paizo.com Recent Posts in Remarkable Races—Pathway to Adventure: Compendium of Unusual PC Races (PFRPG) PDF Discussionpaizo.com Recent Posts in Remarkable Races—Pathway to Adventure: Compendium of Unusual PC Races (PFRPG) PDF Discussion2011-04-27T18:29:14Z2011-04-27T18:29:14ZRe: Forums: Product Discussion: Remarkable Races—Pathway to Adventure: Compendium of Unusual PC Races (PFRPG) PDFEndzeitgeisthttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8bk4/discuss&page=2?Remarkable-Races-Pathway-to-Adventure-Compendium-of-Unusual-PC-Races#552012-09-01T04:06:53Z2012-08-31T11:38:45Z<p>I think, I'd limit the reroll to once per day and regarding teh equine, I'd just replace the ability with a bonus to CMB and perhaps rewrite teh equine ability as a racial feat with 4-5 feats pre-requisites. </p>
<p>Also: Thanks for the kind words, Eric! This one has been a lot of work!</p>I think, I'd limit the reroll to once per day and regarding teh equine, I'd just replace the ability with a bonus to CMB and perhaps rewrite teh equine ability as a racial feat with 4-5 feats pre-requisites.
Also: Thanks for the kind words, Eric! This one has been a lot of work!Endzeitgeist2012-08-31T11:38:45ZRe: Forums: Product Discussion: Remarkable Races—Pathway to Adventure: Compendium of Unusual PC Races (PFRPG) PDFEric Hinklehttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8bk4/discuss&page=2?Remarkable-Races-Pathway-to-Adventure-Compendium-of-Unusual-PC-Races#542012-08-30T18:04:09Z2012-08-30T18:04:09Z<p>That's a great review, End (though the only one of these I know anything about is the Anumi; they were probably my first PDF purchase here at Paizo). I do have to agree on the bad idea about unlimited rerolls (maybe limit it to once a day?), and what would you suggest about the Equine's ability to do an attack with a bull rush? Just drop it?</p>
<p>I also noticed that some of those anumi races would make great choices for someone choosing a magus, with several giving a +2 on both Strength and Intelligence.</p>That's a great review, End (though the only one of these I know anything about is the Anumi; they were probably my first PDF purchase here at Paizo). I do have to agree on the bad idea about unlimited rerolls (maybe limit it to once a day?), and what would you suggest about the Equine's ability to do an attack with a bull rush? Just drop it?
I also noticed that some of those anumi races would make great choices for someone choosing a magus, with several giving a +2 on both Strength and...Eric Hinkle2012-08-30T18:04:09ZRe: Forums: Product Discussion: Remarkable Races—Pathway to Adventure: Compendium of Unusual PC Races (PFRPG) PDFEndzeitgeisthttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8bk4/discuss&page=2?Remarkable-Races-Pathway-to-Adventure-Compendium-of-Unusual-PC-Races#532012-08-30T16:12:18Z2012-08-30T16:12:18Z<p>Part II of my review:</p>
<p>Speaking of weird: The Taddol are a weird crossbreed of elf and ettin, encompassing two personalities in one humanoid body. They get +2 Str and Int, -2 Cha, low-light vision, count as both elves and giants for race-related effects, get two favored classes (and +1 skills and hp every time they take a level in such a class), +4 to perception, double the number of head and neck-slots, but have double the chance to die by vorpal weapons -losing one head kills a Taddol. They also get Two Weapon Fighting as a bonus feat and qualify for the improved and greater feats without taking the dex-requirement into account.</p>
<p>The Xax are born from a combination of mad worshipers of the great tapestry and the primordial forces of the Abyss - and are strictly logical. Their physiology is weird, with a vertical mouth and eyes above another, organs comprised of tentacles (!!) and similarly weird stuff. Xax get +2 to Con and Int, -2 to Cha, are small, slow (20 ft.), roll at character creation for a random elemental resistance, gain proficiency of an exotic weapon of their choice and can randomly gain access each sunrise to another race's signature racial powers, like stonecunning or halfling's luck. A combination of chaotic fluxes akin to a rod of wonders with a dint Lovecraftia would the best describe these strange beings and honestly- they are so imaginative, I kind of like them. I might even introduce them into my campaign world - though I'll have them all disguised. In my campaign, all races in this book would get lynched faster by the xenophobic human populace than you could say "Tar and Feathers".</p>
<p>The final new character race is another one you're guaranteed to never have seen before: The Zif are intelligent parasites that thrive in symbiosis with mollusk-forms and have since adopted the race of Snillorhgs, which should be understood as large snails with hands. Zifs get +2 Int and Wis, -2 Str, are medium, slow, gain an additional knowledge-skill rank at character creation, can't wear shoes (but gets a second belt-slot), and can retreat into their shells, gaining 5+character level DR/-, but blinding the Zif. They also get +4 to climb checks and attempts to resist bull rushes - and possess an inbred and surprising hatred of aberrations and traditionally evil races. Another truly unique and intriguing race, I must say!</p>
<p>So, now the basics are out of the way, let's move on to the racial prestige classes, for this book contains one for every new race.
