Adept of the Spirit Way, Easy Prey while astrally perceiving? Options

[Rompler24]

I'm intending to play an Adept of the Spirit Way with astral perception, but currently I see no real way of defending while he is astrally perceiving. Assume a hostile mage is nearby. As far as he stays out of reach, the adapt has no real way of harming him. Is that right? I know that there is the option of using the distance strike power, but the distance is just about 6 meters. Thats not enough IMHO and quite costly on top of it.

The core rules mention that adapts too may use Sorcery in astral combat. Is that a ranged attack? I think melee rules are applied, but is it really melee combat? I mean, using Sorcery as skill implies a ranged attack?

Does anybody have a different way of attacking far away targets in astral space for an adept?

Thanks for your comments and thoughts!

[Rev]

Well an astrally projecting mage has to take physical drain to do ranged (spellcasting) attacks but, yea, the perceiving charachter who cant cast spells is at a great disadvantage. You might be able to hold actions and stop perceiving whenever you see him casting a spell at you (if you are faster than them with the projection initiative bonusus). The fully astral enemy can always run away at enormous speed too.

I dont think having sorcery be ranged is a good idea because it then becomes a way to attack dual natured critters and spirits while being very difficult to counterattack and with no drain.

Oh yea, you could fight the spell when they cast it at you, could you not? Not completely sure how this works with the rules, but it is possible to attack a spell in astral combat. Maybe you would have to hold action for that as well?

[Rice Bowl]

[Abstruse]

Depends on what you're going for with the character. Personally, as a ghostbuster-type character (ghosts, wraiths, spirits, etc.), you'd better have astral perception and a weapon focus. Otherwise, you're not going to be able to see anything and even if you do, you're not going to be able to do anything about it without something that can hurt things on the astral.

The Abstruse One

[Glyph]

Astrally perceiving does leave you vulnerable to astral attack, but keep in mind that: 1) Not every area that you are in will allow a mage to keep out of striking distance if he wants to follow you - if you are worried, you can always pick the terraign, and then astrally perceive; and 2) Considering that the mage will be taking physical Drain, it may not be the toughest manabolt that character can cast. Astral perception is a lot more versatile than magical sense, even though it does leave you vulnerable. My advice would be to have a good Willpower, and later on you can also take some levels of the Magic Resistance power.

[Rice Bowl]

Just think of your "ghostbuster" going into astral perception, with let's say: 4 dumb Force 3 watchers waiting for him to make this stupid move. Your ghostbuster is busted!!

He's got surprise etc. against him. He doesn't even know that he was astrally spied, so long for the astral specialist!

And then, regarding physical drain for the spellcasters, please don't make me laugh!
The projecting mages will just Heal/Treat it, if not completely resisted as soon as they go back to their meatbod... while sitting-duck-adept definitely needs to get at best Stabilized!!

Then astral entities and astral projecting people have such an advantage in mobility in astral space, you cannot reach them with your weapon focus if they don't choose so (which by itself should be a hint you should slot and run).

I don't see why a mage wouldn't cast many Manabolts at level M for HOURS, while flying close to the ceiling, when dummy adept is asking him to come down and fight it out as a man.
Oh yes, maybe, the mage is laughing so much he gets cramps and cannot go down these 4 meters!

[John Campbell]

[Abstruse]

Plus you can turn your perception on and off with I believe a simple action. Turn it on, have a quick peek around, turn if off on your next action.

BTW, the physical drain can't be healed by magic (as was already said), and it's resisted right away. Why is it important that it's resisted immediately? Dice pools don't refresh. And with pretty much any combat spell, the damage you do to me is equal to the damage you're doing to yourself. You have pretty much the same chance of staging your drain down as I do staging down the damage from your spell. And I can't think of ANYONE with any sort of magic-based dice pool that doesn't have all their dice allocated for defense by default.

The Abstruse One

[Rice Bowl]

Hum, maths:

spellcatser with Will 6 and Sorcery 6 and of course Manabolt 6 (don't say you never saw it!) rolls Damage M Manabolt to nice adept.

No need for Magic pool dice.

You roll 6 dice of sorcery (I make it simple: no specializations, no bonus dice, foci etc.) against adept's Will. If adept doesn't have Will 6, he's gonna suffer.
Let's say he has "only" Will 5.

Spellcaster should generate 2 successes.

Adept tries to resist, and should generate slightly less than 1 success.

Adept thus should endure S level damage.

Spellcaster tries to resist drain.
TN: 6/2=3.
Needs 4 successes to cancel all drain.
6 dice of Will against TN 3 should generate 4 successes.

So with Astral Init of a projecting mage, which nobody will contradict is far above the one of the adept, mage is perfectly fine and adept already in Serious Physical.

I'm not even talking about Slaying bolts etc with lower drain.


BTW, when adept tries to peek in astral just to check if it's safe, it's as clever as to pop your head out of protection to check if the sniper is still there.

[Glyph]

An astral attack pack of watchers can take almost anything apart in combat, mainly due to "Friends in Melee" rules. An adept actually has a better chance than a spirit - an adept can have improved ability, astral armor, maneuvers such as whirling, etc., and actually fight the watchers on more equal terms. Some adept builds would even wipe the floor with them.

Any adept who plans to be an adept of the spirit way should have a Willpower of at least 6, period. A high Willpower and a few levels of Magic Resistance make it very difficult for mages to affect you with mana spells. They will always have the edge in number of dice they can sling at you, but that is just as true in the "real" world as it is in astral space. The disadvantage of being attacked in astral space is the same disadvantage as being attacked by a sniper - your foe is out of your attack range, so you cannot counterattack. The obvious solution, if you weather the first attack, is to stop astrally percieving immediately.

And astral beings may have three-dimensional movement, but things like walls still impede their visibility. If you choose your terraign carefully, you can make an astral ambush less likely.


The ghost hunter has weaknesses, but is still an effective approach for adepts. You can be very effective against spirits, attack dual-natured people while ignoring their mundane armor, and get a lot of information from astral perception. You still work best as part of a team - a team mage, who can summon spirits for scouting and give you spell defense dice, goes a long way towards offsetting your weaknesses.

[Entropy Kid]

[Glyph]

I wasn't talking about the Edge; I was talking about the adept power.

It is kind of confusing, them having the same name like that. :)