Hi, it's Jesse again. I'm sure you're all suprised.
This is a place I'm noting stuff about spirits, mostly Loa, summoned through Intuitive Conjury.
An essence N loa seems to generally also have a willpower of N, most attributes at N (sometimes with a bonus in one or two or a penalty in one or two as seems appropriate), and a dicepool of 2N for most appropriate tasks. It has an essence pool of about 20N. (that's 9 x Essence (N) + 3 x Willpower (N) + 2 x Sum of Virtues (4N), and because 20 is a nice round number).
Loa (and other Spirits of Humanity, including Ghosts, etc.) generally cannot manifest, and instead get the ability to Ride. This requires a person to ride (generally refered to as the horse) who is both willing and has some connection to the Loa--shared ancestry is usually enough, but it depends on the spirit. The spirit effectively merges with the spirit of the horse for the duration, the result being an amaglamation of the two personalities.
When possessed by a loa, the horse is affected in a number of ways.
First, the horse picks up many of the speach patterns, quirks, and characteristics of the spirit. Friend may take a moment to recognise the horse, but those with reason to suspect can usually determine which loa is riding without much difficulty.
Second, the horse has the benefits of being a materialized spirit when being ridden (I'm not actually sure on this one, but I think it's the case...I believe this mostly boild down to being able to see dematerialized spirits), and spirit sight will note him as such.
If the essence of the horse is greater than or equal to the essence of the loa, they manifest an inconvenient personality trait (frequently obsession about something) and may be forced to make appropriate virtue rolls to resist the effects on occasion.
If the essence of the horse is less than that of the loa, then the loa more or less subsumes the personality of the host completely (willpower points may be spent to override, as normal) and the "inconvenient personality trait" is greatly exagerated.
The horse receives N attribute points, and N N-dot skill or specialization bonuses (skills are still capped at 5 or Essence, so dots over that turn into specializations)
The horse gains access to N spirit charms, some of which may be traded for features instead.
Finally, when the loa departs, the host takes N internal bashing damage. Internal means that stamina soaks, but armor does not. This may be lethal in some odd cases, particularly if the spirit had higher essence.
A loa can typically ride a horse for N scenes, at which point it generally departs, depleted, for its home metaplain.
Limit breaking with a Loa riding you is not a pretty thing. Avoid it. Really.
(Brian--let me know what you think of this. Too pumped? OK? Should caps (probably sum of essences) be put in?)
Example Loa: Erzule
Traits: Always female. Seductive dilletant, always flirting. Must attempt to seduce men with Appearance equal to or greater than your Temperance. Tends to get over emotional.
Attribute Bonus: Appearance, Appearance, maybe other socials.
Skill Bonus: Presence, Socialize, Seduction (presence?), Performance
Charms: Element Touch (lust), Affinity Element Control (lust), ???
Example Loa: Legba
Traits: Gnarled, Old, obsessed with spirits and gateways, sees himself as guardian of the crossroads between this world and the others. Frequently smokes chigars and uses a staff.
Must fail conviction/valor rolls not to challenge harmful spiritual "interlopers." If his essence is greater, horse loses a dot of dex in addition.
Attribute Bonus: Charisma, Stamina, Strength, Charisma...
Skill Bonus: Larceny, Resistance, Occult...
Charms: Element Affinity Control (doors/gates), ????
Example Loa: Loko
Traits: Firey, jealous hunter, enjoys the thrill of stalking prey and contests of athletic prowess. Does not back down from personal challenges, but will try to bend them to his skills. Master of herbal healing lore. If his essence is greater, will actively challenge others he comes across.
Attribute Bonus: Perception, Stamina, Intelligence
Skill Bonus: Medicine, Athletics, Survival, Hunting (melee? Archery? Survival?)
Charms: Element Affinity Control (plants), Tracking, Landscape Travel, Touch of Grace...
Example Loa: Ogun
Traits: king and warrior, Ogun is the loa of iron and political movements. His skin is tanned and leathery. Ogun cannot stand to see the downtrodden oppressed. He will always cary something made of iron, generally a weapon.
Attribute Bonus: Valor, Manipulation, Strength...
Skill Bonus: Melee, Bureaucracy, Crafts, Endurance
Charms: Element Affinity Control (iron), Donning Spiritual Armor, manifests an iron implement (almost always a weapon), that thing that's not Creation of Perfection...
Others: Chango (fire), Obatalah (paladin), Damballah (dreamsnake), Agwe (seas), Ghende (trickster/death), Azaka (farmer/worker), Te Jean Petro (vengeful sorcerer)...I can't think of anyone else at the moment. I keep thinking there should be 15 major ones, sorta-kinda like the 15 passions.
(in each of the above cases, you're definitely getting the first thing in the list, you might be able to pick from the following things. "..." happens when I don't know what to put next)
Legba, the Warrior, force 4 for Tristian Goodfellow: +2 strength, +1 stamina, +1 charisma, +4 Melee, +4 Resistance, +4 Occult (specializations in spirits and gateways), +4 some other skill (larceny? endurance?). Staff of Legba (artifact staff--dual staff of some sort), Strength of Stone Technique (resistance, +1 strength & stamina for 2 motes), Impervious Skin of stone Meditation (resistance, +4L/4B for 2 motes), Mountain-Toppling Method (resistance, +5 strength through staff of legba).
End result, with all charms up: Stamina 4, Strength 3 (8 for 4 motes/action), soak of 4/2 natual + 2/5 monocrys + 8/8 skin + 4/4 resistance charm (not against magic--assisted stuff) = 18B/19L (13A), melee pool of 9, artifact 3ish staff, dual, lasts for 4 scenes max. Hmm, maybe I do really want 2 more dots of stamina, for a flat 20/20 soak (is 20 the special cutoff point for spirits?). ;'] The benefits of that do get nastily slashed by mono-edged weapons, though..."mono" translates to "+10 damage" against someone that tanked.
Anyway...I've never seen comments on the mechanicy stuff proposed here. This is an example of about the maximum effectiveness one can pull out of it. --jesse cox.