Spirit Loa Rules

Spirit Loa is a rare ability that rates between one to five dots like most traits.       Spirit Loas, also known as spirit horses can open themselves up to possession and borrow the skills of the spirit “rider”. The spirit in question is usually a ghost from the material plane, or one of the honored dead from the Aetherial Plane. This usually invites a friendly spirit with similar goals, and the spirit and Loa usually work in tandem, but a botch always brings an unwanted rider that will fully possess the Loa temporarily.   It is possible that a Spirit Loa that only has one or two dots of the Spirit Loa ability is not even aware that she is a Spirit Loa, attributing her occasional ability boosts to sudden inspiration or dumb luck. In this case, the player can still strategically choose when to use loa abilities even if her character doesn't know what's going on.   Spirit Loas are more vulnerable to hostile possession from ghosts than average people. Attempts to possess Loas are at -1 difficulty, -2 difficulty if the Loa has four or more dots of the Spirit Loa ability. On the plus side, a Loa is always aware the second a spirit attempts possession on them and never suffers memory fugue from a possession.   Loas can roll Perception + Spirit Loa (difficulty 7) reflexively to detect ghosts in their immediate proximity, even if the ghosts are hidden or invisible.   There does not have to be ghosts nearby to use their ability the abilities of dead people, Spirit Loas can in theory channel spirit riders from hundreds of mile away or even from the Aethereal Plane where the honored dead live.   Spirit Loas can call upon the spirits once per day normally. If they want to use their ability additional times in a single day, it becomes more difficult each time and the chance for a hostile possession increases.   Loa rolls Wits + Spirit Loa (difficulty 7) to call on a spirit as a free action or Perception + Spirit Loa (difficulty 6) to call on a spirit after meditating for at least ten minutes.   Every success grants the character an extra dot of mundane ability for an entire scene, the maximum temporary rating of an ability is still 5. If the player wishes, she can split her bonuses up between multiple abilities such as Dodge and Melee.   If the Loa is seeking cerebral ability boosts, it’s possible the information gleaned is leaning towards the spirit rider’s personal biases, especially if the player is channel bonus dots in History or Politics.   The difficulty depends on how likely it is friendly spirits are metaphysically tied to the area.