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I really, really, REALLY want playable Urdefhan. I know it's not gonna happen because they're as close to ontologically evil as it gets, but I love how freaky they look and I don't care how hard they have to get hit with the retcon stick to make it work.
It does seem pretty weirdly written for a feat. I don't see why they wrote it like that when "You've merged with some junk you've found somewhere off-screen and now you get [insert benefits here] at the cost of your tactical symbiosis" is much less ambiguous. Although I noticed that the Entu only got four pages in the book as opposed to six, so I think it's possible they were rushed as a whole.
Cosmic is a type of creature There's that space butterfly from the Galaxy Guide book, they also have it. It indicates creatures who can survive in open space. Cosmic has a functional effect, it doesn't really refer to a creature's origins.
Novian and Cosmic So Novians are just... not any particular type of creature? They're just completely uncategorizable? Unlike any other being that exists in the setting?
Can anyone fill me in on what creature type(s) Novians have? I'm thinking they'd be either elementals or whatever you call creatures with the Vitality trait but I don't know whether PC ancestries having those traits is 'allowed'.
It's maybe a fun idea for a PC, but it's an awful idea for print. While in the real world there's plenty of duplicate names (I don't know that there's been a Paizo with only one James working at it since MAYBE the early 2000s), in fiction, it looks like a mistake. We try hard to avoid it, and when we forget (like when I used a favored villain name from my homebrew, "Staunton Vhane", accidentally both as the name of the Forever Man under Magnimar and then again as the major character in "Wrath of the Righteous") it looks like a mistake and/or makes people think the NPCs are related by blood, when they're not. That's a good point. I'm just going to assume that it does happen, but coincidentally nobody with such a name happens to be in the right place to be a notable figure in a published adventure.
In the specific case of the ancient Greeks and their religion I can see why they would very much not want to name their children after their gods, but as far as the fictional world of Golarion goes, where deities are real people, I think that only the ones that look down on prideful behavior would object to it, or on the other end, are extremely prideful themselves and would think the parents are proclaiming their child the deity's equal.
It just occurred to me that since lots of real-life names are derived from gods and other religious figures, it would be plausible for something similar to happen on Golarion. I remember reading a lore tidbit about how orphanages give children they take in Cailean as a surname, but I was wondering whether were any other cases, particularly for first names. (In particular, I think Asmodeus being the #1 boy name in Cheliax would be hilarious)
Pretty sure they're just a Poppet.Looks a bit big for a poppet, I think? They're the same size as the Necromancer iruxi next to them, and lizardfolk are Medium. Oh, I see. I was under the impression the necro was a kobold and basing the runesmith's size on that, but that does make more sense.
Pretty sure they're just a Poppet.
Violet, teal, and lime are very much specifically Homestuck Troll Blood Colours though - lime's a deeper lore cut, sure, but putting the teal as public service (aka: a prosecutor or cop's job), and the violet as the "designated leader" is a really unsubtle reference. If they'd used different colours I'd be much more inclined to overlook it, but they didn't.
Point taken, but what I was getting at was more that "Trolls society has a caste system based on blood color" is one of the most well known parts of Homestuck while also easily divorce-able from what made the comic stand out, which is a pretty cheap way to make a reference. Anyways, in other news, I don't think anyone in this thread has mentioned that there's going to be a shared ancestry feat system AND they're going to add it to the PF ancestries. No longer will I have to justify using a versatile heritage on a rare ancestry in order to have a decent amount of feats to choose from.
That's only two-ish colors that match up. Not to mention a real homo (which is what we serious homestuck fans call ourselves ) would know that violets are actually less supernaturally inclined than the lower castes. And they don't even sleep in cocoons full of slime.
"Caste system based on blood color" is a Homestuck reference in the sense that the Summoner class is a Jojo reference.
We are hosting a live stream today on the 6th on our twitch channel showcasing a bunch of jew information from this book and you won't want to miss it! Maybe it's not a typo. It's unlikely, but technically possible within the canon setting for one of the new ancestries to have Judaism as a major religion.
I can't believe it. We're actually getting the szandite ancestries. I was starting to lose hope.
That excerpt doesn't seem to address OP's question, if I'm reading it right. Also, I looked up the hearing aids and it looks like RAW they're for flavor and don't actually grant hearing to a deaf character.
I see. Comparing alien abductions to SA seems like a massive stretch to me, but knowing how the writers are, to die on that hill is to die in vain.
I'd imagine they'd be folded into awakened animals. As for Greys, the big problem with greys is they had the Ikeshti problem of being a bit uncomfortable in theme at times. And as a result, there was a period where Paizo said they were unlikely to come back. So making them a more acceptable brand of evil will likely be their due. Was there some reveal about their motives I'm not aware of or are alien abductions off-limits now?
I don't know what people were saying about the ayy lmaos, but the approach I was thinking of was to highlight the existence of grey exiles who'd had their memories erased. That way we could have a plausible origin story for grey PCs while still keeping their society and motives under wraps for later. Also, in my list above I realized I forgot uplifted bears. I'm wondering whether they'll be folded into awakened animals or remain their own thing.
