I was just wondering if there are any reliable ways to sneak past astrally percieving guards. I'm not going to say there isn't a way published in the books, but for the life of me, I can't find it. Basically, what I am looking for is this: is there anyway to increase the target numbers in Magic in the Shadows for astral patrolling? Or does on pretty much have to avoid areas patrolled by spirits and elementals completely in order to remain undetected?

The only thing I can think of is another spirit using the Conceal power, but I was hoping there was some way an adept (or even just a normal chromed-up human) could also increase their chances of sneaking past.

I think avoidance is your only choice. I was going to say masking, but I think that only applies to your aura.

The Stealth skill works just as well on the Astral.

I've been thinking about this for a while. I think that it should only work as well when the character is specifically trying to hide from astral patrollers. Standard techniques for hiding like using shadows won't be effective against an astral observer, but standing near a well-lit boiler ought to work despite conventional wisdom telling you otherwise.

There should be an "astral stealth" specialization of stealth, too.

To me, using stealth on the astral plane seems to be the primary provence of projecting individuals who could use terrain to their advantage (and on the astral that requires a lot of moving through objects which would remain solid on the material plane). Percieving individuals could probably use it with a hefty penalty, and mundanes would require some serious magic background skills to try it at all.

More realisticly... if you have to break into a site with a patrolling spirit, have your team's mage take it out on the astral plane. That's about the best way.

I use the standard modifiers from the Astral Patrol Modifiers table in MITS (p89), but use the result of the characters' lowest Stealth roll as the base target number ... if they are actively trying to avoid being astrally spotted.
[edit]SOTF Spoiler:[/edit]

there's a homebrew metamagic floating around, that's fairly sensible, called Camouflaging. i believe it works something like rolling your magic attribute as a stealth roll, and using your actual stealth skill as a complimentary test. i believe you also add your grade to the roll.

Actually in that instance it's the lowest result of the team, which does make sense.

Game2BHappy...

Thanks for the spoiler... I just looked it up, and there is the canon information I was looking for.