Message no. 1

From:	"Jason Carter, Nightstalker" <CARTER@***.EDU>
Subject:	I've got the Initiate astral blues . . .
Date:	Fri, 2 Apr 93 05:18:55 CET

Initiation: Who can do it and how it helps

All magicians can become initiates. Initiation allow the magician to use
Metamagic, gives him access to the metaplanes of astral space, increases his
magic, and gives him greater skill in astral space.

The Metamagic abilities gained for each class of magician are:

Mages, Shamans, Elemental adepts, and Shamanic adepts gain all of the metamagic
abilities: centering, quickening, dispelling, shielding, masking and anchoring.

Conjurer adepts gain masking (life sucks).
Note: Conjurer adepts do not gain quickening, dispelling, shielding, or
anchoring since they notable cannot use the sorcery skill nor can they
astrally precieve or project, the reason they do not gain centering.

Sorcerer adepts gain shielding, masking, and anchoring.
Note: Sorcerer adepts do not gain centering, quickening or dispelling since
they do not possess the ability to astrally percieve or project, a
prereq for those powers.

Physical Adepts gain centering and masking.
Note: Physical adepts may use their centering skill when using physical
skills. If they possess the Enhanced Centering power (Grim II) they
can center for other skills also. Also if your campaign allows them to
do spell defense they would gain shielding.

If find it odd that for a physical adept to use his centering skill he must
pay 2 points for astral perception and then another two points for enhanced
centering if he want to use them for other than physical skills.
It has been suggested that adepts be allowed to "buy" astral perception just
like physical adepts. I feel that this would be a bad precedent that would
make people wonder why they couldn't buy the other physical adept powers.
However I believe that something should be done about this weakness in the
"magical" adepts.
I would consider as a GM the following three things.
1) Conjurer adepts would gain limited astral perception/projection abilites
that would allow them center on conjuring test and project to the metaplanes
to either summon a great form spirit or learn a free spirits true name.
2) Sorcerer adepts would gain full astral perception with all the benefits of
it. Note that they could use anchoring, but could not use the enchanting
skill to prepare an object.
3) Physical adepts would be able to use both centering and enhanced centering
without astral perception since they don't involve sorcery or conjuring.

What do you think?
Jason J Carter
The Nightstalker