Astral Sensing Redux
Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2018 1:36 pm
Someone, in a recent post, referred to this old thread about Astral Sight / Astral Sense / Astral Targeting http://fasagames.com/archiveforum/viewt ... =17&t=1818
The thread is now locked but there is still many points of contention that has not been resolved.
I would like to write down a clear and concise summery of this long thread but I need to clarify a few things beforehand.
I know a lot of people here will have opinions about those questions and many of them have been discussed previously but what I’m looking here are ‘canon’ answers so if I could get answers only from Mataxes or maybe Panda (which I’m assuming is somehow employed by FASA too?) it would be great (feel free to comment tho).
There will be a list of questions and assumptions but first a critical point need to be clarified:
Astral Sense VS Astral Sight:
I think we look at it the wrong way in some aspects. The description of Astral SENSE says:
‘This spell enhances the use of the Astral Sight talent‘
So, basically, Astral Sense does NOT replace Astral Sight but instead just enhanced it. You still need to use the Talent (Sight) for the entire mechanics while the spell itself (i.e. the result of the spellcasting test) is ONLY to figure out whether you get the ‘enhancements’ or not. This is why the spell's target is the caster’s own MD and NOT the zone and/or target’s MD.
The enhancements are:
- Increase in duration (Rank Round VS Rank+10 minutes)
- Modification of the range (Rank X 10 yards ‘cone’ VS 30 yards ‘sphere’)
- No strain damage
- Change the 'point of view of the camera’ (Sight = line of sight while Sense = ‘overhead’ view).
- Finally, because of the previous point, it is implied in the description of the spell that therefore a spell could be cast on anyone/anything that has been ‘sensed’ even if out of line of sight.
So the steps for using Astral Sight would be:
1- Roll for the 2 threads as usual.
2- Do spellcasting test against OWN MD.
3- If successful, you can now do an ASTRAL SIGHT test using the usual Astral SIGHT mechanics other than the enhancements cited above.
Thus the result of the spellcasting of the Astral SENSE spell has NOTHING to do with whether I can see the imprints and/or bested the MD of the targets in the area of effect. It’s ONLY a ‘do I get those enhancements or not’, period. I STILL need to roll a Astral SIGHT test.
Am I right or not?
Once this part is clarified, I will ask the rest of the questions since that answer will modify a lot of those questions.
Thank you.
The thread is now locked but there is still many points of contention that has not been resolved.
I would like to write down a clear and concise summery of this long thread but I need to clarify a few things beforehand.
I know a lot of people here will have opinions about those questions and many of them have been discussed previously but what I’m looking here are ‘canon’ answers so if I could get answers only from Mataxes or maybe Panda (which I’m assuming is somehow employed by FASA too?) it would be great (feel free to comment tho).
There will be a list of questions and assumptions but first a critical point need to be clarified:
Astral Sense VS Astral Sight:
I think we look at it the wrong way in some aspects. The description of Astral SENSE says:
‘This spell enhances the use of the Astral Sight talent‘
So, basically, Astral Sense does NOT replace Astral Sight but instead just enhanced it. You still need to use the Talent (Sight) for the entire mechanics while the spell itself (i.e. the result of the spellcasting test) is ONLY to figure out whether you get the ‘enhancements’ or not. This is why the spell's target is the caster’s own MD and NOT the zone and/or target’s MD.
The enhancements are:
- Increase in duration (Rank Round VS Rank+10 minutes)
- Modification of the range (Rank X 10 yards ‘cone’ VS 30 yards ‘sphere’)
- No strain damage
- Change the 'point of view of the camera’ (Sight = line of sight while Sense = ‘overhead’ view).
- Finally, because of the previous point, it is implied in the description of the spell that therefore a spell could be cast on anyone/anything that has been ‘sensed’ even if out of line of sight.
So the steps for using Astral Sight would be:
1- Roll for the 2 threads as usual.
2- Do spellcasting test against OWN MD.
3- If successful, you can now do an ASTRAL SIGHT test using the usual Astral SIGHT mechanics other than the enhancements cited above.
Thus the result of the spellcasting of the Astral SENSE spell has NOTHING to do with whether I can see the imprints and/or bested the MD of the targets in the area of effect. It’s ONLY a ‘do I get those enhancements or not’, period. I STILL need to roll a Astral SIGHT test.
Am I right or not?
Once this part is clarified, I will ask the rest of the questions since that answer will modify a lot of those questions.
Thank you.