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I've always been curious as to why halfbreed races weren't a given in nearly every RPG I have ever played. Half-elves and half- orcs are common place, Dark Sun campaign setting has Muls (half-dwarves) but in general they are largely absent. Even the halfbreeds that do exist are half human. I'm curious as to why there aren't other options? What are other people's thoughts? Does anyone else think it would be cool to play a half dwarf half halfling/gnome? Or half-elf half-Orc? Or the result of a half-elf and helf-Orc pairing? Anyone else wish paizo would release a sourcebook or even make some pathfinder society legal?
IIRC early Forgotten Realms assumed that elves, dwarves, humans, gnomes and halfling can more or less crossbreed but (except for human/elves) the child is of one the parents' race with with minor traits from the other parent's race hinted (so dwarf/human could be either very stocky human or very tall dwarf).
I would think this will be covered in Bastards of Golarion, coming in January.
To be honest I disliked the whole idea that if it had a humanoid shape it should be able to cross breed. Nature is filled with animals that are simular but can not produce offspring. On top of that some that can produce offspring, the offspring is sterile.
As a GM I really do not want to see hundreds of new race combos. So to answer the OP, no I do not think it would be cool. In fact I think I am sorry they are opening up the conversation to even more half-X races.
Click on Chapter 2 and check out Appendices A and B.
I've always been curious as to why halfbreed races weren't a given in nearly every RPG I have ever played. Half-elves and half- orcs are common place, Dark Sun campaign setting has Muls (half-dwarves) but in general they are largely absent. Even the halfbreeds that do exist are half human. I'm curious as to why there aren't other options? What are other people's thoughts? Does anyone else think it would be cool to play a half dwarf half halfling/gnome? Or half-elf half-Orc? Or the result of a half-elf and helf-Orc pairing? Anyone else wish paizo would release a sourcebook or even make some pathfinder society legal?
The assumption was always that the ability to crossbreed with other humanoid / demi-human races was peculiar to humans. This point was expressly made in 1E iirc. Hence Half Elves, Half Orcs. Human and other races. There are limits but at some point / by some means more was possible. I.e. Centaurs etc.
According to ancient gaming legends, half-elves came about because one of Gary Gygax's friends asked if he could play one. When he was told there weren't rules for it, he pointed out that Gary was one of the guys who made the rules. Gary shrugged, said "good point" and worked something out.
As an addendum to this story, supposedly half-orcs followed because Gary justified the half-elves thing as working somewhat like in Tolkien and since in Tolkien orcs were originally corrupted elves then it made sense for orcs to be similarly compatible with humans (even though he didn't intend orcs to have the same origin in D&D).
And now I'm imagining the old Hackmaster gnomeling (half-gnome/half-halfling) reimagined for Golarion. Halfling positivity combined with gnome ADD? *shudder*
Dwarf + Gnome = Gully Dwarf ;-)
And now I'm imagining the old Hackmaster gnomeling (half-gnome/half-halfling) reimagined for Golarion. Halfling positivity combined with gnome ADD? *shudder*
In my own setting, which goes with the Fey origin for Elves rather than the aliens one Golarion uses, that's the reason they can interbreed with Humans - they still have some of that Fey heritage which gives them the ability to procreate outside their species. But because they're so removed from their original origin, the result is the half-breed Half-Elf.
Gnomes, who in my setting are fey-originated like Golarion's but are still Fey type rather than devolving to Humanoids, can mingle with Halflings, but the resulting child is always a Gnome.
While I'm on the subject, I just got rid of Half-Orcs altogether and replaced them with a PC-level pureblood Orc race option.
O.o
Ogrekin are also a good half-breed race.
Ogrekin Orcs make for old school orogs while ogrekin humans are hill billies.