Beginner's guide to playing an empath

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Race

Practitioners of empathic magic can be found among all the peoples of Elanthia. Your choice of race will not have a major effect on your healing ability, but you should make it with an eye on your preferred hunting style.

Statistics

Wisdom is the most important attribute for empaths. It contributes directly to the Casting strength of all your warding spells and to your starting mana pool. As one of your prime requisites, Wisdom is also counts for twice as much as other statistics in determining how many training points you receive each level. When you are starting out, you should set Wisdom to be one of your highest statistics.

Influence is the other prime requisite for empaths, reflecting the dual Spiritual-Mental nature of empathic magic. However, all of the spells that an empath can currently learn are considered part of the Spiritual sphere, so Influence is comparatively less useful. It contributes to your mana pool, but does not make any of your spells stronger. Still, it is advisable to set Influence relatively high to get the training point benefits.

Strength affects your proficiency with martial weapons. Even if you plan to play a pure spellcaster, it would still be a good idea to start with high Strength. The first few levels are much easier if you can competently swing a weapon, and later on it will help you in carrying more equipment without becoming encumbered, dragging your dying friends to safety, and even deflecting attacks with a runestaff. Strength also has the slowest growth rate out of all statistics, so no matter what playstyle you train in, you should set Strength very high at the start.

Health and Anatomy

Before you start playing a healer, it is important to have a thorough understanding of how health, wounds, and ailments are represented in the GemStone IV setting.

Health Points

Each player character has a pool of health points (HP), which is an abstraction of how much blood is being circulated to critical regions of the body. If HP ever drops to 0 or below, the body can no longer sustain life, and the character dies instantly.

Disease and Poison

A character can become diseased or poisoned, for instance from being bitten by a rabid squirrel or eating harmful mushrooms. Diseases and poisons are represented by gradual HP loss, and the effect typically diminishes over time. For example, a disease may inflict 10 damage on the first round, 9 damage on the second, 8 damage on the third, and so on until it has fully run its course. A character can suffer simultaneously from multiple diseases and poisons.

Wounds and Scars

Independently, each character also has fourteen separate body locations. These locations fall into four categories:

  • Limbs: left arm, right arm, left hand, right hand, left leg, right leg.
  • System: nerves.
  • Head: head, neck.
  • Organs: left eye, right eye, chest, abdomen, back.

Each of these locations may have wounds or scarring. A wound is a fresh injury, such as those suffered in combat. A scar is an old injury, usually the result of treating a wound with herbs. Wounds and scars vary in severity, each having three levels: minor, medium, and major.

When someone takes a wound, they become less effective in combat. For example, someone with a major wound to their right hand cannot hold or attack with a sword in that hand, nor be able to cast most spells.

Repeated injuries to the same location will exacerbate existing wounds. If someone has a minor wound on their head, and is struck again with an attack to the head that would have caused a minor wound, the head wound will become a medium wound and start bleeding, causing the character to lose HP over time. In general, two minor wounds to the same location become a medium wound, and two medium wounds become a major wound. Taking a minor wound on top of a medium wound does not cause it to become major, but will likely increase the rate of bleeding.

Herbs and Non-Empathic Healing

When adventurers take wounds in the field and there is no empath on hand to assist them, they may choose to heal those wounds by ingesting herbal remedies. Healing a wound with an herb will reduce the severity of the wound by one level, and leave a scar of the same level as the prior wound.

Different herbs are effective for different wound locations and severities. The most common Elanthian herbs for healing wounds are:

  • acantha leaf: restores blood loss.
  • ambrominas leaf: heals minor limb wounds.
  • wolifrew lichen: heals minor system wounds.
  • rose-marrow potion: heals minor head wounds.
  • basal moss: heals minor organ wounds.
  • ephlox moss: reduces severity of medium and major limb wounds.
  • bolmara potion: reduces severity of medium and major system wounds.
  • aloeas stem: reduces severity of medium and major head wounds.
  • pothinir grass: reduces severity of medium and major organ wounds.

In general, one should use the EAT verb for herbs in their harvested form, such as leaf or moss, and use the DRINK verb for potions.

