Empath new player guide
This is a page for the Empath specific page for the Newbie Help Guide. Whenever possible, overlap with the general guide should be minimized.
For details, rules, and the other pages involved, see Category:Newbie Guide Contest.
Introduction to Empaths
Empaths are best known for their healing abilities. No other guild is able to heal the wounds of others, or even their own wounds, with the proficiency of an Empath. The official Play.net description of the Empath guild says that "Empaths are highly attuned to other living creatures, allowing them to heal the wounds of others. Such powers have their drawbacks, however; since Empaths are so close to the pain of the living beings around them, if they so much as try to harm another living creature they will lose their ability to heal for a time. If they kill, such ability can be lost forever.
That doesn't mean, however, that Empaths are barred from combat. Many choose the path of the Battle Empath, with defensive skills and abilities often outstripping those of the hunters they seek out to heal."
Game play wise, Empath skillsets are Lore primary, Magic and Survival secondary, and Weapon and Armor tertiary. This means that Empaths are exceptionally suited for healing, teaching, and crafting while still having access to a great deal of magic and combat survivability. Most people choose to play an Empath do so because they want to be able to heal other people. Empaths are generally unable to directly attack creatures or other players directly (such as swinging a sword) but do have access to tools which allow them to hunt and kill creatures.
The Empath guild circling requirements have virtually no skills that require combat, so Empaths also make good characters for people looking to stay in town, craft, socialize, or just don't like combat.
Making your Empath
When creating an Empath character race makes little difference, and should primary be decided based on what you want to Role Play. Though the starting attributes and Time Development Point training costs for attributes are determined by race, over time these balance out across all the races. Many people prefer the races who can train mental attributes faster when creating an Empath, but all races make good Empaths. The racial attribute bonuses and penalties are balanced so that if you trained every single attribute evenly, to say 20, 40 or even 80 points, each race will require the same Time Development Point investment to do so.
Empath Attributes
Joining the Empath guild requires 10 Stamina, 9 Wisdom and 9 Intelligence. If your chosen starting race does not have these by default, the Empath Guildleaders are able to bump you up to this minimum when you join. Doing so will deduct the appropriate amount of Time Development Points and coin at the time it is done.
Early on it does not matter much what attributes you train. You cannot "break" a character or go wrong by spending TDPs on any attribute. Don't stress over what to spend TDPs on too much. Until you get more comfortable with the DragonRealms systems, it's best to approach a somewhat balanced approach to attributes. Training all attributes to 20 or 30 before choosing to specialize will give you a strong foundation for your character to branch off from.
While these attributes may have other uses, these are their biggest impacts on an Empath.
- Discipline, Intelligence, and Wisdom are the "mental" attributes. Most Empaths favor these in their training by raising them first or higher than other attributes.
- Discipline: Aids transferring wounds, spell casting and Manipulation by increasing available concentration. Discipline is the biggest contributor to concentration and increases fatigue recovery. Higher discipline means an Empath can take more wounds without needing to rest. This is a very valuable attribute to train as an Empath.
- Intelligence: Aids transferring wounds, spell casting and Manipulation by increasing available concentration. Also increases the size of experience pools.
- Wisdom: Increases rate at which experience becomes usable ranks.
- Stamina: Aids transferring wounds, spell casting and Manipulation by increasing available concentration. Stamina is crucial to determining the size of a character's Vitality and Fatigue pools and recovery. Effects how much weight a character can carry.
- Charisma: Improves the amount of experience from teaching and effects Manipulation and Shifting.
- Strength, Agility and Reflex are all physical attributes which mainly effect combat and some survival skills. These tend to be low priorities to Empaths compared to the other attributes.
- Strength: Improves Encumbrance and how much weight a character can drag. Used in weapon, shield and other combat skills.
- Agility: Used to improve parry skill and ability to do fine motor tasks such as crafting, Skinning, or Locksmithing.
- Reflex: Primarily used for evading and surviving in combat.
