Well, I have a feeling I'm not using them the way they were intended, but I'm having fun anyway. I'm still figuring them out.
The Players recently found a wind spirit that had been trapped in a cave with a dead shaman for a long time (hundreds of years) and they did the magic stuff they needed to do to release it and its fellows. Initially "Newsbringer" was only able to talk to them on Windsday because it was very weak, but the players decided that Newsbringer was interesting and they needed a hero-band guardian, so they asked Newsbringer if it would do the job.
I was pretty sure that as theists, the rules would suggest that they shouldn't have a "spirit" as a guardian, but at the time, the story felt better for it, since they'd already developed a relationship of sorts with it.
The Players had fun thinking of the sorts of things that a wind spirit could do to be helpful (aid balance when trying to walk along a cliff ledge, defence against incoming missiles etc) but the most useful thing was the "walky-talky" help. Newsbringer can only talk to one at a time, but he can carry messages (that was in the backstory before they decided to ask him to be a guardian). He's also slightly literal, so if they send him out to look for enemies he'll come back and say "yep, there's enemies out there"
In their most recent encounter, they were defending against a Grazer hero-band, and Newsbringer (and someone's soul vision[*]) spotted the grazer band had a guardian spirit. I gave the players a choice of sending Newsbringer in to try to disrupt their guardian, or keeping his services available for communication and disrupting incoming missiles. Unfortunately, their guardian spotted Newsbringer and raised the alarm before the ambush was sprung. The choices and consequences are what make the game interesting, I think, and having a guardian is giving them more choices and different possible consequences.
In short, the guardian has a small range of useful abilities, and can augment all sorts of skills if they get clever, but the most useful abilities are an increase in the awareness of what's going on in the non-physical world, and usually a communication system that allows them to co-ordinate out of line of sight.
Seeing Herobands with hugely powerful guardians swooping around them invisibly (except to soul vision, or their spirits senses), seems to make the players feel like the world is more magical.
They also have access to the Clan Wyter (while they're on the tula), and their household spirits (while they're near the stead) which also have awareness abilities and communications and augments available. Their household wyter gives warnings about strange horses nearby, and augments to ride fast, but demands that they not willingly hurt a horse and teach their sons to ride, and have horses at their stead. This seems to help the players feel tied into a web of relationships and obligations that help make the world more real.
Cheers,
Stephen
[*]I've played soul vision sort of like if they cover one eye they see the clan elders with painted masks and their clothes on inside out, and if they cover the other eye they see the imperial court of maggotliege, and the players liked that description as well. When they have both eyes open they see the world with the other-side superimposed over the top, and the closer they are to the other side, the more real the superimposed view looks.
-- Stephen Rennell steve_at_... Wellington, New Zealand GPG fingerprint - CD0F 78C6 1AAE 8726 803A F1D0 F123 8486 062F 0317
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