Echo Vining's page

For my home setting, I've worked up some new PC races. While I'll likely revisit them after Advanced Race Guide comes out, here is what I have for them now. I'm hoping to get some feedback on the balance of these. Other reviewers have stated that the skyborn may be a little on the weak side and the jotunkin may be a little strong. So I'm aware of those issues, but interested in hearing potential solutions.

Dji
+2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma, -2 Strength: Dji are quick and manipulative, but do not focus on physical tasks or combat.
Medium: Dji are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to size.
Normal Speed: Dji have a base speed of 30 feet.
Low-Light Vision: Dji can see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light.
Desert Dweller: Dji do not treat sand as difficult terrain, and gain a +2 bonus on Fortitude saves to avoid nonlethal damage from hot or cold environments.
Lithe: Dji gain a +2 racial bonus on Acrobatics checks.
Manipulative: Dji gain a +2 racial bonus on Bluff and Sense Motive checks.

Jotunkin
+2 Strength, +2 Constitution, +2 Charisma, -4 Dexterity: Jotunkin are massive and have an extensive oral tradition.
Large: Jotunkin are large creatures and have a -1 size penalty to their AC, a -1 size bonus on attack rolls, a +1 bonus to their Combat Manouevre Bonus and Combat Manouevre Defence, and a -4 size penalty to Stealth checks.
Giant Stride: Jotunkin have a base speed of 40 feet.
Brawling: Jotunkin have a slam natural attack that deals 1d6 points of damage.
Linguist: Jotunkin gain a +2 racial bonus on Linguistics checks and may make such checks untrained.
Spoken Wordcraft: Jotunkin using runesmithing spells replace the somatic component with a verbal component. Add +1 to the DC of any [sonic] spells the jotunkin casts. Jotunkin may apply [language-dependant] spells to any creature with a language, even if it doesn’t share a language with the jotunkin.

Laussalfar
+2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma: Laussalfar are quick of mind and body, but cold in both body and demeanour.
Medium: Laussalfar are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to size.
Normal Speed: Laussalfar have a base speed of 30 feet.
Low-Light Vision: Laussalfar can see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light.
Cold Resistance: Laussalfar have cold resistance 5.
Defensive Training: Laussalfar gain a +1 racial bonus to Combat Manoeuvre Defence.
Icewalking: Laussalfar ignore difficult terrain caused by slippery surfaces.
Strength of the Alfar: Laussalfar are immune to sleep effects and the effects of cold conditions.

Skyborn
+2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, -2 Strength: Skyborn focus their minds, often at the exclusion of bodily strength.
Medium: Skyborn are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to size.
Normal Speed: Skyborn have a base speed of 30 feet.
Atmospheric Adaptation: Skyborn are immune to the effects of high altitude.
Radio Communication: Skyborn are able to emit and perceive radio waves. Treat this as telepathy with a range of one mile, but only with creatures that possess this ability.
Technician: Skyborn gain a +2 racial bonus on Craft (Clockwork), Craft (Gunsmithing), Disable Device, and Knowledge (Engineering) checks. They may make Knowledge (Engineering) checks untrained.

Svartalfar
+2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, -2 Wisdom: Svartalfar are consummate warriors, but their wisdom is often blinded by passion.
Medium: Svartalfar are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to size.
Normal Speed: Svartalfar have a base speed of 30 feet.
Darkvision: Svartalfar can see in the dark up to 60 feet.
Deep Dweller: Svartalfar gain a +2 racial bonus to Survival checks when underground.
Heat Resistance: Svartalfar have fire resistance 5.
Offensive Training: Svartalfar gain a +1 racial bonus to Combat Manoeuvre Bonus.
Strength of the Alfar: Svartalfar are immune to sleep effects and the effects of hot conditions.

I think aeons are great, but they make me think some more about Golarion's cosmology. Where do they originate? The N plane? If so, what is that? Is there more plane around the Boneyard that we haven't heard much about yet?

I know you guys have things worked out probably a year in advance, but I thought I'd throw this idea out there for people to mull over, if it's not already in consideration.

I think it would be great to have a Companion product for planar adventuring, sort of like an Inner Sea Primer for the Great Beyond. It could have short player-friendly descriptions of the planes, feats, traits, and equipment for planewalking characters (including planar natives), and perhaps some discussion of using planetouched races as PCs, if there's room.

I suppose I should preface this with a note that I haven't actually convinced anybody to play PF with me yet (though I'm working on it!), so perhaps the actual experience doesn't warrant my concerns.

However, given that, I'm concerned about combat in Pathfinder. More specifically, one of the few things I like about 4e is that it makes fights very dynamic and movement-oriented. People move around the battlefield for better position, to avoid or employ interesting terrain, or sometimes just because they can. And since 4e has no full-round actions, the system supports such playstyles.

Pathfinder doesn't. I know it's mostly not an issue at low levels, but once people want to start making a full attack, actual combat movement slows to a minimum. My experience with 3.5 is that people just stood around throwing attack rolls at each other until one side ran out of HP.

I don't want that in my games. I'd like interesting, dynamic, cinematic combat. And I'd like to figure out how to make that a reasonable expectation, rather than having the rules tell my players it's a bad idea.

So I'm looking for suggestions on how to do this. Alterations to combat rules are acceptable, although it'd be cool if that was kept to a minimum. I don't want it to start looking like a completely different system.