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concept: Inspired by the creatures in Magic: the Gathering with the same name. I first consider where it makes sense for elephant like people to hail from. Since I already put linonfolk in southern Garund and I don't want to fill that continent with anilmalistic peoples the other obvious choice is Vudra. Assuming a caste system on that little known continent and with the simularity to Genesha (a very cool deity ripe for inserting) it seems that perhaps we can consider the entire race to be part of the preistly caste at least as far as humans are concerned. Its somewhat amusing to me that in their own communitys they don't think so much of themselves and the idea of a simple loxadon baker being flustered by everyone treating him as superior is nice. With that in mind and the art from magic we think that perhaps this would work better as a primarily NPC race and set the goal of an advanced 20 point race build.
Trait choices:
Type: My inital impulse was to go for humanoid (elephant) but as read over the Monsterous Humanoid entry that seemd to fit a bit better.
Size: Elephants are big. The magic cards are generally a higher power and toughness than most humans. Considering both of those large size makes sense.
Speed: Elephants aren't noted for being exceptionally slow (espeically once they get moving) so I think I'll pick a normal speed of 30ft
Ability Mods: We've conceived of them as being of the priestly cast so a + wisdom seems right. Also the magic creatures are normally either clerics or soldiers so + str and + con also seem reasonable. Nothing about them screams high dex, but then we've already got a -2 to dex from size. As I see it the reasonable options are to go for advanced modifiers or flexible modifiers. I think the more intresting option is to go for advanced modifiers so we'll try that first. I see elephants as being really tough so +4 to con and the +2 to all mental stats keys into the reverence humans show them and some of the old folkore ("An elephant never forgets.").
Languages: considering that they are in peaceful contact with human setlements the standard array seems correct.
Ability Choices:
Defensive abilites: The thick hide of the creatures and terrable dex definatly justify getting Natural armor and at least one level of Improved natural armor to help them not be terrable at soldiering (one of their perfered professions). Hardy would also make a lot of sense, but by a strict reading of the playtest doc is not allowed becaue we have +4 con rather than +2 con.
Movment abilities: the only one that I even considered was sprinter to reprsenct the stampeed effect of a massed rank of loxodons charging but in the movies there always seems to be time to just barely get out of the way of a stampeed of elephants so I decided they don't necesarlly go that fast.
Offensive abilites: The single most iconic card associated with the loxodons in magic is not actually a loxodon but their two handed warhammer. Looking at d20pfsrd the Earth Breaker seems the closest fit.
Skill and feat abilities: The loxodon in magic are noted artificers and if dwarves are lacking in verunda thats not a bad nitche for them to fill there. It would be more intresting if the ability would let me pick two materials such as metal, cloth, stone or gem.
Magical Abilities: Dreamspeaker, Lightbringer, and a spell-like ability all seem like options to really push racial inclination to the clergy. Unfortunatly a quick tally of points shows that I'm at 19 and none of them really scream super aproprate to me so I think I will pass on magical abilities. +2 to all mental stats should encourage a fair number of casters.
Finalizing I have 19 points left and could just leave it there, but with one more point I can buy another point of natural armor and get my unarmored ac up to 10 base, so I think I'll go ahead and do that.
Monsterous Humanoid - 2
-- Darkvision 60
Large - 7
-- +2 str, -2 dex
-- -1 AC and attack rolls
-- +1 CMB and CMD
-- space / reach : 10 / 5
Normal Speed - 0
Advanced Modifiers - 4
-- +4 con, +2 int, +2 wis, +2 cha, -2 dex
Standard Language Array - 1
-- Loxodon and Common (BL: Verundi, Sylvan, Elven, Gnome, Gnoll)
Natural Armor and Improved Natural Armor x2 - 4
-- +3 Natural Armor
Weapon Familiarity - 1
-- proficent in Earth Breakers and loxadon weapons
craftsman - 1
-- +2 bonus on Craft or Profession checks to make metal or stone items
Closing thoughts: It should be more clear that Hardy can be taken if you have greater than +2 con. Also I'd really like craftsman more if I could have picked it for cloth and metal.
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I like this.
I have been working on a series of races that are based off of the races from Ravnica, so Angels, Aven, Loxodon, Vedalken, Viashino, etc., there are a bunch. I plan to run a game set in Ravnica with the races and a "Color" system that I am creating that will replace Alignment.
I am glad to know that I am not the only Pathfinder/MTG player out there that had this idea.