Role-playing Considerations
Traditionally, Empaths have often been played as cheerful, selfless healers who eschew violence. Even now, many players believe that Empaths are supposed to be that way, and those who stray from that path are flouting the guild's teachings. This belief is the result of several factors:
- a misunderstanding of supernatural empathy: In the everyday sense, when we describe someone as empathic, we mean that he understands another person's feelings by putting himself in that person's shoes -- and usually that he feels sympathetic or compassionate as a result. Supernatural empathy doesn't really have anything to do with people's feelings. It is a breaking down of the barrier that separates two beings, allowing the Empath to sense and manipulate life essences. (As an extreme example, the First Empaths could not tolerate being around other people due to their godlike empathy.)
- a misunderstanding of empathic shock: Empaths who directly cause injury or pain to another living being experience Empathic shock. Many people (including Empaths) misinterpret this as a punishment for violating the guild's moral teachings, similar to the way a Paladin's soul declines when he engages in dishonorable or unchivalrous deeds. Although some Empaths may choose to attach moral significance to empathic shock, it is simply an automatic physiological reaction that arises by virtue of the Empath's heightened sensitivity to the life forces around him. If you lived in a cave for a year, and then wandered out into the noonday sun, the bright light would hurt your eyes, and you would be temporarily blinded. This is much like empathic shock, which is pain followed by a temporary insensitivity that is caused by over-stimulation of one's empathic senses.
- early guild mechanics that limited empathy to the transference of wounds: The Empathy skill used to be called "Transference." This is paralleled by the guild's own belief that empathy should be "channeled only into the transference of injuries, so as to prevent it from growing too great, as it has with [the First Empaths]." In the wake of Jomay, who was accused of spreading an empathic plague that maimed and killed hundreds, the Empaths' Guild attempted to eradicate knowledge of all other empathic powers from the public record. See Shift Debacle for a summary of this history.
Because early PC Empaths were generally helpless and totally reliant on other adventurers for training, protection, and income, a lot of ideas developed about how Empaths were supposed to be treated and how they were supposed to behave. This attitude has largely waned, as Empaths now have ways to train, defend themselves, and make money that don't involve other adventurers.
In short, there is nothing wrong with going the traditional route if you want, but the guild's lore allows for a lot more flexibility in character design. As GM Armifer put it, "Empathy doesn't make people nice."
How to Empath
Here is some recommended reading for those who are new to the guild or returning after a long break.
- Empath Healing: An explanation of how to heal others and yourself.
- Empathy skill: Includes a list of methods for training Empathy.
- Link ability: This ability allows Empaths to temporarily benefit from the increased skill of other adventurers. The persistent link is also required for certain advanced healing techniques. The guild does not teach this ability; you must learn it from another Empath.
- Manipulate ability: Using his empathic senses, the Empath can manipulate the minds of creatures, causing them to fight each other instead of the Empath. This provides the earliest method for killing creatures that are not constructs. It also allows you to train empathy in combat! Once you have about 50 ranks in effective empathy, you can learn this from another Empath.
- Perceive Health: At about 50 ranks (average of empathy and attunement), the Empath can begin to sense the life essences of those around them. This ability is very helpful, as you can sense even the most stealthy of beings. (However, you will not see the names of those who are in hiding, only that someone is there.) With more skill, you can see certain health details, such as disease, poison, or vitality loss. With high skill, you can sense people who are several rooms away. This teaches a small amount of empathy (less than healing or manipulation).
- Shift ability: This ability allows Empaths to permanently alter the appearance of other people. The guild does not teach shifting. Shifting is prohibited by the guild and is illegal in Zoluren and Therengia. Nonetheless, you can undergo a quest to learn this at 30th circle.
- Construct: Unlike living creatures and the undead, constructs are magically animated and have no life force. Therefore, Empaths can hunt them without experiencing empathic shock. To check whether something is a construct, PERCEIVE it. For a construct, it will say, "You sense that a [monster] will not cause shock if you attack it."
