Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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I have a ranger in my campaign. The one ability the ranger thought was never worth using was Wild Empathy, mainly because it took so long to use. If it were a standard action or even a full-round action he said he might use it. Maybe the root of the problem is this: With Diplomacy, it presumes that you are taking time to converse with a person, and you make the Dip check as part of your conversation. The problem with Wild Empathy is... how do you hold the animal's attention for a solid minute?
Maybe a clarification you could make in how you describe the wild empathy power would be either:
1. Say what happens to the animal while you're trying to make the check. Describe whether the effect forces the animal to pay attention to you for the minute required to make the Wild Empathy/Dip check. Ideally, the dire hippo won't be chewing your head off while you are trying to calm him down.
Is the animal you start using wild empathy on essentially fascinated by the ranger, like bardic music fascinates a creature? If so, can the animal resist? Would it be a Will save vs. the ranger's wild empathy check?
I realize there's some overlap here with the calm animals spell, but by the same token there is overlap of bardic fascinate with hypnotism.
2. Make it a quicker action, a standard action like bardic music.
3. Add a feat that improves wild empathy (could be a reduction in time needed, or expand the effects to things like vermin or fey).
