Free spirits are in someways very strong and in some ways very weak. Because there are no topics about them, and no characters made from them (that I could find). I made this thread to try to work out what are some good starting builds for free spirits. It seems to me you could go in a couple different directions and capitalize on their fundamentally alien nature.
But first a quick sum up of some basic facts about free spirits as information about them is scattered through 3 different books.
Free spirits cost 250 build points to make. They have starting attributes all at 2 and can only raise attributes as high as their force attribute. The force attribute is the natural maximum for all other attributes. Force has a max of 6 at character creation and can be raised later by initiation. For each point of edge they get one power point to spend on spirit powers. Magic is a separate attribute from force (I was reading this wrong).
All free spirits have the magician power at no additional cost.
Spirits are either have the power to materialize or possession.
Free spirit (PCs) may NOT have the inhabitation power.
Advantages
All free spirits may go to their home plane (with a Complex Action) and return to astral space ANY WHERE THEY HAVE BEEN BEFORE (seems very useful)
-All materialized spirits have a movement rate of 10 walking, and 25 meters running per Combat Turn. This is slow, but they can fly and use the fly skill instead of the running skill.
-A spirit may inhabit a living creature or object. Each possession attempt requires a Complex Action in which the spirit touches the vessel’s aura and then accesses the physical plane and attempts to possess a vessel so that it may stay there. The spirit makes an Opposed Test pitting its Force x 2 against the vessel’s Intuition + Willpower Test (for living vessels). For inanimate vessels, the spirit makes a Force x 2 (vessel’s Object Resistance) Test.
-Possession spirits may also attempt to posses any vessel that has be prepared before for possession. There seems to be no way (in the rules) to remove this permeability to possession spirits once it is acquired. It grants the spirits +6 dice on the test to inhabit a vessel. The process to prepare a vessel takes Enchanting + Magic (vessel’s Willpower, 1 day) Extended Test. It can be done by anyone that can enchant. The enchanting requires radicals (street magic pg91)
-If the possession fails or the spirit is banished, the free spirit may not attempt to possess that vessel again until the sun next rises or sets.
-Free spirits may be able to manifest like an astrally projecting magician. It does not state anywhere that astrally projecting spirits can, nor does it say they can't. As Free spirits ARE magician I am inclined to think they can.
Spirits are dual-natured.
Limitations
Limitations include not being able to get karma with out a spirit pact of some sort (friendship pact is the most likely).
The disadvantage of a friendship pact is that if one of the members you are bound to dies you take a huge blow to your power that could take a very large amount of karma or build points. You loose one force point per dead member and if that lowers your attribute max then other attributes are lowered as well. Also friendship pacts may not normally be broken (basically only as a GM plot device). If you loose a point of edge you loose a spirit power point which you get to chose. You could then chose to lose the power to make friend ship pacts. Passably saving you from an total party kill in process.
"Free Spirits on the physical plane are dual-natured beings. As with other dual-natured entities, a spirit’s ethereal senses are able to sense both worlds without incurring modifiers for acting on both planes at the same time. Note, however, that spirits are unable to see or interpret simsense, electronic projections on screens, or AR displays." (now isn't that a kick in the teeth).
I am fine with not being able to us a smart link or even AR but the end result of this is that a free spirit can't interact with anything electronic, except as a blind person with no data-jack. It is really a big disadvantage. Even using a comlink to look up information would need to be done by voice and read back by voice, or printed out. Even a cross walk light may only be so much glowing gibberish to a free spirit.
"First aid and medicine and medicine do not work on spirits,
although they may work on a possessed vessel. Any healing
or repair given to a vessel applies only to that vessel’s Condition
Monitor, and not to the spirit’s. Free spirits may not use cyberware,
bioware, nanoware, transgenics, drugs, or anything else that
requires an organic body."
This is a two edged sword because it implies poisons don't work on a spirit that is materialized or in an inorganic/dead vessel. How much a spirits perceptions are altered by possessing a vessel under the effects of mind altering drugs is probably up to a GM call.
I will make a new post for character concepts, because this is already a long post.
