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Pathfinder Races in Starfinder

Friday, August 4, 2017

With less than two weeks to go until the launch of Starfinder, the excitement around here has reached a fever pitch! In the past few months, we've shown off all the new races and classes, introduced you to iconic characters and new rules systems, and more. Yet as excited as we are for all the new stuff, we're just as excited to show you some very familiar things...

While Starfinder has its own "core races"—humans, lashuntas, kasathas, androids, vesk, ysoki, and shirrens—that doesn't mean we've forgotten about Pathfinder's core races. After all, what would Golarion's solar system be without elves and dwarves, or gnomes and halfings? That's why the Starfinder Core Rulebook has the Pathfinder Legacy chapter, in which it presents—among other useful information—complete racial stats for all of Pathfinder's core races, as well as updated details describing the races and how they fit into the vast ecosystem of the Pact Worlds. So while we aren't going to spoil the surprise and list all of their racial abilities or cultural details, here's a taste of what Pathfinder's core races look like in Starfinder!

Illustration by Hugh Pindur

Dwarves

+2 Con, +2 Wis, -2 Cha
Hit Points: 6

Dwarves in Starfinder still feel a keen connection to lost Golarion. They're most commonly found on Absalom Station or cruising through the void on their city-sized Star Citadel ships. Many of them are heavily involved in asteroid mining in the Diaspora, while others explore far from the Pact Worlds in what they believe is a second stage of the legendary Quest for Sky that led them to Golarion's surface. Of course, these traditional spiritual beliefs have been dealt something of a blow by the fact that Torag went missing during the Gap...

Elves

+2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Con
Hit Points: 4

Elves in Starfinder were hit hardest of all the Pathfinder legacy races by the Gap, as they proved slower to adapt and recover than shorter-lived races. After all, many modern elves were already alive when the Gap ended, and thus still have large holes in their memories where those early centuries have been burned away. What's more, their leaders have long since concluded that their race was betrayed during that mysterious period—they just don't know by whom. All of this has led many elves to retreat to Sovyrian on Castrovel, or restrict themselves to all-elven settlements or crews, their government diplomats even going so far as to wear masks when forced to interact with other races. Pushing back hard against this isolationism is the steadily growing cohort of elves called Forlorn, who choose to live among other races. Yet regardless of cultural group, whether at home or abroad, many elves gravitate toward magic, seeing in its practice a connection to their ancestors.

Gnomes

+2 Con, -2 Str, +2 Cha (feychild) or +2 Int (bleachling)
Hit Points: 4

In the age of Starfinder, gnomes have split into two distinct groups. Thos called the feychildren remain much the same as they were in Pathfinder: brightly colored, whimsical, otherworldly, and occasionally bizarre in the pursuit of their passions. Bleachlings, on the other hand, are a subrace of gnomes who split away from others when—through freak mutation or deliberate genetic editing—they somehow survived the Bleaching that still plagues feychildren. As a result of this racial split, its details shrouded by the Gap, bleachlings are more even-tempered than their mischievous cousins, highly intellectual and able to sate their search for novelty with purely intellectual pursuits. While researchers have yet to isolate exactly what protects bleachlings from their kindred's dangerous racial disease, this immunity breeds true, and so their minority is slowly growing in gnome communities.

Illustration by Hugh Pindur

Half-Elves

+2 to any one ability score
Hit Points: 4

Half-elves place in the setting has changed little over the millennia. Thanks to Sovyrian's Blood Right policy, they're welcome to live among their full-blooded kin, and account for much of that nation's trade with other races, yet plenty of half-elves feel stifled by their traditionalist relations. Many can be found operating as traders or homesteaders across the galaxy, with recent half-elven settlements including new townships springing up just outside of Verces's terminator region, or on the tropical colony world of Shanavan.

Half-Orcs

+2 to any one ability score
Hit Points: 6

While full-blood orcs are rare in the Pact Worlds, found primarily on drow-controlled Apostae, half-orcs are significantly more common, nearly always the children of other half-orcs. Sadly, not even the Gap could completely stamp out traditional prejudice against their people, and other races still often regard half-orcs as brutes, best suited to criminal or mercenary work. How the half-orcs respond to this varies. Some "steelskins" reject conventional society and seek to set themselves even farther apart from the mainstream with extensive cybernetics or other body modifications. Others decide to push beyond the established boundaries of civilization and found new colonies. While some of these colonists are content to settle permanently, others are professional pioneers, forming companies that land on new worlds as first-wave colonists, enduring the most dangerous and difficult period of a colony's founding, then selling off their land rights to "softer" colonists and starting fresh on a new world. In this fashion, some of the roughest and toughest half-orcs are also some of the wealthiest individuals in the Pact Worlds, acting as venture capitalists and patrons investing in other half-orc adventurers.

Halflings

+2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Str
Hit Points: 2

Like gnomes, halflings have gotten faster in Starfinder—no more speed penalty just for being short! Add in their natural luck, keen senses, and stealth, and they make superb operatives, though many are also charming envoys or pilots in their wandering caravan fleets. While the public image of halflings as athletes and celebrity daredevils may not perfectly describe the average homebody halfling, their cheerful, even tempers in the face of danger can turn even a workaday halfling into a hero when circumstances demand it. Of all the common races, halflings are perhaps the least likely to use obvious cybernetic or biotech augmentations, generally feeling that halfling physiology is pretty much perfect as it is.

James L. Sutter
Creative Director

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MageHunter wrote:

I actually really like the new direction with Half-Orcs. They have formed their own true race now. Like the Chelaxians formed by Ulfen & Azlanti crossbreeding.

Lies and slander. Chelaxians are the only pure heirs to Azlant

Voss wrote:
MageHunter wrote:

I actually really like the new direction with Half-Orcs. They have formed their own true race now. Like the Chelaxians formed by Ulfen & Azlanti crossbreeding.

Lies and slander. Chelaxians are the only pure heirs to Azlant

What about Taldans?

I am wondering how racial HPs are figured out....Anybody know?
MageHunter wrote:
Voss wrote:
MageHunter wrote:

I actually really like the new direction with Half-Orcs. They have formed their own true race now. Like the Chelaxians formed by Ulfen & Azlanti crossbreeding.

Lies and slander. Chelaxians are the only pure heirs to Azlant
What about Taldans?

What about Taldans? Incompetent fools who fumbled away an Empire.

[Seriously though, what about Taldans?. I can think of a hundred-eleven volumes that deal with Cheliax in some fashion. Taldor feels like a bare sketch on top of a blank slate in comparison. The only thing I really know about it is it's vaguely Victorian for no apparent reason and the clothing is absurdly anachronistic. And something something special snowflake sword guys.

Their tag in the Inner Sea World Guide is 'Decadent Failing Empire.' If it was overrun by Qadira or the Keleshites, nothing of value would be lost.]
MageHunter wrote:

I actually really like the new direction with Half-Orcs. They have formed their own true race now. Like the Chelaxians formed by Ulfen & Azlanti crossbreeding.

I guess then the Half-Orcs might just need a new more appropriate name then.

Orc-blood?

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber

Well, they are greenish, right?

Would 'Orcid' be appropriate?
Wei Ji the Learner wrote:


Well, they are greenish, right?

Would 'Orchid' be appropriate?

Fixed...?

;p

Carry on!

--C.
Liberty's Edge
1 person marked this as a favorite.
MageHunter wrote:
I guess then the Half-Orcs might just need a new more appropriate name then.

Uruk Hai ?

Liberty's Edge
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Elves know they were betrayed and Drows live / rule on Apostae

Wonder what links there may be here.

Also, IIRC, Rovagug was instrumental in the creation of the first Drows on Golarion. What links are there between its disappearance and Drows on Apostae ?
MageHunter wrote:

I actually really like the new direction with Half-Orcs. They have formed their own true race now. Like the Chelaxians formed by Ulfen & Azlanti crossbreeding.

I guess then the Half-Orcs might just need a new more appropriate name then.

They could just drop the hyphen as Halflings did and become Halforcs.

Note that nobody seems to remember what Lings were. ;)
1 person marked this as a favorite.

I have to wonder why Half-Orcs would have a name that even sounds like Orcs. After all, Kobolds are related to Dragons, and their name doesn't even sound like Dragon.

Heck, someone could argue its plausible that Kobolds are the direct (yet distant) decendants of Half-Dragon Gnomes or Halflings.

Given Kobolds have a name that basically just means "Miner" in some dead language, I'm pretty sure if Half-Orcs went the same route, it would be some dead language's word for warrior or barbarian, or maybe the name of a warrior god... Or... Maybe fragments of those works.

... like... Serks, Groms, Kenshs, Mercs, Bers, or Erals.

