Empath Guide
Morning. I'm Lord Banauge of TSC. I'm also known as Uncle Banny
or Banban. I get a fair number of requests for advice on the
empath profession. Everything ranging from "How do I take
wounds?", "What should I train in?", "How come they don't tip?",
"What's her problem?", "Could you thump the snert?".
The first thing and the most important thing is to remember that
Elanthia is like mythical Disneyland. You come here to have fun.
FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN! So does everyone else. At this point I'd
like to mention that what's fun for me might be slightly (or
wildly) different from what's fun for other people. It took me a
while to realize this one. For a while I tried to make people
have fun my way. That turned out to be no fun for me and no fun
for them. I really like being a puff. I can't image myself
enjoying any other profession more.
Anyway, on to empathy:
First, why an empath? Well, if you're like me you don't really
enjoy hunting. I much prefer to help people than get into really
stupid arguments over whose rat (or shadow mare ::rolls eyes::)
that was. I've made some really good friends just sitting in TSC
healing people all day. Empaths can be good hunters. Anyone who
doesn't think so should go watch Lady Snowie beat the stuffing
out of devils on Teras.
How does that whole empathing thing work? The magic cantrip is
TRANSFER WoundedPerson (bodypart). For reasons I don't comprehend
you can kill yourself with this cantrip so be careful with it.
I'd strongly recommend the new empath always use TRANSFER
WoundedPerson ANY until they get the hang of it. While this
variation is slower it is much safer to use. Every empath has
given away too much blood and killed themselves. I've done it
precisely once. On accident. In bad weather. (Yeah, that's it!)
About wounds: In addition to blood (aka Health, HPs, CPs), the
body has the following parts that can be injured: right arm, left
arm, right leg, left leg, right hand, left hand, nerves, neck,
head, chest, abdomen, back, right eye, left eye. These parts can
have minor, medium, or major wounds. Minor wounds never bleed.
Some medium wounds don't bleed. Eyes and nerves never bleed.
The transfer cantrip only understands the following parts: r/l
arm/leg, chest, abdomen, back, neck, and head. That makes
transfering hand, eye, and nerve damage kind of interesting.
Hands are on the arms. Eyes are on the head. Nerves are taken
after blood. I'm hoping that someday the gods do a little more
work on this cantrip. Currently you need to type the whole name
of the body part. You can't abreviate abdomen as abd for example.
If you use macros liberally, it's not quite as bad as it sounds.
TRANSFER WoundedPerson ANY will attempt to transfer the "biggest"
wound the person has that you are capable of transfering. It will
also not transfer blood loss so you go below half your maximum -
which is really nice. I rather dislike dying. One thing that's
odd is that the definition of "biggest" is not exactly what what
I would have done if I were god. For example limb minors are
transfered before organ minors. Why? No one knows.
Healing spells and herbs: Herbs are a young empath's best friend.
They are kinda like having lots of mana. Invest all your silvers
in herbs. Beg, borrow, steal, or (gads!) even hunt to get the
silvers to buy more herbs. Actually, befriending an older, easily
befuddled person and seducing them into being your patron is the
best way to get the silvers. I personally consumed about one
million silvers worth of herbs till I got to the point where I
didn't need them any more. I'm not too familiar with the herbs in
Icemule Trace so I'll only list the ones found at the herbalist
in Wehnimer's and what they do.
801 - acantha leaf - 10 units of blood
Scars are a pain. Some will keep you from performing at your
best. Some scars you can live with. Others you should get rid of
as soon as possible. One way to get rid of scars is to use the
appropriate spells or herbs. The better way is to use a procedure
known as cleanup. When I heal a severed arm wound by casting 807,
I am left with a bleeding arm wound and a missing arm scar. A
second cast of 807 and i have minor bruises on my arm and still
have the missing arm scar. Now if I were to cast 802 to get rid
of the minor wound I'd be left with the missing arm scar and have
to cast 820 or eat a sovyn clove. Both take a long time. It's
often faster, cheaper, and more social to ask for clean up. This
example is easy because any empath with a mere two or more
trainings can help me restore my arm. This is how it works: I ask
in guild speak for someone to help me with my missing right arm.
"Clean up right arm please?" works but "Could someone help me
please? I gave away my right arm." is much better. A nice young
empath can take my minor arm wound and - here's the magical part
- my scar goes away. It's not transfered to them and it's no
longer on me. Then I transfer the wound back to me. I don't want
to stick the nice person that did me the favor with having to
heal my wound. That would be rude. I thank them and send them
mana if I can cause I've got lots and they've got little. Now I
can cast 802 and I'm left with no wounds and an insignificant
minor scar. Incidentally, their scars are completely gone now. No
matter what they were.
