Adopted Trait


Rules Questions


Just so I'm clear on how it works, by taking the Adopted Trait, does it work as being allowed a third trait, or are you still only allowed two? And could you take any trait from any category with a race requirement like the Combat trait Excitable, or only from the Race trait category?


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Adopted grants you one Race Trait. Technically that would give you three Traits (Adopted, the Race Trait, and the other one that you picked), but since Adopted doesn't do anything except grant you the Race Trait you might as well have two Traits.


You still only get two traits (three if you take a drawback) using the standard rules. The race trait gives you an "extra" one, but it's more like in place of the adopted trait.

Adopted: You were adopted and raised by someone not of your race, and raised in a society not your own. As a result, you picked up a race trait from your adoptive parents and society, and may immediately select a race trait from your adoptive parents' race.

Can't take a combat trait with a race requirement; must be a race trait.


yes you would have 3. adopted trait, parent race trait, other trait


Ok, so you technically have 3 traits, good to know. I might take Adopted if I see a good race trait for my character.


A half-orc can take a human or orc trait without taking Adopted, right?


yep since an half-orc is considered orc and human for any thing, race trait/archetype/feat/bane/spell effect/etc.


Cool. I'm looking through the Race Traits now. I'm up to H. Apparently there are 2 race traits just for half-elves that do the exact same thing. Seriously, the only difference is their names.

Sovereign Court

Which half-elf traits are those? I'm not aware of them.

A half-elf racial trait that lets you pick another racial trait would actually be very good. Adopted is a social trait, so if you take it you can't take another social trait. But there are very good traits in the social category.


Ascalaphus wrote:
Which half-elf traits are those? I'm not aware of them.

My guess would be Ekujae Reflexes and Elven Reflexes. I wouldn't be surprised if the latter was written to be a more generic reprint of the former.

Scarab Sages

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Funny. My Half-elf with Elven Reflexes is an Ekujae.


Yes, those are the identical traits. I want to go through all of the lists, but there are just too many! So I decided not to look through family, region, religion, mount, faction, or campaign lists. I don't know if I'm going to take Adopted. I'm noting down all the traits I really like for my character so I'll only take Adopted if I really want a specific race trait that a half-orc can't take.


you know instead of taking a social trait to gain a race trait you can always take a human feat (can take it since you are an half-orc ;) ) that make you also member of a specific humanoid race (like storm giant or ogre or elf or drow or dwarf or duergar, etc) so you can take another good social trait and take a race trait for that race and also related achetype/feat/bane/etc. the feat name is Racial Heritage


So half human half orc half something else?

Math checks out.


I could take that, but that would eat up my feat until level 3. Half-Orcs don't get a bonus feat at level one the way humans do.

Scarab Sages

Heather 540 wrote:
Just so I'm clear on how it works, by taking the Adopted Trait, does it work as being allowed a third trait, or are you still only allowed two? And could you take any trait from any category with a race requirement like the Combat trait Excitable, or only from the Race trait category?

3.

Remember that Adopted is a Social Trait, so taking Adopted will prevent you from taking another social trait. And the related Race Trait, remains a Race Trait, so you can't use Adopted to gain a second Race trait.


I know. But I'm leaning towards a Combat trait anyway, so it all works out if I take Adopted.


Hey, don't you also get your parents' race languages if you take Adopted? Like a half-orc can't speak halfling, but he can if he was raised by halflings through the Adopted trait?


There's no rules on it, but if you were Adopted, your GM might require your half-orc to get common and halfling, rather than common and Orc. But it would be a house rule (granted, one that makes sense story wise).

RAW: You only get Orc/Common even if you are adopted.


Got it, thanks.


I'd certainly allow a trade in of native languages. On a strict across board trade. It's perfectly fine.

It would certainly not be an additional language to those already known.


I like Adopted and Excitable as the race trait.
Too many adventurers have grown up having been bullied as a child.


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Spacelard wrote:

I like Adopted and Excitable as the race trait.