... Which are fragments of Berserker, Gorrum, Kenshin, Mercenary, Berserker again, and General.

Hey, for all we know, the original naming of existing races started off as slang terms for them derived from stereotypical jobs or physical features, and the races those names applied to just went "sounds like a compliment" and just kept using it, and it stuck.
5 people marked this as a favorite.
David knott 242 wrote:
MageHunter wrote:

I actually really like the new direction with Half-Orcs. They have formed their own true race now. Like the Chelaxians formed by Ulfen & Azlanti crossbreeding.

I guess then the Half-Orcs might just need a new more appropriate name then.

They could just drop the hyphen as Halflings did and become Halforcs.

Note that nobody seems to remember what Lings were. ;)

It's a corruption of Lengs, as in Denizens of Leng.

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Plausible Pseudonym wrote:
David knott 242 wrote:

They could just drop the hyphen as Halflings did and become Halforcs.

Note that nobody seems to remember what Lings were. ;)

It's a corruption of Lengs, as in Denizens of Leng.

It's a mistranslation. They are Denizens of Ling: irresistibly charming halflings from a hive society with Bai Ling as their immortal queen.

{snorts another rail of Burroughs' bug powder}
Voss wrote:
MageHunter wrote:
Voss wrote:
MageHunter wrote:

I actually really like the new direction with Half-Orcs. They have formed their own true race now. Like the Chelaxians formed by Ulfen & Azlanti crossbreeding.

Lies and slander. Chelaxians are the only pure heirs to Azlant
What about Taldans?

What about Taldans? Incompetent fools who fumbled away an Empire.

[Seriously though, what about Taldans?. I can think of a hundred-eleven volumes that deal with Cheliax in some fashion. Taldor feels like a bare sketch on top of a blank slate in comparison. The only thing I really know about it is it's vaguely Victorian for no apparent reason and the clothing is absurdly anachronistic. And something something special snowflake sword guys.

Their tag in the Inner Sea World Guide is 'Decadent Failing Empire.' If it was overrun by Qadira or the Keleshites, nothing of value would be lost.]

I have a feeling Taldor will get quite a lot of filling out in the forthcoming War For The Crown AP.

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We operate under the assumption that Hit Points are an abstraction of near misses, bruising, etc...Characters aren't getting stabbed 10 times with a sword even though their enemy rolled a hit 10 times.

So why are larger races getting more HP? If a "hit" can actually mean a "near miss"?

If a half-orc gets more HP because his extra bulk can take a beating then shouldn't a Halfling get more HP because he can avoid getting hit?

Edit: Especially in a system without racial limits where my Halfling can have the same Str/Con as any half-orc but gets fewer HP.
Liberty's Edge
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Pax Rafkin wrote:

We operate under the assumption that Hit Points are an abstraction of near misses, bruising, etc...Characters aren't getting stabbed 10 times with a sword even though their enemy rolled a hit 10 times.

So why are larger races getting more HP? If a "hit" can actually mean a "near miss"?

If a half-orc gets more HP because his extra bulk can take a beating then shouldn't a Halfling get more HP because he can avoid getting hit?

Edit: Especially in a system without racial limits where my Halfling can have the same Str/Con as any half-orc but gets fewer HP.

Hit Points in Starfinder are not exactly the same as hit points in Pathfinder.

HP are a game mechanic. The assorted mishmash of abstractions to justify them over the years... aren't really worth much.

Presumably halflings have 2 HP rather than 6 because they have other racial features worth more than the half-orcs.

And given that race seems to be the smallest contributor to HP, it won't matter that much.

The main pattern I am noticing is that Small races start at 2 hp, Medium races start at 4 hp, and races with Con bonuses add +2 to that figure. Half-Orcs seem to be the only race that breaks that pattern.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pax Rafkin wrote:

We operate under the assumption that Hit Points are an abstraction of near misses, bruising, etc...Characters aren't getting stabbed 10 times with a sword even though their enemy rolled a hit 10 times.

So why are larger races getting more HP? If a "hit" can actually mean a "near miss"?

If a half-orc gets more HP because his extra bulk can take a beating then shouldn't a Halfling get more HP because he can avoid getting hit?

Edit: Especially in a system without racial limits where my Halfling can have the same Str/Con as any half-orc but gets fewer HP.

In Starfinder, the "near-misses, bruises, etc" make up a character's Stamina, not their Hit Points. Their Hit Points are literally how many injuries they can sustain before dying.