Empath Ability Checklist
| Ability | When to Learn | How to Learn | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| diagnostic link | Circle: 1 | learned automatically | see detailed information about patient's wounds and scars |
| perceive health self | Circle: 1 | learned automatically | see detailed information about your own wounds and scars |
| external wound transference | Circle: 1 | learned automatically | transfer patient's external wounds to your body |
| shock transference | Circle: 1 | learned automatically | transfer half of Empath's shock to you |
| vitality transference | Circle: 1 | learned automatically | give some of your vitality to patient |
| link | Circle: 1 | from a PC Empath | temporarily share skill with another player |
| internal wound transference | Empathy: 6 | learned automatically | transfer patient's internal wounds to your body |
| external scar transference | Empathy: 7 | learned automatically | transfer patient's external scars to your body |
| internal scar transference | Empathy: 8 | learned automatically | transfer patient's internal scars to your body |
| Injured Casting (feat) | Circle: 2 | learned automatically | reduce penalty for casting spells while injured |
| poison transference | Empathy: 40* | learned automatically | transfer patient's poison to your body |
| perceive health | Empathy/Attunement: 50 | learned automatically | see other life essences, even if hidden |
| manipulate | Empathy: 50 | from a PC Empath | force other creatures to fight each other instead of you |
| disease transference | Empathy: 80* | learned automatically | transfer patient's disease to your body |
| shift | Circle: 30 | quest | permanently alter another person's appearance |
| persistent link | Empathy: 300 | from a PC Empath | diagnostic link lasts as long as Empath and patient are in the same room |
| wound redirection | Circle: 60 (Empathy: 320) | ask [guildleader] about wound redirect | change where patient's wounds appear on your body |
| Unity link | Circle: 70 (Empathy: 380) | ask [guildleader] about unity | instantly heal patient of all wounds and scars |
| Hand of Hodierna | Empathy: 440 | ask [guildleader] about Hand of Hodierna | passively (and gradually) heal patient's wounds and scars |
| wound reduction | Empathy: 450 | learned automatically | reduce severity of wounds transferred to your body |
*Some poisons and diseases require more skill to transfer than others. The ranks indicated here are the minimum requirements for the simplest conditions.
Dedicated Healer/Support Character
Suggested Spell and Feat Progression
Coming soon!
Combat Empath
I will continue to expand this, but for now, here is a suggested spell and magical feat progression for combat-oriented Empaths.
There are two routes you can take for training a combat Empath. The first, which is most effective, relies on your magic, particularly your Guardian Spirit, tactics, and Empathy to bring down creatures. To this end, you will want to focus heavily on your mentals, though you may want to wear heavier armors, which will require some strength. You will want to focus on living creatures, which you will Manipulate, and support your Guardian Spirit by casting Paralysis and Lethargy on the creature it is fighting. You will also want to engage that creature, and utilize Tactics on it for further balance and position debuffing.
While in combat, you can choose between your three cyclic spells, each having advantages and disadvantages.
Regenerate - This will heal you, which will help prevent any enemies from getting the better of you. This is largely a defensive option.
Guardian Spirit - Your spirits strength is determined by your skill in TM, and as the spirit fights, it will train your TM. The more mana you put into the cyclic, the stronger the spirit will be. Since TM is a secondary trained skill, this represents a fairly effective way to take down creatures or other players.
Aesandry Darlaeth - This is a less popular option. While the Reflex and balance and recovery pulsing is useful, this is often considered to be lackluster compared to Regenerate or Guardian Spirit. I personally find this useful when supporting other hunters, or when stepping into a new hunting grounds.
The second route you can take while training a combat Empath is to find the various constructs in the land, and fight them directly with weapons. This is largely viewed as a secondary hobby for most Empaths, though training a handful of weapons can be an effective means for increasing your TDPs. Typically, an Empath won't rely on their weapons to do anything very effectively, though it might surprise someone if they're focusing on rushing you and ignoring your Guardian Spirit, and you're able to dish out some punishment with a weapon or two. That said, attacking PCs will accrue Empathic Shock, so make sure you know what you're getting into! Your spell options probably won't vary much between these two routes, though weapons will undoubtedly trail behind your magics, so you may not want to use your Guardian Spirit in constructs while training weapons.
Stat Contests for Debilitation
Debilitation spells are all spells that you cast on another target to affect them negatively in a non-damaging way while using the Debilitation skill. It can be a stun, a reduction in balance, immobilization, a hit to fatigue, taking extra damage from everything else, or removal of defenses. When using a disabler, you should keep in mind the stats it contests. It is ideal for you to consider spells that contest stats you know your opponent is weak against. The different contests involved mean that even though two spells do the same thing, one of them may be better for you personally in the situation you're in. Be aware that casting Nissa's Binding in town will upset the locals!
