So far what nations look strong... and weak?

Astral magic has some of the most powerfull Evocations, Alterations, and Thaumaturgy.
Star Fires, Stellar Cascades, Ethereal, Luck, Astral Weapon, Astral Shield, Teleport, Gateway, Soul Slay, Mind Hunt. It's got a bunch of good spells that also require other paths too. It's argueably the most powerfull path, despite Gateway and Star Fires being weakened.

Yes, all those spells that are very good and help to build very strong individuals, they are also mostly low path requirements.
Star Fires 1 Astral
Stellar Cascades 2 Astral
Body Ethereal 1 Astral
Luck 1 Astral
Astral Weapon 1 Astral
Astral Shield 1 Astral

... etc.

All you need is 4 Astral, or even 3 or 2 if you want to try to empower.

I think that Mind Duel is to make the very powerful effects of Astral have a reprecussion and lower the chance of the Supercombatant armies that they have been fighting since Dom1.

Edit: I didn't mean that Astral was not powerful; but with the inclusion of Mind Duel it's power is not overt. You take a chance having Astral as opposed to any other school which has no countermeasure. I had way too many conversations and Posts going on at the time ;/

[ November 24, 2003, 01:14: Message edited by: Zen ]