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The
Skill Sets
Primary Skill Set: Lore.
These are the skills an Empath needs most.
Empathy: An encompassing skill
that includes magically-aided healing and the perceiving of life
essences. Cannot be taught. Learned by: healing
others, perceiving the health of an area, tending bloodworms or leeches,
and manipulating creatures.
Teaching: Our second most important lore skill, it allows us to teach what we know to others
better. Learned by: teaching a class.
Scholarship: Scholarship helps you learn from a teacher more efficiently.
Learned by: listening to a class on scholarship or any other skill,
teaching a class*, or reading a book in a library*.
Overall Lore: In addition to the individual requirements of
Empathy, Teaching, and Scholarship, we also have a requirement in Overall Lore. This requirement can be filled by working on Appraisal (appraising your
gem pouch and other items), and Mechanical Lore (carving branches, crushing items in a
mortar, counting stones).
Secondary Skill Sets: Magic,
Survival.
Secondary to Lore, but still easier to learn than Tertiary skills.
Primary Magic: A skill that measures your overall ability to cast spells.
Empaths actually learn Primary Magic from transferring wounds, in
addition to casting spells (required to 10th circle only).
Harness Ability: Your ability to draw and manipulate Life
Mana from your environment (required to 10th circle only). Learned
by: casting spells/harnessing mana/working with cambrinth items.
Power Perception: This skill affects how much of the available mana in the area you are able to see and use.
It's extremely important to work on this skill since you will be using mana to heal yourself frequently, and it's not always possible to find a high mana
room (required to 30th circle). Type PERC HELP to see your
options.
Magical Devices: This is your ability to manipulate and use magical devices such as runestones,
charms with spells in them, and cambrinth items, which you can use to store mana for use in your
spells (required to 10th circle only).
Overall Magic: Most Empaths don't have to worry about this
requirement because we naturally learn so much magic from our day-to-day
use of it. However, if you neglect Magical Devices and Power Perception, it can catch up with you.
This requirement includes Targeted Magic in the average, even though we don't have any spells in our books which can train it directly.
It's possible that someday we will. First Aid:
Measures your ability to tend bleeding wounds. Empaths have a
slight bonus to this skill compared to other guilds. Can be
practiced on the dead bodies that pass through the Clerics' guild, on
yourself, or other willing people.
Evasion: While we Empaths can't fight, it doesn't mean that
we should be completely defenseless. Evasion is actually required
until 10th circle, but more is certainly better. Learned by:
dodging opponents in battle, listening to a class. Foraging:
This skill is used to forage up plants, herbs, branches, rocks,
etc. Its main use for Empaths is in finding healing herbs. When training foraging,
you only need to forage for an item once every minute or so, as there's a timer on learning the
skill (required to 10th circle).
Overall Survival: Overall survival also includes the Climbing, Perception, Hiding,
Lockpicking, Disarm Traps, Stalking, Stealing, Skinning, and Swimming skills, in addition to our individual requirements, any of which can be learned to increase your total. Tertiary
Skill Sets: Armor and Weapons.
Though you're not required to learn any
armor or weapon skills, it's a good idea that you do. See the
section on Combat for details. These
skills are learned through classes or by participating in battle.
TDPs
& Stats
-Min
stats required to join the guild.
-Gaining TDPs and using them.
Minimum stats required to join the guild.
If, after rolling up your character, you do not meet these minimum
stats, it is in your best interest to train them manually rather than
have your Empath guild leader put you through a 'prep course'.
First off, you'll want to learn how to get to each training facility and
memorize their locations for later, and secondly, if you go through the
'prep course' it will require more TDPs and money than if you trained
each stat individually.
So, go get your stats up to par before you join
the guild!
| Strength |
5 |
| Agility |
5 |
| Discipline |
N/A |
| Intelligence |
9 |
| Reflexes |
5 |
| Charisma |
6 |
| Wisdom |
9 |
| Stamina |
10 |
As you can see from these requirements, Stamina, Intelligence, and
Wisdom (followed by Charisma) are all important stats for Empaths.
Discipline is too, but for some strange reason, it doesn't have a
minimum. For more information about stats and TDPs, keep reading!
Gaining TDPs and using
them:
By now you probably know that Empaths aren't required to learn weapon or
armor skills to advance. Nor do we have to learn stealing, hiding,
or stalking, nor are we required to learn targeted magic or skinning.
So, why go out of your way to learn these skills? Certainly
there's no harm in being skilled at doing things other than healing.
For example, there's always the roleplaying aspect -- perhaps your
character is interested in stealing because by knowing how to steal, one
better understands how to defend their purses from a thief. This
is true also for the game mechanics. Someone with skill in
stealing CAN better defend their own purse from thieves. Yet
another reason is to prepare for the future. What if Empaths
someday receive a spell that uses targeted magic? Study now, and
you wont have to backtrack in the future. Plus, you'd also be
contributing to your overall magic requirement. Another reason to
learn skills we don't need is to be able to teach them to younger
members of other guilds.
The point is, there are many justifiable
reasons in-game and out-of-game. But one thing you should
definitely keep in mind is that whenever you gain ranks in your various
skills and raise your overall averages of those skill types, you're
given extra TDPs. You may earn them a bit slowly, at first, but
the more ranks you have, the more TDPs you'll receive in the long run.
So don't be lazy, and remember that those skills you train define your
character -- if your character is abhorred by the idea of even holding a
weapon, then they can learn an armor, instead. Just give it some
thought.
Now, as for spending those TDPs once you
receive them:
In the beginning, you'll want to concentrate on Stamina, Intelligence,
Wisdom, and Discipline. A good rule of thumb is to keep them all
close to equal except Stamina, which should be several points higher.
These stats affect how well you learn, use spells, and keep links with
your patients. Stamina also contributes to your vitality pool as
well, allowing you to survive poison or bleeding wounds and transfer
your vitality over to a dying patient. Make sure you
concentrate on these stats, no matter what race you choose.
Once you've gained a few circles and have had time to think about
where you want to take this character, you'll want to consider spending
your TDPs on other stats:
-Strength: Though Empaths don't
attack, and therefore do not need to constantly increase their
Strength, you may consider putting a few points in to reduce your
burden -- especially if you wear heavy armor and carry a lot of herbs.
-Agility: Probably an Empath's
least important skill. Agility aids in attacking (which, again,
we don't have to worry about) and in doing hands-on activities such as
disarming and lockpicking. Unless you want to become a
professional locksmith, you probably shouldn't pump too many TDPs into
this stat.
-Reflexes: Important for field
Empaths. Reflexes are factored into your ability to evade
creatures, especially at higher levels.
-Charisma: Also important for field
Empaths. Charisma improves your ability to cast spells of
influence, such as Innocence and Guardian Spirit, and use the
abilities Manipulate and Shift.
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