In light of the recent focus on group benefits and general cooperative gameplay, I wonder if some revamping of the LINK ability would be in order. This might possibly be a potential place to incorporate some of the "primary buffs" stuff that Armifer was talking about during the State of Elanthia. I have a couple of ideas that might be worth considering in this context.

1. Simplify the crap out of the user interface. Right now the person with whom you're trying to Link gets no indication that they even need to do something to accept it, let alone what that something is. I'd be in favor of removing the recipient's need to take any action at all, and let the Empath just form the Links as desired. Barring that, at least give the recipient the syntax information at the time the offer is extended, and maybe update the messaging to give them a better idea of what it is you're trying to do.

2. Since Links require another person, it may be appropriate to up the maximum potency to 30% (15% for crafting skills, I'm guessing?) per the "buffing others" stuff that's in the works. Grejuva is pretty sharp and seems to have a good awareness of Empath Stuff, so I wouldn't be surprised if this was already in there (something about rainbows).

3. Let high Empathy skill compensate for there being smaller differences in the target skill, so that you don't necessarily need someone with 3028 more ranks than you in order to get a large boost. Needing someone else is okay, but needing someone specific is impractical. Maybe cut down on the randomness some, too.

4. Let Links be maintained in combat, since that's almost certainly going to be a major (if not the main) focus of group play considerations. Maybe this has some extra cost involved if necessary(concentration?).

5. Have Links benefit every character involved, instead of just the Empath who formed them. Instead of just gaining insight into the recipients' knowledge and experience, you're creating a sort of "group mind" on the subject where everyone's knowledge kind of overlaps and blends together. Boundaries between beings are getting blurred, and Empathy is Empathy-ing. If not the base ability, maybe this can be a separate variant of it.

Thanks,
-Life Weaver Karthor

Link and empathy in general should be expanded. I think these are good ideas. In addition to % skill buffs, what if you could also share the benefits of certain feats via link?

In a group crafting scenario, for example, having an empath in the mix would allow everyone working on the object to be linked together and benefit from any feat the group possesses that is relevant to the object being crafted.