So, I just started to run my first game, and in preparation I have been building a few monsters many of which have been spirits. The rules state that spirits are invisible to things that can not see spirits and are completely immeterial. The rules state that they get the physical exemption power for free, but it does not say if they get the immeterial power and the spiritual invisibility powers for free. It does say that if they want to be able to interact with the real world they need to buy that ability.

So my question is do spirits have to pay for spiritual invisibility and immeterial (but are required to take them) or are these just attributes of being spirits and as such do not have to buy them.

I have studied the rules on this matter for quite some time, and I am pretty sure that this is one of the many things that the poorly translated rules just are unclear on.

How have the rest of you ruled on this. Spiritual invisibility and immeterial are pretty expensive powers, so forcing a spirit to pay for them is pretty steep, especially if the spirit is low level. But then again they are pretty expensive (and hence powerful powers) and so giving them to a spirit for free is pretty powerful.

The rules do say that spirits get an extra 100 dp to spend, but they say that this is to componsate for the fact that spirits just die when they reach 0 life, not to compansate for extra powers that they have to buy.

Since most spirits are just monsters their actual level and number of dp spent may not seem to matters, but spirits are subject to summoning and banishing, so their level actually becomes really important.

Spiritual Essence: Book of Essence level 80 allows a player to use 150 DP (or more) to become a spirit. However they must spend 100DP of the 150DP to obtain the "spirit state" and thus can only use the other 50DP.

I would infer from this that a being must spend 100DP to have the "spirit state" including immateriality etc. However the character level does increase by 2, so the 100DP (or free spirit state spirits get) should increase their level by 1.

Hmm. I must have missed that when i read through the chapter ... I've been making spirits with all the required-to-be-a-spirit powers without taking into account their point costs in the monsters' total points. It hasn't caused any problems in my games ...

Your call though.

GM's choice I guess. The difference if they are a level higher is only +20 difficulty for Summon,Control, Bind, and Banish, and a +5 to base presence and resistances.

Spirits can't interact with the world unless you give them the ability to do so and the rules for them are on page 283 in the lower left corner.

That being stated the creation chapter is just guidelines. Within the rules making a creature give off 1 cold intensity and glow is two spells and 100 DP. You bet I said I Don't Care. I want my glowing blue level 0 ice beetles thank you very much. I made them so a dog could kill them who cares if the rules say they have 650 DP spent.

My summoner want's to keep cool in the hot weather.

I don't know why your making spirits though. The vast majority of spirits are low levels that wouldn't be capable of interacting with the real world and therefore aren't creatures you'd need stats for. It's enough just to describe to your players what they look like. Those are my feelings anyway.