Help me with my Concept: Spirit Summoning Rock Musician [nWod]

[Anderlith]

So I'm playing nWod & I want to play a washed up, hippy/stoner/rocker guy, who plays a guitar & summons spirits to either fight for him or possess him/empower him.

I'd really like a good way to summon them without them hating my character, my storyteller can be kinda harsh.

[Mr.Bookworm]

So I'm playing nWod & I want to play a washed up, hippy/stoner/rocker guy, who plays a guitar & summons spirits to either fight for him or possess him/empower him.

I'd really like a good way to summon them without them hating my character, my storyteller can be kinda harsh.

Uh. What sort of game are you playing? A baseline mortal game? A werewolf game?

Also, I can think of a bunch of different ways, but you should keep in mind that spirits of the WoD are not even close to human in nature. I'm not sure "hating" really figures into it, although they'll quite possibly be none too happy, depending on what you're doing. Oh, and possession is really not a good thing with spirits, outside of a very few limited circumstances.

EDIT: Vampires don't really deal with spirits all that much. Werewolves deal with spirits all the time and therefore have plenty of ways to mess with them. If you're a Mage, you can just take lots of dots in Spirit. Prometheans don't have a lot to do with spirits, but you might be able to do something by being an Ulgan. Changelings don't deal a lot with spirits. There's a Hunter conspiracy I'm forgetting the name that deals with spirits, see if you can swing joining them. If you're a Sin-Eater, just mark out "spirit" and replace with "ghost" and you can do it easy.

If you're mortal, you might be able to swing a custom merit. There are also a coule of minor templates that could suit the concept.

[Anderlith]

Playing Hunter: The Vigil. Most books are open

[Mr.Bookworm]

Playing Hunter: The Vigil. Most books are open

See if you can join the Les Mysteres from Spirit Slayers, then. Their whole schtick is calling up spirits to help them. If you can't join a conspiracy for whatever reason, I'd see if you can take the Natural Medium (•••) merit from there. That won't let you call up and command spirits on demand, but it'll let you talk to them and maybe bargain with them.

[Anderlith]

See if you can join the Les Mysteres from Spirit Slayers, then. Their whole schtick is calling up spirits to help them. If you can't join a conspiracy for whatever reason, I'd see if you can take the Natural Medium (•••) merit from there. That won't let you call up and command spirits on demand, but it'll let you talk to them and maybe bargain with them.

:/ Odd that nWod doesn't have any rules for summoning

[Grinner]

:/ Odd that nWod doesn't have any rules for summoning

There are, but there's no unified ruling on it. Werewolves have a ton of ways of doing it; mortals have a few options; and vampires have one or two tricks as well. Ooo, Sin-Eaters probably have quite a few options too.

For hunters, there's this one sourcebook which details these guys that bind themselves to spirits. I remember them having a Judeo-Christian vibe, but they might have been voodoo practitioners...Start with the Les Mysteres conspiracy that Mr. Bookworm mentioned.

There's another thing that almost fits your specifications perfectly in Inferno, if you have it. I think they're called the Possessed. The only problem is that they're bound to demons, though I've never been clear on the difference between demons and spirits...

There might also be something in the supplement Second Sight. There should be a Merit called Invocation which might do what you want.

[Water_Bear]

If you can get away with it, Purified from WoD; Immortals are by far the best summoners in the nWoD (Standard "I haven't read Mummy or God Machine yet" Disclaimer) and are also virtually invincible.

Essentially, a Purified has undergone a transformation which turned their soul into a Spirit-like entity only loosely connected to their bodies (which they can replace or heal more-or-less at will). They can take pretty much any Spirit/Ghost/Demon/etc Numen with ST permission, their Siddhi are pretty badass**, and their default abilities make killing them into a chore even for Mages. They don't have the pure power to win a straight fight with even most minor templates, but as a "support" or "batman" type they are excellent.

Purified aren't exactly human, which might be an issue for some Hunters, but they're not Dracula either; they keep the human Morality counter and don't have any real use for hurting people. And even if the Cell kills you for being a filthy mutant you'll just wake up in your Warded Ritual shipping container buried in the New Mexico desert and hitchhike back before the week is out.

**If you, like me, read "spirit" as meaning any being explicitly called a spirit (Abyssal Spirits, most Demons, Astral Spirits, etc) rather than just Shadow Spirits, their ability to summon is simply unmatched. And even with a strict reading they are able to easily call up and command Ghosts and Spirits, erect powerful Wards (including one which shuts down supernatural powers), zip around between the Shadow Twilight and Underworld largely without consequence, and gain an inordinate number of ways to quickly move around the Fallen World.

[Anderlith]

I would prefer to summon them & get them to fight for me rather than possess me. But if I have no other options, I guess I could go that route

[Mr.Bookworm]

There are, but there's no unified ruling on it. Werewolves have a ton of ways of doing it; mortals have a few options; and vampires have one or two tricks as well. Ooo, Sin-Eaters probably have quite a few options too.

Yeah, there's no unified rules for summoning because everyone does it differently. A werewolf or a mage might be able to snap his fingers and call up a spirit, while a vampire or a human might require an intricate, day-long ritual to do the exact same thing.

Sin-Eaters don't have a lot to do with spirits, though. They mostly deal in ghosts.


For hunters, there's this one sourcebook which details these guys that bind themselves to spirits. I remember them having a Judeo-Christian vibe, but they might have been voodoo practitioners...Start with the Les Mysteres conspiracy that Mr. Bookworm mentioned.

That's the LM, yeah. They're (appropriately) somewhat voodoo-flavored.


There's another thing that almost fits your specifications perfectly in Inferno, if you have it. I think they're called the Possessed. The only problem is that they're bound to demons, though I've never been clear on the difference between demons and spirits...

Spirits come from the Shadow, the dark mirror to the world. They're animalistic, alien creatures that seek to feed on emotion.

Demons are creatures from the Lower Realms (which are, cosmologically speaking, "underneath" the world), which may or may not be honest-to-God Hell. They are creatures of Vice and while they are not human, they tend to have a fairly good grasp of what makes humans tick.

There are "possessed" that run on spirits (the Ridden), but it's decidedly unpleasant and non-beneficial to the host.


If you can get away with it, Purified from WoD; Immortals are by far the best summoners in the nWoD (Standard "I haven't read Mummy or God Machine yet" Disclaimer) and are also virtually invincible.

I wouldn't recommend you play a Purified in a Hunter game unless you want your ST to punch you in the mouth. They're way too overpowered for that sort of game.

[SiuiS]

:/ Odd that nWod doesn't have any rules for summoning

It's the requirements. The very easiest way is Spirit 4, which lets you summon, bind, bribe, intimidate, and sometimes make spirits.


Book of Spirits has some merits which let you generate essence, and let you see/contact spirits. There's also a method of hurting them somewhere, which would be useful...

Get Allies (Punk spirits) as a merit. Work out a deal whereby you do punk rock performances to generate essence, and in return the spirits keep you are by manifesting and bringing the mosh pit to your enemies.

Get your guitar as a fetish, and the spirit within it is summoned, manifested and directed to assault the Enemies of Rock.

Get the Familiar merit and refluffed it as being protected by a spirit with the Spirit Guardian spell, as like, payment for helping some hoodoo shaman bust up a scelesti cult in the past or something. You've got a spirit who exists to guard your safety, now. It can also talk to other spirits as convince them to help as needed, especially music spirits since your performances feed them.

Take 5 dots of Expression, a (guitar work) specialty, and have good stats. You're one of the world's foremost players, and you're constantly followed by Groupee spirits and suchlike, who may act to protect you on their own; you're their brea and butter, literally.