<br />
First in the array is the Zif Abolisher, who comes at d8, 4+Int skills per level, medium fort and will-saves and full BAB as well as 9 levels of spellcasting progression. These beings can essentially be considered a dual-class of aberration-specialized hunter with arcane capabilities and the option to disable mental powers temporarily. The Relluk Archeovitus gets d8, 8+Int skills per day, medium BAB, medium ref-and will-saves and no spell-progression. The PrC gets the option to access bardic music, stonecunning, the option to perceive invisible creatures, an enhancement to make the steam solid fog and finally the abilities to cast find the path as well as legend lore. The Taddol Battletwin gets d12, 2+Int skills per level, full BAB, medium reflex saves and the abilities to replace the traditional two-weapon fighting style f the Taddol with a singular determination on large and deadly two-handed weapons, thus putting two minds to one blade, with devastating consequences: From improved reach to a better CMD to a cool capstone ability that lets her reroll her attacks 1/hour, the class is a cool, martial class that does not need any magic gizmos - quite cool, especially since the Taddol to me give off a distinct Howardesk flair - I'll probably rather use them in my extremely low-magic Hyborian campaign...</p>
<p>The Kval Deathseeker (D12, 2+Int skills, medium fort and ref-saves, full BAB) gives new meaning to the phrase "Small but Fierce" - granting abilities to jump into the fray and even grant improving DR. Better yet, though, is the level 10 capstone ability: If an event would plunge a world towards catastrophic evil, this blaze of glory ability lets the Kval Deathseeker shunt all in a 1000 ft.-radius into a demiplane cyst, trapping the vil in question for a thousand years at the cost of not being able to escape himself - a cool final resort ability for a heroic sacrifice-endgame and since using the ability is dependent on DM-approval, one I absolutely LOVE. The Boggle Demolisher gtes d8, 6+Int skills per level, medium BAB and medium ref-saves and could be seen as a roguish demolitions-expert that excels at breaking things (for example the armor of his foes..) and creating explosives. Unfortunately, the Demolisher has not aged well and with the creation of the APG and the alchemist-class, feels somewhat dated. A revision as an alchemist-PrC would be cool.</p>
<p>The greedy Numistians introduce the Entrepreneur, who gets d6, 8+Int skills, medium BAB, medium fort and ref-saves and no spell progression. Entrepreneurs gain the abilities to automatically treat appraise-checks as rolled 20s, massively improved knowledge checks, improving blindsight, darkvision, an interesting ability that seems to heal damage when hitting a foe with a bludgeoning weapon, but actually doesn't, an aura of trustworthiness and even x-ray vision. An interesting class, though one too focused on enhanced senses for my tastes. The Golden Muse (d8, 2+Int skills, medium BAB, medium will-save, full divine spell progression) is focused on bringing evil to justice, making the class essentially celestial in themes - golden light that crushes evil and inspires ally - the like. I found this particular class not too captivating or cool. The Obitu Grim Reaper (d8, 4+Int skills, full BAB, medium will-save 9 levels spell progression) is another PrC that does not excite me - yes, an undead-looking undead-hunter is cool. But the abilities are boring - I've seen bonuses against creature type y, immunity against negative levels etc. too often to consider this class well-made. I've literally seen all the abilities (apart from a slight improvement of the vivification virus) before. Wasted potential for the cool name. Entonbian Lightseekers get d10, 4+Int skills per level, full BAB, medium ref-saves and can be seen as trailblazers with some minor abilities to enhance their weapons with light-effects as well as speed and mobility-enhancements.</p>