David knott 242 wrote:
MageHunter wrote:

I actually really like the new direction with Half-Orcs. They have formed their own true race now. Like the Chelaxians formed by Ulfen & Azlanti crossbreeding.

I guess then the Half-Orcs might just need a new more appropriate name then.

They could just drop the hyphen as Halflings did and become Halforcs.

Note that nobody seems to remember what Lings were. ;)

Lings. It's only a matter of time before they show up . . . .

Do we see this kind of stat info for the core races anywhere?
Paizo Employee Developer
1 person marked this as a favorite.
MageHunter wrote:
Do we see this kind of stat info for the core races anywhere?

Stats for all the core races appear in Chapter 3.

I think the question meant anywhere in the public domain.

I would say no, based on the prohibition from reproducing large chunks of the CRB.

However, if you wanted to know about the stats for a specific race, you could ask someone who has the CRB.

I remember that the shirren page in the core book got previewed somewhere.
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Ventnor wrote:
I remember that the shirren page in the core book got previewed somewhere.

Here, perhaps?

Here's the real question... will any of the Pathfinder races be playable races in Starfinder Society adventures.
Sovereign Court
Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
Shroudmaster wrote:
Here's the real question... will any of the Pathfinder races be playable races in Starfinder Society adventures.

The word is that Pathfinder races will be available as a GM boon through the Regional Support Program.

I know this is a long shot because the books haven't even come out yet. But is there an expectation on when things like Tiefling, Assasmiar and the most unusual races like catfolk are going to be statted out for Starfinder?
6 people marked this as a favorite.
Balfore wrote:
I know this is a long shot because the books haven't even come out yet. But is there an expectation on when things like Tiefling, Assasmiar and the most unusual races like catfolk are going to be statted out for Starfinder?

Catfolk are sadly extinct, having been wiped out in the Great Furry Purge of 5050. Ratfolk were only able to just barely escape, but others like the Vanara and Tengu are long gone. My heart goes out to them.

Paizo Employee Developer
6 people marked this as a favorite.
Uret Jet wrote:
the Great Furry Purge of 5050.

Bless your prophetic heart.

Sovereign Court
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
Balfore wrote:
I know this is a long shot because the books haven't even come out yet. But is there an expectation on when things like Tiefling, Assasmiar and the most unusual races like catfolk are going to be statted out for Starfinder?

Third party support for the purged races should be available right away. This thread might interest you.

KingOfAnything wrote:
Third party support for the purged races should be available right away. This thread might interest you.

That's actually really cool, I'll have to pick it up myself down the line.

9 people marked this as a favorite.
Mark Moreland wrote:
Uret Jet wrote:
the Great Furry Purge of 5050.
Bless your prophetic heart.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Not the catgirls! How can you have sci-fi without catgirls from outer space? *ugly cries*

Balfore wrote:
I know this is a long shot because the books haven't even come out yet. But is there an expectation on when things like Tiefling, Assasmiar and the most unusual races like catfolk are going to be statted out for Starfinder?

Pretty sure catfolk are a cliche, not an 'unusual race.'

Steven "Troll" O'Neal wrote:
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Not the catgirls! How can you have sci-fi without catgirls from outer space? *ugly cries*

The Coeurl would never allow such mongrels to exist in outer space.

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Cthulhudrew wrote:
Steven "Troll" O'Neal wrote:
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Not the catgirls! How can you have sci-fi without catgirls from outer space? *ugly cries*

The Coeurl would never allow such mongrels to exist in outer space.

Well then it's fortunate that they are bound within the Prison of IP!

Can anyone give me some idea what dwarves get besides the above?
Silver Crusade
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Lemartes wrote:
Can anyone give me some idea what dwarves get besides the above?

Slow but steady, stonecunning, traditional enemies, weapon familiarity.

What those exactly mean might have to wait until the book is released on the 17th.
4 people marked this as a favorite.
Uret Jet wrote:
Balfore wrote:
I know this is a long shot because the books haven't even come out yet. But is there an expectation on when things like Tiefling, Assasmiar and the most unusual races like catfolk are going to be statted out for Starfinder?
Catfolk are sadly extinct, having been wiped out in the Great Furry Purge of 5050. Ratfolk were only able to just barely escape, but others like the Vanara and Tengu are long gone. My heart goes out to them.

