Ifrit and Aasimar parents

[Eternal Havok]

So, I have made a handful of characters, and on a whim, I made a family tree of those characters. I got a little carried away, and ended up with my first character (an Ifrit Ranger) being the lover of one of my other characters (an Aasimar Ninja). Well, they had a child and at the moment that child is a Human Samurai.

I was wondering how realistic of an outcome that is, and if so, if it would make sense appearance wise to have him show some traits of his heritage, such as slightly elven features (his father was a half-elf ifrit) and unnatural eye color. I am thinking about playing this character as my first PFS character and so would like to know if that kind of thing would fly with most GMs there. Mechanically he is fully Human, straight core rules, but appearance wise he is clearly not a full blood human. I am familiar with the Racial Heritage feat, but I don't want any mechanical differences, just appearance. So I am talking pure flavor with this.

Also, as a additional question on that, my home GM allowed my Samurai to age at a decreased rate (at the rate of his parents) due to his heritage. I understand that having him age different is way out there, and am planning on not including that part in PFS, but is there any chance I could pull it off? I think it would be great flavor if so.

[Dave Justus]

My advice would be in a situation like PFS, keep your super complicated background story and weird features to yourself. If you find it fun go ahead and imagine the complex weird background, strange appearance, even altered lifespan but you don't need to bring it up or share it with the other players.

Mechanically you are a normal human. Others characters looking at you should see a normal human when they look at you. Knowledge: Local would result in identifying you as human with no other significant racial influences (that would be Racial Heritage feat.) Frankly, if it doesn't have a mechanical effect the GM and other players probably don't need to know or care.

This would be somewhat different in a permanent group with a permanent GM, but for something like PFS, I wouldn't waste everyone's time worrying about this sort of thing.

[Jurassic Bard]

Dave Justus wrote:

My advice would be in a situation like PFS, keep your super complicated background story and weird features to yourself. If you find it fun go ahead and imagine the complex weird background, strange appearance, even altered lifespan but you don't need to bring it up or share it with the other players.

Mechanically you are a normal human. Others characters looking at you should see a normal human when they look at you. Knowledge: Local would result in identifying you as human with no other significant racial influences (that would be Racial Heritage feat.) Frankly, if it doesn't have a mechanical effect the GM and other players probably don't need to know or care.

This would be somewhat different in a permanent group with a permanent GM, but for something like PFS, I wouldn't waste everyone's time worrying about this sort of thing.

I agree, in my games all the GM needs to know is that I'm a bard who wants to study the world. You only need to think about your character's hair and eye colour if you are writing it down on an adventure sheet.

[LazarX]

It's fairly "realistic" in terms of the setting's idea of realism. both Ifrit and Aasimar are recessive characteristics. They can both pop up in generations of normal human parents so it's logical that they would have a Human child.

If you're going to be unbent by "realism" failure, than the Ifrit and the Aasimar itself fail that test long before a child becomes an issue.

[David knott 242]

Personally, I would probably go with the Suli for a weird hybrid of native outsiders. Since one parent is an Ifrit in this case, I would give the child the Energy Strike/Firehand alternate racial trait.

[Eternal Havok]

Dave and Jurassic:

Yeah, from a mechanics point of view I would be a straight human, nothing fancy at all. Knowledge (local) would tell the character that I am a straight human, even if they roll a 20 with a stupidly high bonus to it. Nothing mechanically would be any different compared to if I was a straight human with human parents. My question isn't in mechanics however. It is flavor when interacting with other characters. Appearance things, so if another player really wants to delve into what my character looks like (which I know is something I enjoy as a player) I can tell them he has one green eye and one gold eye, rather than just saying he has blue or green eyes or something. If a player doesn't delve I won't volunteer, as I don't want to detract from the adventure. But if they do I want to know if it is something that is realistic from an in universe perspective.

I'm not trying to make the game complicated for anyone else. I just want to make it an exciting experience with rich characters, including unique and personal touches that make them stand out, without complicating things too much.

Lazar:

You raise a very good point for the Ifrit and Aasimar being unrealistic. I guess I should have clarified that I mean realistic as an in-universe test, not compared to our world. Just wanted to make sure that the celestial and elemental blood wouldn't make the union impossible or anything.

David:

While you raise a good point, there are a few problems:
1. Suli are not legal for PFS play right out of the gate
2. I really like him as a human, both for flavor and mechanics
3. I have already designed him as a human, and the shift would cause problems for the rest of the family tree
So thanks for the recommendation, I actually will keep it in mind for future characters, but it doesn't work for this one.

