what race would you chose for racial heritage?


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion


the dm decided to give the party a free racial feat. and since i am human fighter, i am looking at racial heritage. having a hard time deciding what race to chose. what would to chose to improve your human fighter(aka a wack and basher)?


Honestly, the only race I ever consider for Racial Heritage is Orc. Other races open up interesting options, but counting as an orc or half-orc opens up a lot more in terms of combat feats.


It would help to know what kind of fighter you wanted to play, but if you picked Dwarf that would open up all the good cleave feats (Which are frustratingly limited to only Dwarves).


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Free racial feat... what a brilliant house rule I think I'll steal it.


i was not my idea. but i am not complaining.

Dark Archive

For me, depends on the fighter's backstory.


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If you want to raise your survivability from HP loss, take Orc.

The FCB grants you +2 on the negative CON score to determine death each level.

Combine with the "Heart of the Wilderness" human alternative racial trait for 1/2 your class level on the same score.

Then the "Resurrected" trait for another +4.

And get a Tourmaline Ioun Stone (I believe 1k Gold) for another +2.

So you can fall to CON + 6 + 2,5xlvl.

It gets more impressing with a Barbarian with Raging Vitality, but as long as your GM does not let ist Monster kill unconcious PC's, you won't have to worry about getting killed for a long time.

Plus you get all the feat and Item Options that Orcs provide, as mentioned above.

Dark Archive

Alternately, if you're more backstory focused pick one that fits your character's planned history. For example, my pathfinder society character Marak Cobbler is suppose to be Kahel's half brother. So racial heritage: kitsune would fit.


if you choose orc do you also get use of half-orc as well?

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

@zainale- technically, no... but if you pick half-orc you do get both (because RAW half-orcs count as orcs but orcs don't count as half orcs).

There's a handful of interesting options if you look at unusual humanoids... kobold racial feats include draconic aspect and follow ups like glide/breath/paragon, and scaled disciple is cool if you want to dip oracle and go dragon disciple! Giants are humanoids too, so you could take heritage for frost giant and pick up born of frost (and icy stare if you want).


For a dex fighter in light armor: Sylph. So you can fly at lvl9 for 2 feats.

Afraid of spells? Dwarf. For glory of old. Can take ironhide as well for more AC.

Want to be a tank? Tiefling. Armor of the pit (+2 AC!) and expanded fiendish resistance (5 resistance to an element). By lvl12 you'll have +2 AC and 5 resistance to fire/cold/electricty/acid. Though TBH this goes best with a human paladin, as their favored class bonus increases the resistance by 1 to a maximum of 10. So by lvl20 you'll resist 10 points of any elemental damage. It'd also be awesome RP potential. Just slap on power attack from your bonus feat and he'll be good to go!


nate lange wrote:

@zainale- technically, no... but if you pick half-orc you do get both (because RAW half-orcs count as orcs but orcs don't count as half orcs).

There's a handful of interesting options if you look at unusual humanoids... kobold racial feats include draconic aspect and follow ups like glide/breath/paragon, and scaled disciple is cool if you want to dip oracle and go dragon disciple! Giants are humanoids too, so you could take heritage for frost giant and pick up born of frost (and icy stare if you want).

Is born of frost PFS legal? Because if so...

Human Unchained Monk
Lvl1: Racial Heritage (level feat)
Lvl1: Born of Frost (+1d6 cold damage)
Trait: the one that gives +1 unarmed damage

That's just sick.


Goblin so you can grab Roll With It?

Dark Archive

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Grumbaki wrote:
nate lange wrote:

@zainale- technically, no... but if you pick half-orc you do get both (because RAW half-orcs count as orcs but orcs don't count as half orcs).

There's a handful of interesting options if you look at unusual humanoids... kobold racial feats include draconic aspect and follow ups like glide/breath/paragon, and scaled disciple is cool if you want to dip oracle and go dragon disciple! Giants are humanoids too, so you could take heritage for frost giant and pick up born of frost (and icy stare if you want).

Is born of frost PFS legal? Because if so...

Human Unchained Monk
Lvl1: Racial Heritage (level feat)
Lvl1: Born of Frost (+1d6 cold damage)
Trait: the one that gives +1 unarmed damage

That's just sick.

You know, I've long wondered just how the heck a half giant could come to be. I mean, if the mother was a human, how did they survive the pregnancy, let alone becoming pregnant? And if it's the other way, well... the phrase "hotdog down a hallway" comes to mind.


Personally? I think Aasimar is a viable choice and then pick up the wings at lvl 10 for free flight, and the ability to pick up the pull/drag of the channel feats.


Racial heritage requires selecting another humanoid race, so no go on the planetouched races.


I've seen it argued that Racial Heritage requires picking a race type, meaning you could pick "giant" but not "frost giant." Assuming your GM doesn't tilt that way, I'd go for "storm giant" or "cloud giant" and pick up Storm Soul followed by Storm Warrior. That gives you immunity to electricity and 1d6 electricity damage on all melee attacks with metal weapons. In two feats! Sweet.


