I am questing for a potential character for a solo Ars adventure. Someone that is weaker than a hermetic magus, but still powerful and magical enough to be a supernaturally potent character. One o0f the potential characters I am looking at is a spirit master.
In the Summoning ability (ROP:I) it says that you summon it and then you bargain with the creature for services and stuff. However, nowhere that I can find (I must be blind) is specified what the spirit can acctually offer the magus Yes, you can order him to use one of his abilities, but:
Can you bargain for a longer life (bonus to aging rolls)? How much given a Might Score?
Can you bargain for instant transportation? What sort of spirit would it be?
Can you bargain for riches? How much?
Assassinations?
Information? What sort of information, then? (this is the most open eneded one, and is a clear "yes" depending on roleplay)
I think that the answer to all the "can you...?" statements is "yes". The problem is what level of effect you can bargain and what sort of serv ice a spirit will be able to offer. I haven't been able to find that neither in ROP:I or ROP:M. Can someone ilustrate me on where are these infos? Thx
With Summoning, I'd say you can only get the spirit to do things it can do by itself; it doesn't grant any extra abilities. So, the answer to all the question is "yes, if the spirit has a relevant power".
I'd add that some spirits would be able to teach you other (Infernal?) powers, so that you'd be able to use them too. But yeah, otherwise it's up to the spirits you conjure, and their powers depend on SG fiat. No real guidelines that I know of, although the rules in RoP:M and so on about creating spirits provide some semblance of criteria for creating powers and assigning them to spirits.
I already assumed that a spirit can offer you to use any of his powers. The final use of the power (assassination or simply quenching your thirst) is irrelevant here: they offer you to use the power. Tat is clear and perfectly fine.
What I am not that clear about is when you negotiate Bigger Stuff (TM), namely stuff like extending your life (Aging rolls) or negotiating with the spirit so that it powers a magic item (if that can be done in the first place).
In previous editions you could negotiate that kind fo stuff with spirits, but I have not found spirits with a power that grants these abilities in ROP:M or ROP:I. I might have failed to notice them, though. If you Ablate a spirit you can get this kind of bonus, but you do not seem to be able to achieve it with Summoning + bargaining. Is that the case? Negotiating for extended life seems like a cool and mystical enough effect to me as to make this a standard set of negotiation potential for a summoner. Isn't it? Old but vital summoners are part of stories, so I thought you should be able to do that.
If these rules do not exist, suggestions for the type of spirit to be summoned for heliing in aging stuff (health or time spirit, I guess) and how much bonus to achieve negotiating with it would be appreciated.
I think, basically, you can't. With Summoning alone, you are just summoning the spirit and then making a deal with it, no different from summoning a person and making a deal with her. If the spirit doesn't have the power, you can't negotiate for that (so you need to know a range of spirits).
I'm not going to speculate on suitable powers, because people might think they're playtested or official or something, but I'm sure other people could use the RoP:M guidelines to put something together.
IIRC, Ablating is draining the spirit of its power and life (might), not unlike a vampire. So I'd say no. Even if you wanted to, you couldn't drain himself of life to grant someone blood-based vampire powers
Grant virtue: Unaging? + CrCo Powers to solve Aging Crisis?
Yes, you can order him to use one of his abilities, but:
