I would like to humbly request that the empath sphere of influence stat choices be looked at. Currently we get discipline stamina and wisdom. Thematically and mechanically discipline and stamina make sense for an empath to specialize in. It takes a steel nerve to suffer that kind of pain unflinchingly. It also takes a great deal of stamina to do so while staying on your feet, since the act of transference is quite exhausting. Wisdom, however, is an odd duck. I don't see why empaths would be inherently more or less wise than anyone else. Mechanically it is used in very few of our mechanics, with the one exception I can think of off the top of my head being perhaps Nissa's Binding, and a generic boost to spell casting. It seems clear that wisdom was chosen because the developers wanted uniqueness, and ours was an iteration of discipline stamina that hadn't been used yet.

That all being said, there is one other glaring choice for an empathic stat that makes sense both thematically and mechanically, and that is our old friend Charisma. Firstly, empaths, being a social guild by necessity, through interaction with patients, would be naturally charismatic.

Secondly, empath players of old from before the scholarship merger will remember our crazy teaching requirements per circle. This was justified by explaining that empaths were intended to be Elanthia's teachers and scholars. It only makes sense for Elanthia's teachers to specialize in the teaching and scholarly boosting stat. (Increases the amount of scholarship you learn from classes, among other benefits)

Thirdly, the mechanical impacts of charisma far outweigh wisdom. Charisma boosts the availability of shifts at any given skill level. Charisma is the primary factor in charm contests, which makes up half the empaths' offensive toolkit. Charisma used to (unsure if it still does?) boost avenger significantly. All in all just a very empath-y stat.

In summary, I realize that stamina discipline charisma is already "taken" by paladins, but why is this sphere of influence uniqueness so important? Must we be given a (mostly) useless primary stat just to relieve some OCD compulsion of an original designer? :P

PS: I'd love to see us have something replaced with a charisma buff!

The two Charm vs spells Empaths have are combat avoidance spells. Charisma is strikingly less useful to a combat Empath than Wisdom, since the actually useful combat debils use Magic and Mind.

Charisma also, to my knowledge, does not affect a GS beyond... being a mental involved maybe in casting the spell?

I also do not think healing implies anything about being charismatic. I think it implies everything about having a steely will and a the fortitude of a mountain giant.

Buuuuuuuut if Charisma is the stat used for shifting (I honestly don't know about this, my Empath doesn't shift) then maybe pick up Auspice?

<<Personally I prefer wisdom over charisma, and would be unhappy if it changed. An argument can really be made for both stats, but we don't have native spell buffs to either at the moment anyway.>>

This is pretty much my take on it as well. Wisdom is more useful in the realm of spell contests, and there's a Ranger spell that boosts it so it's more accessible than Charisma would be. I'd say leave it.

Thanks,
-Life Sustainer Karthor