I do miss the old other options just for appearances. They never got used but I always hoped that they were put back in at least as other GS models we can choose.

> Ugh and double posting but last I heard the only guilds planned to have "robust pet systems" are Warrior Mage, Necro, and Rangers. But that was a while ago so it could have changed.

That's a shame. I understand why those classes would have robust pets, but I do wish the empath combat systems would be fleshed out a bit more. This feels like the right niche for them. An empath could be to combat pets as a bard is to cyclics, especially since it's close to copy/paste (ideally, I don't know) of the existing GS code. Most guilds use them in some form or another, but empaths have the most variety and options to choose from.

While we're on the topic, the recent quest saw empaths taking wounds from NPCs. Any chance that code could be ported to our GS?

That's an interesting idea. I'm kind of on the fence about it, since it's a little more direct than I think an empath should be. I also personally like the flavor of letting this guild that beseeches aid from other creatures and then keeps them alive in exchange. On the other hand, warrior Mages may even have the rights to the most variability with summoned creatures since their guild skill is actually summoning, and they had the first controllable pets. It may also solve the redundancy problem that you'd see with but I do agree that it feels a little redundant with rangers (befriending living animals), warrior mages (elemental/magical creature summoners), necromancers (construct makers), Moon Mages (energy summoners with SLS), and potentially upcoming cleric sorcery (??).

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So let's see if we can flesh out the pipe dream to test how well it applies.

Practicals:
- Cyclic spell (utility + debil or tm), maybe requiring a ritual start, but you can keep it going indefinitely.
- Adds a look to the empath, like OM, "<color orb> moves around the empath in an <spirit type, see below> manner"
- Standard cast options apply. Cast area = attack anything.
- Prefers what you're attacking, but there's always a chance it'll go off-script based on your charisma.
- Internal "energy meter" based on the power of the ritual (based on Stamina, empathy, PM, and mana fed into the spell). It'll fire randomly (frequency based on empathy). Every cyclic pulse refreshes a portion of this energy (PM + life mana in the room). In this way, the orb is likely to be front loaded for newbie empaths. The longer the spell is active, the less frequently it'll have the energy to fire at a given pulse. You need to keep refreshing it.
- Casting takes a good portion of your health, spirit, and fatigue. Rubbing takes a small portion of your health.
- You could pick up some or all of the meta spells.
- Critical failures (random roll, very low) will hit a random target (including you. High probability, actually).

Metaspells: Each taking one slot, and scroll only.
- Several additional meta spells adding the additional features.
> A soft brown orb - natural - initial cast - Single shot of strong, condensed life energy (impact).
> A watery blue orb - soothing - rub orb (calming it) - You calm the spirit. It'll occasionally "soothe" it's targets, reducing their defensive/offensive capabilities (random mix, single target)
> A fiery red orb - aggressive - glare (enraging it) - Changes the damage type to fire. Strong bolt.
> Glowing white orbs - elliptical - break (splitting it) - You break the orb, turning it into a multi-shot (impact) TM. They're too weak individually to be imbued.
> Darting yellow orbs - erratic - exhale (exciting it) - AOE electric TM
> A black orb - malevolent - shun (shun the life force) - reactive move. Anything that attacks the empath passes through it, becoming diseased.
> A small green orb - serpentine - lick it (don't ask) - Shoots a poison bolt (mind poison - reduces ability to aim ranged weapons, spells) at enemies - not real poison, really just stuns them.
> Pristine white orb - halo-like - Pour holy water onto it - Single attack that now strikes directly at the being (50% vitality, 50% spirit damage, DFA)

Other meta spells:
> Martyr - When you die, the orb sacrifices it's remaining energy into one large attack against the thing that just killed you.
> Sacrifice - Use the plead orb verb to ask the orb to destroy itself to provide a boost to you. (If a blow were to kill you, the orb moves in the way to take the impact instead - may be too complex, so it could also just restore health/mana/spirit when you're at < x% by destroying itself)
> Preserve - Reduce the amount of health required to adjust the orb (mainly for those who do this frequently in combat)
> Leech - The orbs attacks have a chance to restore a portion of the energy used
> Evolve/devolve - Use the push/pull verb to force the life force to evolve/devolve. This increases/decreases damage and energy consumption per attack.
> Infuse - Infuse your orb with an increased intelligence helping it aim and greatly reducing the chance of collateral damage or being struck.

