We chose the red pill and went down the rabbit hole. We don't know what the blue pill would have been. Meanies.
You all probably know the new death and dying system will be in on Thursday.
On Sunday(a week from today):
Transference will cease to exist. It will no longer be a requirement for guild advancement. It will be replaced by the new lore skill empathy.
There will be a change in perceive health. Empaths will be able to tell when someone in the area, and possibly when someone at some remove, is dying.
Leeches and bloodsuckers will be teaching, but the exp rate will be dropped significantly.
Empathy is the ability to know what someone else is feeling. There is a limit to how many people you can empathize with, and drawback(s) to empathizing with too many people.
Successful attempts to perceive health will teach empathy. It will have roundtimes associated with it.
Empathy is a lore that involves a sensitivity to another person/creature's body.
There will be a new ability called Manipulate. It will have to be taught to you, you will have to figure out how to get the ability on your own.
This can enable you to influence a creature which might normally be your enemy to think you are a friend, or pit that enemy against another enemy. Empaths will be able to use critters to kill other critters and this will not cause empathic shock.
It will NOT work on players. It will involve skills check(s). And it is highly inadvisable to start on high level critters.
Guardian Spirit will be rereleased during HSN. We have been told it rocks. Also been told to PAFO.
NPC empaths will probably start charging based on a sliding scale this summer.
Guildleaders' personalities and histories as well as the guild histories are being vastly developed.
New lore skill called anatomy.
At least one other guild will have to learn it from empaths(noncommoners).
It will be one of the primary skills for an empath. There will be empathic requirements. Some ranks *MAY* be grandfathered in.
Ways to learn anatomy: Empathic touch First aid may teach Appraising critters and other PCs may teach
Will not be in before August, *MAY* be in Hot Winter Nights, may be in DR2.
Undead and creature healing will be coming in DR2. Currently creatures and players are on two separate health systems. In DR2 those will be combined and make it possible for us to heal undead and creatures. When? Soon.::ducks::
Empathic shock.
Why can an empath not hunt, or not swing a sword without getting shock even if they don't actually hit anything?
When people are born today, over many generations, people have been developing the skill that will be empathy. As that power/ability developed, the suppression of it also developed. Everyone is capable of becoming an empath. Those who make the choice to be combat oriented learn to suppress empathy. Empathy and the suppression of empathy are reflexive mental actions. When someone joins the empath guild, suppression is not developed much if at all, but the empathy instinct is primed. The skill for suppression is suppressed and empathy is enhanced whena person joins the guild.Empathic shock is something done to the self when the suppression is suddenly activated to the empathy part of the brain. It is the natural suppression reflex which has been suppressed kicking in and kicking hard.
Nissa's binding is not a shock issue. The guildleaders are going to be taking more action than they have been in the past.
Transference is the magically aided empathic manipulation of damage.
Healing will teach Primary magic and empathy, much like it teaches PM and transference now.
Auto-empaths will be affected by this news and not all of them will be to the liking of everyone. Novices who couldn't be able ot afford them might be able to in the future. Older characters can expect to be charged accordingly.
Healing is still going to be how new empaths need to start. The things coming down the pipeline are for established empaths. The path of the healer is only one path open to us now.
The change will probably be around 10 am eastern Sunday, starting in Plat.