I like the *idea* of the Empathy feat, but not in its current form. As it stands, you gain some nice stuff (can get morale bonuses, no Sense Motive penalty) and lose some nice stuff (no longer emotion-proof, no longer have mind-effecting resistance).
But that kind of trade-off is not in line with a feat. That's an alternate racial trait. And giving it a 13 Charisma bar to entry is just punishing and unnecessary, especially in groups that prefer point buy.
I'm going to run a game soon. If one player wants to play an android, would letting him take Empathy as an alternate racial trait instead of a feat really be that broken and damaging?
|
I think making it a Feat allows for an Android to "pull a Data" and learn emotions/empathy over time, as opposed to Traits that can only be taken at chargen, but I could be wrong about Traits only being allowed at chargen. If I were GMing, I'd keep the Charisma requirement, but allow it as a Trait, reflecting the character growth prior to play. But if a player wanted to take it as a Feat during play, I'd remove or reduce the Charisma requirement.
Pathfinder has rules, however, for altering racial traits during play, as though retraining feats, class abilities, etc. I agree, it'd work very well under those circumstances, but... otherwise, again, he's still spending a feat for something that, in my opinion, hurts him as much as it helps him, mechanically.
I have allowed this.
I think it allows for some interesting characters and it is not powerful while making the character elegible for things like morale bonus it also makes them subject to Fear effects and a few other things
I think it should have been a alternate racial trait to begin with.
I think it should have been both a feat and a racial option, to give more build options.. But the real problem in my mind is that the feat is woefully underpowered. It costs a precious feat to give you a weak trade, so you basically pay the price twice. Or in other words, you give up a feat and a racial trait and a half to gain an ability that's not really "worth" either.
The feat could have also given a +2 on will saves and it still wouldn't be overpowered. Instead it takes your +4 to mind effecting saves away. It's just a really, really bad feat.
I agree Melkiador, one of the reasons I allowed it as a racial alternative as that I felt I was punishing the player for coming up with an interesting concept which required this feat and it is such a waste of a feat slot