[Converting from 2nd edition] Empathy

[BOZ]

FYI, here's what i came up with... sort of a mix of Telepathy and the Empathic Link for familiars.

Empathy (Su): A t’uen-rin can communicate empathically with any creature within 100 feet, even if it does not have a language. It is possible to address multiple creatures at once empathically, although maintaining an empathic exchange with more than one creature at a time is just as difficult as simultaneously speaking and listening to multiple people at the same time.

A t’uen-rin cannot see through the other creature’s eyes, but can communicate general emotional content (such as fear, hunger, happiness, curiosity). Note that the low Intelligence of a creature may limit what the creature is able to communicate or understand, and even intelligent creatures may see the world differently from a t’uen-rin, so misunderstandings are always possible.

Because of this empathic link, the t’uen-rin has the same connection to an item or place that the creature does. For instance, if the creature has seen a room and shares this with the t’uen-rin, the t’uen-rin could teleport into that room, as if the t’uen-rin had seen it too.

 

[Klaus]

Sounds very nice to me, BOZ!

Hmm... would Empathy allow a creature to make Diplomacy checks even with creatures that have no language (akin to wild empathy)?

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Because of this empathic link, the t’uen-rin has the same connection to an item or place that the creature does. For instance, if the creature has seen a room and shares this with the t’uen-rin, the t’uen-rin could teleport into that room, as if the t’uen-rin had seen it too.

I'd kill this part.

It seems like the t'uen-rin is using Empathy mostly as a means of communication with those creatures who do not actually speak a real language. Moreover, Empathic communication is severely limited to general emotions, rather than specific thoughts or images. If you wouldn't let someone teleport into a room they haven't seen personally but have only had described to them, I certainly wouldn't let a "lesser" (or, at least, less precise) form of communication confer "greater" benefits.

In other words, I believe the Empathic Link ability of the Wizard-Familiar pairing to be much, much more powerful and fundamental than Empathy, and giving an ability tied to the nature of this link (in that the master and the familiar are sort of a single soul in two bodies, one an extension of the other) to an ability aimed more at "talking to the animals" is incorrect.

Otherwise, I like it!

 

[BOZ]

Sounds very nice to me, BOZ!

Hmm... would Empathy allow a creature to make Diplomacy checks even with creatures that have no language (akin to wild empathy)?

i don't know... but i'd imagine so!