Astral Projection
Descriptor: The power of Astral Projection allows the psychic to split his spirit off from his body. The discarnate spirit can travel very quickly in this form. The spirit intangibly travels across planes of thought while still able to look in on the physical world. While in astral form, the psychic cannot physically affect the real world, though he may use other psychic abilities (the difficilty numbers for doing so are increased by two). However, while away from his body, he cannot perceive what is happening to it. Many out-of-body travelers have nightmares about someone moving or harming their physical self while their spirit is roaming free. Two astrally projecting characters may affect each other, though for purposes of astral combat, they substitute their Wits for Dexterity, their Intelligence for Strength and their Perception for Stamina. Some astrally projecting psychics could once perceive ghosts and certain spirits, but most such spirits now appear as blurry forms, barely in the realm of perception. In general, an astral spirit can see the material world or other abstract spirits in the realm of thought; ghosts of the dead and the like usually remain imperceptible except to those psychics who also have some mediumship abilities.
To release the astral form, the player spends one point of Willpower and rolls for the power. Should the player botch while attempting to have his characters step outside his body, the psychic is unable to leave his body for 24 hours. Psychics who frequent the astral plane whisper that other entities sometimes intrude there, human or otherwise, and on some occasions find their souls drawn to strange spirits worlds far removed from the mortal plane. A few never find their way back. Caution is the rule when exploring planes unknown to humans.
Roll: Perception + Meditation (difficulty 8)
- ● -- With only rudimentary awareness of astral existence, the psychic can shift her senses to feel the astral realm but cannot quite enter it. The psychic sees the astral realm overlaid upon the normal physical world. There are psychics who prefer to close their eyes and visualize the astral plane, while others have no difficulty watching both. A psychic may view the astral realm for so long as she maintains her concentration upon it.
- ----
- ●● -- The psychic practitioner can leave her body for one minute per point of Stamina. While in astral form, she can only perceive things by sight. She is also limited to traveling approximately one mile away from her body.
- ----
- ●●● -- The character can leave her body for up to ten minutes per point of Stamina. She gains the ability to hear in astral form and can travel up to 100 miles from her body.
- ----
- ●●●● -- The psychic can now leave her body for up to an hour per point of Stamina and travel up to 1,000 miles away. Each additional hour out of her body after the first requires the expenditure of a point of Willpower. If the player succeeds on a Charisma + Occult roll (difficulty 8), the psychic can manifest visually to observers as a translucent, ghostly apparition, though the projector cannot communicate verbally with observers.
- ----
- ●●●●● -- The psychic may astrally travel anywhere in the world, so long as her body remains healthy, and she may use all of her senses normally. The psychic's form (should the character choose to manifest, using the same roll as previously noted) appears as a blurry and translucent version of her usual physical form but somewhat idealized. While manifest, the projection can speak, though only in a soft whisper. Like her visual appearance, the psychic's speech does not appear on recordings.
