Empath shapeshifters

An idea that popped into my head last...night/this morning? ...Can't remember. Thought it was last night.
DOESN'T MATTER ANYWAY
In whatever world they existed in, these would be the only kind of shapeshifters. Empaths that are capable of shapeshifting not based on emotion(though that's another interesting concept)but will change race/species/etc when close enough to a member of another race/species/etc. Or, if they are in a room of those of several different races, their shapechanging trait may be dominated by the most powerful race in the room(weaker empaths) or they may simply be in a constant state of flux as other race members move nearer and far away(stronger empaths.)
Many empath shifters find employment as ambassadors, spies, assassins, or special defense soldiers--soldiers sent into battle against enemies that possess monsters or very powerful races on their side. For instance, a special defense soldier may be sent into combat against a horde of goblins that have an elder troll fighting for them. The soldier, having been trained to better control what their empathy targets, would be able to match the elder troll's physical form and strength. They would be able to match the troll while the foot soldiers worried about the goblins.
The Library LOVES empath shifters. Once they've been trained, they don't need any special magic or anything to blend into a population or world for a mission. One major drawback is they are incapable of using magic, in any manner--and it can't be used on them, either. They can use magical items that possess their own triggers to set them off, such as a magic sword that activates when hostility is near, but an empath shifter can not use a magic potion that's activated by magic words or anything. They can still say the words and go through rituals and do all the motions, but the magic simply will not respond. Alchemy also doesn't mix well with them either--you can't make a chimera out of an empath shifter, their bodies simply dissolve. Chimeras also hate them. No one's really sure why, some suspect empath shifters may give off a certain scent or a chemical pheromone that drives chimeras into a craze, similar to what the colour red does to a bull.

The most powerful influence on an empath shifter is touch. If another race/species touches them, it doesn't matter what's the strongest will in the room or how many more there are of one race than another. If a stronger will tries to force influence on the empath when another race is touching them, the result is extreme agony and the empath shifter's flesh will convulse in agitation.
Not the empath.
The empath's flesh.
The best result is the empath may pass out and wake up feeling like they've been gone over with a sledgehammer and a steamroller, accompanied by a severe migraine and a few days of dizziness, vomiting, very bad vertigo, broken bones, a few charlie horses, and, in some cases, organs may be twisted and flipped.
The worst result will kill the empath. The flesh will rip itself from their bones, their organs will convulse and implode, lungs will collapse, the heart will leap into an irregular rhythm several hundred times faster until it either explodes from the chest or falls apart--in short the body tears itself apart. Touch is an excessively powerful influence, and someone else powerful enough to try and influence the empath at the same time is simply too much for the body.

An empath's body may settle down into one form when they spend enough time surrounded by one race or with a specific loved one. Empaths do not form particular attachments to their original body, the form they are born in. They naturally lack any emotional regard for their body, disregarding any concerns for beauty and ugliness when it comes to their own person. An empath is concerned with their body as far as it is healthy and able to flow easily through different forms. Their emotional disregard for it is considered a beneficial result of emotional and mental evolution--for, say, a natural human being, suddenly having no control over the appearance of your body when it can transform several times a day can be a mentally shattering and deeply traumatizing experience. However, for a born empath shifter, even if their nature was hid from them and they were isolated from all other species for most of their life and lived consistently in only one form, if their nature were revealed to them and they did suddenly start going through transformations, it would not be shocking or traumatizing. They would naturally accept it and get on with living how they were always meant to live.

Empaths tend to be pretty laidback sorts of people. As their bodies naturally flow through different shapes that they have no control over, it is very easy for them to adapt and adjust to even drastic changes in their life. Certain monks revere them as they are considered to be "above the illusion of control" in life.
However, they do form attachments of emotional nature to the people around them. Emotional attachments may be stronger among them than even among human beings, as for empaths emotional attachments and the solidity of self-identity are the very few foundations they rely on. Even as they adjust to change easily in the environment and conditions around them, empaths place a magnitude of importance in actual PEOPLE staying the same. Teenage humans of our modern day would drive them nuts--uncertainty, instable self-identity, impulsive, contradictory, all sorts of mental and emotional chaos. Empaths do not really go through any major emotional or mental transitions like human beings do in their teenage years or any stage of life. From the beginning of their lives empaths carefully study themselves, and are hesitant to enter hypothetical situations involving them unless they're absolutely, unhesitatingly certain of their actions. If they aren't, they'll refuse to even guess as to what they would do in a situation they've never encountered.
However, this same self-analytical semi-paranoia is also turned on others. Even as they disregard control over life, they like being able to predict what a person will do next. Physical things are fleeting. Emotional and mental security are what will help an empath survive.
WELP I've babbled on quite enough.
BACK TO WORK.
Actually TO LUNCH and then BACK TO WORK.