Thinking of introducing a new spell to the GM of our group... Astral Perception. A Caster-Only spell that gives you a new sense into the Astral Plane.

Drain Power:
-1 Detection Spell
+1 Sustained Spell

Drain Code:
Deadly: Provide a new Sense
-1: Touch Range (Like the Clairvoyance spell)
-1: Voluntary Subject (Need to reduce the drain)
+1: Extended Area (Can't get LOS, so as close as we can)

Final Drain: S
TN: 10 (Target is on a different plane)

Main advantage? You're not Dual Natured when using the sense. Disadvantage: Well, like Detect spells, this is an area-spell, so it's not uni-directional like true Astral Perception. Also, it's resisted, so spirits that don't want to be seen (or people masking themselves) would get to resist the spell to even be noticed.... With a TN:10 vs Force, that'd be pretty easy to do... even at a Force 6.

So.... what do you suppose my chances are? Would you let this spell into a game?

Sphynx

As you've written it, then yes, as it has those noted and quite substantial disadvantages. Also, you can't switch it on and off as easily as normal, which you might want to do to slip through wards etc. (Even if -you're- not dual natured, the spell or sustaining focus is.)

But thats only my opinion. And i like interesting spells. (I also use mana barrier.)

I wouldn't allow it exactly like that Sphynx sorry.

I suppose it would allow you to assence people around you that you can see on the physical plane without having to go dual natured. If you can't see the target you can't affect it. So anything fully astral you won't affect notice or see at all. But all of your buddies around you be bright and easy to see sort of.

Also you have to take into consideration that visual mods would apply, BG count, um... and resistance as well. Would be a usefull spell to cast on your face during chats with people he's trying to convince or pull a fast one on, seeing as he can 'see' thier feelings by the changes in thier aura.


Casting at TN 10? I'm not entirely sure onthat one. I don't know the book rules. But there's a hell of a lot better chance that your target will get more resistance than you can.


Once again I might be all wrong on this.

PS.

On an assensing test using this spell I would only allow as many successes on the aura reading equal to force
More successes means clearer vision, less means it's all muddled up

I personally would not allow this because it breaks one of my holy sacraments involving magic and crossing from physical to astral space. You can be astral or you can not and I would not allow a spell to see into the astral from physical. That don't mean much however, I'm just like that.

Sunday

It sounds like you should call this Detect Astral Form instead

I believe there is a spell in MitS called Astral Window...

A little easier to suck up and use, and it's not limited to the chunk of astral space within your personal little 60 meter radius sphere.

Astral window does not make the astral visible, it makes a clear window in a ward.
Yup, that's all.

Ahh. Thank you

I'd say not because it just sounds... wrong. The math is right, the drain code and TN# are right, the drawbacks and so on are all right. But together they make wrongness, and I can't put my finger on why.

oop, yes I can - one more qualifier - unless a person this is cast on has the ability to astrally perceive normally, the person cannot assense in the true sense of the word - its all very well being able to see the auras and spirits and whatnot you can't ordinarily see, no probs with that. But if you've never looked at someone in astral before how on earth are you going to interpret what you see? You're telling me a street sammie has this cast on him, goes to a meet and can tell the johnson is feeling nervous by his aura even though outwardly he's completely calm? No, don't think so. He'd just see a bunch of colours and shapes and go 'yep, well, he's definately not a table'.

I think the spell would work, I just think you'd have to be careful what people did with it. Spells are not intelligent. They shouldn't be able to help someone interpret in this way I don't think.

just imho, anyway.

That's why I made aura reading an active skill.

It already is, though.

Right now aura reading according to SR3 is a perception roll with the table there that tells them what they learned. I do it where you roll the skill, not perception. You can default to perception at a +4, which is to say learning jack and squat

Unless my thought porocess is on crack. Which as everyone here should know is always an option.

Yes, I would allow that. Basing it on clairvoyanceseems a logical choice (but with the higher TN of 10 as it lets you see stuff on the astral. Noting the fact that you can't cast through it, the spell range and clarity are limited, and that you should probably apply the standard +2 TN to non-magical tasks whilst astrally percieving it seems fair.

I can see that some GMs might have a problem with it but I wouldn't.

[edit]The rules as they stand let a character of average intelligence gain very little from assensing stuff. Even an int 6 character won't get very much unless they have Aura Reading anyway so I let it go off intelligence.[/edit]

Actually a char witn an int of 6 will get 3 sucesses, which is actually a huge amount of information. God forbid he has perceptive... But that's just my opinion

I suppose I just have a slightly different opinion on what a lot of information is.

IMHO: If a player wants to design someone good at assensing, they want to have a good chance of hitting that 5 success mark. Meaning that they'd want to hit it first-time (without spending karma) as the +2 TN for subsequent tests makes retries virtually pointless.

Yeah, but if you take the Perceptive Edge, Assenseing is alot easier. We have a Mage Adept who has Astral Perception and Enhanced Perception +3 with the Perceptive edge. Rolling 9 dice, TN 3, you average 6 successes. He is REALLY good at noticing pretty much anything. But then, he built his whole character around 'detection'. I don't suppose there's much he wouldn't notice.

Sphynx

yep yep, I never meant to imply otherwise, sorry if I did. I just didnt like the idea that any schmuck that happened to be able to percieve once in their life, like via magical compound could all of a sudden do it just as well as a mage.

Something else to remember (something I ALWAYS forget), is that you add your initiation level to Astral Perception tests (which Assensing is). So a Grade 4 initiate with an Intelligence of 6 usually gets all 5+ successes. (the friend with the Perceptive Edge just reminded me of it... )

Sphynx

Sort of, Sphynx. You get an astral pool equal to your grade which can be used to augment astral perception tests