If astral perception is like sticking your face in a lake to peer below the surface, astral projection is diving right in. Your consciousness is contained in an astral form and can leave your corporeal body. Your astral form is a mental projection of your self image combined with physical characteristics based on your mental attributes, which means you can always have awesome hair.
A projecting mage can travel around the astral plane at great speeds unimpeded by material objects such as walls, floors, and burly goons (unless they are dual-natured). Your body is in a coma-like state while your astral body is out in the aether. Your mind and body are still connected, so any damage taken to body or mind is felt by both. Only characters who are full Magicians can astrally project.
Astral forms can move in any direction—they are not limited by gravity as they are in the physical world, though most projecting magicians tend to stick close to the ground because that’s where most of the interesting stuff is, if not out of force of habit. The exception to this freedom of movement is at the limits of the Earthly atmosphere (about eighty kilometers up)—the Gaiasphere weakens to the point where astral voyagers usually go mad or die.
You’re using astral perception the entire time you’re projecting, so you can see the auras of living things. Auras alone don’t give you the mystic link you need to target spells. As the saying goes, what’s cast in astral space stays in astral space, and ditto for physical space.
A purely astral form such as a spirit or an astrally projecting magician can interact with the physical plane by manifesting. Manifesting is a psychic effect that lets you make yourself visible and audible on the physical plane through an act of will. Manifesting takes an Action to engage or disengage. You appear on the physical plane as a ghostly, hazy image of your astral form and may freely communicate with physical characters.
It’s mentally taxing to stay on the astral plane for a long time. You can use astral projection for a number of hours equal to your Caster Level Rating x 2. If you stay out longer, your astral being ceases to exist and your body dies.
If your subclass is Technomancer you cannot Astral Project into the Astral Plane. Astral Projection allows you to project yourself into the Matrix. You have no limit how long you can stay in the Matrix. In addition you can travel to the Foundation and into the Resonance Realms of the Matrix.
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