where he needs a threshold of 2 for a non astrally active form,
i.e. 11.1% chance success and 19.4% chance of critical glitch

and that is if ya rule that they can assense things that aren't astral forms

normally you use perception when viewing non astral from astral

which gets you back to dicepool of zero

but you rule they can assense

okay so normal thing threshold 2 (non dual natured living person)
and if they are trying to be unobtrusive threshold 3

oh crap
watcher failed as he has no edge

SR4
page 117
where they have the perception and visibility chart
Duh

drones?

EDIT: let me clarify, in the assensing section it says that assensing replaces perception for looking at astral forms... which it earlier defines as different from auras. if you rule that mundanes count because of their auras you then move on to the threshold problem

something tells me that the text that have the heading "auras and astral forms" should realy have the heading "auras and other astral forms". this way, the stuff about astral forms in refrence to assensing makes it much easyer to spot a living person from astral space...

Rotbart, so how are those thresholds applied

what gets the equivalent on 'NEON lighting ' in astral space

Astrally active things maybe?

Another option for helping boost watchers, is to remove their combat abilities (except dodge) and boost their perceptions. It's a watcher spirit. Short of running, I think it should have no function in combat. The only time I'd give them any combat ability is to break from combat to set off their alarm.