Astral Plane and Phisical Plane questions.

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RazanMG
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Astral Plane and Phisical Plane questions.

Post by RazanMG » Tue Oct 23, 2018 3:08 pm

1. Can mage in Physical Plane cast spells affecting Mystic Armor (Mind Dagger) on not manifested targets (spirits) in Astral Plane?

2. Can spells affecting Mystic Armor be cast from Astral Plane on targets in Physical Plane?

3. Can adept, being in Astral Plane use Ethereal Weapon (Companion p.56) on target in Physical Plane?

Slimcreeper
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Re: Astral Plane and Phisical Plane questions.

Post by Slimcreeper » Tue Oct 23, 2018 10:39 pm

My feeling is no, but I can't say why.

ChrisDDickey
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Re: Astral Plane and Phisical Plane questions.

Post by ChrisDDickey » Wed Oct 24, 2018 3:11 am

RazanMG wrote:
Tue Oct 23, 2018 3:08 pm
1. Can mage in Physical Plane cast spells affecting Mystic Armor (Mind Dagger) on not manifested targets (spirits) in Astral Plane?
Yes.
page 255 first paragraph wrote: As a general rule, spells resisted with Mystic Armor affect astral beings
RazanMG wrote:
Tue Oct 23, 2018 3:08 pm
2. Can spells affecting Mystic Armor be cast from Astral Plane on targets in Physical Plane?
No.
page 255 second paragraph wrote:Magicians in astral space may cast spells against astral targets as if both the caster and the target were in the physical world. Magicians in astral space, however, cannot cast spells at targets in the physical world.
RazanMG wrote:
Tue Oct 23, 2018 3:08 pm
3. Can adept, being in Astral Plane use Ethereal Weapon (Companion p.56) on target in Physical Plane?
Unclear, but probably not.
Arguments could easily be made for all possible answers. (a) No: This talent says it draws power from the Astral Plane to allow attacks into the Astral Plane. (b) Yes, this Talent is clearly meant to allow attacks from one plane to another, so could be used to attack from the Astral Plane to the Material plane. (c) Yes, if you have a Talent Knack, (which the GM would have to design).

But my gut is that it should not, because the possibility makes 90% of all Adepts very vulnerable to unlimited attacks that they have no way to avoid. Any bad guy or horror (or good guy for that matter) with this ability, could saunter into a party campsite, kill the magicians in their sleep, then slaughter the rest of the party at their leisure, with no hope of being stopped. It is just too powerful. The rule of thumb is that in order to affect the material plane, you need to be on the material plane where material beings can get at you. But aside from the reference about spell-casting quoted above I can't find any text to support this.


As a bonus answer, I will say that while it does say magicians can't cast spells from astral to physical, I don't think there is anything, anywhere, that gives definitive 4th edition answers to the question of whether, how, and in what circumstances horrors can use horror powers from astral to physical, nor, really, anything about Astral Space at all other than a few pages. I know a lot of GMs that still use Shadowrun concepts for Astral Space, including that "If you are looking into Astral Space, they can target you back", and "Astral entities can move much, much faster". On the one hand, there is nothing to indicate that ether one is the case, but on the other hand, not much to indicate that it is not as well.

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