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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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I am okay with the lower hp for small races. Its pretty minor and mostly a concern at low levels and it does make sense that something half of man size would be able to take less physical abuse on average before becoming incapacitated. Given the other ways of mitigating damage in starfinder a couple less HP long term is not a big deal.

Holy smokes! My Pathfinder group breaks up so I'm away for 2 years, and now Pathfinder is in space! Awesome!!! I have a lot of catching up to do!!

Half-orcs sound a bit like Saiyans now. No home planet, prejudiced as savages, professional planet conquerors.

So... are these races gone (lore-wise), or just became rare kinds?

I mean, unless all of these were in Golarion when it vanished, pretty sure a handful of them survived, no?
JiCi wrote:

So... are these races gone (lore-wise), or just became rare kinds?

I mean, unless all of these were in Golarion when it vanished, pretty sure a handful of them survived, no?

Personally from what I read I would say they are as common as the core races...

They're still there, they're just not the most prominent.

I suddenly realize two problems with transferring my favorite race from Pathfinder without waiting for Starfarer.

...HP and Natural Weapons. The former because its... Kinda floaty as a number it seems, and you kinda have to eyeball it. And Natural Weapons because... I don't think any of the core races has them, so there's not really anything we have to compare them to.

I mean... I COULD try and compare them to the weapon tier with the closest lowest level dice that matches it, or check if there's a cybernetics implant that grants a natural weapon... But that might not be what the developers may have in mind. I'm not even sure if Natural Weapon damage is SUPPOSED to scale with level in Starfinder. Or even if you're supposed to be proficient or have specialization with them.

Other than that... Maybe whether Enchantment spells as a school are still a thing or not for the Kitsune Magic thing... But I'm probably just going to use a different racial trait.

... Also I may need to check if Alter Self is still a thing. Just to make sure Shapechange isn't broken.

I think the Vesk have a note saying they have natural weapons that make their unarmed attack lethal and non-archaic.
Grand Lodge
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Luna, did you see the third party Starfarer's Companion? It is being put together by a bunch of Paizo freelancers, and will be converting Kitsune.

Hmm
Hmm wrote:

Luna, did you see the third party Starfarer's Companion? It is being put together by a bunch of Paizo freelancers, and will be converting Kitsune.

Hmm

I mentioned Starfarer in the first line, I just dropped the "companion" part.

So to clarify, if the PDF for Starfarer takes too long to come out, I'm just going to take matters into my own hands.

... Too long in this case being literally any longer than it takes for me to organize a group after I've got my book.

I'll probably get it when it comes out regardless though. Its better than waiting for a 1st party book.
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Luna Protege wrote:

I suddenly realize two problems with transferring my favorite race from Pathfinder without waiting for Starfarer.

...HP and Natural Weapons. The former because its... Kinda floaty as a number it seems, and you kinda have to eyeball it. And Natural Weapons because... I don't think any of the core races has them, so there's not really anything we have to compare them to.

I mean... I COULD try and compare them to the weapon tier with the closest lowest level dice that matches it, or check if there's a cybernetics implant that grants a natural weapon... But that might not be what the developers may have in mind. I'm not even sure if Natural Weapon damage is SUPPOSED to scale with level in Starfinder. Or even if you're supposed to be proficient or have specialization with them.

Other than that... Maybe whether Enchantment spells as a school are still a thing or not for the Kitsune Magic thing... But I'm probably just going to use a different racial trait.

... Also I may need to check if Alter Self is still a thing. Just to make sure Shapechange isn't broken.

Here's a quick and dirty conversion of Kitsune, with (some) explanation of where I get my numbers:

Racial Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Str
nothing different here

Racial HP: 4
standard for Medium races without Con bonuses

Size and Type: Kitsune are Medium humanoids with the kitsune subtype.
there is, atm, no shapechanger subtype in Starfinder

Agile: Kitsune receive a +2 racial bonus on Acrobatics and Athletics checks.
Starfinder seems to give racial skill bonuses in pairs or trios - Athletics should help compensate a bit for the racial Str penalty, but you can change that if you wish

Change Shape: A kitsune can assume the appearance of a specific single humanoid form (a specific subtype) of the same sex. The kitsune always takes this specific form when she uses this ability. A kitsune in the form of this subtype cannot use her bite attack, but gains a +10 racial bonus on Disguise checks made to appear of that specific subtype. Changing shape is a standard action. This ability otherwise functions as disguise self, except that the kitsune does alter her perceived tactile (touch) and audible (sound) properties as appropriate, and can remain in this form indefinitely. Creatures do not get a Will save to recognize a kitsune in her alternate form.
I replaced "human" with "humanoid", because it seemed very Starfindery; I also swapped alter self with the SF equivalent (note that disguise self is an Illusion spell, not a Transmutation spell, hence the change in text)

Kitsune Magic: Kitsune gain the following spell-like abilities:
3/day: dancing lights
The caster level for these effects is equal to the kitsune's level. Additionally, Kitsune add +1 to the DC of any saving throws against enchantment spells that they cast.
I compared this to Lashunta magic and Gnome magic; I think it's balanced

Low-Light Vision: Kitsune can see in dim light as if it were normal light.
Starfinder version of low-light vision

Natural Weapons: Kitsune in their natural form are always considered armed. They can deal 1d3 lethal damage with a bite attack
and the attack doesn’t count as archaic. Kitsune gain a unique weapon specialization with their natural weapons at 3rd level, allowing them to add 1–1/2 × their character level to their damage rolls for their natural weapons (instead of just adding their character level, as usual).
Copied straight from the Vesk ability of the same name, with claw swapped out for bite.
Jimbles the Mediocre wrote:
Luna Protege wrote:

I suddenly realize two problems with transferring my favorite race from Pathfinder without waiting for Starfarer.

Here's a quick and dirty conversion of Kitsune, with (some) explanation of where I get my numbers:

Cool. Though as I stated I was planning on swapping out Kitsune Magic for Duplicitous (+2 to Bluff and Disguise). Partly cause I wasn't planning on using many enchantments, seeing I've gone Blaster Caster as Sorcerer before. And partly because I'm not sure I need the 3/day Dancing Lights as a Technomancer.

... Then again, maybe I should keep the Kitsune magic for my first game. Not sure if being less specialized is more viable in this game.
Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
David knott 242 wrote:
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.

Now that I have the PDF of Alien Archive, I can see that this pattern falls apart completely. Bigger races tend to have more hit points than smaller races, but I cannot otherwise infer a consistent pattern among the racial traits entries in that book.

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