Advanced Races #12: Derro (PFRPG) PDF

4.50/5 (based on 2 ratings)

Our Price: $3.99

Add to Cart
Facebook Twitter Email

Stare Into the Void!

Staring into the void, the derro are waiting in their twisted cities to oversee the descent of the world into insanity and destruction. But a few of them seek a wider realm...

The strange little derro might seem an unlikely choice for player characters, and yet they make a wonderful change of pace in any underdark campaign or any game with a wide scope. In addition, nd this supplement provides rich fuel for NPC anti-paladins and savants!

Advanced Races: Derro gives you everything you need to play one of these subterranean dwarves who has seen too much, starting with derro PCs abilities, culture, quirks, and richly expanded Pathfinder Roleplaying Game rules. This 19-page sourcebook includes:

  • Racial stats for lesser and full Derro PCs, plus 8 alternate racial traits from Vermin Speaker to Beloved of Madness
  • 3 extremely metal new spells: facemelt, madfire, and skullsplitter!
  • Complete Minor Madness tables
  • 5 new racial feats, plus derro gear such as poisoned nets and strange magical items
  • Includes Age and Weight Tables, plus suggested names for your derro PC or NPC!
  • 3 archetypes including Fist of Madness (Monk) and Shadow Antipaladin, plus the Derro Savant bloodline

It's all here, so pick up Advanced Races: Derro today, and see beyond the walls of sanity!

Product Availability

Fulfilled immediately.

Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at store@paizo.com.

OPDAR12DERROE


See Also:

Average product rating:

4.50/5 (based on 2 ratings)

Sign in to create or edit a product review.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

5/5

This installment of Kobold Press' Advanced Races-series is 20 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/ToC, 1 page SRD and 1 page advertisement, leaving us with 16 pages of content, so let's take a look!

Okay, I'll come right out and say it -I love the derro as a concept and as adversaries. There is something downright awesome...add a slice of Lovecraftiana and CoC/ToC-fanboy yours truly has not much to complain about concept-wise. However, this pdf goes one step beyond that, providing thoroughly unique concepts like the "Imposition of the Will" - which hearkens back to a certain other infamous real life statement and represents the strange surges of fads and concepts that grip the collectively insane derro culture. Which also brings me to another component of the fluff - if you're like me and can't turn off your critical reading skills, you'll notice that the derro and their whole culture can arguably be read as a pretty black satire on mass media Web 2.0-culture - which fluff-wise provides the icing on the cake.

Now the central component of a derro would be the racial insanity, right? well, thankfully, this installment does provide some troubleshooting and concise advice for players who wish to play such a character and still retain the functionality of the group/character. The derro herein do receive full age, height and weight tables as well as favored class options for alchemist, bard, barbarian, druid, fighter, inquisitor, magus, oracle, ranger, rogue, sorceror and witch. All of the FCOs are thematically fitting and well-balanced and players also receive a nice selection of suggested, thematically fitting archetype/character concept choices.

Now I consider the RP-values of the ARG anything but functional, but even a cursory glimpse of the derro will show you that these guys are too strong for most groups - hence, as a player race, the lesser derro is introduced. These guys receive +2 to Dex and Cha, small, have a base speed of 20 ft., receive darkvision 60 ft., gain keen senses and light sensitivity and may cast ghost sound 3/day as an SP. They also receive familiarity with certain weapons and poison use. Know what? NOTHING to complain! Balanced between physical and mental, with solid tricks, this base race fits into EVERY campaign, even the most conservative of groups. Kudos! Now what this pdf does beyond that is interesting - it provides the racial traits to upgrade them to full-blown derro. Yes, this means that even high-power groups receive their due. Kudos! While there are cosmetic glitches in the presentation here (like Dex coming after cha or a "+" missing), these glitches are cosmetic and do not detract at all from the appeal of these base racial stat-arrays. Of course, either derro kind is mad and thus use their cha-mod for will-saves instead of wis and gains a minor madness. In Midgard, derro receive a status-penalty.

