Have you ever used them in your game, whether as PCs or NPCs? How did you justify their existence? Magical stasis? A descendant of interplanar/interstellar explorers? A hidden enclave on Golarion or its moon? Powerful resurrection magic?
For clarification, I don't mean the Thassilonian Runelords or undead, or a race that descends from Azlanti humans (ie gillmen).
I've considered using Azlant and the Knights of the Ioun Star as a major plot point for a campaign, and a massive conspiracy that may or may not reveal Aroden to have been a Veiled Master, putting every single god who ascended via the Starstone as a suspect for aboleth puppets, or unwitting pawns. I'm looking for inspiration on how other people have used pureblooded Azlanti.
The Thassilonian Runelords were Pureblooded Azlanti, but moving past them, as per the OP...
I've never used them as PCs (not so much because of the blanket "+2 to all stats" as simply not wanting the hassle of explaining how everybody is still alive), but I've had fun with them as villains acting out of nostalgia rather than malice- they wake up in a world that steadfastly refuses to make sense to them, where their homeland and culture are seen as ancient legends of questionable relevance to modern concerns, where several of their gods are dead and gone (Aroden, Acavna, Amaznen, Lissala) and all these weird newcomers (Iomedae, Norgorber, Kurgess, Cayden Cailean, etc) have popped up, Zon-Kuthon is back (icky!), where prophecy doesn't work anymore, and what are those things?! Orcs? Hideous! And.... dwarves? Hrmpf, underground, were they? Why'd they leave?
Even the most benign Azlanti is going to feel a little hostile about the world they're in. And generally, any Azlanti with the resources/ability to emerge into modern Golarion is going to be equipped to act upon that hostility.
I mostly go with magical stasis, since a hidden enclave would theoretically have acted by now-note that the moon is a pretty terrible place for them to set up shop, since it got in the way of Earthfall, but having a few survivors on the moon trying to figure out what the heck happened to Acavna and trying to resurrect her could work... of course, they'd also be trying to access the Mordant Spire.
Note that Aroden's death likely proved no kinder to any Azlanti enclaves than it did to anyone else- probably worse, actually, since they probably would have leaned on remaining Azlanti deities pretty heavily.
Well holy s*!~, the next AP is coincidentally "The Ruins of Azlant!". I didn't expe---
I mean, I PLANNED TO MAKE THIS THREAD ALL ALONG! I HAVE PRECOGNITIONAL POWERS!
The Thassilonian Runelords were Pureblooded Azlanti, but moving past them, as per the OP...
Yeah I know they were, and I know they're used in several Adventure Paths. I wanted to see if people used them in any other capacity.
I've never used them as PCs (not so much because of the blanket "+2 to all stats" as simply not wanting the hassle of explaining how everybody is still alive), but I've had fun with them as villains acting out of nostalgia rather than malice- they wake up in a world that steadfastly refuses to make sense to them, where their homeland and culture are seen as ancient legends of questionable relevance to modern concerns, where several of their gods are dead and gone (Aroden, Acavna, Amaznen, Lissala) and all these weird newcomers (Iomedae, Norgorber, Kurgess, Cayden Cailean, etc) have popped up, Zon-Kuthon is back (icky!), where prophecy doesn't work anymore, and what are those things?! Orcs? Hideous! And.... dwarves? Hrmpf, underground, were they? Why'd they leave?
Even the most benign Azlanti is going to feel a little hostile about the world they're in. And generally, any Azlanti with the resources/ability to emerge into modern Golarion is going to be equipped to act upon that hostility.
Maybe this is just me, but I feel like the +2 to all stats doesn't really make them overpowered past the early game. I've never actually used them in any games so I don't know.
And yeah I think a pureblooded Azlanti who remembers everything about their empire and culture would be at least somewhat of a roleplaying challenge. The easy way to go about it could be the classical orphan route. They know about their heritage (somehow being fully fluent in old Azlanti AND Taldane at a very young age, having very strong Azlanti ethnic features, a letter in Azlanti writing that kinda sorta explains what he/she is) but know about as much on ancient Azlant as anyone else does---which is to say, not a lot.
Seems special snowflake-y, but then, that's what PCs are supposed to be, right? ;)
Note that Aroden's death likely proved no kinder to any Azlanti enclaves than it did to anyone else- probably worse, actually, since they probably would have leaned on remaining Azlanti deities pretty heavily.
I'll have to keep that in mind.
You might have a pureblooded Azlanti in your party if you're plaing Shattered Star.
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I'd imagine that an Azlanti woken up from stasis might be angry at their fellow humans for doing things "wrong." What things, you might ask? To which they'd respond, "All the things. You're doing all the things wrong."
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I just wrote a background to an Azlanti backup character. It's not pureblooded but that's explained. I'll post it. Though, trigger warning.
Aghaer, similar in rank to modern nobility, was fervently questioned. To say that magical investigation was employed would have been an understatement. It was determined that the boy’s mother, Orgatha, was not a pureblooded Azlanti and was tried by a council of elders. It came out that her own mother was raped on an expedition off continent by one of the barbarian tribes. She was the result of that rape. While the council was sympathetic, their decision was dictated by law and custom. She was sentenced to die by disintegration.
Azlanti law was not without a sense of justice. Enderil himself would be free to grow and be trained as a wizard as he committed no crime. This was pronounced with the stern warning to his father that he must teach the boy the lesson of his mother and he would similarly be barred from producing children.