I'm feeling the autism today so here's a list of the SF1e races native to the Pact Worlds system that haven't been added to either game's 2e or confirmed for Galactic Ancestries:
Is it not true that a level 1 PC has more skills and abilities than most NPC's? more power? This may not be a question of natural capability as they chose to focus their efforts and strengths elsewhere. Not sure if this is a reply to what I said, but if so, that's kind of what I was getting at. As it stands currently, low-level PCs of flying ancestries (sprites and strix mainly) have a more limited flight capability than NPCs of the same level, with it up to the players to explain the discrepancy. My suggestion was to make lore changes so that the level of flight a PC character has is the racial standard and adjust NPC templates to match. In the case of strix, for example, you could say that their wings develop more slowly than the rest of their bodies, so a young adult strix only being able to fly in short bursts (i.e. level one flight feat) is completely normal because they've just become old enough to fly properly.
It's too late to do so for the canon setting, but I think a better approach would be to make flightlessness the rule rather than the exception. Being able to fly in short bursts is useful enough on its own, so if I were running a campaign I'd just say that the level 1 flight feat is the baseline and being able to stay airborne forever is the kind of thing that qualifies you to become a folk hero.
Regarding the whole "creating undead hastens the death of the universe" thing, maybe it's just me, but it doesn't seem like enough of a big deal to condemn necromancy as a whole. It's pretty much equivalent to creating entropy, which, if I'm remembering my physics classes correctly, is something literally everything is doing all the time. The fact that undead arise spontaneously and can be created means that ipso facto they're no more unnatural than, say, using magic to mess with gravity.
I could get behind that. The new ancestries from the Mwangi Expanse book all felt extremely underutilized and it'd be nice for them to get some attention.
I'm excited, but I also really hope some sort of shared ancestry feat system is on the books so that they don't get overshadowed by the core races. Yeah, that's pretty much what I had in mind. Either that or there could be a note somewhere saying "this ancestry also has access to this feat, this feat, and this feat," which I'm pretty sure they did with archetypes in PF at some point. Also, as for what I'd like to see, probably ilthisarians, astriapi, witchwyrds, and ayy lmaos.
I'm excited, but I also really hope some sort of shared ancestry feat system is on the books so that they don't get overshadowed by the core races.
A little disappointed it's about the Hex and not actual tenno PCs we could play. Or just letting us run around in the origin system as normal starfinder PCs.
The announcement for this book must have completely slipped under my radar. I'm kind of surprised the Golden Road wasn't next, since I figured they wanted to start from the bottom of the map and work their way up. Anyways, I'm a little disappointed there aren't any new ancestries, although it makes sense that there wouldn't be any.
God please no. Is it too much to ask to have a little escapism? Maybe I don't want to retreat to my little fictional world after facing the horrors only for there to be horrors in there, too.
I'm guessing the orc lady and the jotun guy are the iconic commander and guardian, respectively?
Currently imagining a blind vlaka PC who doesn't get the hype around their own light powers.
Shot in the dark, but Impossible... Kingdoms of Vudra? Who knows! I'm coping so hard now.
It'd be a good opportunity for Paizo to announce a Deck of Apparitions after the book goes live.
It's the biggest racket going on anywhere. We are but lego bricks for their amusement. Is this what they call rahadoumposting?
I swear there was some line in a setting book hinting at a previously unmentioned Orc population (Or maybe Dwarven, I don't remember) in Tian Xia. I'm guessing that it was an oversight or lack of communication.
Yaoguai Unfurling Brocade Magus that used to be a robe or some other garment belonging to a celestial or the subject of a fairy tale. Unfortunately, as much as I like the aesthetic, Magi don't sound very fun to me based on what people have said about them, so this idea probably won't see the light of day. Hot-blooded Tanuki Investigator who really hates being seen as the little guy and uses illusions to expose corrupt politicians and the like. Linvarran Guardian/Fighter/something who is a total westaboo and romanticizes Avistani knights and will probably have a mental breakdown once they meet a Hellknight and realize they're just cops. May or may not be a Starlight Sentinel. And, lastly, a Quainese (or whatever the demonym is) Wizard who lost a family member or someone important in a fight between two Grandmasters and is now a huge proponent of Anti-Cultivator Legislation while studying magic to become powerful enough to actually hunt them down.
I'm sorry to the writers but the Starlight Sentinel is barely scratching my itch. They worked so hard to give us an inch and now I want a mile. I'm going to have to write my own third party book expanding on the existence of magical girls on Golarion.
Your milage may vary but I know for a fact being neurodivergent gives me superpowers. No allistic could tell you more about Five Nights at Freddy's than me and as far as I'm concerned that's a (really shitty) superpower. I like my class of choice reflecting that. But additional anchors as feats (or even just generally anchors being feats) is something I am in support of. Good for you if you like how they're trying to spin it, but I personally find Paizo gamifying neurodivergent traits to be pretty offensive. If I want to make a ND character, I'd rather do it my way.
