How to integrate Kobold Press' "Advanced Races Compendium" into the Pathfinder setting.


Advice and Rules Questions


I support Kobold Press and backed the Kickstarter for Advanced Races Compendium, receiving both the book and PDF. I absolutely adore the crunch, artwork, and detail that went into the product and always make it available for my players whether it be a homebrew setting or an official Pathfinder adventure.

The races in the book are obviously written with Midgard in mind, so I often face the challenge of how to justify these races' existence in Golarion.

Here are the races that are unique to the book and don't have any pre-existing presence in Golarion lore (like Dhampir and Centaurs).

Darakhul, an undead race of quasi-ghouls. Can pass as human.

Dragonkin, a race of humanoid draconic creatures who are a race unto themselves and hold several dragon-like abilities.

Gearforged constructs made of clockwork and powered by a gem that contains the soul of a mortal being.

Jinnborn, an exotic race of blue-skinned, janni-descended beings who have choose an elemental focus.

Shadow Fey strange and enigmatic humanoid fey who hail from the Plane of Shadow.

Tosculi wasp-like, vermin-esque humanoids who dwell in hives under the direction of their queens, but some break free from the hivemind.

Trollkin{/b] the product of unfortunate couplings between humanoids and trolls, ogres, and other creatures. Their name is a catch-all. They possess a tight-knit, tribal culture and are believed to propagate curses.

[b]Werelions a race of leonine, lycanthropic humanoids who can shift between normal, half-lion, or full lion. Comes in natural or afflicted flavors.


Axial wrote:


Darakhul, an undead race of quasi-ghouls. Can pass as human.

Dragonkin, a race of humanoid draconic creatures who are a race unto themselves and hold several dragon-like abilities.

Gearforged constructs made of clockwork and powered by a gem that contains the soul of a mortal being.

Jinnborn, an exotic race of blue-skinned, janni-descended beings who have choose an elemental focus.

Shadow Fey strange and enigmatic humanoid fey who hail from the Plane of Shadow.

Tosculi wasp-like, vermin-esque humanoids who dwell in hives under the direction of their queens, but some break free from the hivemind.

Trollkin{/b] the product of unfortunate couplings between humanoids and trolls, ogres, and other creatures. Their name is a catch-all. They possess a tight-knit, tribal culture and are believed to propagate curses.

[b]Werelions a race of leonine, lycanthropic humanoids who can shift between normal, half-lion, or full lion. Comes in natural or afflicted flavors.

I have yet to get the book sadly, and a couple of these I am less knowledgeable about than others..BUT

Darakhul: I know the least about these, other than that they are "civilized" ghouls. So I would either put them in Nemret Noktoria and reflavor them for that city, or maybe just stick them in the Darklands under Iobaria, if you wanted to keep the flavor intact. I would probably have them as "trueborn" ghouls to contrast their flavor with regular pathfinder ghouls. So Darakhul would be the result of Ghouls/Darakhul procreating, but regular ghouls would be those turned by bite or curse.

...and I have to go and get my annual car inspection, so more later.


What do you MEAN I can't edit my posts!?

Anyway, that sounds about right. In the Midgard setting, the Darakhul have a huge expansionist empire. I think they'd be a bit rarer on Golarion.


For the rest:

Dragonkin: Personally I have moved the Mharoti Empire to Triaxus, since that world is all about Dragons and it makes more sense for a humanoid dragon to to act as servitors to the various ruling dragons. You could also just put the empire in Casmaron, or have dragonkin hang around the Tian kingdoms.

Gearforged: ancient survivors of the Azlanti?

Jinnborn: I dunno..seems thematically similar to the Suli, so probably just replace that race with this if you like them more.

Shadow Fey: makes sense to have them be a race native to the Shadow Plane. Maybe make Fetchlings there slaves (replacing the neglected Nilhoi)?

Tosculi: Southern Garund. In fact IIRC the hardcover campaign setting even references strange hive like structures in the region.

Trollkin: I would probably treat them similar to how the CS treats Changelings, etc. Just make them pop up in small batches in areas with lots of trolls and similar creatures. Or again Southern Garund.

Were-lions: Again Southern Garund, although I would probably give them a different name if I was treating them as a race.


I was thinking of putting the Mharoti empire east of Qadira, unless there's supposed to be something else over there. In any case, the "mysterious, uncharted lands of the East" would be a good place to put it without having to change Pathfinder lore too much.

I like the idea of the Gearforged either being created by Nex (or rather, the method used to create them was pioneered there) or being creations of the deity Brigh.

Jinnborn could just be a different, exotic species of Genie-Kin.

Shadow Fey sound about right, maybe they can be associated with Count Ralanc.

Tosculi being from Garund sounds great.

Trollkin sounds about right.

Were-lion's "real" species name is Nkosi.

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2013

Hey, gang! As lead developer for this fun book, I wanted to chime in and give my thoughts.

There's a lot to love about Golarion. I'd prefer to see some of these very different cultures spread out over more continents, but it's a high magic world with tons of cool history, and Paizo did a great job of blending these old powerful detailed cultures when thrust together at their borders. So a quick overview on these races in Golarion and then some specific notes.

