**Total Specualtion, Read at you Own Risk**--zebediah
One of the major problems with psionic powers, from the point of view of most campaigns, is the exponential growth. Psi powers are really wimpy at low levels, and obscenely powerful at high levels. Thus I propose that SR mage powers should be closer to linear growth.
Second, most psi powers use power primarily to restrict range. Since SR spells instead use touch, eye contact, and LoS as the ranges (divination spells have different ranges, but I don't recall what limits them...it might be space), I propose that power and range be divorced for SR mage powers, with the possible exception of the Divination power and global effects. Global Effects should have a more linear radius growth (translating to a square area growth).
This may also involve so futzing with the Gestalt table.
In addition--there are a number of subpowers now that should belong to a number of SR Mage powers. I propose that the normal way of dealing with this is as follows: the Mage may use the subpower at the highest power level he possesses it at, OR may concentrate for one second and roll against power-2 (or telesend/recieve-2, whichever is higher) to use the power as though they were in a gestalt with themselves. This is likely to be far more Straining, as you take strain for every level you're using...so while a gestalt of power 10 and power 10 may have an effective power of 13 (just guessing), you're taking strain and suffering from unfocus as though using all 20 levels of power. ExtraEffort may be cheaper...but gestalting will not push you above your magical threshold into physical strain unless one of the contributing powers is pushed into that zone. (i'm not sue how Extra Effort works in a gestalt...does it increase all contributing powers by 1?).
Magic is typically 12. Using power greater than your Magic stat results in physical drain, i.e. strain you don't soak turns into HP damage, not fatigue damage. When astrally projecting, all magic causes physical drain. Aspected Mages may have lower (or even higher?) Magic than 12.
Power 1 generally represents latent power. It is marginaly useful. Power 1 PK, however, has an effective ST of 0.1 Power 10 has an effective ST of 4.5, and power 15 has an effective ST of 13. This is if you are figuring ST as though the "mass lifted" is equal to the carry capacity of the effective ST. If instead you pretend it's the 2-handed lift capacity (i.e. load ST x 2), power 1 is ST .28 or so, power 10 is 12.25, and power 15 is 35 or so.
Instead, make ST = power x 2. Thus you can lift .8 lb with power 1, 3.2 lb with power 2, on up to 80 lb. with power 10 and 180 lb. with power 15. The maximum for most mages is power 12 without Extra Effort--this would lift 115.2 lb, do 2d+2 squeezing damage to internal organs. A power of 14 is required to lift a person, and the "air golem" spell is effectively continuous use of power 12.
ST and ST should add as sqrt(ST1^2+ST2^2)...so a troll needs a ST of 7 to increase his effective ST from 20 to 21 (or higher, up to 23 to 24, and a ST 6 to increase by one if ST below 20). I also like this formula for power combining...two mages with power 12, thus, can act as effective power 17, while three can act at power 20, and a full cadre of a 13 power 13 mages (logistical limit, for the most part) could achive power 43...if using the PK systsem from above, that's enough to lift about 1700 lb...not quite a ton. Perhaps it should be souped up some more, or perhaps there's a metamagical technique that allows one to get more punch out of a gestalt...oh, as with all ST-based powers, you can do the thing where ST gets easy after ST 15 or so. More table lookups, but probably worth it for this.
Needs some hammering, and I'll write it up differently later. For now, a list of subpowers gleaned from a couple sources.
[GURPS Psi Powers]
[SR Mage Powers (hacking)]
Remember how astrally projecting mages and spirits move like greased lightning?
This is what the power level on the Astral Power does--adjusts up speed, stats, and DR. Astral Perception grants astral DR and...bonuses to astral sense checks or something? Might make you astrally stronger, but not more agile.
From a 30-second read, most of the above looks great. --bts
Oh -- except the self-gestalt stuff. The Gestalt rules should require significant ritual... something along the lines of 20 minutes per power point involved. So a serious ritual takes all day, and earthshaking rituals several days.