| 4 people marked this as FAQ candidate. |
I've got a bunch of questions on interactions between the Channel Spirit feat and the Medium class.
Here's the feat, from the Haunted Heroes Handbook:
Channel Spirit
You can willingly allow spirits to possess you, trading a taste of your life for their knowledge and abilities.Prerequisite(s): Spirit Ridden or spirit class feature.
Benefit(s): Select one of the spirit legends available to a medium. You can trade control of your body to a spirit of this type for power. You must perform a seance, taking 1 hour and requiring your concentration. At the end of the seance, you invite a spirit of the chosen type to inhabit your body. You do not require an appropriate location to channel the spirit. You gain the benefits of the spirit’s spirit bonus and seance boon, but no spirit powers. Your spirit bonus is +1, or equal to your spirit bonus from any medium class levels you have (whichever is higher). You don’t select a taboo and the spirit gains no influence over you. You can continue to gain the benefits of the spiritual possession for up to 1 hour per character level you have. At the end of the duration, the spirit takes over your body, and you become an NPC under the GM’s control for a duration equal to the amount of time the spirit possessed you. You can end the duration prematurely as a free action, but the spirit still takes over your body. If you have the spirit class feature, you can’t use this feat and act as a vessel for a second spirit simultaneously, but you gain spirit powers as normal for your medium level.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take this feat, you gain a new spirit you can channel.
So my questions:
- Can a medium use the Channel spirit feat multiple times during the day? If so, can he make different choices if he channels the same spirit type?
- The line "and the spirit gains no influence over you", does it mean that a medium starts with no influence or that no spirit powers nor other influence-increasing abilities can be used with the spirit channeled via this feat?
- Say a Medium has channeled a spirit of a certain legend then uses any ability to increase his current influence, then dismisses the spirit maybe violating the taboo while reaching 5 influence, can the medium then channel a spirit of that legend with the feat? Is the same spirit or another one with different selections?
- Can spirit ridden feat be used when a spirit is already channeled in the medium via the channel spirit feat?
- Can a medium with the share seance boon share the boon bonus of a spirit gained through this feat?
- If a Medium has a restricted list of spirits, like kami medium or a legendary spirit, does the same restriction applies to spirits called using this feat?
1) There isn't anything keeping you from using the feat more than once per day, you just have to have enough day left after you're done being possessed by the spirit. As for making another choice, it depends on what you mean, but according to the feat you only get a new type of spirit when you take the feat again. So if you've only taken it once, you can only have one kind of spirit. Since you only get the bonus and the seance boon, there really isn't anything else to pick (since I think the bonuses those give you are the same)
2) The spirit gains no influence over you ever. Partially because it starts with no influence, but also because you gain no spirit powers to use with the spirit as per the feat.
3) There is nothing that says the spirit summoned with this feat is ever the same, it just says of a type, so I don't think it has to be. You're gm might make that happen, but you certainly have no influence over it.
4) it only calls out the spirit class feature as being disallowed, so its probably fine to use both feats at once.
5) It could go either way with your dm, but just by the rules I would say no. Mainly because in the spirit class feature it mentions that you can do the seance granted by that feature with your allies, but this feat makes no mention of allowing you to do the same.
6)The top line says select one spirit of legends available to a medium so I would think that if it is restricted then the spirit is not available to you.
1. The channel spirit feat says that a medium gains spirit powers as normal, so for example when channeling an Archmage a small list of spells must be selected. If then the medium chooses to summon again the archmage in the same day via this feat, does he have the same selection of spells or can select different spells?
2.doesn't the last sentence of the feat says that a medium gains normal spirit powers?
3. And 5. I know that I can ask the GM, indeed is the first thing I did as usual for every sensate player. Im asking here on the boards mainly to confront opinions of other gm/players, but also to know whats RAW and RAI about it.
4. I see that in the same way, but it seems to contradict the intention of channeling a spirit with seances. Both the medium and the channel spirit feat keep on repeating that a character cannot be possessed by more than one spirit at the same time. Spirit ridden seems to be not, maybe there is a missing line?
