New take on an old suggestion.


Ability: Manipulate Mind
Action: Moves a script from a monster to your guardian spirit. If they have a special attack
Limitations: Releasing or losing your spirit will cause them to forget the trained ability.
Requirements: Must know shift and currently know the GS spell.

Use:
1- Summon a GS.
2- Manipulate the Guardian Spirit. Successfully manipulate the target creature within a certain amount of time (difficulty similar to friendship).
3- The GS now casts this spell or ability randomly or when commanded (internal RT for balance).
4- Ability lasts as long as you have the GS summoned. Losing the spell or creature will reset it when the "new" spirit is summoned.
5- The spirit will cast it with the same intensity as the creature you stole it from.
6- Messaging will show that your guardian undergoing a physical (and painless) transformation when successful.

Examples:
- You can manipulate the rock troll and you'll get tremor (because that's what it knows)
- You can manipulate a swamp troll and you'll get a random spell (Sure Footing, Arc Light, or Ethereal Shield). You won't know which until you see your spirit use it.
- You can manipulate a young wyrven and physically give your spirit a tail.

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Follow-up suggestion if this works.
New spell: Mirror of life.
Type: Utility spell.
Source: Scroll only. Maybe sorcery based.
Effect: Analyzes the physical matrix of a lesser evolved creatures, cloning that life essence and imprinting it into a device for future use.
Requirement: Physical component in your right hand. It's a magical book of some sort. It must be charged with life mana, and it drains VERY slowly. Enchanting builds better and larger versions. You can turn it like a comprehendium, and you can pull it to release the life essence. It will coalesce into a copy of a creature that you can then use with manipulate mind (assuming you'd be successful). These can be filled, traded, and sold.
Notes: This is not a physical entity, so it doesn't border into necromancy.
Limitations: Fizzles on undead or dead beings. Doesn't work on PCs or GMNPCs due to their complexity.
Practicality: Clones the capture jar with a slightly different script. One that permanently immobilizes the creature after release, gives it a greenish haze, and destroys it (the image evaporates) after some seconds.

Also, creature special attacks seem by in large to be a random hodgepodge of borked mechanics mismatchery. I don't think I've experienced a single creature special attack that feels in line with the critter itself - I've died to things that I was trying to backtrain on, because despite having hundreds of ranks more defenses than I needed to safely hunt them, some of their special attacks chain stunned then killed me. The number of times various characters have died in Dragon Priest Zealots to that awful chain attack... No thank you.

But also, what about critter special attacks that are from equipment or magic? How would this ability work regarding that?

Or, maybe it's just easier to have certain techniques for high level creature abilities drop on scrolls. Systemically, they're effectively the same thing as the creature spell, but they're a spell in themselves. You can then cast it on your spirit to transform your shift your spirit with a combination of empathy, shifting, and magic.

This basically turns empath combat into a half-summoner, half-blue mage and ties into the life magic (rangerish animal stuff) without doing what rangers do. Casting this teaches first aid, empathy, and a magic skill. Success is a mix of the three.

Example 1:
Scroll drop- Anatomy of the Troll.
Type - Augmentation
Slots - 3
Item - swamp stained scroll
Description- A crude spell written by the troll shamans of the north. This shows how they use their bodies to conjure variants of the magical spells of arc light, ethereal shield, and sure footing.
Drops only from swamp trolls.
Cast - You gesture, but your body resists the change.
Cast (player, creature, fail skill check) - You gesture at [target], but they resist the transformation.
Cast (GS, with skill) - You gesture at [target] and sense they are ready to accept the change. With a soft touch, you weave in the anatomy
Look warrior - The warrior has troll like features and demeanor.
Warrior now randomly casts ES, SF, and AL with power based on the GS's strength.


