Blood of the Moon class options

[Volugson]

Additional Resources has this to say about Blood of the Moon (bolding mine):

Additonal Resources wrote:

To create a skinwalker (which includes all were-kin), you must have a Chronicle sheet that opens the race as a legal option at character creation.

Note: Racial feats, racial traits, and racial spells are only available for characters of the skinwalker race. Racial equipment and magic items can be purchased and used by any race as long as the specific item permits it.

The becoming a lycanthrope section of this book is not legal for Pathfinder Society play unless noted on a future Chronicle sheet.

Equipment: all equipment on page 30 are legal; Magic Items: all magic items on pages 30-31 are legal; Mystery: the lunar mystery is legal for play.

From that alone, it looks like the additional class features under some skinwalker types are not legal for play, even for a skinwalker character. So things like the Wereboar-kin rage powers and Werecrocodile-kin hexes are illegal, even for characters of those heritages.

My question is, am I reading that correctly? And if so, is that the intention? People locally have assumed they were legal if you were that type of skinwalker, but I was not as positive and wanted a consensus here.

[Kalindlara]

Also interested in whether this was intentional.

[claudekennilol]

Not intentional.

John Compton wrote:

claudekennilol wrote:

It's not just a racial feat, though. It's available to "anyone who associates with these creatures". It's no different than THIS thread asking about affinity prereqs for feats. GMs don't have control over a PC's backstory, unless there's a blanket rule saying "skinwalkers don't exist in PFS Golarion" (which there isn't) then this is perfectly acceptable (as in who can say that my PC has never associated with a skinwalker?).

I suppose an argument could be made that since two of the three is a racial requirement (weretiger and weretiger-kin), that that makes it a "racial feat" and thus isn't allowed. I don't have my book with me to see the wording of the rest of the feats, but I'd wager they're the same and if that's the case, then the line Glav quoted "Racial feats, racial traits, and racial spells are only available for characters of the skinwalker race" would be pointless if this isn't what it meant.

Outside of PFS this can be taken by any race, inside of PFS it comes down to whether or not "those who associate with these creatures" means it's not a "racial feat" since that opens it up to any race. I'd argue it's not a "racial feat".

While you are right that a player can make virtually any backstory for her character, for the purposes of Pathfinder Society Organized Play and the Additional Resources page entry that Glav quotes above, only actual skinwalker characters qualify for taking those feats and other character abilities. The page's language allows any current and future skinwalkers to make use of these feats.

Emphasis mine. It's pretty apparent that John assumed most of the class options/abilities are supposed to be legal for skinwalkers.

[Kalindlara]

Thank you!

[Imbicatus]

Hrm... Swamps Grasp - Even as boon only, makes me very nervous as a player. Used correctly, it can cripple enemies. Used carelessly, it can cripple allies.

[Volugson]

Swamp's Grasp is exactly what I wanted to use. Unfortunately I already played my Skinwalker at level 2, assuming these features were illegal. Maybe I will retrain my classes, or just hope to obtain another copy of the boon.

Edit: Oh dang, I guess retraining wouldn't really be feasible: I forgot I chose a weretiger-kin. And by the time I get 20 prestige to change to a werecrocodile-kin and 14 to retrain the class levels, I'm not sure it will be worth it. And that's assuming I can even retrain the heritage, which I really don't think I can anyway.

[Sarvei taeno]

im curious bout the way bat shape and dire bat shape is supposed to work.
Benefits: You can take the form of a bat whose
appearance is static and cannot be changed each time
you assume this form. You gain a +10 racial bonus on
Disguise checks to appear as a bat. Changing from
werebat-kin to bat shape is a standard action. This ability
otherwise functions as beast shape II, and your ability
scores change accordingly.

beast shape 2 allows you to be tiny or large. so how do you handle raw.
bats are diminutive not tiny so you cant really say that you take the size of a bat. if your allowed to be large than whats the point of dire bat shape

[The Morphling]

You turn into a bat.

This ability otherwise works as beast shape II.

Simple enough.

[John Compton]

Linda and I finished going through the Additional Resources material yesterday, and we revisited the skinwalker extras in this book. I expect the page to update next week.

[Sarvei taeno]

thanx jon, it really is a confusing set to abilities due to limited wording

[Cyrad]

The actual text of the magus arcana, hexes, and the like don't require you to be a skinwalker. There's no mechanical reason why they would require you to be a member of that race. In fact, some of them are totally useless to the associated were-kin. For example, why would a wereshark-kin ever want Aquatic Agility's water breathing? They can breathe underwater for free anyway!

[Dieben]

I feel terrible for asking this, but how is this race boon acquired?

[Tamec]

Have another boon to trade on the Boon Trading Thread and maybe GM a convention unless it's a paizocon/gencon exclusive.

[Kalindlara]

The skinwalker was the Tier 1 boon for the most recent Gen Con.

That being said, I acquired a couple through trades and such, so you might be able to do the same!