Playing alien races.


Iron Gods


I will be gearing up to run Iron Gods soon, and one of my players has expressed interest in playing an alien race. I will not allow kasathas, but would there be a reason not to allow other aliens? What experiences have other GMs had with aliens in their games?


I let a Lashunta barbarian play in my game before he was brutally murdered by Hellion. Nothing really weird there, people just thought he was a weird-looking half-elf.

I also let a player play as a Mi-Go alchemist. No, I ordinarily would never let someone play that, but it was the player's last game with us and he actually played it pretty damn well! A hat of disguise was this creature's best friend.

So I've read through the entire AP, and I gotta say that I disagree with the recommendations in the Player's Guide (and Paizo staff) against playing kasathas. It wouldn't be particularly disruptive to the AP and would actually set up some interesting relationships with certain NPCs later in the AP. But that's just me, of course; I can still see why GMs wouldn't allow them.


I am a player in an Iron Gods game, unless the GM has special knowledge that playing a certain one will spoil the plot it should not be an issue. I do have their stats, and they are not really anymore powerful than the core races.


I don't have People of the Stars yet, so I am unfamiliar with the alien races. What would be a good back-story for why a Lashunta or Triaxian would be roaming Golarion, based on the setting lore?


Lashunta are big fans of magic gates, the mayor of Hajoth-Harkados is Lashunta, Triaxians are harder, not really intergalactic travelers, but when all else fails, magic gates :-)

Silver Crusade Contributor

The Captain said what I thought about saying. Essentially, thinking with portals. ^_^

Remember that every planet in the solar system is linked by one or more portals. (Except Aucturn the Stranger, but that's probably for the best...)


Kasatha are problematic because of arms issues that really haven't be pinned down within the rules properly.

Outside of that, mechanically it's not really a problem.

Keep in mind that technically elves are aliens. And Lashunta come from the same planet (Castrovel). I don't know enough about the races available lore-wise but you could probably make some of them work. Like a pocket group of Lashunta living in Kyonin with the elves.


Does the player have a good backstory?
Failing that, is the player willing to give you control of their backstory?

If one of those things is good to go, then so are you!
Nothing about the alien races will break the game, and even a few of Golarion's weirder denizens can be worked into Iron Gods.

I am currently letting a player play a Gelatinous Cube (see In the Company of Gelatinous Cubes, the April 1st product this year). yes, he was mostly trolling me, but given the setting, I could actually come up with a very plausible reason for him to be there (Numerian Fluids doing all sorts of funky junk). Now I have to deal with Sploosh, and all the negating entire encounters/hindering all of his allies that Sploosh does...


Looks like none of my players are interested in playing the aliens after all. Thanks for the advice!

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