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Kahel Stormbender wrote:
You know, I've long wondered just how the heck a half giant could come to be.

The best way is probably if Mom is a Giant and Dad is under the effect of "Enlarge Person" for the duration of the coupling. I mean, love finds a way.


Fuzzy-Wuzzy wrote:
I've seen it argued that Racial Heritage requires picking a race type, meaning you could pick "giant" but not "frost giant." Assuming your GM doesn't tilt that way, I'd go for "storm giant" or "cloud giant" and pick up Storm Soul followed by Storm Warrior. That gives you immunity to electricity and 1d6 electricity damage on all melee attacks with metal weapons. In two feats! Sweet.

If it was like that it'd ask you to pick a subtype, wouldn't it?


Azten wrote:
Fuzzy-Wuzzy wrote:
I've seen it argued that Racial Heritage requires picking a race type, meaning you could pick "giant" but not "frost giant." Assuming your GM doesn't tilt that way, I'd go for "storm giant" or "cloud giant" and pick up Storm Soul followed by Storm Warrior. That gives you immunity to electricity and 1d6 electricity damage on all melee attacks with metal weapons. In two feats! Sweet.
If it was like that it'd ask you to pick a subtype, wouldn't it?

Yeah, probably. I can neither remember nor quickly find the argument, though I'm almost certain I didn't dream it.


Kahel Stormbender wrote:
Grumbaki wrote:
nate lange wrote:

@zainale- technically, no... but if you pick half-orc you do get both (because RAW half-orcs count as orcs but orcs don't count as half orcs).

There's a handful of interesting options if you look at unusual humanoids... kobold racial feats include draconic aspect and follow ups like glide/breath/paragon, and scaled disciple is cool if you want to dip oracle and go dragon disciple! Giants are humanoids too, so you could take heritage for frost giant and pick up born of frost (and icy stare if you want).

Is born of frost PFS legal? Because if so...

Human Unchained Monk
Lvl1: Racial Heritage (level feat)
Lvl1: Born of Frost (+1d6 cold damage)
Trait: the one that gives +1 unarmed damage

That's just sick.

You know, I've long wondered just how the heck a half giant could come to be. I mean, if the mother was a human, how did they survive the pregnancy, let alone becoming pregnant? And if it's the other way, well... the phrase "hotdog down a hallway" comes to mind.

Magic probably. Human mother wears a belt of enlarge person for much of the pregnancy and the coupling. Human father just needs some magic assistance during the act.


Sadly, according to PFS additional resources, it doesn't seem like either giant feats are PFS legal.

One more thing to point out is Drow.

Racial Heritage (free), Drow Nobility (lvl 1 feat), Improved Drow Nobility (bonus human feat)

So at lvl 1 "You may use your dancing lights, faerie fire, feather fall, and levitate spell-like abilities twice per day. Your darkness spell-like ability instead becomes deeper darkness, which you may use twice per day."

Sure, you don't have darkvision. That sucks, so deeper darkness becomes more of an escape method. But you get four useful spells for your fighter at 1st level.

Greater Drow Nobility (lvl 3) "Your detect magic spell-like ability is now constant. You may use your dancing lights, deeper darkness, faerie fire, feather fall, and levitate spell-like abilities at will."

Very useful spells to have as a fighter, and there is no limitation for them.

Noble Spell Resistance (lvl 5) "Your spell resistance is equal to 11 + your character level.

Special: You receive a +1 circumstance bonus on Diplomacy and Intimidate checks made against any drow."

Boom. There you go. Fighters have horrible will saves. Magic is their weakness. At lvl 5, you are now rocking Magic Resistance 16. That's huge. More than enough to spoil a wizard's day. By lvl 20, you have magic resistance 33. I don't know of any other way to get something so high.

Umbral Scion (lvl 7) "Select one of the following: dispel magic, divine favor, or suggestion. You may use this spell once per day as a spell-like ability. Your caster level is equal to your character level."

As a fighter, choose Divine Favor. That's +2 to hit and +2 dmg once per day.

Improved Umbral Scion (lvl 9) "You may use dispel magic, divine favor, and suggestion once per day as spell-like abilities. Your caster level is equal to your character level."

Now you get dispel magic and suggestion once per day as well. Great for getting rid of mage defenses, which as a fighter you would otherwise struggle with. Need Cha 13 and Wis 13 though...but that's not too great a price to pay. Especially as you can pay 4000 gold to get +2 in one of those.

Spider Climber (lvl 11) Get spider climb once per day. Just one more magical tool in your arsenal. I know that even at lvl 1 I've faced enemies who have ran up walls to get away from a sword. Follow them up when they try this on you.

You've not got the ultimate mage killing fighter...and as a fighter you are still swimming in combat feats.

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