[David knott 242]

The reason I went with Suli was the appearance angle -- they basically look human, but are just enough "off" that you can generally tell that they are not fully human. Of course, that option would not be available in PFS unless you have a boon for it (and I don't even know if they give that particular race out as a boon).

But I suppose another approach might be to make the race human but look into class or feat options that would highlight your outsider heritage. If the character is a sorcerer, this part is easy.

[Jurassic Bard]

Eternal Havok wrote:

Dave and Jurassic:

Yeah, from a mechanics point of view I would be a straight human, nothing fancy at all. Knowledge (local) would tell the character that I am a straight human, even if they roll a 20 with a stupidly high bonus to it. Nothing mechanically would be any different compared to if I was a straight human with human parents. My question isn't in mechanics however. It is flavor when interacting with other characters. Appearance things, so if another player really wants to delve into what my character looks like (which I know is something I enjoy as a player) I can tell them he has one green eye and one gold eye, rather than just saying he has blue or green eyes or something. If a player doesn't delve I won't volunteer, as I don't want to detract from the adventure. But if they do I want to know if it is something that is realistic from an in universe perspective.

I'm not trying to make the game complicated for anyone else. I just want to make it an exciting experience with rich characters, including unique and personal touches that make them stand out, without complicating things too much.

Lazar:

You raise a very good point for the Ifrit and Aasimar being unrealistic. I guess I should have clarified that I mean realistic as an in-universe test, not compared to our world. Just wanted to make sure that the celestial and elemental blood wouldn't make the union impossible or anything.

David:

While you raise a good point, there are a few problems:
1. Suli are not legal for PFS play right out of the gate
2. I really like him as a human, both for flavor and mechanics
3. I have already designed him as a human, and the shift would cause problems for the rest of the family tree
So thanks for the recommendation, I actually will keep it in mind for future characters, but it doesn't work for this one.

Ah, I get it now. While I too wasn't talking about mechanics, as the characters I play as also have an unusual 'flavour' to them, ultimately you just have to write down your character's background and unique history so that if another player asks you can tell them straight away. I take it that your character doesn't exude any fiery, divine or otherwise outworldy aura.

[Eternal Havok]

Jurassic Bard wrote:

Ah, I get it now. While I too wasn't talking about mechanics, as the characters I play as also have an unusual 'flavour' to them, ultimately you just have to write down your character's background and unique history so that if another player asks you can tell them straight away. I take it that your character doesn't exude any fiery, divine or otherwise outworldy aura.

No, it is a purely flavor/design aspect. Knowledge checks, detect magic/good/evil/etc. (or anything else that detects auras), divination, etc. would all return a straight human with nothing special going on at all.

I was mostly just wanting to confirm such design components wouldn't be so outside the norm as to make a GM want to exclude them.

[Jurassic Bard]

Eternal Havok wrote:

Jurassic Bard wrote:

Ah, I get it now. While I too wasn't talking about mechanics, as the characters I play as also have an unusual 'flavour' to them, ultimately you just have to write down your character's background and unique history so that if another player asks you can tell them straight away. I take it that your character doesn't exude any fiery, divine or otherwise outworldy aura.

No, it is a purely flavor/design aspect. Knowledge checks, detect magic/good/evil/etc. (or anything else that detects auras), divination, etc. would all return a straight human with nothing special going on at all.

I was mostly just wanting to confirm such design components wouldn't be so outside the norm as to make a GM want to exclude them.

That's what I meant, buddy. :-) I too give characters new threads of progression (eg, a dhampir bard I have, has in her back story -yes, I use a female character from time to time- that she is a natural born dhampir because of her ancestors trying to rid themselves of the curse in a failed ritual. Does this affect her stats or other mechanics? Absolutely not! It's just a bit of fun and interesting character development).

[Eternal Havok]

Jurassic Bard wrote:

Eternal Havok wrote:

Jurassic Bard wrote:

Ah, I get it now. While I too wasn't talking about mechanics, as the characters I play as also have an unusual 'flavour' to them, ultimately you just have to write down your character's background and unique history so that if another player asks you can tell them straight away. I take it that your character doesn't exude any fiery, divine or otherwise outworldy aura.

No, it is a purely flavor/design aspect. Knowledge checks, detect magic/good/evil/etc. (or anything else that detects auras), divination, etc. would all return a straight human with nothing special going on at all.

I was mostly just wanting to confirm such design components wouldn't be so outside the norm as to make a GM want to exclude them.