Lore:
- Through a manipulation of the life matrix, the empath splits off a piece of their own life force. They mix this with the ambient life energy within the room to "grow" a primitive being.
- The orb is a separate, prototypical living being. It lacks complex intelligence, but it will act on it's own accord. It's not targetable, killable, or otherwise interacable by those outside.

Gains:
+ More combat options
+ Ability to use our spells without hurting our spirit (AOE sleep)
+ Differentiation from other core summoning classes
+ Big synergy with our spell books. Raise Power, vitality healing, nissa's binding, Gift of Life,

Losses:
- multi-opponent penalty from an actual creature.
- Taunt ability on the GS
- Learning potential from a cyclic utility
- Awesome flavor spell that is GS.
- A lot of spell slots

Later tie-ins:
- Alterable.
- Quest based items to change the look or attack messaging.
- Adjusting rate of fire based on color type. Calmer life forms fire less often, but also use less energy. More reliable.
- New link ability that lets you sense the orb's current energy levels.
- New link ability that let's you link with the orb to feed it from your own health when it runs low.
- New manipulate ability to force the orb to focus on a specific target. Maybe even detaching from you and staying with that target until the orb runs out of energy.
- New benevolent metaspells that increase the vitality (max), vitality (regen), fatigue (max), fatigue (regen), or casts other beneficial spells you may know (ie: ease burden) - for fun, you could have a spellcaster orb that cast any of the AP spells on any target.
- New manipulate ability that forces the orb to explode, providing a huge impact (benevolent or aggressive) to everyone in the cast radius.

Easter Egg:
- It hates familiars in the same way ranger companions hate them. It'll never hit them, but it'll shoot passive
- They do increased damage to necromancer golems and other constructs.

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I don't imagine this as Empath Sorcery, as it's close to absolution, but maybe? It could temporarily reduce the life mana of the room you'r in because you're syphoning it into the orb.

I'm pretty sure the idea is that the fae (beings that are summoned by GS) choose to help the empath because of their deep empathy so I don't see why people are saying it doesn't fit. The fae are choosing to protect the inherent empathy and try to prevent the empath from needing to harm something.

> The spirit being a separate sentient entity is what allows the Empath to avoid shock. An energy ball wouldn't have that extra degree of separation unless it had some sort of sentience, at which point it's just a re-skin/re-work of the GS anyway.

That's fair, but I think the difference is in summoning life and creating it. Empaths control life energy in a way no other guild can, and they have the past the suggest a more aggressive side. I personally like them as summoning friendly spirits, but I also see a case for empaths going a little off-books without delving into necromancy. Either way, they need more effective and flexible combat options due to modern DR being so combat focused (treasure system, tdps, quests, etc..). It doesn't have to be anywhere near the tool-kit of a warrior mage, but at least make it a little less painful to find something worth killing. Maybe it'll never happen, and that's fine, but I think it should.

>While I won't delve into the motives of the fae creatures, the idea that there's a critical separation between the Empath and the GS is pretty spot on. A bolt of energy isn't enough distance, otherwise normal TM wouldn't cause shock. We're probably not getting away from the basic premise that outside of some employing specific tools to specific ends, injury requires shock.

The issue is also one of mechanics. The standard for 'how people do combat in DR' is being engaged to four critters. Since putting some distance between the Empath and the thing the Empath is 'using' to attack is necessary, it seems like lore wise there are plenty of ways to come up with a fit that mechanically don't involve Empaths effectively being a pet class. Since Empaths have frankly, so little to do in combat relative to other guilds, I adore DERIUMs ideas and interactions, though they could also be implemented with a GS.

My suggestion has less to do with the lore of summoning a GS, and more to do with my personal feelings of what I want Empaths (or my Empath) to be doing in combat, and particularly how I want to be doing more in combat than just firing off lethargy, weaving or grappling/circling, and then having nothing to do for another few minutes so training other magics, or NBing and retreating to collect rocks or read a compendium. This could also be remedied with more tactics.

And before someone suggests it - Absolution is great, but I've no interest in training weapons on my Empath, and feel that should be a viable choice. Unfortunately, it isn't, really, but that's a separate issue relating to the TDP training paradigm.

>Absolution works with TM too. Pick up some ranger TM spells or even a fireball if you want to go the sorcerous route.

Suresure, a similar routine to what my other magic users do would be fine, except TM locks pretty quick and then I'm once again stuck with 'not much to do in combat'. But again, that's also harping on the TDP training paradigm issue. I'm not sure what a good solution is, and I do think things could be improved with more GS interaction or more tactics maneuvers.

I'm excited to see what the new Empath spell is!