Multiplayer Issues w/ botania and astral

[NolanDonahue]

I'm playing in multiplayer on a locally hosted server with my teammate playing on a different wifi network. 1st I think it's weird that we only get one reward for both of us if nothing is ever consumed, shouldn't we both get the reward?
Then there's the issue that my teammate can't shift rick click for pebbles on dirt but I can. Botania stuff in general is iffy for him but works for me.
I can't do any of the astral stuff in the same way he can't really do any botania stuff. I can't even activate the simplest recipes with a wand but I can interact with items like the lightwell. It's also troubling that we can't both progress in astral very easily because then we'd have to do two of everything and that get's fairly time cosuming, is there a way to share progress in the tome between two people?
Something which may be considered an exploit is that you can use a cauldron to get an extra source block of water fairly early on, especially when a witch drops a glass bottle and that bypasses the need for water from the lightwell.

I'm playing the most recent release, thanks for any help.