Welcome to the Mage life, though in cross-play, the race may turn out to be a headache, but trust me, it's all worth it. There are several home-brewed systems that will support you throughout your gameplay here with certain powers to bring about balance and fair-play; And finally, these rules preceed the rules stated in the books. Every mage player is kindly requested to follow these when they play a mage, and keep themselves updated.
Astral Projections:
-> Upon entering the astral plane, the Willpower counts as health level for the character, and they lose Willpower instead of health in such situations.
-> If a character in the astral plane lost all of their willpower, either through damage or expenditure, their silver cord snaps and they wind up disconnected from their physical body. (See: "Going Adrift, Astral Beacons, and Spirit Allies" from Page. 478 of Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition).
-> The characters can use correspondence 2 to retain their connection to their physical body wherever they left it, because they can no longer sense their body.
-> A character when they're in the Astral Plane use their Mental traits in place of their physical, example: Manipulation counts as Strength, Wits count as Dexterity and Intelligence count as Stamina. (NOTE: Aggravated damage cannot be soaked with Intelligence)
-> For the cost of a willpower point they can manifest in the mateiral word for one turn with a hazy silhouette of their idealized self, and that is the only way they can affect the material world.
-> A character in the astral plane can only be affected by awakened knife (Cutting the silver cord of the astral projection) or something that resonates with the astral plane, if not, even spirits of werewolves in the penumbra, or imbued edges cannot affect them, but vampires with Auspex 5 can very much do so.
-> Travel speed in astral form is very high, roughly 1500km per hour, which is considered as speed of thought. And the astral form can skim through the material world, the penumbra aswell as the Vulgate, a few high astral realms in question (Risky).
-> Default Astral form is naked, but the traveller can cover themselves with imaginary clothing at no expenditure of willpower (for the sake of player consent rules).
Subtle Vulgar Effects:
-> Characters using subtle-vulgar magick effects gain 1 Paradox for every magickal effect. Example: Slipstream + Toughened Skin give 2 paradox per scene, on the next, it gives another 2 paradox.
-> However, this can be ignored in places such as Sanctums, and reality zones.
Obvious Vulgar Effects:
-> Using Obvious Vulgar effects give one paradox each scene employed +1 per effect used, and if witnessed by a Sleeper in the scene, then the character receives paradox equal to the highest rank of the sphere employed.
Example: Forces 3 Blast-Offs, Life 3 Enhancements, Time 3 Alterations.
Counter Magick:
-> Innate Counter Magick is an Arete roll at Difficulty 7.
-> Only pattern-attack magicks can be countered, AoE or Environmental attacks can be potentially reduced by countermagick, but can never be negated completely.
-> Direct damage cannot be countered at all, this includes conjured fireballs, electricity, etcetra that will no longer be in the control of the mage after cast.
-> Mind & Fate related magicks are countered by rolling willpower to shrug off the effect, same difficulty.
-> Other races attempting to use Innate Counter Magick will need atleast 1 Dot in Occult, their dices mentioned in the appropriate books.
Scrying and Ambush Magick:
-> Attacks on out of line of sight characters with certain spheres will require minor implementation of Correspondence 2, Scrying.
-> Scrying should be done prior to casting a magick on the scried target, any kind of damage capped at 10 successes.
-> Stacking magickal effects while scrying is allowed however, keep in the duration of the scrying effect in mind.
-> Any supernatural who is being scried can sense something wrong in the vicinity once they score more than 3 Successes on a Perception + Awareness roll @ Difficulty 6. Failing to do so will result in the targets not noticing something in play.
-> Regular methods of rolling ambushes work, however, they will need to sense the magick in play before they can react to the ambush.
Trinkets:
-> All kinds of Trinkets require double the amount of quintessence based on the highest Sphere in play to make the trinket permanent.
(Example: An entropy 2 trinket requiring 5 for effect will require 10 to be made permanent)
Arete Rolls Mid-Combat
-> Can employ arete mid combat without the instruments/practices such as Martial Arts, gestures, weapons, etc. Without such instruments, fast casting rules will take effect, wherein the characters will be forced to roll at a +1 difficulty from their base difficulty.
-> Regular rules for Magick Empowers Action and Action Empowers Magick apply.
Life Enhancements:
-> Pattern bleeding exist in this chronicle, characters who over-empower themselves will lose control of their patterns, and begin to dissipate. An amount of Aggravated damage is incurred for every boosted attribute beyond the limit, which can be only countered by infusing it with Quintessence every night.
Additional Abilities:
-> Ingrained / Innate abilities will be unlocked after Life 4, after which a mage can use magickal effects by spending quintessence instead of scoring successes in their arete roll, the amount limited by their Avatar Rating.
-> Innate abilities count as reflexive magick for counting counter-magicks and speed.
-> Quintessence can be spent upto a character's Avatar rating without risking their health level, if they overuse, they will take 1 bashing damage for every point spent beyond the limit, and get stunned in return for the amount of bashing damage incurred - stamina rating.
Travelling Wards:
-> The travelling wards last in the scene for amount of turns equal to Arete once you activate them; the ward recharges itself after the scene is over, you don't have to re-do the whole ritual again.
-> This is justified with the spatial restriction "giving in" and restrictions no longer holding.
-> Interacting with object prompts the ward null, but only for specified object, not group of objects as a whole.
Mind Shield:
-> The Mind Shield only works against direct assaults upon one's mind, such as reading soeone's mind and attempting to control the shielded target, or affect their emotions in any way.
-> This however, does not protect a person from illusions such as obfuscate and holodeck effects, as they need Mind 4.
Avatar Rating:
-> Avatar Rating can be increased in game without the need of Shattered Avatar Merit, development for the increase in character is a must for raising the Avatar Rating.
Backgrounds:
Totems: Totems will no longer cost double the background rating for shaman characters, and cultists.
Status: Status that is gained through in-game roleplay and development costs no experience, racemods will determine the appropriate rating.
Sanctum: Sanctums due to their huge benefits, have the cost of 1:2 rating.
Shattered Avatar: Characters who purchase this merit will not need to purchase the Avatar Background, it will be set for free.