A total of 8 alternate racial traits allow a player to customize a derro to have less darkvision, but also no light sensitivity, better social skills when dealing with aberrations, chaos magic-synergy (see Deep Magic), more minor SPs, speaking to vermin. What about a mad obsession with a particular skill that increases all skill bonuses of +2 to the skill to +3 at the cost of an additional minor madness?

The Knowledge (Forbidden Lore) skill also receives a short introduction and then, we receive madness tables - 5 of them. Minor madness can point towards small objects, living creatures, delusions, physical effects -pretty awesome! Derro nomenclature is covered herein as well - fluff-wise, once again, absolutely awesome - and in opposition to the installment on gnolls, much closer to being a suitable player-race...at least so far.

A total of 6 new feats is provided - from the relatively standard verminspeaker (guess thrice what that one does...yeah) to gaining sneak attack +1d6 at the cost of more madness and a skill-bonus-feat to increase intimidate - and further boost that by taking wis-damage. Interesting! Cooler - what about being a compulsive hoarder who can scatter sharp objects as essentially a respawning caltrop array? Yeah, cool! On the metamagic-side, chaosfire makes for an interesting madness-influenced chaos magic and yes, there is a story feat - Pierce the Veil. Well, in order to fulfill that, you have to make contact with a cozy entity like good ole' Nyarly. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? Well, permanent SPs wink among those completion benefits...

Two cool traits can also be found in these pages, as can 3 spells: What about the gleefully random madfire? And yes, facemelt and skullsplitter are just as nasty as you'd expect them to be. Magical fauchards, the dread weeping poison, ghost bolts, foul statues of hateful gods and dread staves also speak a pretty clear language...

The pdf also sports archetypes, the first of which would be the Fist of Madness, who may use derro weapons as monk weapons, receives a modified skill list and instead of stunning fists, these guys can transport confusing madness with their attacks. The ki the class gains (powered by Cha, which also governs the archetype's AC-bonus btw.) can be used to temporarily grant defensive boosts and miss chances. The archetype may also poach among ninja tricks and later unleash confusion-causing bursts. Their ki strike is chaotic and instead of causing death at high levels, these guys can instill permanent mayor insanities. The capstone is also interesting -permanent circle of protection: law may seem lame...then you read that they can manipulate gravity freely in this area. Yeah. This is pretty awesome.

The second archetype is a small one, the monstrophile ranger, who instead applies his empathy to monstrous animals, unintelligent aberrations, vermin and oozes and the ranger also receives a vermin, reptile or amphibian companion...or an ooze companion! GO CUBEY! Awesome.

The Shadow Antipaladin receives no heavy armor proficiency, smite law, an insanity/confusion-debuff aura, evasion and additional cruelties themed around insanity and sneak attack-progression. At higher levels DR enters the frame and the capstone renders the antipaladin into a constant source of insanity against all those serving law and order.

Finally, the pdf provides the new derro savant-bloodline, allowing for characters descendant (best not dwell on HOW) from the insane derro fetal savants. This bloodline is centered on knowledge and an entrancing gaze and receives a capstone for permanent enslaving of subjects.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good - while I noticed some minor glitches, the pdf can be considered very well crafted in that regard. Layout adheres to Kobold Press' two-column full-color standard and the artworks provided, while probably familiar to KP-fans, are nice. the pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.

Let's get one thing out of the way - derro are insane. they are nasty and as a race, an unpleasant bunch. They are also a race I would never have allowed as a PC-race. I just didn't want them "diluted" in their nastiness.

But unlike the installment on gnolls, this feels like it is intended for players - the archetypes universally have multiple interesting concepts going for them and do not require membership in odd cabals. They provide unique mechanical benefits. the pdf provides ample help for portraying the insane derro.