If the wound level has been reduced to zero and there is still a scar on that location, then it is possible to use specific scar-healing herbs to reduce the scar level. The most common Elanthian herbs for treating scars are:

  • cactacae spine: heals minor limb scars.
  • torban leaf: heals minor system scars.
  • haphip root: heals minor head scars.
  • talneo potion: heals minor organ scars.
  • calamia fruit: reduces severity of medium limb scars.
  • woth flower: reduces severity of medium and major system scars.
  • brostheras potion: reduces severity of medium and major head scars.
  • wingstem potion: reduces severity of medium and major organ scars, except for major eye scars.
  • bur-clover potion: completely heals major eye scars.
  • sovyn clove: completely heals major limb scars.

Herbs for scars will not work if there is still a wound on that location.

Without empaths, it is very expensive and time-consuming to fully heal a wound. For example, if someone suffered a major chest wound, they would first take two bites of pothinir grass, reducing the wound level to minor and leaving a major scar; then they would take a bite of basal moss, healing the wound; then, drink two sips of wingstem potion to reduce the scar level to minor; finally, drink one sip of talneo potion to heal the minor scar. Each of these steps could potentially take substantial time to finish.

Further information: Herb

Bleeding and First Aid

Medium and major wounds usually cause the victim to bleed, losing HP over time. The exact rate depends on severity and location, and can worsen if the same location is struck again. For example, a broken arm will usually bleed less than a gushing neck wound, but taking yet more blows on the arm can cause it to bleed quite severely.

The TEND verb can be used to slow or stop the rate of bleeding with field bandages without healing the wound. The effectiveness of the bandages depends on the tender's First Aid skill. Not all wounds can be fully bandaged, and it may take up to several minutes to bandage very severe wounds. It is possible for a skilled tender to bandage someone else, but the patient needs to be lying down.

As an empath, you will generally not need to bandage wounds yourself as you have access to empathic magic. First Aid is still a very useful skill to train in, as it affects how quickly you can ingest herbs and how well you can skin animals in the wild.

Empathic Healing

Transferring Wounds

Empaths can use the TRANSFER verb to restore HP or regenerate the health of a body location on another character, inflicting an equal injury on themselves. For instance, healing a minor neck wound on another will injure the empath as if the empath had suffered a minor wound on their own neck, and healing two such wounds consecutively will likewise inflict a medium wound.

Using the TRANSFER verb without a location will restore some amount of HP, depending on the empath's level. The maximum amount of HP that can be restored per transfer is 75. It is entirely possible for you to die from transferring HP if you don't have enough HP yourself, and the game will not give you any warning, so be very careful!

Example usage:

  • TRANSFER {character} HEAD
  • TRANSFER {character} LEFT ARM
  • TRANSFER {character}

Transferring only works on HP and wounds, not on scars. However, if a character has a wound and scar on the same location, then transferring the wound will also fully heal the scar.

An empath who already has a major wound in a location cannot continue to transfer wounds onto that location until healing the wound down by at least one level. If you try to transfer with such a wound, you will see the message that you strain over the location but are unable to transfer.

A novice empath does not have the ability to transfer every wound right away, but gradually learns over the first ten levels. By level ten, an empath will be able to transfer wounds of any location and severity.

Healing Spells

As you gain experience and train in the Empath Circle of spells, you will learn magic that allows you to heal your own wounds and scars, whether they were taken in the course of your own hunting or through healing others. The empathic healing spells are:

These spells should be cast on yourself. The various Repair spells do not work at all when cast on others, and casting Heal (1101) on someone other than yourself turns it into Harm, dealing damage to them.

By healing a wound on yourself, you will also leave a scar just as you would if you had used an herb. Once the wound is fully healed you can then use the scar repair spells to heal the remaining scars.

Keep in mind that if the healing spell costs more mana than you currently have, then you will injure your nervous system by casting it, just like any caster who over-expends their mana.

Casting a healing spell incurs some amount of hard roundtime, preventing you from moving or taking most actions. The exact duration depends on the severity of the wound or scar being healed, and decreases as you gain experience. You can further shorten healing roundtime by training in Mental Lore: Transformation.

