OD 7.2.2002 [5:03 p.m.]

Spirits

A spirit has four traits: rage, gnosis, willpower and essence. The first three vary depending on the spirit; essence is the sum of rage, gnosis and willpower, though it can be adjusted up or down. I�d say for a familiar spirit of level 4, you�d be within your rights to adjust it up. For a familiar spirit of level, say, 1, you�d probably need to adjust it down. Essence used to be Power, but Power is about 3x as high as Essence is now, so I�m using 3 Power = 1 Essence as a rough conversion.

Spirits cannot use Rage for extra actions, nor Willpower to guarantee success. It usually doesn�t spend Gnosis for its charms, but it might roll it. Essence is most often the �expended� trait. Essence is also the �health levels� a spirit has. When it runs out of Essence, it goes into Slumber � which means it heads for a secluded area where it floats semiconscious, slowly regaining Essence. While in Slumber, it�s very easy to bind a spirit. A werewolf can also harvest all its Gnosis and bring the spirit to a permanent end.

A spirit uses Willpower as its dexterity and its stamina. Having no abilities, the Willpower is also the full hit dice pool (which is why its dexterity might be something like 7 or 8), just as it�s the spirit�s full soak dice pool.

A spirit uses Rage as its strength and damage pool. This may be adjusted up or down slightly if the spirit bears a spirit weapon, as Herne the Hunter might, but usually is left alone. Its Rage is also how difficult it is to harm it � while an enemy would roll dex+brawl/melee against the usual difficulty to hit it, the damage is rolled against the spirit�s Rage, not the usual 6. This (and the fact that it can use a charm to warp reality and turn your bones to moldy cheese) is why Nexus Crawlers, with its Rage of 10 and a Willpower (soak) of 10, is bloody terrifying.

A spirit�s Gnosis functions as its social and mental dice pools. Again, since it has no abilities, intelligence 8 isn�t quite as formidable as it sounds. Finally, a spirit can only Materialize if it has the charm, and if the local Gauntlet is lower than its Gnosis.

By the rules for totem avatars (which are Jagglings) in the corebook, every avatar starts with 8 points to split between Rage, Gnosis and Willpower, as well as the Charms Airt Sense and Reform (which allows the spirit to vanish and reform in its home realm in one turn � an escape method). Every dot in the background adds 3 more points to split between Rage, Gnosis and Willpower. Since you have 4 points in your background, that�s 12 more points for a total of 20. For totem avatars, 2 dots = a new Charm, but that�s a bit steep, so I�d just say pick 3-4 other Charms that aren�t ridiculously powerful, and you should be okay.

Here are some sample spirits from Axis Mundi:

Fimbul wolves (Fenris� Brood � big vicious snarling northern wolves. Very recently created by Fenris, only appearing after World War II.)

Rage 8 Gnosis 7 Willpower 7

Airt Sense

Forest Sense (can sense all that transpires in its domain. Power cost 10�I�d say that about equal to an Essence cost of 2-3.)

Freeze (Rage in aggravated damage to everyone � including allies � within about 10-15 feet)

Ice Shards

Materialize

Reform

Sabertooth Tiger (Griffin�s Brood � a primal, instinctive hunter, once the tribal totem of the now-extinct Smilodon (or maybe it was Grand Simba?) bastet tribe.)

Rage 9 Gnosis 7 Willpower 6

Airt Sense

Armor

Assess Character (roll gnosis vs diff 7 to assess character of other being)

Materialize

Tracking

Lion (Griffin�s Brood � a noble, proud spirit that used to be the tribal totem of the White Howlers, actually. Also, pre-War of Rage, the tribal totem of the Simba.)

Rage 9 Gnosis 6 Willpower 7

Airt Sense

Armor

Assess Character

Materialize

Tracking

Here are some helpful Charms. You can find others in the corebook, and there are a few nice ones from the Book of the Wyrm, but I can�t find my copy right now:

Acquisition: for about 0 to 1 Essence (depending on how big the object in question is), the spirit can take something from the material world into the Umbra and move it around there. When the spirit �lets go,� the object reappears in the material world in its new place.

Agony: for about 1 Essence, the spirit can double the wound penalties for a foe for one round of combat. If the penalty strips the foe of all dice, they can�t take this action at all without spending a WP point.

Call for Aid: WP vs. difficulty ranging from 3 (spirits friendly to the calling spirit nearby and in sight) to 8 (spirit is in its own habitat, but friendly spirits not nearby) to 10 (spirit is out of its element and far from friendly spirits). Costs about 2 Essence.

Crystallize: Rage vs. target�s WP. Costs about 1-2 Essence. Each success inflicts one level of Agg. Damage and crystallizes a portion of the victim�s body, rendering it brittle and immobile. Can be soaked only with a Gnosis roll vs. diff 6, and can be healed only with Mother�s Touch or similar gifts/charms. If target loses all health levels from this attack, it becomes a crystal statue of itself and will die unless healed of at least 3 health levels within 24 hours.

Disable: Rage vs. target�s stamina+3. Each success is a turn of paralysis, and costs �one point of power per target�s remaining health� � so about 1 point of essence for every 2-3 health levels, I�d say. It also says the spirit must spend at least 10 points of power (3 essence), so I guess that�s 1 point of essence per 2-3 health in addition to the 3.

Inner Pain: a lot like Agony, a spirit can spend essence to strip a victim of dice (about 2 essence per 3 dice stripped, per turn). If more dice are stripped than the victim has Stamina, he must roll WP vs. diff 7 or he fall unconscious for a turn. Even when he awakens, he�ll still be short 2 dice for the rest of the scene.

Scent of Safety: the spirit can home in on the safest route home instinctively by spending 2 Essence.

Other Charms from the corebook that are nice are Armor, Freeze, Healing (forgot the real name � will look later), and of course, Materialize. There are other great ones like Umbraquake, Quake, Rend Reality and whatnot, but those are probably too powerful for a familiar spirit