How to Fix Astral Projection?

[Eldan]

So, I was fiddling around with my ritual magic rules a bit (I posted them once, now I'm working on them a again) and I stumbled over Astral Projection, arguably one of the more broken spells.

Now, I must admit that I'm not the greatest balancer in the world, and I rarely play really high levels, but from what I understand, the problems seem to be these:

1) it is basically an extra life and takes the mage out of almost all danger.

2) the mage's equipment is doubled, leading to all sorts of shenanigans.

So, I thought about two partial fixes to this:

1) If the mage is slain while in astral form, his body falls into a coma as his spirit is lost in the farthest reaches of the astral plane, unable to return. He must be tracked down and found by another astral traveller.

2) the mage's astral equipment is only quasi-real: once it leaves the mage's body, it slowly falls apart in 1d6 rounds. It has a silvery sheen to it and can not be mistaken for the real thing. If items or charges are used up by the mage, their "real" counterparts are also used, as the astral projection can not actually generate the magical energy of charged items, only channel their energy to his projection.


Thoughts?

[The Glyphstone]

My preferred answer is 3) It's merely a projection. The astral image can see, hear, speak, etc., but cannot interact in any meaningful way with the physical world. Its spells do nothing, its items are merely ornamental, and it has no way to harm or be harmed by anyone or anything.

Your solutions work too.

[Coidzor]

Eh, 1. makes it into too much of a disadvantage and way too open-ended.

[Eldan]

My preferred answer is 3) It's merely a projection. The astral image can see, hear, speak, etc., but cannot interact in any meaningful way with the physical world. Its spells do nothing, its items are merely ornamental, and it has no way to harm or be harmed by anyone or anything.

Your solutions work too.

That wouldn't be remotely worth a 9th level spell, though, would it?

[Toliudar]

I don't know. An indestructible and hard-to-stop scout that you have total control over is pretty powerful.

And really, how hard to we need to defend the power of 9th level spells?

[Coidzor]

^: Well, there's wish and miracle there. and shapechange. And gate. Such an effect just doesn't seem commensurate with them at all.

That wouldn't be remotely worth a 9th level spell, though, would it?

More like... maybe 6th as far as I can reckon.