So I really like the medium, but something is bothering me, with the fact that you lose control: I think there is a little loophole in the rules, for (bad and meanie) GM.
Relevant texts:
[...]Whenever a medium draws deeply from a spirit’s power via a trance, that spirit increases its inf luence upon him by 1 step, with no maximum.
[...]
If a spirit ever reaches 4 or more influence over the medium, the medium completely loses control to the spirit. He effectively becomes an NPC under the GM’s control until after he awakens the next day with the influence reduced, unaware of anything that happened in the intervening time.
Problem, what prevent a now-NPC medium to abuse the transe ?
Because there is no text to disallow a spirit to trance with himself, there could be abuse (But I agree that if your GM pull that trick, you should leave immediately).
If the spirit is in control, then it would suffer any metaphysical consequences of its actions, not you (after all, you didn't enter the trance—it was the spirit wearing your body) :)
Hmmmm... I still think that needs to be spelled out, just in case. To be honest, it's the first thing that catch my attention. I suppose that the "no maximum" implies spells, items or other stuff that could force the PC to take further attachment to a spirit. If there isn't, I have some problems to find out why you didn't put a limit.
Anyway, you know how we players love to use every bit of text to argue like pigs wrestling in the mud. *wink*
Sidenote: The next sentence has some problems too
He effectively becomes an NPC under the GM’s control until after he awakens the next day with the influence reduced, unaware of anything that happened in the intervening time.
1. What happens to character that don't need to sleep anymore ?
2. What if the spirit try not to sleep/someone or something prevent him from sleeping ?3. What if you have more than 4 level of influence. It shouldn't be "the next day", but "at the beginning of a day where your influence is lower than 4" IMO.
I think that changing "sleep" to "when the spirits aren't bond anymore" or something like that.