Empathy

Description

This ability allows the individual to sense the emotional state of others around them from surface emotions, to deeper, more repressed emotions and reactions at higher levels. They can choose to focus on a single individual or to attempt to read a number of targets at once. They can amplify and dampen existing emotions, and at higher levels, they can share their own emotions and incite fear or induce calm in others.

Success Levels:

Success: Emotions can be affected within a 6 foot radius and sensed within a 12 foot radius.
Good Success: Emotions can be affected within a 12 foot radius and sensed within a 24 foot radius.
Great Success: Emotions can be affected within a 24 foot radius and sensed within a 48 foot radius.
Amazing Success: Emotions can be affected within a 48 foot radius and sensed within line of sight.

Limits

Using this ability to detect emotions does not require consent; however, using the part of this ability that projects or manipulates emotions in others does require consent from PCs and/or from the player that owns any NPCs affected. Only emotions are shared, not thoughts and images, and not messages. Thoughts, images, and messages would fall under telepathy.

Levels
1	The individual can sense the surface emotions of others as well as allow others to feel surface emotions that they are feeling. They can also control their own emotions, dampening them or heightening them at will. It is difficult for them to separate individual emotions in crowds, however, which can be overwhelming.
2	The individual can dampen or heighten emotions that others are feeling, but cannot induce emotions that they are not feeling. They can also focus their scrutiny on another individual to uncover deeper buried emotions. And they can sense the type and nature of emotional connection between two targeted individuals. They can begin to differentiate individual emotions in crowds, making it a little less overwhelming.
3	The individual can incite fear or induce calm in targets who are not feeling either of those emotions. Through long-term work, the individual can alleviate phobias, help others work through traumas, and aid in emotional/psychological recovery. The opposite effect is also possible. They can pinpoint the emotions of specific individuals in crowds, allowing them to find the source of a particular emotion even in a crowded space.

Combat System

Level 3 in Empathy grants access to a "Disorient" weapon that is used to distract a target.

You may equip the "combat/weapon disorient" weapon.
You will then use "combat/distract target" to use it. This weapon is not used for attacks, only distracting.

This represents the caster's ability to either incite fear in the target, or calm the enough to confuse them.