Astral Adept, Adept with Astral Projection Options

[darthmord]

I still consider it overpowered, but YMMV.

Be that as it may... in one of the SOTA books (64, I think) there is a metamagic that allows an adept with Astral Perception to Astrally Project for (Magic) Minutes as opposed to a Mage's (Magic) Hours.

So giving it up as a metamagic isn't out of the realm of balance or reason. Given what you could get otherwise... I would think it's a fair trade. Then again, I'm not opposed to letting an adept get such a metamagic either. Nor with them spending yet another metamagic (which means another initation) to upgrade the (Magic) minutes to (Magic) hours.

[Tanegar]

Be that as it may... in one of the SOTA books (64, I think) there is a metamagic that allows an adept with Astral Perception to Astrally Project for (Magic) Minutes as opposed to a Mage's (Magic) Hours.

So giving it up as a metamagic isn't out of the realm of balance or reason. Given what you could get otherwise... I would think it's a fair trade. Then again, I'm not opposed to letting an adept get such a metamagic either. Nor with them spending yet another metamagic (which means another initation) to upgrade the (Magic) minutes to (Magic) hours.

A fair trade for what? I can't see that you're giving anything up. A mystic adept who can astrally project can do everything a magician can, plus buy adept powers. At worst, you have to wait a little bit longer for other metamagics like Centering and Shielding, but you're still not giving those up.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

A fair trade for what? I can't see that you're giving anything up. A mystic adept who can astrally project can do everything a magician can, plus buy adept powers. At worst, you have to wait a little bit longer for other metamagics like Centering and Shielding, but you're still not giving those up.

And yet you are still less powerful than the Mage with equivalent Karma... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smokin.gif)

[Tanegar]

And yet you are still less powerful than the Mage with equivalent Karma... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smokin.gif)

Debatably.

[darthmord]

A fair trade for what? I can't see that you're giving anything up. A mystic adept who can astrally project can do everything a magician can, plus buy adept powers. At worst, you have to wait a little bit longer for other metamagics like Centering and Shielding, but you're still not giving those up.

You are giving up an opportunity. Each time you initiate, the cost increases. You cannot escape that. That mystic adept who can project, do everything else a mage can, and buy adept powers is spread significantly thinner than a mage or an adept is.

Thus he is weaker in a direct activity comparison (MA mage stuff vice Mage mage stuff, MA adept stuff vice Adept adept stuff). That is a fair trade.

The Mystic Adept also has lower values for Magic spent on each side. Say the Mystic Adept started with 6 Magic and split it 3/3. He will ALWAYS be 3-6 points of Magic behind an equal karma Adept or Mage. Yes, the Mystic Adept has features not available to either the Adept or the Mage, but they will be less powerful than the full native side that provides them.

When looking at metamagics, there are some that are very useful. If you don't take them early on, the cost to get them increases.

[MK Ultra]

Agree with darthmord. Handeled it similar in previous editions (but actually no player ever chose that metamagic) and I think it´s more balanced then the OPs suggestion - you can still accomplish that by making a regular mystic adept with aspected negative quality and then buy the metatechniques. There is a general tendency for people to consider characters with a wide spread of skills and abilities broken. I usually disagree -unless you build characters with BP/Karma ad libitum- the generalist will lack performance in most fields, as compared to the specialist. In this case the costs are resonable, I think - except that I think that the mystic adept quality should not be cheaper then the magician quality in general.