Targeted Healing

Healing spells can be prepared and cast like any other, but as a shortcut you can also use the CURE verb to specify the location you want to heal. For example, 'CURE LEFT ARM' will reduce the wound or scar level on your left arm by one at the cost of some mana, as if you had prepared and cast the appropriate Limb Repair (1102) or Limb Scar Repair (1111) spell. In addition, using 'CURE' by itself acts as a more potent version of casting Heal (1101), by restoring all of your blood loss at a cost of 1 mana per 10 HP.

Example usage:

  • CURE HEAD
  • CURE LEFT ARM
  • CURE

Healing with the StormFront Client

If you use the StormFront client to connect to GemStone IV, you can create a convenient visual representation of a character's wounds by using the APPRAISE verb. As an empath, appraising someone else will tell you whether they are wounded and open up a window with a picture of a body and a (1), (2), or (3) symbol over the various wounded locations, corresponding to the level of the wound. Clicking on a wound symbol will transfer the wound, just as if you had typed in a TRANSFER command.

StormFront also has an Injuries window that shows your own health condition with a similar visual design. Your own wounds are shown with a number in red, and any scars you may have are shown with a number in yellow. Clicking on a wound or scar symbol in the window will prepare and cast the appropriate healing spell.

Common Healing Practices

Generally, when your fellow adventurers are looking for a healer, they will go to the main gathering spot in town, such as:

They might actively ask for healing, or simply be in visible distress and constantly eating acantha leaf to counteract their bleeding. And often the bodies of the dead will be dragged in and will need their injuries mended before a cleric can resurrect them.

Even as an empath, you do not, strictly speaking, have an obligation to help. There is nothing preventing you from portraying a character who stands around watching while others bleed to death, though if you are just starting out it may not be the best way to make friends. But if you do want to help, there are a few general guidelines you should follow:

First, you should make sure no one drops dead while waiting for a healer. If you are still inexperienced and not able to handle many patients at once, and there are several people needing assistance, use the LOOK verb to see if anyone is in very bad shape and might need help right away. If nothing else, you can restore some of their blood loss to give them time to find the proper herbs.

Second, you should have an idea of who the other healers in the area are. This will let you know if you must personally see to every patient or if others can assist, and they can also be very helpful in reducing the amount of time you need to heal scars. You can 'SPEAK GUILDSPEAK' to switch to speech that can only be heard by other empaths in the room.

When you have determined that someone needs your help and they are willing to accept it, you should acknowledge in some way that you are about to heal them. Traditionally this is done with a simple NOD, though you can do something else that feels appropriate for your character. This step is not always necessary but some people might consider it rude not to.

LOOK or APPRAISE will tell you what wounds someone is currently suffering from. Often that is enough for you to fully heal them. However, it will not tell you if someone is diseased or poisoned, how quickly they are bleeding out, or their exact amount of HP. If you suspect this information is useful, you may consider using the DIAGNOSE verb. Diagnosing someone will tell you if there are any diseases or poisons, and if they still have any blood loss even without wounds. You can also use 'DIAGNOSE {target} FULL' to get a comprehensive read on someone's health, including the exact severity of every wound and ailment. A full diagnosis incurs a small amount of roundtime.

As you start healing someone, you should make sure that your own body is able to take the injuries that you are about to transfer. If your own health is very low, transferring someone else's blood loss can potentially kill you. Likewise, if you are still very low level and can only heal minor wounds in a location, then you may want to heal your existing wound before transferring another that would have made it more severe.

Whenever you transfer wounds from someone else, you receive a small amount of experience. There are a few exceptions to prevent abuse: you do not receive experience by transferring back and forth from other empaths, nor by restoring blood loss to someone who is actively bleeding, nor by healing self-inflicted injuries.

Diseases and poisons can be neutralized by the spells Undisease (113) and Unpoison (114) in the Minor Spiritual Circle. Every separate disease and poison requires an additional cast, so if someone has two active diseases you must cast Undisease twice to remove both of them.

