[Red]

Some years ago, I hit my GM with the idea that if my Ally Spirit took multiple forms, couldn't some of those forms be non-organic? For example, my character was a very capable swordsman. Normally my Ally would manifest as an elven woman composed entirely of water, but why wouldn't she be able to manifest as a sword so that I could always have one handy? Other runners wondered if they might have an Ally manifest as a giant bird to give them a ride, or a hose or somesuch. We never got an official ruling, but these seemed like good ideas. I tossed the question to FanPro, and they summarily laughed and said a spirit manifesting as a weapon or tool was ludicrous.

Years later, reading Street Legends, Tommy Talon (I think?) has used his Ally in the form of a motorcycle.

...

I'm gonna say the sword works, now. Not quite the Lightsaber spell my players keep clamoring for, but I think it'll do nicely.

Thoughts?

[JustADude]

General rule is that spirits are limited to a maximum of 1m³ per force. Beyond that I haven't heard of any limits, so I could definitely see it working.

Of course, it's up to GM Fiat how that works... i.e. does it use the normal skill or an Exotic skill? Does it do normal (Str+X) damage, Str+Force damage, Normal+Force, Normal+(1/2 Force), or something else entirely? Can the Spirit make a Teamwork roll to boost your melee swings? Etc. Etc. Etc.

[Mirikon]

An ally spirit could manifest as a sword. It would be a normal sword in all aspects (especially damage), except for two things:
1) It would count as a magic weapon for creatures with immunity to normal weapons.
2) It would be impossible to break without doing some severe damage to it.

[Irian]

Could you quote the apropriate rules from the books when claiming such things, please? Especially the first one, because afaik not every magical thing is a magical weapon.

And of course, there's...

3) Every time the spirit is used to do damage or is blocked or is used for blocking it takes damage itself. So think twice before blocking that troll's big axe with your ally spirit :-)

[Lethe]

Could you quote the apropriate rules from the books when claiming such things, please? Especially the first one, because afaik not every magical thing is a magical weapon.

And of course, there's...

3) Every time the spirit is used to do damage or is blocked or is used for blocking it takes damage itself. So think twice before blocking that troll's big axe with your ally spirit :-)

I agree. If you turn a blade into a focus, but not a weapon focus, it is magical, but does not count as a magical weapon. Same should apply to spirits materialized as weapons or spirits possessing a weapon.

To 3). I agree. Every parried attack should count as an unavoidable attack against the spirit, only soak. Even with Immunity to normal weapons a low force spirit (or through a high powered attack)  will get hurt and will hate the magician for that. Same if you give it a form of an armor jacket.

[Angelone]

If the spirit can normally damage things with imp. to normal weapons I don't see why it wouldn't be able to just because it changed forms.

[Irian]

Because the spirit doesn't attack anything. His "owner" does, but there is no action or, even more important, willpower from the spirit involved. If the spirit was told to attack, yes, then it perhaps could do damage, but it can't attack, because it has been told to hold still and do nothing (in other words "be a blade").

Imho, the damage against otherwise immune beings, is part of the spirit's attack and not part of the spirit's "body". Otherwise, every collision between two spirits would to count as an attack, damaging both entities.

[Lethe]

What you could do, is order your spirit to cast a devastating touch spell on the enemy every time you hit him with the weapon/spirit.

[beowulf_of_wa]

just waiting for that one time, when you whip out your sword to attack, and the ally finally gets sick of it and says no.