The new feats/content, in the vast majority of cases, is just cool. That, and the derro with their madness and fads, have a great rationale for why a certain derro might become an adventurer that helps a group/is a PC. Author Nicholas Milasich has improved SIGNIFICANTLY since the last pdf I read by his pen...and you can definitely see the writing of Kobold-in-chief Wolfgang Baur in this pdf. This AR is a great read; it is interesting, balanced and provides an array of more than solid options. Yes, I could nitpick some of the minor hiccups, but they remain just that - in the end, this is quite frankly one of the most inspired, awesome supplements in the whole series. Good enough, in fact, to allow this pdf among the available PC-races in my own campaign and revise my stance on "No Derro PCs."

The final verdict, then, should come as no surprise: 5 stars + seal of approval. This exemplifies what the AR-series should be about, quality-wise.

Endzeitgeist out.


A great addition to any Pathfinder game.

4/5

I've always been a fan of unorthodox player character races. And you don't get much more unorthodox than this. Rules to play a Derro.

Well, not a Derro per se, the book gives rules for playing a "Lesser" Derro, a weaker, albeit less insane, version of the Derro which is more appropriate for PC classes.

It has a lot of neat stuff: New feats and spells (one of which lets you literally melt faces), as well as advice for playing a Derro PC and avoiding playing them as a "Fishmalk". There is also a minor insanity table for specific forms of madness your Derro can have.

If I have any complaints its that the Derro presented here are different from the Derro described in "Classic Horrors revisited", which rather closely follows the roots of the Derro by making them resemble the Shaver mystery.

Another complaint is that it lacks something I would really like: A divine caster archetype that would allow derro to cast divine spells in spite of the fact the default Derro typically has like 4 wisdom.

But these are minor things. In all, I am very pleased with this product, and recommend it (and the rest of the advanced races books, of which I have the Aasimar and the Gnoll books which I got from the Southlands kickstarter) for anyone who wants a new PC race to spice things up.


Webstore Gninja Minion

Now available!

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

This release combines the best elements of my KQ article from ages ago, with new material like archetypes, height/weight data, and an overall a PC racial spin, including notes on how to play these crazy guys.

Plus, you know, the Shadow Antipaladin archetype, just so you remember they are usually the bad guys!

Nice work by Nicholas Milasich on this one: check it out.


I really enjoyed playtesting this one. If you like some metal! in your game, check out these guys.


Derro... I will admit I did not see that one coming.

-Kcinlive

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

The kobolds zig! They zag!

I think this comes from the Call of Cthulhu tradition, where playing slightly deranged characters is par for the course. The derro make surprisingly entertaining PCs--and the shadow antipaladin is HIGHLY entertaining for the GM.


Wha? Madness!


No-one expects the Derro Inquisition!

Who doesn't want to play a derro ranger with a gelatinous cube animal companion?

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

Curious to see whether this one gets a review soon. Seems just enough off the beaten track that it might draw attention from someone.


Wolfgang Baur wrote:
Curious to see whether this one gets a review soon. Seems just enough off the beaten track that it might draw attention from someone.

Or some ... thing...

Spoiler:
C'mon, I had to with that opening left wide open.


Just picked this up. Really good stuff. I like all the Advanced Races thing's I've seen thusfar.

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

Thanks, Crinos! Would love to see your review, even if it is short.


Reviewed first on endzeitgeist.com, then submitted to Nerdtrek and GMS magazine and posted here, on OBS and d20pfsrd.com's shop.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Thank you for the review. I'm glad that the product was to your standards of quality!

NIck


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I'd like to take the time to thank Kim Mohan for all of his extra editing help. As a newer writer, his feedback and patience made all the difference. Enz, Your comments after AR: kobolds were taken to heart and I worked hard improve.

Nick


And boy, one can see the massive improvement - you've grown tremendously as a writer. :)


Kim Mohan's a great editor. I hope players enjoy the rules set and roll up some messed-up meredwarves and have a lot of fun!

Community / Forums / Paizo / Product Discussion / Advanced Races #12: Derro (PFRPG) PDF All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.