Too many adventurers have grown up having been bullied as a child.

You should see how many paladins are found out in the woods by fairies.

Just slightly less then how many half orc bastards are suddenly favoured by fate the moment they start to self mutilate.


Murdock Mudeater wrote:
Heather 540 wrote:
Just so I'm clear on how it works, by taking the Adopted Trait, does it work as being allowed a third trait, or are you still only allowed two? And could you take any trait from any category with a race requirement like the Combat trait Excitable, or only from the Race trait category?

3.

Remember that Adopted is a Social Trait, so taking Adopted will prevent you from taking another social trait. And the related Race Trait, remains a Race Trait, so you can't use Adopted to gain a second Race trait.

Excellent points.


Spacelard wrote:

I like Adopted and Excitable as the race trait.

Too many adventurers have grown up having been bullied as a child.

excitable is not a legal choice that is a combat trait and not a race trait.


Well, I decided not to take Adopted for my half-orc inquisitor. I took the faith trait Fate's Favored to boost the alternative racial trait Sacred Tattoo, and the race trait Weapon Training. Since it's a human trait, my half-orc didn't need to take Adopted for it.

My inquisitor is finished, I redid my monk, and am now redoing my druid.

Scarab Sages

Heather 540 wrote:

Well, I decided not to take Adopted for my half-orc inquisitor. I took the faith trait Fate's Favored to boost the alternative racial trait Sacred Tattoo, and the race trait Weapon Training. Since it's a human trait, my half-orc didn't need to take Adopted for it.

My inquisitor is finished, I redid my monk, and am now redoing my druid.

Weapon Training is Humans with the Ulfen Ethnicity. Are you able to take ethnicities as a half-orc?


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Murdock Mudeater wrote:
Heather 540 wrote:

Well, I decided not to take Adopted for my half-orc inquisitor. I took the faith trait Fate's Favored to boost the alternative racial trait Sacred Tattoo, and the race trait Weapon Training. Since it's a human trait, my half-orc didn't need to take Adopted for it.

My inquisitor is finished, I redid my monk, and am now redoing my druid.

Weapon Training is Humans with the Ulfen Ethnicity. Are you able to take ethnicities as a half-orc?

Is there a reason that a half-orc from ulfen parent wouldn't count as ulfen? Is there a reason a halfling from ulfen lands wouldn't be an ulfen ethnicity halfling?


Murdock Mudeater wrote:
Weapon Training is Humans with the Ulfen Ethnicity. Are you able to take ethnicities as a half-orc?

I don't see why not. You could just say that one of your parents was human of the Ulfen persuasion and I grew up in that culture, and justify it that way.

Silver Crusade Contributor

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Plus, the Lands of the Linnorm Kings are home to one of the biggest enclaves of half-orcs (Averaka), so it's not like they're not from around there.

Scarab Sages

Chess Pwn wrote:
Is there a reason that a half-orc from ulfen parent wouldn't count as ulfen? Is there a reason a halfling from ulfen lands wouldn't be an ulfen ethnicity halfling?

The way it's written, ethnicities seem like a human-only option, mechically speaking. That's why I asked. Not sure what the intention here is.

The Winter Half Orcs, or Frostkin, are listed as potentially having "Ulfen ancestry" but they are not listed ethnically ulfen. This is a subrace of half orc, but not an enthnicity.

Regarding the Halfling, the link I have says "Human-Ulfen" for the requirements of this trait, so even if a halfling can be ulfen, the wouldn't qualify. Link might be wrong.


But if it is mechanically a human only thing then it doesn't matter. Half orcs are mechanically human, right? It's what allows all sorts of other things, like picking their favored class bonuses and feats.

Scarab Sages

Sah wrote:
But if it is mechanically a human only thing then it doesn't matter. Half orcs are mechanically human, right? It's what allows all sorts of other things, like picking their favored class bonuses and feats.