Debilitation Contests
Succeeding at disabling a target is determined by a stat contest. Different spells use different types of contests to determine success, and this has an effect on what stats the caster (Attacker) and target (Defender) use to determine the spell's success level. There are numerous types of contests.
Offensive Contest Types Relevant to Necromancers
Mind - Uses caster's Intelligence, Discipline, Wisdom to determine success
Magic - Uses caster's Wisdom, Intelligence, Discipline to determine success
Spirit - Uses caster's Wisdom, Charisma, Intelligence to determine success
- You always use all 3 stats in any contest.
Of the Debilitation spells available to Empaths, the breakdown is as follows;
Mind - Nissa's Binding
Magic - Lethargy
Spirit - Compel
More information on stat contests can be found here.
Suggested Spell and Feat Progression
The order takes into account spell slot costs and expected (minimum) magic ranks for each circle, indicated in the far-right column. You may be able to use spells earlier than listed here, especially with the mastery feats. I would recommend getting the cyclic spells (Guardian Spirit, Aesandry Darlaeth, and Regenerate) as early as you are able to cast them. (They require 200-250 ranks to begin casting with minimal mana.)
I have prioritized combat-oriented spells and included some spells that improve self-sufficiency/survivability. You may shift the order if you would like to emphasize healing ability more than I have.
How you spend your final slots is really a matter of personal preference. I like the mastery feats, because they let you channel more mana into spells than your skill would otherwise allow, and when you outgrow them, you can unlearn them and re-allocate those spell slots. For PvP combat, the recognition feats may be beneficial in that you can see what your opponent is doing (and try to react accordingly). Some people also recommend the "faster" prep feats, but I have heard that they only decrease spell prep time by a second.
| Circle | Spell | Effect/Comment | Cost | Prerequisites | Magic.Ranks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heal Wounds | 1 | none | 3 | |
| 2 | Heal Scars | 1 | Heal Wounds | 6 | |
| 3 | 9 | ||||
| 4 | Refresh | -fatigue, +fatigue recovery | 2 | Heal Scars | 12 |
| 5 | 15 | ||||
| 6 | 18 | ||||
| 7 | Lethargy | pulsing fatigue damage (prereq) | 3 | Refresh | 21 |
| 8 | 24 | ||||
| 9 | Paralysis | non-damaging immobilizer (to train TM in anticipation of Guardian Spirit) | 2 | Lethargy | 27 |
| 10 | 30 | ||||
| 11 | Iron Constitution | -damage from serious hits (prereq, becomes good at high levels) | 2 | Heal Scars | 33 |
| 12 | 36 | ||||
| 13 | Gift of Life | +stamina, +empathy skill (prereq) | 2 | Refresh | 39 |
| 14 | 42 | ||||
| 15 | Aggressive Stance | +evasion skill, +brawling skill | 2 | Iron Constitution and Heart Link or Gift of Life | 45 |
| 16 | Blood Staunching | stops bleeding (prereq) | 1 | Heal Scars | 48 |
| 17 | 51 | ||||
| 18 | Vitality Healing | can be a life saver; you might want it even earlier | 2 | Heal Scars | 54 |
| 19 | Strange Arrow | prereq | 1 | none | 57 |
| 20 | Lay Ward | potency barrier against spells | 1 | Gauge Flow, Ease Burden or Strange Arrow | 60 |
| 22 | 66 | ||||
| 24 | Manifest Force | ablative physical damage barrier | 2 | Gauge Flow, Ease Burden or Strange Arrow | 72 |
| 26 | Cure Disease | 1 | Blood Staunching | 78 | |
| 28 | 84 | ||||
| 30 | Mental Focus | +intelligence, +concentration/recovery (prereq) | 2 | Heal Scars | 90 |
