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For a while I've been thinking that people who hide are somehow hiding their identity from empaths' perceptions. Tried to figure out how that would work, is it like a thief's Khri that everyone knows, in the same way that everyone is born with the Empathic gift and loses it through micro-aggressions as they age? Because the list of people lists their names, except hidden or invisible ones. I've been playing my character as able to identify people with this ability, feeling the shape of their life and body, and I have been wishing to also have a list of races with the names, since ASSESS RACE is so limited in crowds.
And then it hit me.
The ability lists names because those are the people you can SEE. I've been in the mindset of a blind person for so long that I was reaching for other, supernatural possibilities instead of the most obvious one: that every life essence is, in essence, just a glowy blob of life, indistinguishable from any other. Except for animals, alfar, and other such things, which must be of a different glowy-glob-strength, shape, or something else entirely. So the ability only lists the names of people you can, with your eyes, match their face to their life essence.
Kind of disappointing.
I hope I'm wrong, and that my first belief is true somehow. Does anyone know more about the technicalities of it all?
I can't speak to the roleplay behind it, but I believe the reasons are probably mechanical rather than lore-based.
Perceive health allows you to sense hidden targets up to 8-10 rooms away and bypasses all person v. person skillchecks. Vague notions that someone is present are free game (Paladins' spider sense, perceive health, Clerics' ability to perceive auras through a couple of their abilities) but the standard for active identification is much higher, and almost always defaults to perception vs. stealth (i.e. Eye of Kertigen and Revelation's point effects still require a perception check).
I'm personally of a mind that roleplay, even personal roleplay, should follow game mechanics for consistency of lore. This sometimes means that our characters' abilities are not as profound as we originally perceived them (no pun intended). A good example of this is that I previously wanted to roleplay a Thief who intuitively "discovered" their khri, but then that didn't jive with the mechanical reality that I had to go back and ask the guild leaders about new abilities, just didn't make sense in game lore.
Perceive health allows you to sense hidden targets up to 8-10 rooms away and bypasses all person v. person skillchecks. Vague notions that someone is present are free game (Paladins' spider sense, perceive health, Clerics' ability to perceive auras through a couple of their abilities) but the standard for active identification is much higher, and almost always defaults to perception vs. stealth (i.e. Eye of Kertigen and Revelation's point effects still require a perception check).
I'm personally of a mind that roleplay, even personal roleplay, should follow game mechanics for consistency of lore. This sometimes means that our characters' abilities are not as profound as we originally perceived them (no pun intended). A good example of this is that I previously wanted to roleplay a Thief who intuitively "discovered" their khri, but then that didn't jive with the mechanical reality that I had to go back and ask the guild leaders about new abilities, just didn't make sense in game lore.