<p>The Anumus Pharaoh (d8, 4+Int skills per level, medium BAB and will-save, full spell-progression) is actually a true surprise - not only get they to choose from different ancient secrets, they can also exchange persons via teleport in combat, punish or aid foes and allies by sheathing them in purple flames and sway the masses - the Pharaoh-PrC rocks hard and I'll use them in my campaign - not only for Anumi (though I'll rename it -scion of the duat). Two thumbs up for that one! The Oakling PrC, the Reverent of Spring (d12, 4+Int skills per level, full BAB, medium fort and will-saves) is a hunter/melee combatant that sees nature as "Kill or be killed" and can even learn to heal minor wounds each time they inflict damage in melee. The Mahrog Savage (d10, 2+Int skills per level, full BAB, medium fort-save) gains bonuses to handling a specific type of animal, summon animals of this kind, can create special hides that are the equivalent of civilized armor, special weapons that emulate civilized ones and turn into his totem animal. The Squole Slimelord (d8, 4+Int skills, medium BAB, medium fort-and ref-saves, full spellcasting progression) gains the ability to summon oozes and influence the mindless creatures as well as launch slime globes at foes and even turn into a full-blown ooze at the end. </p>
<p>The Xax warrior philosopher (d10, 2+Int skills per level, full BAB, medium fort and will-saves) starts off as a regular fighting class, but e.g. the option to roll 5d4 instead of a d20 once per round as well as the cool capstone "Perfect Strike" (treat atk as 20 or damage as maximum) make this class rather cool and the warrior philosopher a well-rounded class. The final new class is the Mogogol Zubbit, who comes with d10, 2+Int skills, full BAB, medium will-saves - and is unfortunately utterly lame - a kind of pseudo-paladin, all of the zubbit's abilities are worse than those granted by the Paladin and Cavalier base-classes. Ok for NPCs and if you consciously want to make your Mogogol weaker. Otherwise: Avoid like the plague!</p>
<p>After this massive section, we delve into the feat-chapter, which is thankfully equipped with a two page table of feats by race so you can easily find what you're looking for - special mention deserve the entobian metamorphosis-feats that give you the option to transform your larva-like entobian into different entobian forms, including new racial modifiers etc. - since, however, this review is already bloated beyond compare, I'll refrain from going into all details. Overall, the majority of the feats offer some neat benefit and make sense.</p>
<p>The second portion of the book is specially for the GM and includes short write-ups of the island-home of the taddols and the plane of commerce of the Numistians. We also get a lot of magic items: From pet-related item like an invisible lash to put on Anumi (or would-be enslavers) to boggle one-man helicopter-backpacks, magic mistletoes, heartstones obitu can put in their empty chests to an enchanted slime armor and a diving helm-like ooze that enables you to breathe underwater, this chapter unanimously deserves my fullest praise - iconic, cool, imaginative items, one and all.</p>
<p>After this, we get a bestiary-section for all the races and related creatures, including undead oaklings, new oozes, etc., the section is useful and nice. The pdf closes with an aforementioned index. The pdf also comes with 3 pages of paper cardstock minis in full color.</p>
<p>Conclusion:
<br />
Editing and formatting are very good, though not perfect: I encountered a couple of different minor typos, though none impeded my ability to enjoy this pdf. Layout adheres to a beautiful 2-column full-color standard, that, while beautiful, will extol a brutal drain on your printer since there is no printer-friendly version. The full-color, original artworks are mostly awesome and range from good to excellent. The pdf is excessively bookmarked.</p>
<p>I honestly expected to hate this book. Seriously. New races have a hard standing with me as I don't like it when races don't bring anything new to the table but variations of crunch. Thus, I was rather astonished to see that all of the different races herein at least have something going for them - some being even exceedingly innovative in their design and ideas. That being said, these races are weird and may not be appropriate for every setting, gravitating more towards settings with a lot of weird humanoids running around. The average creature herein would lead to people screaming "Monster" and piling up the pyre in my home campaign - in high fantasy, racially diverse settings or even better, planeswalking settings, though, these races truly shine and offer some breaths of fresh air to known and tried tropes. In fact, I can easily picture all of these beings fitting seamlessly on the streets of Sigil or any other place in the great beyond. </p>