That's what I meant, buddy. :-) I too give characters new threads of progression (eg, a dhampir bard I have, has in her back story -yes, I use a female character from time to time- that she is a natural born dhampir because of her ancestors trying to rid themselves of the curse in a failed ritual. Does this affect her stats or other mechanics? Absolutely not! It's just a bit of fun and interesting character development).

Just making sure we were on the same page as all! Sorry if that came off wrong, I am one to always make sure people are understanding each other. :)

And absolutely no problem with playing female characters! I have already played/am playing a female character right now, with one in development and probably more to come! (none of them are in PFS, I have only just now gotten interested). And that kind of flavor is exactly what I am going for, so thank you a lot for that example! I'm always one for making characters have very interesting touches, even when they are very generic mechanically.

[Lincoln Hills]

In both cases it's a fragment of heritage. Somehow celestial (and to a lesser extent, genie) 'genes' are flexible enough to mingle with those of lots of mortal species, but if they do get into a bloodline they go recessive (skipping generations and so on). If you really want to nod to real-world genetics and create a Mendel square, you can, but if I recall my Biology 102 right, if such parents had sixteen children*, you could mathematically expect nine humans (with, at most, sorcerous bloodlines), three aasimar, three ifrits, and one... thing (I recommend mongrelman, but for all I know you'd get something totally new.)

* Does that sound like a 'reality' TV show to anybody else?

[Eternal Havok]

Lincoln Hills wrote:

In both cases it's a fragment of heritage. Somehow celestial (and to a lesser extent, genie) 'genes' are flexible enough to mingle with those of lots of mortal species, but if they do get into a bloodline they go recessive (skipping generations and so on). If you really want to nod to real-world genetics and create a Mendel square, you can, but if I recall my Biology 102 right, if such parents had sixteen children*, you could mathematically expect nine humans (with, at most, sorcerous bloodlines), three aasimar, three ifrits, and one... thing (I recommend mongrelman, but for all I know you'd get something totally new.)

Hahahaha, mongrelman indeed... However, out of curiosity, in that Mendel square, did you account for the fact that the ifrit is half-elf, rather than human? :P

[Jurassic Bard]

Eternal Havok wrote:

Jurassic Bard wrote:

Eternal Havok wrote:

Jurassic Bard wrote:

Ah, I get it now. While I too wasn't talking about mechanics, as the characters I play as also have an unusual 'flavour' to them, ultimately you just have to write down your character's background and unique history so that if another player asks you can tell them straight away. I take it that your character doesn't exude any fiery, divine or otherwise outworldy aura.

No, it is a purely flavor/design aspect. Knowledge checks, detect magic/good/evil/etc. (or anything else that detects auras), divination, etc. would all return a straight human with nothing special going on at all.

I was mostly just wanting to confirm such design components wouldn't be so outside the norm as to make a GM want to exclude them.

That's what I meant, buddy. :-) I too give characters new threads of progression (eg, a dhampir bard I have, has in her back story -yes, I use a female character from time to time- that she is a natural born dhampir because of her ancestors trying to rid themselves of the curse in a failed ritual. Does this affect her stats or other mechanics? Absolutely not! It's just a bit of fun and interesting character development).

Just making sure we were on the same page as all! Sorry if that came off wrong, I am one to always make sure people are understanding each other. :)

And absolutely no problem with playing female characters! I have already played/am playing a female character right now, with one in development and probably more to come! (none of them are in PFS, I have only just now gotten interested). And that kind of flavor is exactly what I am going for, so thank you a lot for that example! I'm always one for making characters have very interesting touches, even when they are very generic mechanically.

No need to apologise my friend (alas, I'm often prone to cause unintended misunderstandings, due to the fact I have a communication problem) and your very welcome. :-)

[Eternal Havok]

Jurassic Bard wrote:

No need to apologise my friend (alas, I'm often prone to cause unintended misunderstandings, due to the fact I have a communication problem) and your very welcome. :-)

You and me both, I understand completely! I also must congratulate you on your rapid response to my question, and willingness to help a first time PFS player and messageboards poster!

[Jurassic Bard]

Eternal Havok wrote:

Jurassic Bard wrote:

No need to apologise my friend (alas, I'm often prone to cause unintended misunderstandings, due to the fact I have a communication problem) and your very welcome. :-)

You and me both, I understand completely! I also must congratulate you on your rapid response to my question, and willingness to help a first time PFS player and messageboards poster!

I'm just a nice guy.