[Magic/Thaum./Powers] Abilities for a spirit that grants Spirit-Assisted Magic

[Jerander]

Hi,

Inspired by this thread, I thought about working up a template for a spirit that can actually make a Contract, grant Spirit-Assisted Magic (Thaumatology, pp. 90-4), and/or magical abilities.

What abilities would such an entity need?

Here's a list. Obviously, some of these are setting-dependent.

1) Detect (Petitioner) -- an ability to know when someone what's to make a contract.

2) Jumper (Spirit) and Warp -- the ability to travel from home plane to the Petitioner's plane.

Description: The spirit can instantaneously travel to wherever the Petitioner is. They can return instantaneously to their home. They cannot instanteneously travel elsewhere. They cannot stay at the Petitioner's location once their business is complete.

3) Affliction -- to grant various abilities and/or spells.

4) Spells -- likely both the "easy" versions and the "hard" versions.

5) Affliction (Contract) -- to make it binding.

6) Enforcement -- some way to keep the Petitioner in line.

7) Detect (Broken Contract) -- to know when a contract has been broken.

Any other thoughts?

Thank you,
Jerander.

[dataweaver]

My own inclination would be to skip the Jumper and Warp, and just go with some sort of spiritual counterpart to the concept of telepresence: the "spirit" technically never has to leave its current locale. This is especially appropriate if the "spirit" has a physical form of its own.

[Flyndaran]

Affliction: contract sound like signing under duress or a geas.
I would cop-out and call a purely voluntary but binding spiritual contract a feature of the game world and spirit interactions.
Not much of an advantage if I could just say, "No."

Keeping both in line sounds like fine print at the bottom of the contract, which is why the books mention commonly accepted forms.

[David Johnston2]

Assuming that we were talking about a PC the RAW way to do it would be just to buy the recipient of power as an Ally. Consider how weird the accounting would be for the PC who bought a spirit created your way as a Patron or Ally.

[jeff_wilson]

You may wish to consider Permeate with Meld to make spirits who appear "anywhere" at need. In particular, the scaling rules suggest that they can hear their names spoken at a penalty equal to the difference in SM of the medium they've Melded with, so lots of chanting and Time Pent might be helpful in getting their attention.

[Jerander]

Originally Posted by dataweaver

My own inclination would be to skip the Jumper and Warp, and just go with some sort of spiritual counterpart to the concept of telepresence: the "spirit" technically never has to leave its current locale. This is especially appropriate if the "spirit" has a physical form of its own.

Yeah, I don't want the spirit "killable" when it shows up. Right now I'm thinking Jumper + Unkillable and/or Insubstantiality with Projection or Reversion. I'll have to work up some samples...

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Affliction: contract sound like signing under duress or a geas.
I would cop-out and call a purely voluntary but binding spiritual contract a feature of the game world and spirit interactions.
Not much of an advantage if I could just say, "No."

Keeping both in line sounds like fine print at the bottom of the contract, which is why the books mention commonly accepted forms.

I think I'm going to go with voluntary contracts. However, they will be binding in that they give the spirit access to the contractee's soul...How that plays out will likely be Affliction and/or Innate Attack.

The Duty will be self-assumed (not an Affliction), but still real.

[Jerander]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

You may wish to consider Permeate with Meld to make spirits who appear "anywhere" at need. In particular, the scaling rules suggest that they can hear their names spoken at a penalty equal to the difference in SM of the medium they've Melded with, so lots of chanting and Time Pent might be helpful in getting their attention.

Interesting. Not something I would've thought of. I'll have to take a look at it.

[Jerander]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Assuming that we were talking about a PC the RAW way to do it would be just to buy the recipient of power as an Ally. Consider how weird the accounting would be for the PC who bought a spirit created your way as a Patron or Ally.

Yeah, there may be better ways to go about this. I'm doing this as much for the mental exercise as anything else.

[Jerander]

Thought I just had:

Magery 5 (Accessibility, Can only affect contractee, -50%; Affect Others 1, +50%; Long-Ranged, Unlimited range, +50%; Malediction 3, +200%; Plane-Spanning, +100%; Ranged, +40%) [270]

Energy Reserve (SAM) (Accessibility, Can only affect contractee, -50%; Affect Others 1, +50%, Long-Ranged, Unlimited range, +50%; Malediction 3, +200%; Plane-Spanning, +100%; Ranged, +40%) [14.7/level]

The contracting agent (the spirit) possesses the abilities, but can share them with the contractee and cut them off whenever needed. The spirit will have Immunity to Corruption, since they are already what they would become through Corruption...

On the other hand, maybe I should link these abilities to Innate Attacks with a Corruption modifier...? That makes more sense. I'll work on that part.