just curious - if a player wanted a straight adept to be able to astrally Project, what cost would you make the power?

presumably, it would function much the same as a mage's astral projection, including getting a (new) astral initiative (20+I+1d6)

for reference, astral perception is cost 2.

I personally think 4 is a good number, but I'm interested in other peoples opinions

Well, if I were to use my Alternate BP System It would cost the equivalent of 1.5 PowerPoints and require the Purchase of Astral Perception (which costs the equivalent of 1.0 Power Points in my System). So, I guess I offer an extremely cheap 2.5 PowerPoints for Astral Perception AND Astral Projection, with the ability to add in an additional 6 PowerPoints at char-creation.

Unfortunately, my system is too new to have tried it out yet as all of our characters are at least a year+.

Anyhows, I voted the closest thing you've got. 2+Perception.

Sphynx

Hi,
I voted for "out of flavor". The whole point of physical adepts is that they use their magic potential to push their bodies to feats that are above human capabilities. Astral perception makes sense in this point because the adept does not leave his body and has tweaked his senses enough to extend them to the Astral Plane.
Allowing the soul to leave the body and float around in the Astral Plane just seems to contradict this concept in my opinion.

tbd

Just a quick comment here TDB, physical adepts is a 2nd Ed Term. 3rd Ed doesn't have those (for a good reason).

Sphynx

Hi,
oops, my mistake (I only have the German books). But didn't the concept stay the same in 3rd edition? All adept powers I can think of right now involve tweaking the adept's body. After all, there is the power "improved physical ability" but not "improved mental ability" (not sure on exact name here).

tbd

Lots of Sensory, Detect Magic, Detect Emotions, etc... Magical Power (spell casting types), and spell shroud as well. So, mostly Physical yeah, but if it makes sense they can cast spells like a mage... I at least know of Yoga types who can (well they claim they can) go out-of-body via certain techniques, so Astral Projection seems alot more "physical" than spell-casting does.

Sphynx

Somehow... physical adepts seem to be good candidates for a physical body astral projection. There would be benefits, of course, some of them insane, but there would also be drawbacks.

It does say that Adepts cannot astrally project anyway. If you wanted that, then make a mage... Just my thought.

One of my GM's once suggested the idea of making Astral Projection a metamagic technique for aspected and adepts (Astral Perception as a pre-req of course).

the primary reason I brought this up was for a player who wanted to learn posession as a metamagic technique for her adept.

anyway, making it a metamagic technique sounds like a possibility - and physical projection sounds interesting too.

if I were to make it a power, the motivation would probably be the bit sphynx mentions (about yoga types)

and I agree, by the way. astral projection seems like an inherently 'internal' use of magic for some reason.

@kurb... but mages can't channel power into themselves like an adept can. so the question becomes: is there another type like the magic adept (who can cast spells but not project) who could project, but can't cast spells?

it certainly isn't unbalancing, except perhaps in the arena of astral combat (the improved close-combat skill power in conjunction with a weapon focus running around could get pretty scary) but it might damage the feel of the distinction between adepts and mages.

IMHO, and the reason I made the revised BP in the first place, is that people should get to play the character concept they see in their head. So much easier to build a character around a concept than min-maxxing for the best combination. If a person has this image of a 'Yoga' type character who can go 'Out of Body' and is also very flexable, and good in combat like some Shaolin Monk (just with a magical twist) then I build the system around the character, and give other players an interesting new toy to play with; since inside the heart of all of us is a min-maxxer looking for the perfect character.

Sphynx

"Your" alternate system, eh? Looks a tad bit familiar.

In any case, under the standard rules, I firmly believe that adepts shouldn't be allowed to astrally project unless you can somehow figure out a way for aspected magicians to gain the same ability at a significantly cheaper cost. An adept should *not* be able to project while an aspected sorcerer, conjurer, shamanist, elementalist, or other similar concepts cannot. It's way "out of flavor" for them.

But if you're using a completely new style of character creation for magical characters, that's another story entirely. I have no problem with it in those cases.

I voted it was out of flavor, for an adept power. But I do allow it as a metamagic, so long as the person getting it already has perception.

I'd probably do it both ways. If you make an adept power out of it, you'd need to make a metamagic out of it, as well, which adepts couldn't take. The adept power shouldn't be "pure" astral projection, after all, instead requiring a roll of some sort and possibly having the centering metamagic as a prerequisite for taking the power.

Hmmm, what happens when an adept critically fails an astral projection test...

which book is it that details physical projection again? (MiTS?)

that sounds like an interesting twist on adept projection

I don't think physical projection exists within the rules set of SR3. The closest you get is p117 of MitS (Astral Gateway which is a free spirit power which can make anyone project). Outside of the normal rules set,

In second edition you could "physically project" through an Astral Gateway. This is not an option in third edition, AFAIK.