Which scars should you clean up and which can you live with? All
minor scars are insignificant. They have no effect on anything
other than making you easily identifiable as an empath. Medium
and worse limb and body scars will affect the time it takes to
tend wounds. Medium head scars will keep you from sending. Major
head scars (old mutilations) and medium and major nerve scars
will keep you from learning as fast as you can. Those are the
ones you want to get rid of as soon as you can. Missing hands
will make it difficult to accept items. There are several
injuries/scars that will keep you from being able to cast spells
outside the empath circle: two bad eyes (a bad eye has a minor
wound or a medium scar or worse), missing right arm, missing
right hand, fractures on both hands, a bleeding head. If you
don't need to cast spells other than empath spells you don't need
to worry too much about those scars. Like for example, you sit in
TSC and heal people all day. But if you need to cast spells from
either spirit circle you will need to deal with those problems.
What order should I learn the spells? Hmmm we're starting to get
into the tougher questions. It seems like everyone has an opinion
on this one. Obviously you want to know all the 800 spells as
soon as you can up to 810. This will let you heal any wound and
cleanup will keep you relatively scar free. Mana bread 203 is
quite important. It gives you 1 extra mana per minute, or 2 per
pulse, which is very significant when you are young and only get
2 or 4 per pulse. If you hunt you really need Bravery 211 and
Heroism 215. These spells are self cast only. You can get people
to cast the protection spells on you if you don't have them.
After that you've got a few options and only you will be able to
decide what's right for you. You'll be wanting to learn the scar
removal spells, fog to 225, and fog back 130. Probably by the
time you need to make those decisions you'll have a pretty good
grasp on what you like doing and what spells you'll need.
What do I train in? Hmmm an even tougher question. If you
compare the empath training costs to the other classes you'll
notice that we get really screwed. Everything is very expensive.
It is therefore extremely important to spend your training points
as wisely as possible. There are mental training points and
physical training points. They can be traded 2 for 1 for each
other. I'm of the opinion that this is a bad idea. I strongly
recommend you don't do it. I'm also of the opinion that double
training in things is very expensive. I planned my training for
the long term. I cannot justify double training in magic items
for a while and not training in them at all later. It's much more
efficient in terms of training points to spend them slower over
more training sessions. There are times when you want to double
train or even triple train in things. Though if you do that you
should be planning on doing it forever. Like say for example, I
want to be the best mana sharer ever. You'll have the ET'ing
wizards giving you anything you want if you pursue this. Go ahead
and triple in sharing. Even when you're 100. Your sharing will be
400 by then and you'll be able to infuse mana 4 times faster than
the typical wizard could without you. Not to mention you'll have
a ton of mana. Another example would be to triple in physical
training. Every 20 points over 100 trains your body to produce an
extra unit of blood. You'd never bleed. No matter how many body
parts are leaking. Again these decisions are up to you. I
strongly recommend that you learn some combat skills. You'll need
them if you want to rescue people or even just want to go
somewhere. These would be shield use, some form of weapon (edged,
blunt, or brawling). You also want to train in combat maneuvers
when you can. This will help your defense a bit and will help you
aim ambush attacks which is invaluable for quickly dispatching a
dangerous critter. You might want to learn to pick locks. It's a
good safe way to make money. I can open the toughest locks in the
lands. The tips for picking tend to be better than the tips for
healing. After all, you know, and they know that you know, that
they have money and are not broke. You also might want to
consider training in aimed spells. Gold wands are pretty
devastating to most critters. And you can get pretty good with
them after a while.
Anyway here's what I've been training in all these years: shield
use, brawling (instead of OHE), combat maneuvers (when i can,
every session now), disarm, unlock, perception, spells (mostly
once, sometimes twice), scrolls (up to 140), items (up to 140),
sharing, first aid, physical, climbing (whenever, up to 140),
swimming (whenever, up to 140). I plan to learn a few ranks of
picking pockets - just because I think it would be fun - and some
ambushing, eventually. Some people will think I'm nuts for not
doubling in spells every level and sometimes tripling. Well, I've
trained 86 times as of this writing and I can cast all of the
spells. My casting strength isn't as strong as some others my age
but they spent a whole lot more training points than I have. It's
a trade off. A decision that only you can make.
Where should I put my stat rolls? Igg... another tough one. It
depends on how old you want to be. I knew I wanted to be really
old, so I allocated one way. If you just want a title you might
want to allocate a different way. Or if you want to be a mere
legend level empath then you might want to allocate yet another
way. I'll tell you though, if I could put my starting scores in
different places, I would. Anyway the stats that are important to
empaths are: wisdom (determines mana), logic and intelligence
(affects how fast you learn), reflex (keeps you alive), strength
(let's you kill things), dexterity (for picking, skinning, and
aiming attacks), aura and discipline (they count for both mtp's
and ptp's). Uh, erg, so basically everything except charisma.