Hunting and Combat

To survive in the wild, whether to protect and rescue fellow adventurers or to hunt the dangerous creatures of Elanthia, empaths should also learn to be proficient in battle by acquiring the proper equipment, training, and general combat knowledge.

Equipment

Armor is worn by all adventurers to protect them from a variety of physical and magical attacks. However, heavier armors can cause your spells to fail from hindrance. Empaths can wear double leather armor without any chance of spell failure, provided that they have taken the appropriate training. It requires 8 ranks in the Armor Use skill to remove hindrance from double leather armor.

More experienced empaths may choose to wear hard leather armor such as brigandine, or even chain mail, but those armors require more Armor Use skill and there will always be some chance of spell failure while wearing them.

Weapons are used for both offensive and defense. They come in a variety of types, and each type requires different skills to be proficient with it.

You can INSPECT a weapon to tell what type it is.

All martial weapons except for bows and crossbows should be held in the right hand. If a weapon is two-handed, such as the claidhmore or lance, then you should hold the weapon in your right hand and leave your left hand empty.

Bows and crossbows should be held in the left hand.

Shields can be used alongside a one-handed weapon to confer additional defense. Their effectiveness increases with training in the Shield Use skill. A shield should be held in your left hand.

Runestaves are specialized defensive weapons wielded by spellcasters. How well someone can defend themselves with a runestaff is determined by their training in magical skills. They are not generally useful for striking others physically, but you may come across enchanted runestaves that enhance your magical attacks. A runestaff is considered a two-handed weapon and should be held in your right hand.

Training

General Skills

  • Perception: 1x per level up to 30 ranks at least. 2x if you use bows or crossbows.
  • Climbing: 1x per level up to 15 ranks, more later on as needed.
  • Swimming: 1x per level up to 10 ranks, more later on as needed.

Perception, Climbing, and Swimming allow you to navigate the wilds more easily. For example, with just a handful of ranks of Climbing, you will be able to scale the gate to the Graveyard near Wehnimer's Landing.

  • First Aid: 2x per level.
  • Survival: Optional.

First Aid and Survival are mainly useful to empaths for skinning animals. Skins can be sold at the furrier or turned in for bounty tasks.

  • Disarming Traps: Not recommended.
  • Picking Locks: Not recommended.

Disarming and picking treasure boxes is a dangerous but profitable activity that is typically undertaken by rogues. It is not unheard of for empaths to learn these skills, though learning to do so requires a heavy investment of training points and is not advised for beginners.

However, even if you never work with boxes yourself, you should at least be aware of the various traps that could be set on them. Empaths are often called as first responders to the scene of a botched attempt at disarming a trap, and reacting to the situation properly can save many lives.

Further information: Trap
  • Stalking and Hiding: Not recommended.
  • Pickpocketing: Not recommended.

Empaths can never learn to hide effectively in combat. Picking the pockets of other adventurers may be fun--or dangerous, depending on who you try to steal from--but it is not particularly advisable for beginners.

  • Trading: Not recommended.

Trading affects the prices that you get for buying and selling goods. For a novice adventurer, there is very little reason to train in it. Later on, when you start handling valuable furs and gems on a regular basis, you may find it more useful.

Physical Skills

  • Physical Fitness: 1x per level at least. Many empaths prefer to train even more.
  • Armor Use: 1x per level up to 8 ranks.

The martial weapon skills:

  • Edged Weapons
  • Blunt Weapons
  • Two-Handed Weapons
  • Ranged Weapons
  • Polearm Weapons

Training in martial weapons is expensive for empaths, so you should choose one style to specialize in instead of dabbling in several. Whichever you choose, you should train 1x in that skill every level.

  • Shield Use: 1x per level if you also train in a one-handed weapon skill.
  • Brawling
  • Combat Maneuvers
  • Thrown Weapons
  • Ambush
  • Multi Opponent Combat
  • Dodging

Magical Skills

  • Arcane Symbols
  • Magic Item Use
  • Spell Aiming
  • Harness Power
  • Elemental Mana Control
  • Mental Mana Control
  • Spirit Mana Control
  • Elemental Lore
  • Spiritual Lore
  • Sorcerous Lore
  • Mental Lore
  • Spell Research

See Also

References

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