Empaths 3.1

DragonRealms 3.1 brings many exciting changes to the Empaths' Guild. The basic healing system has been completely rewritten with many new and long-desired features! Two entirely new types of healing have been added, the Unity link and the Hand of Hodierna link. In addition, two new healing-related abilities have been added, wound redirection and a persistent diagnostic link. Empaths will also now receive empathy experience from healing permashocked Empaths, as well as dead Empaths.

There have also been quite a few changes to Empath spells. Some spells are becoming signature while others are being opened to all. Many spells have had their slot costs recalculated -- many spells have increased slightly in slot cost, but some now cost fewer slots. An entirely new spell, Perseverence of Peri'el, has also been released.

Basic Healing System

Changes and Updates

The healing system has been completely rewritten. Everything is brand new. The "normal" healing system has all of the same features that it had previously, with some new ones added in.

Thus, if an Empath is comfortable using it how you always have used it, they can still use it in exactly the same way.

New take options

It will now be possible to take large blocks of wounds in one go without having to individually specify each wound. (e.g. TAKE MELETE ALL, TAKE MELETE ALL WOUNDS, TAKE MELETE ALL INTERNALS, etc.)

Transferred wound reduction

With increased skill, Empaths will automatically reduce the severity of incoming wounds. Skill-based severity reductions begin at around 450 ranks in Empathy for external fresh wounds. Reducing the severity of other types of wounds takes more skill. Severity reductions are capped at 1/2, though that is subject to tweaking based on your feedback, and it takes a whole bunch of skill to reach that mark.

It is not possible to reduce the severity of wounds transferred from other Empaths unless the other Empath is permashocked.

If the empath for some reason does not wish to reduce the severity of a transferred wound, they can accomplish this by appending the NORMAL flag. (e.g. TAKE MELETE LEFT ARM INT NORMAL).

Messaging

The messaging for healing has been consolidated in a way similar to the regenerate spell, so healing will be a bit less spammy.

Experience

Because the system has been totally rewritten, the experience may have changed slightly. It should be very similar to how it was before, but it may not be exactly the same.

It is also now possible for Empaths to gain experience for healing Empaths – if the other Empath is permashocked or dead. Permashocked Empaths are treated as a non-Empaths for experience purposes. If people are found to be abusing the ability to gain experience from healing dead empaths, the ability to do so will be entirely removed from the game.

Syntax

Empaths have the capability of transferring wounds from a patient to themselves.  The following options are available for transferring:

   Wound transfers - 
     {TAKE/TRANSFER} {patient} {body part} [{PART|HALF|MOST}] [{CAREFUL|QUICK}] [ALL] [EXTERNAL|INTERNAL] [WOUND|SCAR]

   Poison & Disease transfers - 
     {TAKE/TRANSFER} {patient} [{CAREFUL|QUICK}] [{body part}] {POISON|DISEASE}

   Shock transfers - 
     {TAKE/TRANSFER} {patient} SHOCK

[{PART|HALF|MOST}] indicate partial transfers.  These transfers may be attempted by an Empath of sufficient experience and reduce the amount of wound transferred at a time.

{body part} can include ALL WOUNDS, ALL SCARS, ALL INTERNALS, ALL EXTERNALS, or EVERYTHING.
Please note that, for poison and disease transfers, any speed modification must be sent before the words POISON or DISEASE.

Persistent Link

The persistent link ability allows an Empath to establish a diagnostic link with a patient that does not expire so long as the Empath and the patient remain in the same room. This ability requires 300 ranks of effective Empathy skill to use, and is learned by receiving a persistent link from an Empath who knows the ability. This ability is taught by guildleaders in the Platinum and Fallen instances. To learn this ability, you must also first know the basic link ability.

The persistent link allows an Empath to perceive the health of a patient through it without touching the patient. (Syntax: PERCEIVE HEALTH <Person>). A persistent link is also required for some other abilities to work, such as the Hand of Hodierna ability.

Syntax:

  LINK <target's name> PERSISTENT - Establishes a persistent diagnostic link
  LINK <target's name> PERSISTENT CANCEL - Cancels a persistent link only

Wound Redirection

The wound redirection ability is used by Empaths to modify their Empathic healing abilities to change where a transferred wound will appear. This ability is taught by guildleaders and requires both 60th circle and 320 effective empathy ranks to learn or use (ranks modified by shock). A redirect will last for five minutes before automatically cancelling.

Syntax:

  REDIRECT ALL to {body part} - Redirects all transferred wounds and scars to selected body part.
  REDIRECT {body part} to {body part} - Chooses a specific body part to redirect.
  REDIRECT CHECK - Shows your current redirection status.
  REDIRECT CANCEL - Cancels any current redirection active.