His early life was hard, to say the least. He was, unfortunately, proven to be weaker, slower, and dumber than his peers. This was something he was reminded of often either directly or by simple observance of his academic performance. Thus, he learned early that, if his peers studied 10 hours, he would study for 20. If they performed an arcane ritual three times to master it, he would perform it six times. His father would help by giving him advice but knew that, if his son was to gain any station in their society, he would have to prove himself entirely on his own merits.
This wasn’t to say his father’s position didn’t afford him any comforts. Rather, many other children born under similar circumstances were treated much more harshly. Many faced daily assaults, others sometimes went missing, and others were even more rarely “made an example of” for all to see.
It was then he decided he must do one more thing to protect himself. When he began to mature into a man, he went to his father and asked to be magically made sterile so that he could never violate the law accidentally, intentionally, or even be coerced into it. His father accepted and gathered a group of trusted mystics and priests. The ritual was long and involved bloodshed.
You see, the Azlanti did nothing in half measures. The form of his sterility was both biological and spiritual. Not only was his body unable to produce sperm afterwards, but the gods of that time were beseeched and a divine curse was placed upon him that even should his body be able to impregnate a woman, no soul would be granted to the baby and it would be stillborn.
This earned Enderil some measure of genuine respect from his peers. Girls actually stopped completely avoiding him as well, not that he was particularly popular with them either. Suffice to say, he got to enjoy a whole side to life and reveled in doing so as superficial as it may have been.
His academic discipline continued to serve him well, very well, even. He was enrolled in a very prestigious academy and completed his studies with honors. He was even able to master a form of magic that brought all realms of it into his grasp which earned him many accolades. He also acquired passions for both astronomy and engineering and even gained a working skill with creating clockworks.
This brings us to, perhaps, the most bizarre and unfortunate turn of events in Enderil’s life. At a time where he was just about to join Azlanti society as a respected member, it would all come to an end. During the event that came to be known as Starfall, one of the fragments of the asteroid crashed into a magical research lab he was passing. The energies of one of the experiments ripped him from space and time. He was lucky as the rest of the area was mostly imploded upon itself and annihilated whatever it touched. He escaped with some minor cuts on his face. When he finally came around and the world once again made sense, he suddenly found himself in a strange land surrounded by things he had never seen.
Yup. One of my players knew Rise of the Runelords was gonna have alot of history with ancient wizard kings rising from their rest, and so asked if he could play a character that was one of the origional Azlanti settlers in Thassilion who was thrown forward in time (samurai Jak style) when the first Runelords rebelled. It worked pretty well, as he was able to explain or fill in details the pcs missed or glossed over. Also worked to introduce new magic systems (he played a psion) since we can just say that the psionic traditions were lost over milenna that followed. As for stat balance, no one hadily noticed since he rolled his stats so poorly and everyone else rolled pretty well.
I thought the Pureblood Azlanti were like Humans but with the +2 to all stats and that's why they're OP. Guess I misread the ISWG.
Unlike a typical human, a pureblooded ancient Azlanti gains a +2 bonus to all six ability scores. Such powerful
humans can become player characters only with the
permission of the GM.
The "Unlike a typical human" implies that pureblood is like the typical human except for one thing. That thing is the ability scores thing. If it's true then they are very powerful given that Humans are already OP.
No, the World Guide is still right. The few times a Pureblood Azlanti has appeared (Karzoug's the big one, but there's also a particular situation in one part of Shattered Star) there's been some mention in the rules that they have +2 to all stats as their racial bonuses.I thought the Pureblood Azlanti were like Humans but with the +2 to all stats and that's why they're OP. Guess I misread the ISWG.
The "Unlike a typical human" implies that pureblood is like the typical human except for one thing. That thing is the ability scores thing. If it's true then they are very powerful given that Humans are already OP.Unlike a typical human, a pureblooded ancient Azlanti gains a +2 bonus to all six ability scores. Such powerful
humans can become player characters only with the
permission of the GM.
Oh there's a statblock to look at? Does he have an extra starting feat and and extra skill point per level?
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I went the Magical Stasis route once. Long story short, the PCs discovered and freed a mighty arcane priest who had been weakened by the death of his god, and who had crucial information for their quest. In return they bound themselves to servitude in his service. Seemed like a bad idea at the time, but the PCs ended up liking the guy and were more than happy to help him create the foundations for a new Azlanti empire.
Yeah, the bit in Shattered Star expressly says that Pureblood Azlanti have the extra feat and skill points as a normal human.
Explaining any more about the Shattered Star bit is spoiling a very clever trap in Part 2, though. So time to bust out the spoiler tags.
** spoiler omitted **There's no mention of it in Karzoug's statblock, but that's probably because they'd be a drop in the bucket - dude's a Level 20 Wizard who's used wish numerous times to boost his ability scores, is noted to have been built with a 25 point buy (normal NPCs are built with a 15) and has an array of ridiculously-powerful magical items. One extra feat and an extra skill point per level isn't going to make much difference (and I'm not gonna try reverse-engineering a nearly-two-page statblock to check).
Thanks ShadowFighter. That clears that up for me. :)
With Ethnic Azlanti available (mainly standard present day Humans who have an Azlanti fixation), I see no need to do so.