1. Can mystic adepts take non-adept metamagics. I said no, because they are mystic adepts, and I've always seen them as adepts who are able to externalise their magic. The player thinks of them as pure hybrids, and should have access to all metamagics.
Yes, mystic adepts can chose from all the metamagics.
2. Can someone who is astrally perceiving cast at people on the physical plane? This one came up because a target was surrounded in thick smoke, with no way for the characters to see them, so the player just said he'd astrally perceive and cast at them. This morning I remembered ghouls are blind, so I've got my answer there, so I have to ask, how do I stop him from being able to see anything, no matter what obstacles I put in his way?
Yes, they can target into the physical plane, when they can see the target there. Most obstacles will also affect vision in astral space though and a smoke grenade, which vision penalties are based on many particles, will affect the astral vision as well. So in this situation they would NOT be able to target someone in there, because the auras would be blocked by auras from the smoke particles.
3. Do bacteria have enough life to have an aura? I'm specifically thinking of bacteria in sewer pipes (yes, I know, sewer levels are the worst things ever devised, but where else am I gonna put my toxic shaman?), where they would be everywhere and in the trillions. Would it blanket out most other auras that aren't directly in front of them?
Yes, they have auras - very small ones though. Auras are not bigger then the bacterias themselves. If you can still see through the air in physical plane, then there are probably not enough bacterias in there to prevent vision in astral plane. Vision modifiers caused by living things, should affect both planes equally.
4. Do auras look like anything before assenssing, or are they just a mish mash of bright colours with no discernable traits?
Yes, they look like something, they have forms as in the physical plane.
Without attempting to read an aura, a magician can still get an impression of what type of aura it is (spell, spirit, living creature, etc.).
And of course you would be able to tell apart a dwarf from something human-sized to a troll.
5. How organised are the spirits/metaplanes? The offensive magician of the team has gone through 3 Fire spirits in 2 days, and thrown an Earth spirit through a helicoptors rotors in order to bring it down. How long/much would it take for him to earn a bad reputation with (as we called it in the session) the spirit union?
If your mage actively uses the spirits to sacrifice them for his cause, he probably already got a very bad reputation. Spirits
know, if a mage has been cruel to spirits in the past. You might want to surprise him, with the spirits using edge to resist the next summoning and looking for loopholes in his orders, until he atones.
Thanks, that really helped me a lot.
I have another question now though. I want to add the mutant template to a ghoul, but that involves reducing its essence, which will burn it out and make it unable to see as well as no longer dual natured. Are there any rules in any of the books for upping a critters magic attribute? If not, can I use the points added to attributes on special attributes, or is it only for normal attributes? (Using it on Intuition feels like it shouldn't work too, given the rules for what the lost essence does).
You can increase a ghouls magic like any other attribute at character generation up to his essence. If the essence would go to 0, then of course he would lose all his paranormal abilities. But the mutant template is only for mundane critters, which ghouls are not... but then you are the GM and anything is possible... Remember ghouls are as smart as humans, they just are a little different. You can of course always use the advanced character generation rules from runners companion to make a powerful ghoul. No need to mutate him.