Unity Link

Unity is a healing ability. It Allows an Empath to instantly assume every wound on a patient they are capable of transferring, but with no reduction in severity. This brand of healing thus leaves the Empath with every single wound the patient had, but as a new application of Empathy, it leaves the patient with no scarring and it teaches better than "vanilla" healing does.

There is a skill-based cooldown to use this ability, starting at three minutes and possible to work down to one minute.

Unity is taught by guildleaders and requires 70th circle and around 380 effective empathy ranks to learn and use. It also requires knowledge of the basic link ability.

Syntax:
  LINK <target's name> UNITY - Invokes a manifestation of the Unity link

Hand of Hodierna

Hand of Hodierna is a healing ability. This is a higher level ability (80 circle's worth or around 440 empathy) that is taught by Guildleaders. It is a passive transfer type that transfers wounds from patient to empath without any action from the empath, once they have established the persistent diagnostic link and then invoked the Hand of Hodierna link.

This is a fairly slow transfer; it starts out a little random, hence a bit more dangerous to the empath than normal healing. For amount healing X on the patient, the empath gets anything between 1X and 3X in wound, so they have to be alert to ensure that their multiple patients and wounds don't become overwhelming. There is no way to know what was going to come across or exactly how bad it will be. The randomness decreases with skill until the empath consistently gets a 1:1 transfer at around 600 ranks. However, since this is a slow healing ability, the most you will ever get at once is nine points of "wound," which is about halfway to a bleeder, for reference.

The empath starts with the ability to form two such links at 80th circle/440 ranks, three at around 500 ranks, and four at around 560 ranks. In addition to reducing randomness, additional skill allows an empath to transfer more wound per person, though the total amount still caps out fairly low.

The Hand of Hodierna is meant to teach quite well, though not in such large bursts as vanilla healing or unity, and it mainly aimed at group hunting situations.

Syntax:
  LINK <target's name> HODIERNA - Establishes a manifestation of the Hand of Hodierna link
  LINK <target's name> HODIERNA CANCEL - Ends a specific manifestation of the Hand of Hodierna link
  LINK ALL HODIERNA CANCEL - Ends all manifestations of the Hand of Hodierna

Spell Changes

Spell Name	Slot Changes	Other Changes
Gift of Life	None	No longer signature. Non-Empaths only get a stamina boost.
Aggressive Stance	Slots changing from 2 to 3	None
Aesandry Darlaeth	Slots changing from 2 to 3	Changed to signature.
Lethargy	Slots changing from 2 to 3	None
Compel	Slots changing from 2 to 1	No longer signature.
Regenerate	Slots changing from 1 to 2	None
Innocence	None	No longer signature.
Circle of Sympathy	Slots changing from 2 to 1	None
Iron Constitution	Slots changing from 1 to 2	None
Tranquility	Slots changing from 2 to 3	Minor healing-related flavor added.
Paralysis	None	Removed undead enrage effect.
Nissa's Binding	None	Made signature. Now a crime to cast in town.

Guardian Spirit

The Guardian Spirit has undergone a change similar to that of the Necromancer Zombie -- the calculation used to determine its level (based on your TM skill) has changed. Potency also now has a larger effect on the warrior's level, so you should have more incentive to cast as close to the cap as you can. There is a bigger detriment to casting low, and a bigger bonus for casting high (though Necromancers still get a bit more bang for their buck.)

The integrity of the spell also now modifies the warrior's defenses.

Anyone can now appraise a guardian spirit, but only the summoner can learn from appraising it -- on a timer.

Fountain of Creation

Fixed bugs that nerfed the healing potential of FoC, this should now be more on par to the spell's power prior to the X3 changes.

Perseverance of Peri'el

New spell! Perseverance of Peri'el is an ablative vitality barrier. It absorbs vitality damage acquired in combat, but not the wounds. Only vitality damage received in combat is affected. Perseverance of Peri'el is a three slot spell. It's a ritual spell. It's an esoteric warding spell. It's a signature spell. Its prereqs are Tranquility, Iron Constitution and 30th circle.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I learn Unity?

A: ASK [LEADER] ABOUT UNITY, if you have enough skill (380 effective ranks, 70th circle, knowledge of basic link)

Q: How do I learn persistent link?

A: By receiving such a link from another Empath. In the Platinum and Fallen instances, guildleaders will also teach this ability at the appropriate circles.

Q: How do I learn wound redirect?

A: ASK [LEADER] ABOUT REDIRECT, if you have enough skill (320 effective ranks, 60th circle.)

Q: How do I learn Hand of Hodierna?

A: ASK [LEADER] ABOUT HAND OF HODIERNA, if you have enough skill (440 effective ranks, 80th circle, knowledge of basic link)