Example 2:
Scroll drop- Anatomy of the Adan'f.
Type - Augmentation/Utility
Slots - 2
Item - swamp stained scroll
Description- A crude spell written by the Adan'F mages of the south. This shows how they use their bodies to conjure variants of the magical spells of shadow mend and mental blast.
Drops only from swamp Adan'f Mages.
Cast (GS, with skill) - You gesture at [target] and sense they are ready to accept the change. With a soft touch, you weave in the anatomy
Look warrior - The warrior has adan'f like features and demeanor.
Warrior now randomly casts shadow mend or mental blast with power based on the GS's strength.


Example 3:
Scroll drop- Anatomy of the Armored Warklin.
Type - Debilitation
Slots - 1
Item - swamp stained scroll
Description- A detailed spell written by [intelligent creature type] scholars. This shows how the warlkin's use their bodies to create webbing, and how the right magical matrix could create that effect in another living being.
Drops only from [not sure, some creature no one hunts].
Cast (GS, with skill) - You gesture at [target] and sense they are ready to accept the change. With a soft touch, you weave in the anatomy
Look warrior - The warrior has warklin like features and demeanor.
Warrior now randomly casts shadow web with power based on the GS's strength. Messaging similar to Armored Warlkins.

Creatures without a lot of hunting would be prime for this as a reason to go hunt them. Even if they weren't the creature, they could be the named observer. You don't want to cast multiple abilities on the same warrior as you could hurt or even kill them (shock). Always release and resummon first, unless you're a godly empath and have the ability to weave multiple anatomies into the same target. Risky to try, but you could see good results.

The idea is that each perk would have it's niche. Ideally, the beneficial buffs would be cast on you or other PCs in the area (for balance, only while the GS is in combat).

- Fighting magical creatures? Go troll.
- Fighting with someone/something doing area damage (ie: fire sprites or a "cast creatures" happy mage)? Go Dryad priestess.
- Fighting with something that keeps retreating/ranged? Go Warlkin.
- Fighting something that is magically resistant? Go viper (stunning poison) or Clouded arzumos (knockdown) or Festival Bandit (stealth/ambush).
- Want something that has an AOE debuff? Go rock troll or Faenrae Chanter (depending on your skill/need).
- Want your GS to be more ranged focused? Go goblin Shaman.
- Farming a lot of creatures? Go Wyvern or drake.
- Top of the game empath that has over 1000 empath, first aid, and magic? Go Arthelun cabalist. You could even split this into two, offensive and defensive so you have a choice to make.
- Need to disarm a shield bearing foe? Go Elba Darvager.
- Want more group buffs? Grab a river sprite or similar.
- Want your spirit to fly (for ranged attacking without affecting your own engagement) then giant wasp

If you're really lucky, rare drops from invasion mobs like Elpalzi mage for strong offensive packages or Drogorian Stormrider for anti-caster abilities could be available. It would also be nice if your GS picked up immunizes, such as Geni's stun immunity, and defensive buffs could be cast on PCs in the room. For balance, it would be people only actively engaged with an NPC, and you could tell your GS to only cast defensive buffs on you (your group?) and itself.

This creates a tradable consumable, a unique way for empaths to gain rich combat capabilities, a reason to travel to things you normally wouldn't care about, and the dilemma of choice in the empath spell books. They have to focus now. A combat path or a healing path or a buffing path or a hybrid, simply because they don't have the slots to get everything. Lots of options.

No one's trying to take anything away from you. I'm merely suggesting that we could enhance our GS since it is more suited for combat than the empath itself. Compare it to warrior mages who get elemental weapons. They don't all have to use them. You can enhance them without meaning you no longer can cast the spells you normally could. The revised version to use only the magic system would mean scrolls drop, and they're learned or studied like any others; however,you or someone on your behalf would need to kill the creature that can drop this scroll. I like the idea of only empaths being able to find it, but I'm not sure how feasible that is.

As for picking only the wyvern or drake, that's just balancing to insure all creature abilities have a use without one being always the right choice, in the same way that one cyclic AOE isn't always the right choice for a warrior mage.

> forcing

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

I mean, I like the idea of making use of the wide world. Think of it like a pilgrim badge. You don't have to do it, but it's beneficial to those who do.