Maybe. Totally not sure. Seems weird that Half-Orc has options at all, if they are also eligible for both human and orc items too. Why not just require human + orc, instead of making a seperate half-orc group? Dunno, confusing.

As GM, I wouldn't push this one either way, since I'm just confused on it. Not sure that it really matters much, either.


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Regional race traits for humans seem human only. Half elves and half orcs should qualify. Halflings shouldn't unless they take adopted.

Liberty's Edge

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Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Keep in mind the PFS clarification about the Gnome traits in the Companion book, as they were "Racial" traits that was sorted into the basic trait catigories. One can take one of the Gnome social traits with Adopted from that book if your GM would allow for the Clarification (or your playing PFS)

This would be/is an exception to the normal rule.


It's always a good idea to choose your traits based on the type of game that you're playing in, specifically as it pertains to the environment. In the city, urban based traits are useful. Campaign based traits are always useful for their specific campaign and so on and so forth.

If you just want some utilitarian traits, things like armor master and reactionary give useful bonuses.

Scarab Sages

Brother Fen wrote:

It's always a good idea to choose your traits based on the type of game that you're playing in, specifically as it pertains to the environment. In the city, urban based traits are useful. Campaign based traits are always useful for their specific campaign and so on and so forth.

If you just want some utilitarian traits, things like armor master and reactionary give useful bonuses.

I hate that PFS bans campaign traits. Especially Peg Leg, from Skull and Shackles, just an awesome trait.

For utilitarian traits, I often take Muscle of Society (+2 Str for carry weight), which can be extremely helpful for low Str characters.


Murdock Mudeater wrote:
Brother Fen wrote:

It's always a good idea to choose your traits based on the type of game that you're playing in, specifically as it pertains to the environment. In the city, urban based traits are useful. Campaign based traits are always useful for their specific campaign and so on and so forth.

If you just want some utilitarian traits, things like armor master and reactionary give useful bonuses.

I hate that PFS bans campaign traits. Especially Peg Leg, from Skull and Shackles, just an awesome trait.

For utilitarian traits, I often take Muscle of Society (+2 Str for carry weight), which can be extremely helpful for low Str characters.

Any time the GM allows it I get tattoo's of Muleback Chords and Heavy Load Belt. Then any character can haul a moose on their back. :) If they don't allow tattoo's, I try to stack the same enchantments on the cloak and belt items. If they don't allow either, I usually find a new GM. While it's fun for me, it's not very powerful for the cost, and usually I find GMs that are that inflexible don't run very good games.


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Murdock Mudeater wrote:
Brother Fen wrote:

It's always a good idea to choose your traits based on the type of game that you're playing in, specifically as it pertains to the environment. In the city, urban based traits are useful. Campaign based traits are always useful for their specific campaign and so on and so forth.

If you just want some utilitarian traits, things like armor master and reactionary give useful bonuses.

I hate that PFS bans campaign traits. Especially Peg Leg, from Skull and Shackles, just an awesome trait.

For utilitarian traits, I often take Muscle of Society (+2 Str for carry weight), which can be extremely helpful for low Str characters.

Well, in their defense, campaign traits tend to be much more powerful than regular traits, albeit often geared toward the campaign itself.


Yes that's very true. If they were always allowed some would be vastly overpowering. Some function as much as a feat or even more.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Yeah, like trap finder from Mummy's Mask. It's a trait (+1 to DD, DD is a class skill) plus part of a class feature (trapfinding).


In my current campaign, Iron Gods, my archaeologist Bard took a campaign trait, but the only benefit it really gave was letting my character speak Androffen. When she died and I had to make a new character, I didn't even bother going with the campaign traits and took ones that boosted my Will and gave me a damage boost while flanking. They go along nicely with my Outflank and Pack Flanking feats.


Cavall wrote:
You should see how many paladins are found out in the woods by fairies.

Which should make you wonder what the First World is so afraid of that they consistently kidnap and brainwash humanoid babies; influencing them to be paladins later in life...

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