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Buckle your seatbelts, kids, the girl who publicly shot down your clever idea to have a wretchedly tragic character is back. Be at ease. This time, the personality and motivation of your character is not at stake. His/her abilities, however, are. Everyone seems to understand that Primals get weapons in addition to their senshi powers. Everyone seems to understand that Astrals do not get weapons. Sure, it took Cal typing "ASTRALS DO NOT GET WEAPONS" in huge letters, not to mention threats of blinking text. However, everyone seems to understand this now. Here's the part no one seems to get: Astrals get magic IN ADDITION to their senshi powers. IN ADDITION means existing seperately. It means that Astrals have magic spells APART FROM and UNRELATED TO their senshi powers. Let me be as clear as possible.
YOUR SPELLS DO NOT HAVE TO RELATE TO YOUR SENSHI POWER SPHERE.
In fact, we'll be much more delighted with Astral applications if your spells DO NOT relate to your senshi power sphere, especially if your senshi has been studying magic since the day he/she was born. As I said in my previous article, the entire point of the Astrals is that they have magic and the primals do not. If the Astrals ONLY had magic related to their senshi spheres, the Astrals who are not senshi would not have magic, as they have no power sphere. That isn't what Laris had in mind when she created the game. ALL Astrals, apart from the horribly unlucky ones, have magic. If you are an astral, and you have NPCs... they can use magic. Yes, this means YOUR NPCs CAN CAST SPELLS! All remaining Astral senshi slots are for Astrals with magic. This means "Astrals that had magic BEFORE they became senshi."
I understand if you want your Astral to be the best at spells that have something to do with your power sphere. For example, Nabu's talent lies almost entirely in the written spell. Ninatta uses her bard-type charisma to enchant people and even inanimate things. This might be part of the reason the Powers that Be chose your character to be a senshi. HOWEVER, since no one else knows that your character is a senshi, and there have never been senshi before, it is HIGHLY unlikely that his/her professors, tutors... whatever... ONLY taught your character spells that relate to your senshi sphere. If your character had training in magic before he/she became a senshi, then your professors, tutors, etc. didn't even know you HAD a special element, and unless you are Nanshe or Mammetum, NEITHER DID YOU. Therefore, it is much, much to the infinite power more likely that your astral will know spells NOT related to your power sphere, probably the general sort of spell most young Astrals are taught. How is this, as Cal says, not cool? This means you have another ability APART from your senshi powers. Don't make your spells related to your senshi sphere; you can use those attacks as your senshi powers. You get BOTH, just as the primals get senshi powers AND weapons. Astrals get senshi powers AND magic. The two are not the same thing.
I hope this isn't why the primals got so much more love than the Astrals, but I'm guessing it is. I'm guessing that a lot of you folks out there thought, "Hey, primals get powers AND weapons! Astrals only get powers! That sucks!" That would indeed suck. It is not, however, true, so I am here to clear this up. Let me repeat myself one more time.
ASTRAL MAGIC AND ASTRAL SENSHI POWER SPHERES ARE NOT THE SAME THING.
For the love of Pete, there are several RPGs out there for Nintendo and Playstation that have cool spells. Modify them. There are D&D player's guides with some of the coolest spells known to Wizardkind. There are books like the Harry Potter series, The Chronicles of Narnia, and countless others that are BRIMMING with nifty ways for Astrals to LAY THE SMACK DOWN. You can have heat metal. It does not matter if there is no astral with a fire sphere. You can have "haste." It does not matter if you are Aion. You can have a fire spell or an ice spell, like in Final Fantasy 1-whatever. We might even let you summon elementals if you have really good limitations on the spells. You can have warding powers. You can make mage lights. (If, however, you have Final Strike, be warned that Ali will see it as your bid for angst.) You can transmogrify. You can make potions. You can have "lightening bolt," or "fireball," or "acid arrow." How is this not cool? Look at the Astral Template App. Did any of you do this? It is there for a reason. Use the resources, people. Do you need some spell resources? If so, email any of the wizzes. Let us know. At this point, we're pretty much willing to hold your hand to get what we want, which is SPELLS THAT ARE NOT RELATED TO YOUR SENSHI POWER SPHERE.
Problem in Summary: YOUR SPELLS DO NOT HAVE TO RELATE TO YOUR SENSHI ELEMENT. AT ALL! NO RESEMBLANCE. NADA. ZERO.
(Insert from Laris: If you're really needing something to go on for some utility spell ideas, why not go by your character's hobbies or chosen occupation? Sailoruttu is an excellent example of this. ^_^ Keep in mind, though, that this would be a loose guideline. I don't wanna see any Astral senshi that can only use magic to sense when the fries are done at their job at McAstralburger. ^_-)
The Fix: Get out there and steal some spells from Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, D&D, Legend of Mana, Harry Potter, Piers Anthony ... I don't care. Just make the nifty gift of magic that Astrals get worth having before I ditch Pazuzu and apply for an Astral. I don't want to have to do this. I love my Shasa. Don't make me come out there and beat you with a leg of mine that no longer works, 'cause I'LL DO IT!
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