First, hopefully there's enough detail for the races in the ARC that you can just drop them into any setting. Remember that different cultures may have a different history. Not a lot of sages are gonna know what the darakhul history is and what they're up to, so even departures from Golarion's official timelines can slide seamlessly into the world most of the time. The best approach to integrating a culture is just to put it into your setting laterally, meaning let the people and cultures of Golarion stay and include the new race right alongside them. Ustalav might have a higher concentration of dhampir, a bunch of dour humans just waiting to be murdered by undead, and heroes manning Lastwall, but a city of civilized ghouls trading for living foodslaves fits thematically. Sahaguin tribes might make war the same palces as human pirates. They might also absolutely despise aboleths and cyclopes becuase some sahaguin inherit memories. The diabolical sahaguin might have a pct with Cheliax as that power tries to regain its naval supremacy. Anyhoo, you get the ideas.

So...some remarks on where I'd place specific races you mentioned:

Darakhul Darakhul are absolutely my favorite race in the book. I love thinking of them as faux civilized...looking and acting like human aroistocracy and soldiers, but having that undead savagery juuuust underneath. Above ground they could be anywhere, working to undermine mortal civilization or deeply involved with cultures that allow slavery. But they probable find the most purchase in Ustalav, Nidal, Geb, and Nex. A cool twist might be a growing tribe of cannibals that are actually ghouls, expanding across the Mwangi. That's actually a whole damn adventure path. Dibs. Obviously they could be anywhere in the three levels of the Darklands. I'd arrange oit so above ground they look and act human and fit in well, and below ground they keep no secrets and are more savage than even the drow.

Dragonkin For sure good dragonkin might have a small population in Hermea and evil dragonkin might hail from the Land of the Linnorm Kings. The Four Horsemen wrote a book that included some options for linnorm half-dragons and that might be fun to play with. Also dragonkin might be even more common on the Tian Xia continent.

Gearforged are perfectly at home in Numeria and maybe could be found in neighboring countries as well. Maybe a good twist would be for them to be very science-oriented and have a strong contingent in Rahadoum, where religion is banned.

Jinnborn Jinnborn are described as being disparate and not having a really strong unified culture. So they could be anywhere in a world where elemental magic is manipulated at the highest levels. In terms of strongholds, jinnborn might be most common in Qadira, Osirion, or Jalmeray (which also means Vudra). I also like the idea of air- and water-based jinnborn pirates spawned from the Eye West of Garund.

Shadow Fey Shadow fey are just sooo awesome. Especially if your campaign makes a lot of use of Ultimate Intrigue, because they should be the bosses of social combat. Obviously Nidal had ties to the shadow plane, and has close proximity with ancient elven kingdoms. I'd also consider putting shadowfey courts in Ustalav and maybe a contingent in Irrisen.

Tosculi I might consider a variant tosculi that has some sort of synergy with the Red Mantis worshipers on Mediogalti. A tropical variant might populate the Mwangi. You could also put them in the Mana Wastes between Geb and Nex or that prison island to the East where all the magical experimentation has gone wrong (I forget its name).

Trollkin I think the best use of these guys is in the Hold of Belkzen. Orc and half-orc tribes might venerate Lamashtu by breeding trollkin. Careful how you handle delivering human slaves to troll and ogre sires and all that, but it fits and makes that place even more dangerous. Maybe check out Jazz's Superstar adventure and see if there's room to add them. The old school hobgoblin adventure path coming out offers some promise here, too.

Werelions could go lots of places. Noble werelions ruling thesavannahs of Tian Xia. Perhaps a kingdom of them from a vast luch plain as one of the Impossible Kingdoms of Vudra. But I think the most exciting place for them has to be as nomadic tribes offering to lead high-paying caravans past the gnolls of the Brazen Peaks from Katapesh to Osirion. If I can have lion people and hyena people n the same world, I'm putting them directly into conflict with each other.

Hope these ideas are helpful. We're really glad you're enjoying the book!


In all brevity, since I'm currently on vacation:

Darakhul: Perfect fit for Geb, Ustalav, as a subterranean empire just about anywhere (particularly if you can get your hands on the patron-only Empire of Ghouls module!).

Dragonkin: Either make them Hermean Übermenschen (dawn of a new age!) or go for the flying cities route; Hyperborean, isolated society might work as well. Or have the whole empire come from across the sea - after all, so far we don't know all of Golarion!

Gearforged are great fits for the Manawaste, obviously. Alternatively, you could make them the fruits of labor by Kalistrade's prophets (immortality through money!) or some new scheme by Razmiran's faux clerics. Or just make them a new way for Taldan nobility to continue their decadence and further strangle their empire.

Jinnborn are perfect fits for both Qadira and Jalmeray; as elemental-themed beings, they could work well for liaisons of the Ruby Prince's throne.

Shadow Fey fit perfectly with Nidal and basically can be a great expansion to Zon-Kuthonite druids and nature clerics and the whole darker nature aspect.

Tosculi: Southern Garund sounds fitting; other than that, they may be allied with the Red Mantis (they are in my game!) and use their enclaves as a kind of strange Zerg-like base to transport/teleport large contingents of Red Mantis killers via the living hive-city-hearts.

Trollkin: Obvious Lamashtan experiments! Wherever there are Lamashtans, these guys may prosper. Similarly, the depravity of ogres could breed them anywhere. As an alternate theme/fluff, making them the representation of the giant-blooded trope of northern mythology works well in the Lands of the Linnorm Kings and similar places.

Werelions, to me, could go LOTS of places; Vudra and Qadira/Osirion being obvious choices; among the shoanti (or kellids - think white, blue-eyes snow lions...), they could also prosper. Basically any nomadic culture could easily cover them.

If you require more need, feel free to directly ask me or post here; once I get back, I'll be able to answer the question in more detail, should you require it!!

Cheers!

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