FASA Games, Inc.

"The adept sees into the astral plane, and is able to view the astral patterns and
imprints. He makes an Astral Sight test against a base Difficulty Number of 6, modified
by the local conditions of astral space.If successful, he can see the astral imprints,
magical auras, and patterns of any target with a Mystic Defense lower than the test
result...."

1)Lower and Equal, or only Lower?

2)Is MD also modified by the local conditions of astral space (for example: +12 in corrupted regions), so its more difficult to spot Imprints in "bad" astral regions, or only the basic difficulty? Horror MD 18 hiding in Corrupted Astral space, if adept Test was 18 he can see astral (6+12), can he see that Horror or he needs 30 (18+12) ?

p.209 "Effects of Astral Corruption on Astral Sensing
Astral corruption obscures astral sensing. When a character uses any form of Astral
Sensing (as described below), the Difficulty Number is modified based on the
level of astral corruption present, as shown on the Astral Sensing Table."

So i think its 30....but i want to be sure.

Howdy,

Here are my thoughts on your questions :

1 = Equal or Lower
2 = I think the difficulty to perceive the Astral Plane is modified by the level of corruption but not the MD itself. Using your example, base difficulty to perceive the astral plane is 6 but you need to add 12 due to the level of corruption, so difficulty would be 18 to perceive the astral plane.

Let's say the player rolls 12.
If the object/adept/horror the player is trying to perceive through Astral Sight has a MD of 8, the player sees the astral plane, but fails to perceive any intricate patterns, he wouldn't be able to make sense of them because of all the corruption. The player would only perceive the overall corruption but couldn't make sense of any patterns. He would have to roll at least 18 on the Astral Sight test.

Mystic Defense stays the same in my opinion.

Hope this helps!

I don't believe the MD itself would be modified; after all, MD isn't changed when casting spells on a target in corrupted astral space, so why would it change for one Talent but not another? However, if running this situation myself, I would probably do some ad hoc ruling and require one or more extra successes in order to get out any detail to represent the difficulty of trying to peer through all the murk. I'd still let a player see the pattern on a regular success, but you're not going to get any information other than location while everything is obscured.