<p>That out of the way, the supplemental material also deserves mentioning: While the magic items provided can stand up to the best of books, the PrCs, with some notable exceptions, fell flat for me: Too often do they remind one of classic tropes like "Mage with favored enemy" or "celestial bard" and while some offer truly ingenious abilities, not all feel that well-crafted. But back to the races: Apart from some slight balance-concerns I voiced in the respective sections (especially regarding the Anumi), I was positively surprised to see how well the races herein fare. Especially the Relluk practically belongs into any campaign that features a lost civilization prominently and remains my favorite race herein - probably because they have the most elaborate background. I know that the choice is by design, but my major gripe with this pdf is the lack of customs of the new races. While the omission of religious rites etc. makes them easy to integrate into a given campaign, it is religious rites, social peculiarities etc. that make races stand out and shape their identity. Take a look at Rite Publishing's race-books, notably the Ironborn in direct comparison: While the Ironborn are also a relatively new race, they do come with customs, terminology, identity-creating ploys. I really would have loved to see more in that vein, to e.g. properly present the ramblings of Xax warrior philosophers in battle. For me personally, this flaw weighs quite a bit and combined with the lack of a printer-friendly version and the minor glitches I encountered, makes me settle for a final verdict of 4 stars in the end.</p>
<p>Reviewed here, on DTRPG, sent to GMS magazine and posted about it on RPGaggression! Cheers!</p>
<p>Endzeitgeist out.</p>Part II of my review:
Speaking of weird: The Taddol are a weird crossbreed of elf and ettin, encompassing two personalities in one humanoid body. They get +2 Str and Int, -2 Cha, low-light vision, count as both elves and giants for race-related effects, get two favored classes (and +1 skills and hp every time they take a level in such a class), +4 to perception, double the number of head and neck-slots, but have double the chance to die by vorpal weapons -losing one head kills a Taddol. They...Endzeitgeist2012-08-30T16:12:18ZRe: Forums: Product Discussion: Remarkable Races—Pathway to Adventure: Compendium of Unusual PC Races (PFRPG) PDFDark_Mistresshttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8bk4/discuss&page=2?Remarkable-Races-Pathway-to-Adventure-Compendium-of-Unusual-PC-Races#522011-12-20T21:59:44Z2011-12-20T21:59:44Z<div class="messageboard-quotee">Andrew Bigwood wrote:</div><blockquote> Oh! When did this happen? </blockquote><p>No one knows for sure who is willing to speak on the record. I did have someone involved email me with some information which I posted up in their Cerulean Sea's product thread. Basically the high quality art and products bankrupted them. They spent sadly far more than they made back.Andrew Bigwood wrote:Oh! When did this happen?
No one knows for sure who is willing to speak on the record. I did have someone involved email me with some information which I posted up in their Cerulean Sea's product thread. Basically the high quality art and products bankrupted them. They spent sadly far more than they made back.Dark_Mistress2011-12-20T21:59:44ZRe: Forums: Product Discussion: Remarkable Races—Pathway to Adventure: Compendium of Unusual PC Races (PFRPG) PDFAndrew Bigwoodhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8bk4/discuss&page=2?Remarkable-Races-Pathway-to-Adventure-Compendium-of-Unusual-PC-Races#512011-12-20T21:05:07Z2011-12-20T21:05:07Z<p>Oh! When did this happen?</p>Oh! When did this happen?Andrew Bigwood2011-12-20T21:05:07Z