ability anyway. Gah. Some kind of Reawakened, perhaps?

That's why I had it linked to racial memory (only skills that the body knew).

Its not quite as potent as assimilation but it is very close thematically and may be good for differentiating the differences between a living subject and a dead one. From a dead body you get vague echos, not enough to do a skill, but enough to know a name or a password or a familiar path.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by starslayer

That's why I had it linked to racial memory (only skills that the body knew).

Its not quite as potent as assimilation but it is very close thematically and may be good for differentiating the differences between a living subject and a dead one. From a dead body you get vague echos, not enough to do a skill, but enough to know a name or a password or a familiar path.

Funnily enough, I'm considering removing assimilation from living people, but being able to learn skills from the recently dead is a fairly important part of how this spirit is supposed to function.

You see, the spirit was, until last session, the AI in the PC's starship's computer system. It was expelled and transformed into a spirit. Currently it has almost no physical skills (Piloting and Gunnery are the only ones), and I think it'd be cool if it can pick them up from bodies it inhabits. However, I've just realised that if it can do this from living beings it possesses, some player is bound to decide that their PC is willing to act as a temporary host to jump-start the spirit's skill list (the PCs are fairly high point-value, with lots of skills at good to stupidly high levels). I'd rather not have this happen.

I do want the ability to possess the living, if only for the way it has the potential to breed mistrust in the PCs - Can we trust it not to take us over? I woke up tired, did I get 'used' while I was asleep? What for?

Assimilation as an enhancement to Possession costs 10 points and is much the same as the advantage Reawakened (Only skills the current body knows; Known skills may be traded in for new ones), with the limitation balancing the enhancement. Perhaps Reawakened (Known skills may be traded in for new ones; Linked to Possession; Only in recently dead hosts; Only skills the current body knows) linked to Possession would do the trick. Or I could monkey with the Assimilation enhancement in a similar manner, which would look messier on the character sheet, but would be very slightly cheaper (no Link).