I have a player who is playing a mystic and has Empathy as one of her powers. I'm not too familiar with using psionics, I am learning though. How exactly do you use Empathy? Is it something that can be used on the fly or is it always active. Does it require psi points to activate? And is there any save roll that a target can make to avoid this power? The description is kinda vague and doesn't really explain its use much.
She is using the UA version of mystics, but with a bit of homebrew mixed in. What she wanted was a councelor Troi from Star Trek like character, She wants her empathic ability to be more of a physical trait of her race. Able to use it without expending any psi points or having to get permission from a target to use it. She wants to be able to "scan" anyone's feelings even if they are not aware of it. However if they have some sort of immunity against psi attacks, she won't be able to scan them. I was thinking they could roll a WIS check to see if she is able to unless they actually give her permission to do so.
Since it's now a completely homebrew thing - not even UA, and you'd already said it has homebrew mixed in anyway - it works however you as the DM want it to work.
If you post the description of the trait you're using, we can dissect it and get you the RAW answer based on how you've written it, but it's really completely up to you anyway.
You detect the surface emotions of any creature you can see that is in the power’s area. You can sense basic needs, drives, and emotions. Thirst, hunger, fear, fatigue, pain, rage, hatred, uncertainty, curiosity, friendliness, and many other kinds of sensations and moods can all be perceived.
Augment: You can augment this power in one or both of the following ways.
1. For every additional power point you spend, this power’s range and the radius of its area increases by 5 feet.
2. If you spend 2 additional power points, this power’s maximum duration increases to 1 hour/level.
I'm not sure what the 5e version is as I don't use psionic's but you could tweak the 3.5e a bit to:
"By concentrating on this power (as if concentrating on a spell), You detect the surface emotions of any creature you can see that is in the power’s area. You can sense basic needs, drives, and emotions. Thirst, hunger, fear, fatigue, pain, rage, hatred, uncertainty, curiosity, friendliness, and many other kinds of sensations and moods can all be perceived but you can only target one creature at a time.
You gain advantage on Charisma based skill checks or Wisdom (Insight) checks against any target you use this power on."
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I have a player who is playing a mystic and has Empathy as one of her powers. I'm not too familiar with using psionics, I am learning though. How exactly do you use Empathy? Is it something that can be used on the fly or is it always active. Does it require psi points to activate? And is there any save roll that a target can make to avoid this power? The description is kinda vague and doesn't really explain its use much.
Is there a link to the version of the Mystic class specs that she's using? Seeing as it was cut from UA, we can't really look it up.
She is using the UA version of mystics, but with a bit of homebrew mixed in. What she wanted was a councelor Troi from Star Trek like character, She wants her empathic ability to be more of a physical trait of her race. Able to use it without expending any psi points or having to get permission from a target to use it. She wants to be able to "scan" anyone's feelings even if they are not aware of it. However if they have some sort of immunity against psi attacks, she won't be able to scan them. I was thinking they could roll a WIS check to see if she is able to unless they actually give her permission to do so.
Since it's now a completely homebrew thing - not even UA, and you'd already said it has homebrew mixed in anyway - it works however you as the DM want it to work.
If you post the description of the trait you're using, we can dissect it and get you the RAW answer based on how you've written it, but it's really completely up to you anyway.
In 3.5e it worked as follows:
You detect the surface emotions of any creature you can see that is in the power’s area. You can sense basic needs, drives, and emotions. Thirst, hunger, fear, fatigue, pain, rage, hatred, uncertainty, curiosity, friendliness, and many other kinds of sensations and moods can all be perceived.
You gain a +2 insight bonus on any Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, or Sense Motive checks that you make in the round when you cease concentrating on this power.
Augment: You can augment this power in one or both of the following ways.
1. For every additional power point you spend, this power’s range and the radius of its area increases by 5 feet.
2. If you spend 2 additional power points, this power’s maximum duration increases to 1 hour/level.
I'm not sure what the 5e version is as I don't use psionic's but you could tweak the 3.5e a bit to:
"By concentrating on this power (as if concentrating on a spell), You detect the surface emotions of any creature you can see that is in the power’s area. You can sense basic needs, drives, and emotions. Thirst, hunger, fear, fatigue, pain, rage, hatred, uncertainty, curiosity, friendliness, and many other kinds of sensations and moods can all be perceived but you can only target one creature at a time.
You gain advantage on Charisma based skill checks or Wisdom (Insight) checks against any target you use this power on."