Racial Heritage vs Racial Archetypes

[Martiln]

It has come to my attention that there is a flaw in the way the rules for racial archetypes are supposed to work, according to the FAQs responses for both the Racial Heritage feat, and certain "Half-Races" Selecting Racial Archetypes of their parent races:

FAQ 1: Racial Heritage

FAQ 2: Racial Archetypes

Racial Heritage states:

Prerequisite: Human.

Benefit: Choose another humanoid race. You count as both human and that race for any effects related to race. For example, if you choose dwarf, you are considered both a human and a dwarf for the purpose of taking traits, feats, how spells and magic items affect you, and so on.

which according to FAQ 1, implies that racial archetypes are an effect related to race, even though in FAQ 2 it clearly states that racial archetypes do not count as an "effect". So the question remains; which of these 2 are supposed to be true? please hit the FAQ button on this thread if you'd also like this answered. I know I do.

[Kazaan]

Furthermore, the ARG lists under the Racial Types section:

ARG wrote:

Humanoid (0 RP)

Humanoid races have few or no supernatural or spell-like abilities, but most can speak and have well-developed societies. Humanoids are usually Small or Medium, unless they have the giant subtype, in which case they are Large. Every humanoid creature also has a subtype to match its race, such as human, giant, goblinoid, reptilian, or tengu. If you are making a new humanoid race, you should either find an existing subtype to match or make a new one by using the name of the race as the subtype. If you are making a half-breed race, it should have the racial type of both parent races. For example, a half-elf has both the human and the elf subtypes. Subtypes are often important to qualify for other racial abilities and feats. If a humanoid has a racial subtype, it is considered a member of that race in the case of race prerequisites. A humanoid race has the following features.

The bolded section doesn't even use the phrase "effects related to race" which is rather vague. It uses the more mechanically significant term, "prerequisite". Additionally, if you look in the ARG, "Elf-blood" and "Orc-blood" aren't even valid options to put on a race; those functions are entirely handled by the Type(Subtype) system. They're both vestigial abilities as shorthand for saying that being Humanoid(Elf, Human) qualifies you for effects and prerequisites as both races.

Now, consider the ramifications in the following scenario. You have the Orc racial archetype Scarred Witch Doctor. You have to be an Orc to take that archetype. Say I used the ARG to create a custom race and gave them the type Humanoid(Orc). I name them Orks. They have some slightly different abilities than the Core Orcs. They're a different flavor. According to ARG Raw, these Orks would qualify for Orc racial archetypes because they're Humanoid(Orc). The Racial Heritage FAQ agrees, citing that taking a racial archetype is a valid option when you count as the qualifying race. But the Half-breed FAQ would say, "No, even with Humanoid(Orc), you still don't qualify for Orc racial archetypes". These rules are mutually exclusive; they can't both apply in the same universe.

[blackbloodtroll]

The Race Builder is a poor example.

It really is filled with holes, and often goes against established RAW.

[Martiln]

Bumping for relevance.

[Martiln]

Only 9 people pushed the FAQ button? I was hoping for more than that, so I'll bump again.