[Glyph]

Another  thing to keep in mind, if players are abusing high-Force spirits, is that a spirit's mental Attributes are based on Force, so a Force: 12 fire elemental will be a super-genius (Charisma, Logic, and Willpower of 12, and Intuition of 13).  So if the services demanded by the mage displease the spirit, it should have no problem subverting the intent of those commands.

[All4BigGuns]

I think that if it's stated up front that beyond a certain point, spirits will be using edge to resist summoning, it's not the GM trying to kill players.  The player knows up front that when he tries to do this, the opposing dice pool will be bigger.  If he still wants to try, well, he knows the consequences of his action.
I personally would make it a houserule that spirits use edge as soon as the force is higher than 'player's magic' or 'player's magic x1.5' instead of a fixed force, but that's my personal opinion on it.

It's another thing if you start doing it all of a sudden without warning the players or if you do it only from time to time.

Up front or not, it is blatantly attempting to kill the character.

The Drain value for summoning and binding is high enough without that. That Force 12 used as an example will on average generate eight! points of Drain damage (and for most characters that will be Physical rather than Stun) because average hits on 12 dice is 4 and you double that for the Drain. Sure, it's possible that they might get lucky and only have to manage absorbing 2 physical (at minimum) but they shouldn't be punished for getting lucky like that especially since they could get the opposite luck and face 24 Physical Drain.

You spend Edge on that Spirit (blatantly violating the rules of summoned spirits not having their own Edge pools) and you end up with an average Drain of 12 Physical. On a max here (though no real maximum given exploding 6s) the Drain could go anywhere from 36 Physical (or higher, again due to exploding 6s).

[Blue Rose]

I think that if it's stated up front that beyond a certain point, spirits will be using edge to resist summoning, it's not the GM trying to kill players.  The player knows up front that when he tries to do this, the opposing dice pool will be bigger.  If he still wants to try, well, he knows the consequences of his action.
I personally would make it a houserule that spirits use edge as soon as the force is higher than 'player's magic' or 'player's magic x1.5' instead of a fixed force, but that's my personal opinion on it.

It's another thing if you start doing it all of a sudden without warning the players or if you do it only from time to time.

Up front or not, it is blatantly attempting to kill the character.

The Drain value for summoning and binding is high enough without that. That Force 12 used as an example will on average generate eight! points of Drain damage (and for most characters that will be Physical rather than Stun) because average hits on 12 dice is 4 and you double that for the Drain. Sure, it's possible that they might get lucky and only have to manage absorbing 2 physical (at minimum) but they shouldn't be punished for getting lucky like that especially since they could get the opposite luck and face 24 Physical Drain.

You spend Edge on that Spirit (blatantly violating the rules of summoned spirits not having their own Edge pools) and you end up with an average Drain of 12 Physical. On a max here (though no real maximum given exploding 6s) the Drain could go anywhere from 36 Physical (or higher, again due to exploding 6s).

And getting hit in the face with an anti-vehicle missile while sitting in an elevator will do umpteen bajillion P.

That's why you don't want to put yourself in situations where you're getting hit in the face with an anti-vehicle missile.

There are things that, mathematically, have a chance of killing a PC.  If a PC chooses to cast a force 14 lightning ball, they know full well the drain can kill them.  That doesn't mean you're trying to kill the player.  That means casting a force 14 lightning ball is a Big Deal that puts a massive, potentially lethal strain on the mage.

[MijRai]

There's also the situation to keep in mind.  Does he have any relevant Qualities?  I mean, I wouldn't have a summoned spirit ever spend Edge if you have Spirit Affinity for that type, as an example.  Is his Spirit Index high?  Is there any specific reason the spirit wouldn't want to show up for a bit to party? 

Given the guy is Burning Edge because it is near the end of an entire campaign, I'd let him do this without repercussions on the Summoning besides whatever the Spirit rolls (without Edge).  And in the big fight, I'd provide an excellent fight for the group, with said high Force spirit factored in.  Why kill the fun (and the character in a thematically boring way) when the game is nearly over?

[All4BigGuns]

There are things that, mathematically, have a chance of killing a PC.  If a PC chooses to cast a force 14 lightning ball, they know full well the drain can kill them.  That doesn't mean you're trying to kill the player.  That means casting a force 14 lightning ball is a Big Deal that puts a massive, potentially lethal strain on the mage.

There's a difference between that Lightning Bolt's Drain than there is a blatantly antagonistic "fiat" move of having an already high Drain summon get even higher through Edging the resistance.

[Blue Rose]

There are things that, mathematically, have a chance of killing a PC.  If a PC chooses to cast a force 14 lightning ball, they know full well the drain can kill them.  That doesn't mean you're trying to kill the player.  That means casting a force 14 lightning ball is a Big Deal that puts a massive, potentially lethal strain on the mage.

There's a difference between that Lightning Bolt's Drain than there is a blatantly antagonistic "fiat" move of having an already high Drain summon get even higher through Edging the resistance.

It's advertised up front and spirits at magic rating are already broken as frag. A force 12 spirit is capable of giving even a seasoned runner team a run for their money.

[Herr Brackhaus]

All4BigGuns
How about you don't tell people how to play their games, and we won't tell you how to play yours

Calling a house rule that is agreed upon at a table "blatantly antagonistic" is more than a little ironic. If you don't like it, fine, say as much and move on. But if it's clear that a table has this rule, that's up to them and I for one wish you'd stop being so blatantly bombastic in your statements.

[Coyote]

All4BigGuns
How about you don't tell people how to play their games, and we won't tell you how to play yours

Calling a house rule that is agreed upon at a table "blatantly antagonistic" is more than a little ironic. If you don't like it, fine, say as much and move on. But if it's clear that a table has this rule, that's up to them and I for one wish you'd stop being so blatantly bombastic in your statements.

Gotta agree. Also...

"There's a difference between that Lightning Bolt's Drain than there is a blatantly antagonistic "fiat" move of having an already high Drain summon get even higher through Edging the resistance."

Leaving aside the blatantly antagonistic language used in the argument, the argument forgets something: this is not a normal situation. This is not a shadowrunner deciding to summon a Force 12 spirit as a regular part of a regular game. This is a shadowrunner deliberately planning to burn Edge, which is something that the character would probably not do, except that the character has an OOC knowledge that his world (campaign) is about to end. In other words, the character is metagaming to realize that he does not need to plan for the future any further than this next combat. Since this is not something that the character would normally do, it's quite reasonable to have the spirit ALSO do something that it would not normally do.

If the character normally summoned F12 spirits, and normally did NOT burn Edge to do so, then those spirits should normally NOT use Edge against the summons. But when the character changes his normal style because he knows that he won't need the Edge next week, then it seems reasonable that the spirits would also change their style.

If the character does semi-regularly burn Edge to summon F12 spirits, then I don't see a reason to have the spirits burn Edge... the Karma cost of re-purchasing the lost Edge will weaken the character through lost potential improvements, so it's a fair trade-off. It's only when the trade-off is unfair (the character knows that he will not need to re-purchase the Edge point since the campaign ends), that it makes sense to have the spirits act unfairly.

[Blue Rose]

Ladies and gentlemen, I believe this sidetrack has gone on long enough, and I know I have been a part of it, but it's been getting pretty scathing, so I'm going to ask something I rarely ask.

Please do not feed the parasprites.

[Herr Brackhaus]

Parasprites? Well there's a frightening thought, a paranormal sprite!