Are as follows! Subject to tweaking based on testing and player feedback, as always.

Spell Name	Changes
Gift of Life	No longer signature. Non-Empaths only get a stamina boost.
Aggressive Stance	Slots changing from 2 to 3
Aesandry Darlaeth	Slots changing from 2 to 3. Changed to signature.
Lethargy	Slots changing from 2 to 3
Compel	Slots changing from 2 to 1. No longer signature.
Regenerate	Slots changing from 1 to 2
Innocence	No longer signature.
Circle of Sympathy	Slots changing from 2 to 1.
Iron Constitution	Slots changing from 1 to 2.
Tranquility	Slots changing from 2 to 3.
Paralysis	Removed undead enrage effect.
Nissa's Binding	Made signature.

In short, Empaths had too many signature spells, and some spells that really needed to be signature due to being esoteric or just being a really signature Empath thing (NB). So some stuff was juggled around. Things that have stopped being signature also no longer (hopefully obviously?) have a shock check, if they had one before. I feel a little sad about unsignaturing some of these, but we really are past the days of Empath spells being largely uncastable by others, and since we have so many healing spells that simply have to be signature, we really have to be picky about what else can be included in the signature pool.

As far as slot costs goes, we (dev team) tried to assign a "cost" to most of the generic things a spell does, and recalculate how much it should cost based on that. Most spells ended up costing a little more, some a little less.

There was also a lot of under the hood standardizing that went on, so min and max preps may have moved around a little, but probably not too much.

None of this is live yet, it'll all be chucked into the test instance for testing with the rest of the 3.1 stuff.

Melete

---

We must expect posterity
to view with some asperity
the marvels and the wonders
we're passing on to it;

But it should change its attitude
to one of heartfelt gratitude
when thinking of the blunders
we didn't quite commit.

We have some basic guidelines as far as how many signature spells a guild should have. I'm not sure we're publishing them, since we don't really want people scouring other guild's spellbooks for inconsistencies. It's really up to the dev leadership to decide whether or not to share that stuff. I am the custodian of the Empath spells and was therefore the one to bring them in line with the newest design standards.

But essentially it's based on spell tier. You'd naturally expect most guilds' signature spells to be more on the esoteric end of the spectrum. Empaths have an unusually high number of basic/intro/advanced spells that are signature (healing spells, mostly.) Since we have so many basic/advanced spells that are signature, it's much harder to justify having something like compel or innocence being signature.

This isn't something that's being forced on us from above, I should emphasize. I agree with the general dev team's design goals, it's just a tough choice to make as to what to take out of the signature pool.

Basically if there's anything we can share without doing any grievous insults to game balance or guild lore, we really should. I know it's a stretch for innocence and compel, but I think we can get there if the lore changes to NB and HL, for instance, weren't too much to overcome.

Melete

---

We must expect posterity
to view with some asperity
the marvels and the wonders
we're passing on to it;

But it should change its attitude
to one of heartfelt gratitude
when thinking of the blunders
we didn't quite commit.

Speaking as someone who's been driving towards standardizing the signature stuff, our guidelines are rather fluid. Earlier this year we wrote out some guidelines and for the most part we conformed to it. After having it in place for a while we realized it has some flaws so I'd expect to see what is and is not signature in flux for a little bit longer as we nail it down.

Generally speaking there are two guidelines that we're going to follow no matter what

1) Spells that mechanically will not work if cast by another guild. (Anything that manipulates a moonbeam for example.)

2) Spells that are powered by the guild's confound, even if there isn't a direct mechanical limitation. (Shadowling is an example here.)

There last guideline is where we have some fluidity, which is spells that we don't want shared for power level concerns. These tend to be some of the really potent buffs or spells that would too easily fill in designed weak points for other guilds (Things like invisibility and AoE TM spells tend to fall into this category).

-Raesh

"Ever notice that B.A.'s flavor text swells in direct proportion to how much one of our characters is getting screwed?" - Brian Van Hoose

Looks like there's not much changing then, beyond slot costs and administrative type stuff. With Compel becoming non-signature, that obviously means that it no longer involves Empathy in any way. In addition to no loner being affected by Shock, this means it should work on Constructs now, right?

Are any of our beneficial spells changing in the "valid targets" department? Anything becoming possible to cast on others and/or groups (I'm thinking Vigor on others and Heart Link on groups)?

Also, I like seeing "removed undead enrage effect" on Paralysis :)

Thanks,
-Life Sustainer Karthor

I looked over the post, thanks!

I imagine the decisions are already made on this, but as far as spells that I associate with the Empath Guild, I would say I'm surprised that AD will be signature but not Innocence. I can appreciate in the whole game-balance thing that maybe ALL cyclic spells are being made signature. But I would consider Innocence to be a spell associated with just our guild more than AD. I mean, it's kind of like magical manipulate.

Nothing else caught my eye, all the changes look reasonable. I agree removing the whole 'enrage the undead' thing is a great change too!

~Kythryn
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." - Mark Twain

>>DR-Melete: So if folks are okay with it possibly being tweaked with a general barriers update... we'll see.

I'm generally in favor of releasing new content earlier, even if it ends up being tweaked.

---

You feel your Heart Link with a mug of zombie's revenge fade away.

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>>Delver: With GOL, Compel and Innocence moving out of being signature will the negative affect of shock level on casting those spells be removed?

Yes.

>>DR-Melete: Things that have stopped being signature also no longer (hopefully obviously?) have a shock check, if they had one before.

---

You feel your Heart Link with a mug of zombie's revenge fade away.

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