I just made a thread complaining about how the playtest Witchwarper didn't lean into the "overt reality warping" fantasy I had in mind. I completely missed the fact that it's an occult class, but it actually makes perfect sense. Both the 1e Witchwarper and Precog were pretty occult in terms of power source and flavor, so I can see why they tried to make the 2e Warper an occult caster. But the 1e Warper's spell list and abilities were definitely more primal or arcane in nature and they basically had to throw all of that out to make it fit with the established lore. So I partially agree with you in that making the Witchwarper a primal or arcane class would definitely make it line up better with its 1e counterpart, which is more important than whatever they're trying to do with it. But also trying to force all the anchors into arcane or primal is a major stretch. The ideal solution IMO would be to give the class the arcane or primal spell lists but have it cast them as occult spells, although that could be confusing for lots of people.
Okay so first off I should probably say I'm not super into the crunchy side of things so I can't comment on whether the Witchwarper is viable in its current state or whether what I want out of the class is viable, but I read the rules for it in the playtest, it kind of just... doesn't really deliver on what I envisioned it to be. It's a bit difficult to articulate, but when I read about the Quantum Field ability, the first thing that came to mind was using it to torment enemies with crowd control and environmental manipulation. Things like altering gravity, dishing out combat maneuvers, and preventing people from entering or exiting the field. Instead, it seems like most of the utility that comes out of deploying the field comes from the paradox bonus effect and enabling some reactions. And, in general, most of the feats seem kind of... not very flavorful. The Mystic gets cool, thematic abilities like draining your own life force to fuel your HP distribution system while the Witchwarper's feats are kinda... the best way I can describe it is 'economical'. They seem to focus pretty heavily on not wasting actions or spell slots. Which is probably inherited from the Precog, but I still think makes for a pretty uninteresting feat when the same word count could be going to something like filling the Quantum Field with a high-pitched ringing noise or something. Also, maybe this is just me, but the anchor half of the Witchwarper's chassis and related feats are kind of giving neurodivergent vibes and I've gotta say I'm not a huge fan. EDIT: Read the little side note and apparently I was right about the neurodivergent themes. Please don't do this.
Misread Foretell Harm as Foretell Ham and I was like hell yeah free ham. But the actual feat isn't too bad either. Anyways, I did like the flavor of curses also granting boons, but I've also never actually played an oracle so I can't say whether or not the feature was well-balanced.
I didn't really notice until I saw the banner in the pride announcement, but it seems a little strange that there's just one one male iconic to be not cis and/or straight out of nine. In fact, I didn't even know Quinn is gay/bi/ace/trans/something else until I saw the banner. I'm assuming it's just an oversight or something, but like, some more queer male iconics would be nice.
What if 3E releases and it also has flaws? Maybe they should just skip 3E and move straight to 4E. (jesting)
It's certainly an interesting choice. My interpretation of a deity's divine sanctification options up until now was a representation of how the deity themselves views the war. So "can choose (un)holy" means the deity's goals align with the side they can sanctify but they aren't active participants in the war, while "must choose (un)holy" means they are participating and expect their followers to enlist on their side. So Hei Feng's sanctification means that he doesn't agree with the holies but will support his favorite people supporting them, or it has something to do with a worshipper's perception of their deity and not just the deity's opinions themselves.
Is the objection to the Munavri flavor based or mechanics based? I may be missing something offensive about them besides them being another group of Azlanti that didn't die off, but the mechanics were definitely an issue. The Munavri never struck me as particularly racist, but it does seem pretty lame that the only good race in the Darklands are descendants of humanity. I don't see why we can't have eyeless horrors from the depths that battle tyrants and provide aid to those in need.
Just found out about Astomoi. I think they really cooked with that one and should bring the weird silhouette people back.
AFAIK they don't actually get divine magic from Lamashtu. They could just have a victim complex and interpret her edicts in a way that validates them.
I think it'd be neat if some sort of design contest could be held for iconics of upcoming classes. Not this time, since it sounds like the iconics have already been made, but maybe in the future.
So far the new classes look pretty video gamey, although I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.
Hear me out: Fumeiyoshi/General Susumu as a bitter toxic yaoi villain couple who are really bad for each other but bond over their shared disgust of their siblings' healthy relationship.
Also, this is hopefully enough to make the Battlezoo stans pipe down.This feels a little unnecessary. It's quality work from ex-Paizo staff that the community likes - what's the problem? It's the way people promoted it at every opportunity. I asked once how to make a draconic character and got like a dozen people saying to use Battlezoo Dragons even though I was very clear I didn't want to use homebrew. Also the people saying we don't need any official draconic options because it existed.
I am literally so pumped. We finally get dragons AND they're implemented in a way that makes 5e's Dragonborn look pathetic. I'm probably never gonna play anything else once the book drops (and once I find a table). Also, this is hopefully enough to make the Battlezoo stans pipe down.
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