Obviously you can't put high rolls in all these stats. What I
recommend doing is putting the lower rolls in the stats that rise
the fastest and the higher rolls in the stats that rise the
slowest. For me the stats that rose quickly are con, log, int,
wis. The ones that are slow are aura, dex, str, ref, and cha. I'm
not sure about discipline. I put a high roll there and it's now
at 100. Anyway, with a fair amount of patience you can get one
roll in the 90's, three each in the 80's, 50's and 40's. Now, to
be fair, my ideas about stat placement go against the norm. One
might say radical to the point of stupidity. Well, everyone's
entitled to their own thoughts. But I'll tell you this to justify
my insanity, my current stat total is 900. That makes my average
stat a 90. Am I insane or not? This is where I'd place them: con
40, dex 80, dis 50, log 40, int 40, str 80, ref 80, cha 50, wis
50, aur 90. Be warned though that starting with a wisdom in the
upper 60's will lead to severe mana shortages when you are young.
What the heck though. That's what herbs are for, right? You've
got a patron and a benefactor lined up to supply you with all the
drugs... err herbs that you need. Right?
There now you're all set to go save the world. Heh. Just remember
to have fun and to make sure the people around you are having fun
too. And stop by TSC in Wehnimer's and say "Morning."
Advanced empathy. These are some techniques that I've developed
over the years. They might help you heal more efficiently. They
might make you say "Gosh, Ban, you're really smart.". Or they
might make you say "Ban, you're cheating!". Either way you'd be
mostly right.
Kneeling. I kneel. Why? No one walks off with me if they hold my
hand. I can't be tended by some moron for 3 minutes where I can't
do anything but bleed to death. I can't be knocked down by a
quake. And yes there are still a few rich sorcerers that like to
quake Town Square and knock everyone down and just pay the 40k
fine. I don't scream and fall down when I take someone's severed
leg. It's easier to stand up from kneeling when I'm loaded with
20k of tips in coins. I'm slightly better defended from the
homicidal psychos that like to murder defenseless puffs than if I
were prone.
Tending. I never tend my wounds. I always cast the spell or eat
the herb before blood loss becomes a problem. I'm so old I can
take all the injuries from an imploded person and heal myself
fast enough that I only spill a small bucket of blood on the
ground. First aid is for skinning.
Sleep. I never sleep. Sleep is for the dead. I'll sleep when I
die the real death. For now I'm too busy living.
Stacking wounds. Stacking is when you take one wound on top of
another. When you stack two minors you get a medium. You can take
a medium over a minor for free (I think). If you take a minor
under a medium it will bleed faster IF the medium was originally
bleeding. And there's the trick. Some medium wounds don't bleed -
namely, hands, back, and eyes. You can take minor hand and back
wounds all day, all night, all week, and they will never turn
into bleeders and you will learn from them and you will never
have to heal them down. Pretty neat huh? You can do the same with
eyes. Though with two medium eye wounds you won't be able to cast
anything but empath spells. I often have one swollen eye because
I never know when I might need to go fogging off to save some
poor sop who died on some idiotic quest. When I get two swollen
eyes I heal both down to minors and get cleaned up.
More stacking of wounds. When you take a medium on top of another
medium it becomes a major and you can no longer take any more
minors under it. It's time to heal it now. If it was a limb
you're now going to have to deal with a severed limb. Or you can
put it off till later when you are forced to deal with it. I've
been known to sit in TSC missing all six limbs and both eyes for
years. Not a practice recommended for any but the most aggressive
pure healer. In case you are curious I have done a reasonable job
of estimating the frequency of the different types of wounds and
have concluded that stacking mediums is a winning strategy in
terms of spending mana - assuming of course you don't need limbs
or eyes.
A voice recites:
I wish you all happiness in your profession whatever it may be.
And have a great time during your stay in Elanthia. All the best.
-Lord Banauge of TSC
by Lord Banauge
802 - ambrominas leaf - minor cuts and bruises on the hands,
arms, legs
803 - wolifrew lichen - muscle twitching
804 - rose-marrow potion - minor bruises about the head and neck
805 - basal moss - minor cuts and bruises on the chest, abdomen,
back; bruised eyes
806 - (none sold at the herbalist though there are many) - 50-70
units of blood
807 - ephlox moss - bleeding or severed limbs
808 - bolmara potion - sporadic and uncontrollable convultions
809 - aloeos stem - bleeding head and neck
810 - pothinir grass - lacerations and deep gashes on the chest,
abdomen, back; swollen and some blinded eyes
811 - cactacae spine - old battle scars
812 - torban leaf - slurred speech
813 - haphip root - minor head and neck scars
814 - talneo potion - minor organ scars; black and blue eyes
815 - calamia fruit - mangled limb scars
816 - woth flower - muscle spams and control
817 - brostheras potion - medium and major head and neck scars
818 - wingstem potion - medium and major chest, abdomen, back;
severe swelling about the eyes
819 - bur-clover potion - missing eyes (and some blinded eyes)
820 - sovyn clove - missing limbs
Ban, Ban, limbless man
It's a wonder he can stand.
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