[adzling]

Heyup chummers, hoping someone can help me clarify Animal Attunement for a physical adept.

Question 1: does the adept require Ritual Spellcasting skill (the second paragraph seems to suggest you substitute Animal Handling for Ritual Spellcasting)?!
Question 2: if you substitute Animal Handling is it Animal Handling + Magic or +Charisma?
Question 3: you only need one net success after you deduct the opposed test from the creature (force x 2 of the ritual) correct?
Question 4: you expend karma = creature's essence to make the binding permanent, aren't all mundane creatures essence 6?
Question 5: you need to learn the ritual for each animal type, ritual spells cost 5 karma to learn, correct?

Description below from the S.G.:

With this ritual adepts can bond with a mundane, non-sapient animal. This will not work if the animal is coerced, so the adept must first befriend the critter. This requires an Animal Handling + Charisma [Social] (12, 1 week) Extended Test. It is not possible to attune an animal vessel because the magical aura of a pre- pared vessel interferes with attunement.
Once a rapport is established, the adept must perform this bonding ritual (with Animal Handling) with a minimum Force equal to the willpower of the creature. If the ritual is successful, the adept then spends karma equal to the animal’s essence to make the bond perma- nent. The ritual takes (Force) hours to complete. A bond- ed animal gains the power of Sense Link (p. 198).
This ritual must be learned for every type of animal (e.g., Attune Animal (Lynx), Attune Animal (Crow)) to which the adept wants to attune. A character may only attune a number of individual animals equal to her initi- ate grade. The minimum Force of the bonding ritual in- creases by 1 for each existing bonded animal. The adept may not receive the benefit from more than one attuned animal in a single action. The attunement bond may be voluntarily severed as a free action or if the animal (or character) dies. Karma spent on the bond is lost when the bond is severed. Attuned animals may be used as a material link (p. 297, SR5) to the adept. Attuned animals can be further enhanced through the Empowering ritual (p. 128).

[Jack_Spade]

1: No, animal handling suffices
2: I'd say ah+magic
3: Yes
4: Well, you could have cyberware installed in your dog...
5: Correct.

All in all it's pretty expensive. But it is pretty neat in combination with the powers transfer:
Empathic healing from your dog or making a sustaining focus out of your cat,

[adzling]

Yeah I was thinking of attuning and bonding a Raven (my toon's totem) to use the image link for some undercover, aerial surveillance and shadowing.

hehehe mebbe I should install some cyberware in the raven I want bond, har.

Like a GPS tracker so and biomonitor so I can get some instant feedback on his whereabouts and condition?

[Jack_Spade]

Hehe,
always remember: 1 Karma equals ca. 2000 NY. So it might not be that cost effective.
Also, if I remember 4th edition correctly, animals tend to become psychotic with cyberware installed.
Some nice bioware bone strengthening + some orthoskin on the other hand could very well improve the survivability of your little buddy (but he'd probably also need some muscle improvement so he can fly with the additional weight)

[adzling]

yeah 11 karma is a bit expensive for something you could mostly replicate with a micro drone.

However it would be indistinguishable from a regular Raven so mostly undetectable and unhackable.

Really it's just some super nice flavor for a Raven Mentor Spirit Adept.

[Jack_Spade]

That it is, no question.
But they could at least have added something about increasing the natural lifespan of your animal buddy 

[adzling]

Well the life expectancy of a Raven is 17 years in the wild, much longer than most Shadowrunning careers ;-)

[Jack_Spade]

I was thinking more about rats and the like.

But if you take your buddy to a run, his lifespan might also decrease drastically.

[adzling]

no doubt!

[prionic6]

A character may only attune a number of individual animals equal to her initiate grade.

So you can not use the ritual until you initiate?

[Moonshine Fox]

To question one, by RAW, yes you still need ritual spellcasting. That specific ritual allows you to use Animal Handling is place of ritual spellcasting for steps 4 and 5 (the actual casting) only. In order to learn a ritual, you still need a ritual spellcasting skill to learn it in the first place. To be honest I think this is an over-site as there are a number of rituals that are used by those other then ritual casters (like summon ally spirit), but by RAW it holds. Don't think anyone will give you grief over going RAI on this one though!

[Bulshock]

Actually there is a rule in place in SG that Adepts that can access the ritual can substitute an appropriate skill (Armorer was an example for Attune Item), but they have to have access to it.  Which by RAW is only 4 Rituals (Attune Animal, Attune Item, Imbue Item and Empower).

[Moonshine Fox]

Actually there is a rule in place in SG that Adepts that can access the ritual can substitute an appropriate skill (Armorer was an example for Attune Item), but they have to have access to it.  Which by RAW is only 4 Rituals (Attune Animal, Attune Item, Imbue Item and Empower).

Yes, but only for the 4th and 5th step in ritual casting (SG pg 121). To learn a ritual to begin with you have to have the ritual spellcasting skill. As per main book pg 299, to learn a new ritual/spell/preparation, you have to make an Intuition plus the relevant casting skill test. None of these skills can be defaulted on, and no adept (or aspected not of that type) can ever learn these skills. This rule also screws with the Calling ritual which says that even mundanes can use it, and of the ability of an aspected conjurer to summon an ally spirit (or a watcher, though that's a different subject nowadays).

Like I said though, I think this was an accidental oversight and should be hand-waved away for these particular instances.

Edit: It's supposed to be during step 7 to seal the ritual. I've never been much of a ritual spell user.

[korusef]

I don't know, but in a world where you have to eat soy products most of the time, animal companion sounds kind of tasty.
Your next visit to Barens might cost you your pet.

[Bulshock]

If that's your reasoning for it then I would just substitute the main skill they will be using for it, based on what they are looking forward to doing with it.  And yes, the Ritual Spellcasting thing cutting out Conjurer's and the like from ones appropriate to them makes no sense.  A conjurer that can't learn to make their spirits Great Form?  That makes no sense.  But we could probably propose a House Rule fix for that sort of thing.