Sinthalix,
First, thanks for your quick responses on this and other threads. It's really nice to know that our concerns are being heard and discussed, even if we can't be privy to all the sausage-making behind the scenes. Your work on the new FAQ is greatly appreciated.
I would like to make the case for NPC help on Ally spirit conjuration, but this will probably turn out to be a wall of text, so you might want to get a cup of something first... Here goes.
Allies are super powerful.
That much is obvious to anyone who can imagine the possibilities of what unlimited spirit services of a very loyal spirit can do for you. But allies aren't the only really powerful thing in the game and they are suitably expensive in terms of karma and time required to create them, even moreso when you have to buy hits to create the formula. But this discussion really isn't about if they are costed properly or even if they should be in missions. The cost is already clearly stated and they are already legal. This discussion is about the marginal benefit of the teamwork test for creating the ally formula and the tradeoffs and marginal costs involved and how NPC teamwork might be balanced in missions.
The gold standard for spirits is Force 6. This is not just becasue most mages have a magic 6, but becasue 6 is where a spirit really starts to get tough. That 1 more force over a force 5 spirit translates to 2 hardened armor vs mundane weapon and is roughly equivalent to a mundane target having a body 5 higher. (2 dice from armor + 1 free hit from being hardened = about 5 dice otherwise) For the most part, unless you have APDS ammo or an assault rifle (but preferably both) you're going to have a real tough time taking down a Force 6 spirit. Anyone who is thinking of conjuring an ally spirit will likely be aiming for this goal line.
To create a ally formula at force 6 takes 30 hits on an extended arcana test. If you're doing it yourself, that requires a dicepool of 17. To get a dicepool of 17 in arcana only possible with some artificial increase to Logic or by increasing the arcana skill itself to 7 or more. (assuming you already have the spirit formula specialization). Quickening is the path of least resistance here and can bring an astute Hermetic to a Logic of 10 after initiating once. The Arcana (Spirit Formula) skill then required is 5(7), bringing the dicepool to 17.
If someone with an Arcana pool of 16 was trying to make a Force 6 ally formula, they simply could not do it without help. The minimum help required in this case would be a dicepool of 9 (8 with some mathy shenanigans but I'll address that later). On that same extended test (threshold 30) we assume the teamwork started at the beginning of the test and both the PC and the assistant reduced their dicepools by 1 each time. In this case the assistant would provide teamwork dice for exactly 6 days after which they would no longer be productive since their dicepool falls below 4. That dicepool of 9 could be achieved by a Logic of 5 and an arcana of 4 or 2(4), both very credible stats for an NPC.
Teamwork can be used to prop up dicepools lower than 16, but the level of expertise of the assistant becomes much, much more significant. To assist a dicepool of 15 the assistant would need to have 14 dice himself. To put that in perspective, even Lothan the Wise doesn't have a dicepool that large. (Actually his stats don't list an Arcana skill at all, but that's a different issue.)
So we can see that the only benefit realistically attainable by NPC teamwork is lowering the required dicepool by 1. Additionally, this teamwork strategy comes with some notable drawbacks. First, the mage in question will not have the benefit of the extra die for every other roll he'll make using Arcana. Second, the Ritual of Change has the same threshold to modify the spirit formula, so if the mage ever wants to enhance his ally in the future, he'll have to pay for the teamwork help all over again. Which brings me to the third drawback - the monetary cost. Everything has a cost and many times the money is not the only cost involved. So in light of these other drawbacks mentioned, the monetary cost will be the balancing act to bring parity to the rule.
One reason I prefer NPC help to PC help is that *I* control the NPCs and they charge their time, effort and expertise appropriately. PCs on the other hand don't necessarily do that. Also, I control the creation and behavior of the NPCs. Not allowing them to perform these teamwork tests in missions begs the creation of dummy characters whose sole purpose is to provide downtime teamwork dice. There's no requirement for how active a player must be, so as long as they go on 1 run and have Lothan as a contact, they're in the Ash Union and voila, there now exists a PC-NPC to do the work, presumably for free and possibly at unrealistic proficiency allowing the required dicepool for the conjurer to be 2 or 3 less instead of just 1.
My proposal is to allow NPC assistance from within the Ash Union for a standardized price. I would suggest pricing based on their arcana pool, somewhere around 100-150 nuyen per die per day. That makes our assistant providing 9 dice in teamwork costs 900-1350 nuyen per day for the 6 days needed to make the Ally formula. (And each time they do perform Ritual of change as well). I realize 900/day is only slightly more than the daily mechanic cost, but assistant work doesn't require any equipment, parts, consumables, a workshop to maintain or anything else. This money is ALL take home money for them. Mechanics might charge as much, but they work a lot harder and have more costs so they certainly don't take that much home, even if they do skip out on taxes.
The last caveats I would add to the Ally Teamwork rule would be to standardize the process to avoid possible mathematical chicanery by the mathematically inclined (like myself). Consider this: With no direction on how or when to use the teamwork tests, it turns out that you could still hit the threshold with only an 8 dicepool assistant and only pay them for 4 days work if they simply start their teamwork tests on the third day of the extended test. And that's not even the craziest exploit. So to avoid these mathematical easter eggs I propose we stipulate this:
Only 1 assistant (PC or NPC) may be used and they must provide continuous teamwork assistance from the first day of the formula creation until their services are no longer desired.
Price would be costed appropriately for balance. And then we put a bow on it.