| 32 | Compel | forces target to leave room (prereq) | 1 | Mental Focus | 98 |
| 34 | 106 | ||||
| 36 | 114 | ||||
| 38 | Nissa's Binding | puts target to sleep (AoE debilitation) | 3 | Compel or Awaken | 122 |
| 40 | Deep Attunement | +harness regeneration | 1 | 100 Attunement, 100 Arcana | 130 |
| 42 | Efficient Harnessing | -attunement cost of held mana | 1 | 100 Attunement, 100 Arcana | 138 |
| 44 | Innocence | forces target to disengage; prevents facing/advancing (prereq) | 1 | Iron Constitution | 146 |
| 46 | 154 | ||||
| 48 | 162 | ||||
| 50 | Tranquility | +discipline, +defense against vs. will/fortitude attacks (prereq) | 3 | Mental Focus | 170 |
| 52 | Vigor | +agility, +strength | 1 | Gift of Life | 178 |
| 54 | Utility Mastery | allows you to channel more mana into utility spells | 1 | 100 Utility, 100 Arcana | 186 |
| 56 | 194 | ||||
| 58 | Awaken | -stuns/unconsciousness | 2 | Mental Focus | 202 |
| 60 | Raw Channeling | power cyclics directly from attunement | 1 | 100 Attunement, 100 Arcana | 210 |
| 62 | Efficient Channeling | -cyclic cost | 1 | 100 Attunement, 100 Arcana | 218 |
| 64 | 226 | ||||
| 66 | Guardian Spirit | summons combat "pet" (cyclic, trains TM) | 2 | circle 20, Innocence and Compel or Paralysis | 234 |
| 68 | 242 | ||||
| 70 | 250 | ||||
| 72 | Aesandry Darlaeth | +reflex, +recovery from balance/immobilization/webbing (cyclic) | 3 | circle 20, Aggressive Stance | 260 |
| 74 | 270 | ||||
| 76 | 280 | ||||
| 78 | Perseverance of Peri'el | ablative vitality barrier (ritual) | 3 | circle 30, Tranquility and Iron Constitution | 290 |
| 80 | 300 | ||||
| 82 | Heal | heals most severe wounds/scars (prereq) | 2 | Vitality Healing | 310 |
| 84 | 320 | ||||
| 86 | Regenerate | gradually heals wounds/scars (cyclic, great for hunting) | 2 | circle 30, Heal | 330 |
| 88 | 340 | ||||
| 90 | Dispel | dispels one magical effect | 2 | two AP spells | 350 |
| 92 | Flush Poisons | especially after Poisons are released for alchemy | 1 | Blood Staunching | 360 |
| 94 | Magic Theorist | learn spells designed for other mana types | 1 | 100 Scholarship, 50 Arcana | 370 |
| 96 | Improved Memory | memorize a second spell scroll | 1 | 100 Scholarship, 100 Arcana | 380 |
| 98 | Sorcerous Patterns | -sorcerous backlash | 1 | 100 Sorcery, 100 Arcana | 390 |
| 100 | Targeted Mastery | allows you to channel more mana into TM spells | 1 | 100 TM, 100 Arcana | 400 |
| 102 | Debilitation Mastery | allows you to channel more mana into debilitation spells | 1 | 100 Debilitation, 100 Arcana | 410 |
| 105 | Augmentation Mastery | allows you to channel more mana into augmentation spells | 1 | 100 Augmentation, 100 Arcana | 425 |
| 108 | Warding Mastery | allows you to channel more mana into warding spells | 1 | 100 Warding, 100 Arcana | 440 |
| 111 | Legerdemain | easier to conceal spell preps | 1 | 50 Stealth, 50 Arcana | 455 |
| 114 | Alternate Preparation | prereq | 1 | 100 PM, 100 Arcana | 470 |
| 117 | Silent Preparation | can learn spell preps that are easy to conceal | 1 | Alternate Preparation, 100 Stealth, 100 Arcana | 485 |
| 120 | 500 | ||||
| 123 | 515 | ||||
| 126 | Fountain of Creation | heals all wounds/scars | 3 | circle 30, Heal | 530 |
| 129 | Burden | -strength | 1 | Gauge Flow, Ease Burden or Strange Arrow | 545 |
| 132 | Adaptive Curing | allows preemptive casting of Flush Poisons and Cure Disease | 1 | Cure Disease or Flush Poisons | 560 |
| 135 | 575 | ||||
| 138 | 590 | ||||
| 141 | 605 | ||||
| 144 | 620 | ||||
| 147 | 635 | ||||
| 150 | 650 |