6. I think that the first line is speaking mainly to non-medium characters to direct them to go reading the spirit types described in the medium class.
Anyone?
Another question:
If you have the spirit class feature, you can’t use this feat and act as a vessel for a second spirit simultaneously
What happens if a Medium has channeled a spirit via the feat, then calls another one with his class feature? Does the new one overrides the first or does the new seance just fail? This is more prominent for Spirit Dancer Mediums
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I'd say it simply can't be done... you are incapable of calling another spirit while channeling one via the feat. You would need to stop channeling your current spirit... at which point it takes control of you for some number of hours... and then only when you regained control could you use your normal Medium seance.
I'd say it simply can't be done... you are incapable of calling another spirit while channeling one via the feat. You would need to stop channeling your current spirit... at which point it takes control of you for some number of hours... and then only when you regained control could you use your normal Medium seance.
It seems reasonable. I guess that using Trance of Three could be possible to channel a spirit from the feat and one from the Medium class feature...
And what about the starting questioms?
1) Yes and yes.
2) This feat does not use the influence mechanics.
3) A Medium can not dismiss a channeled spirit. If you have preformed your class feature seance for the day, you can't use the feat for 24 hours. If you lose the spirit from breaking the taboo, you cannot channel spirits of that legend for 1 week (this should override the feat as well). But you can probably channel a new spirit after this.
4) The Spirit Ridden feat is it's own feat and nothing is mentioned to exclude it from working with both this feat and the class feature.
5) You can not share the seance boon, since it's not mentioned anywhere that you can.
6) It says "Select one of the spirit legends available to a medium", not "Select one of the spirit legends available to you". You can only select the spirits available to a regular (non-archetyped) medium.All in all, the feat is pretty s@*@ for a medium (or anyone, really, as getting NPC'd is about the worst thing that could happen, since you don't get to play). I only see any value in it if you don't start your day by using your class feature for some extra flexibility.
1) Why so? If that's the case, Channel Spirit is great when taken for Archmage, Hierophant and Trickster spirit types! A medium could change her selection of spells/skills every hour solving any particular situation. If becoming an NPC is a concern, then just channeling archmage for a couple of minutes just to cast spells, then stop, then go crazy for a couple of minutes only, which is acceptable for what's in return.
2) I am not so sure. The feat seems to imply that the character gains no taboo nor influence, not saying either "starting influence" nor "any influence at all". Maybe this is written with the idea that nonMedium characters would use it and would have no Spirit Powers (the only thing aside spirit surge that can increase the influence), so no need to limit the feat.3) Dont know why using the Medium class feature should prevent using the feat, they're separate things supposedly. But as you're saying it in the second part, you may lose the spirit channeled through the class feature via breaking the taboo, then as you answered in 1) any Medium could use the feat again and again in the day.
4) True. It just seems... wrong. But as you said, it's RAW
5) RAW true
6) Again, RAW true. Kami medium would love to channel Archmages, or even the Lich or Nex...
My conclusion it's quite the opposite, but this is a personal opinion. For my game experience this feat it was great for my Medium to speed up its versatility sometimes "repairing" what it seems broken/missing in the standard class. It was also splendid for the spirit dancer, to gain more "stamina" and use extra skills&spells more times in the day.
The great things about the feat are:
channeling a new spirit each time just to change the previous one selections, in the case of trickster for skills and archmage/hierophant for spells;
gain a spirit without having to care about influence, well could hurt a bit to Marshals;
Medium still gains Spirit Powers for the spirits of the feats!
Bad things:
character becomes an NPC. Meh, that's not fun. You say it. At least the time spent channeling (and consequently the same time to be passed as NPC) is manageable, even in minutes or seconds, so just "don't channel spirit via the feat for more than couple of hours continuosly" is a good rule of thumb;
influence-increasing abilities might not be usable (question opened, see point 3), so decreasing the usefulness of Archmages and Marshals. Champions and Hierophants are untouched, just to say...