[Endoperez]

Originally posted by tinkthank:
Thanks!

- Moonvine bracelets give +nature, not +astral

Oops... I never remember that right.

- I cant forge any +astral items with a shaman, however, so that means I need to cast Coatl (expensive, and also level 7 conjuration! ouch, definately not early-mid game for me), or put some astral on my pretender.

If you have luck wíth sites you could Empower one of your shamans. 30 pearls vs 40 gems... You would have no natural Astral-3 mage, though. Also, you could wish to be lucky with independents, but as Crystal Amazons are very rare you cannot count on it.

I'm a huge fan of starshine skullcaps; I also love astral nations (my favorite is Tien Chi, not really an "astral nation", but as S&A I get astral 2 before too long).
Banner of the Northern Star is of course great -- but I'll be damned if I can get a shaman to make one.

Empower + Skullcap. As I said before, 30 pearls. Besides, it is faster than researching for Couatl. If you have no Astral income at all you don't need Skullcaps, and if you do you will be able to empower one of the shamans before or later.

Still, it's not an easy way to get even mediocre Astral mages.