For those who lost loved ones in the so called "Great Furry Purge of 5050", AbadarCorp is offering free T-shirts featuring the official GFP50 Memorial Logo. We apologize for General Tyran's actions.

AbadarCorp and all subsidiaries are hereby declared exempt from all lawsuits whose subject matter contains "The Great Furry Purge of 5050."
DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:
Lemartes wrote:
Can anyone give me some idea what dwarves get besides the above?

Slow but steady, stonecunning, traditional enemies, weapon familiarity.

What those exactly mean might have to wait until the book is released on the 17th.

Thanks. Still slow. :(

1 person marked this as a favorite.
DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:
Lemartes wrote:
Can anyone give me some idea what dwarves get besides the above?

Slow but steady, stonecunning, traditional enemies, weapon familiarity.

What those exactly mean might have to wait until the book is released on the 17th.

Most of the Pathfinder racial abilities are buried in the list given above. It might be easier to say what they don't get:

Greed: Starfinder has no equivalent to the Appraise skill, so this feature becomes meaningless.

Languages: Starfinder has standardized the language rules in a way that makes racial language entries unnecessary.

Weapon Familiarity: With a completely different set of weapons in the game, no race can keep this feature in its original form. Most races lose it completely. Dwarves get an enhanced version (perhaps to make up for them being by far the slowest race in the core rulebook).

Thanks.
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Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber

Tengu are not furry.

...just sayin'.

So clearly, they DID manage to survive, they're just chilling, biding their time, being all zen-monk in the middle of nowhere.
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Wei Ji the Learner wrote:


Tengu are not furry.

...just sayin'.

So clearly, they DID manage to survive, they're just chilling, biding their time, being all zen-monk in the middle of nowhere.

It really is quite astounding that they managed to adapt to living in a starless void.

Ventnor wrote:
Wei Ji the Learner wrote:


Tengu are not furry.

...just sayin'.

So clearly, they DID manage to survive, they're just chilling, biding their time, being all zen-monk in the middle of nowhere.

It really is quite astounding that they managed to adapt to living in a starless void.

A truly commendable feat.

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Uret Jet wrote:
Ventnor wrote:
Wei Ji the Learner wrote:


Tengu are not furry.

...just sayin'.

So clearly, they DID manage to survive, they're just chilling, biding their time, being all zen-monk in the middle of nowhere.

It really is quite astounding that they managed to adapt to living in a starless void.
A truly commendable feat.

Well, given Absalom station is a thing, creating another station out in the middle of nowhere is plausible; provided they have the magic to supply a constant supply of energy of all the kinds needed to support them.

Really, all they need is a healthy population of Mystics, given they provide Positive energy otherwise provided by the sun. Also, presumably they can provide the other energy types as well.
3 people marked this as a favorite.

You know, now I want to make a Tengu soldier with cybernetics and call them Pheonix Person.
Dark Archive
5 people marked this as a favorite.
Joana wrote:
Imbicatus wrote:
Torag and Rovagug are both gone in the gap with Golarion. Every other deity from pathfinder is still active, although they are not all core.
Huh. This desperately makes me want to run a game in a duotheistic Golarion, wherever it's hiding.

See im picturing some kind of prison break on Rovagugs side, so all the gods did what they could to contain the beast. this involved making Golarion disappear, like putting the planet in some kind of prison plane of existence but a god needed to stay behind to slow the beast or keep fighting him so he doesnt escape and Torag stayed to fight him and now Rovagug and Torag are locked in a eternal battle on the world of Golarion. Good vs evil, Law vs Chaos.

Now insert factions of mortals still living on the planet in the middle of this eternal struggle and the only 2 gods in their existence is Torag and Rovagug.
Uret Jet wrote:
You know, now I want to make a Tengu soldier with cybernetics and call them Phoenix Person.

You think Rovagug was dangerous to all life? Just imagine space goblins armed with Rick's pickle polymorph potion!

Mmmm, Pickle Rick... {drools}

HP is going to be a system mechanic rather then an actual real world analogy. I tend to view the stamina system as more of a personal force field or aura protection for RWBY fans. But I think the smaller race having less HP makes sense. Now you can factor in stuff like density or thickness of skin but also the same size cut on a hafling means vastly different things for a Half Orc. A stab that does a few inches into a Half Orc is likely to do far less damage then it would to a halfling simply due to scale. Halfing smaller ergo stab is relatively deeper and far more likely to hit something vital assuming similar anatomy.
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