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I love seeing the comparison in King Merlkkrep's art from then and now. It's it such a cool thing to see. I am so excited to see this released and look forward to running it with my table!
Just out of curiosity, but why don't any of the natural (unarmed) weapons, such as those those gained as a base Ancestry ability, from an Ancestry Feat, or from a Heritage option (i.e. an Iruxi's Claws ability, an Orc's Tusks Feat, or an Amurrun's Clawed Catfolk Heritage) count as possessing the trait relevant to that that particular Ancestry (such as Lizardfolk, Orc, or Catfolk respectively)? It seems like a missed opportunity to really allow a PC to focus on those kind of attacks, if they so choose. My main reason for asking is actually in relation to the Catfolk Feat, Catfolk Weapon Rake and, to a lesser degree, any Ancestry Weapon Familarity Feat tree. So the description for the Catfolk Weapon Familiarity mentions "darting slashes like a cat's claws", which I realize is largely fluff. But, when I consider the effects of something like Catfolk Weapon Rake, it seems silly that you apply the critical specialization effects to weapons similar to a "cat claw", but not to an actual Cat(folks) Claws. Arguably, the Catfolk's Aggrivating Scratch Feat would technically be a "critical specialization" effect to some degree, but it seems odd. More so when considering that the Catfolk Weapon Expertise Feat doesn't grant higher proficiency with a Catfolks Claw attack (or the Saberteeth Feat's Fangs attack for that matter). As far as I can tell, there seems to be little to no way to improve these kind of attacks, outside of very specific options, such as the Lizardfolk's Iruxi Unarmed Cunning Feat, which (from a very cursory glance through AoN) are very far and few between. The Monk Class doesn't even seem to have a way to improve these sorts of attacks at all (again, very brief glance over AoN, so I could be wrong here). I feel like any unarmed weapons which would be considered "natural" (which, for clarity, would be any unarmed attack that would physically be a part of an Ancestry's body, like a Catfolks Claws or Fangs) should also count as having their ancestral trait (which would be Catfolk for the above example). This would allow for more builds imo. I mean, even an Ancestries innate spells are automatically heightened in most cases. So why aren't there options to improve their non-manufactured physical attacks? Although, I'm happy to discuss why this wouldn't make sense to do as well. I just don't see why it wouldn't.
As the title says, I think it might be a good idea to expand on the Half-Dragon creature template and turn it into a Versatile Heritage. I'm sure I speak for many when I say that we would like to see a player option that is related more to True Dragons than some of the other Ancestries we have and will come to see. Kobolds, Wyvaran, and Dragonkin (which I expect to be playable at some point) are great, but I'd like to see something a bit more. Something that one could say with certainty that their character is related to Dragons. And with Versatile Heritages, I feel this would be an excellent time to do so; and to do so in a way that is more inclusive to all the septs of True Dragons. My basic idea is this: Half-Dragon, known either as Draconians or Dragonborn (pretty sure at this point, the name is no longer owned by WotC; given the Dovahkiin. Could be wrong.), is a Versatile Heritage applicable to all Ancestries (even Kobold, who can henceforth claim actual draconic lineage). Obviously, the Heritage gives all sorts of benefits and feat options, but what I really want to see is Lineages based on the seven families of True Dragons and maybe even some Lesser Dragonkind, like Linnorm. In doing this, they can make them feel just a bit more unique. Someone who counts a Red Dragon amongst their bloodline surely should feel different compared to a descendant of the dynasty of Sovereign Dragons in Tian Xia. Any further ideas to expand on this concept at all? I realize that a lot of True Dragons, atm, feel relatively similar; so a lot of Half-Dragons probably would as well. But with enough brainpower, we can figure something out. Some might bring up the argument of creating a completely unique Ancestry in order to keep Half-Dragon as a template. Which is fair. The ability to create draconic creatures on the fly is one that should stay. But, maybe just rename it Draconic or something.
Simple desire: I want to see a Synthesis that enables Arcane Fists from the start. Waiting till 2nd level to be a viable unarmed combatant is a bit lame, for lack of a better word. Not sure what the benefit would be, other than gaining Arcane Fists from the Synthesis. Simple choice would be to scale its damage die for hits unarmed attacks. Somethjng a bit more interesting would be to either grant a Stance Feat or grant a unique Magus Stance that plays nice with the Striking Spell action. Anyways, point of this thread is to come up with some ideas. The hope is to see it in the full release. Shouldn't take being a Human or waiting till 2nd level to be an "Arcane Monk." Arcane Fists is a first level feat after all. Should be doable imo. EDIT: Part of my desire for this is for the upcoming Fist of the Ruby Pheonix AP.
So I've recently been thinking about Paizos newest trend in Pathfinder Second Edition, wherein many of the settings creatures and people have been given their own names for their species, further separating them from other fantasy settings. With this came things like the Iruxi and the Amurrans, the names of the Lizardfolk and Catfolk respectively in their own language. We also got things like creatures being grouped together under a collective noun, creating families of similar creatures; such as Dryads and Naiads being a kind of Nymph. Not to mention the similar case of an individual creature being used to describe a particular member within their species; such as Treants being the leaders and elders of the Arboreals. So it got me thinking about the various creatures within the world and what they call themselves, how they may be group them together, and if older names may be used to further identify their species or purpose. So the goal of this thread is to not only spitball some ideas, but possibly establish a list of names for the many creatures of Golarion. ---- That being said, I wanted to dive into an idea I had for Werecreatures and their progeny, Skinwalkers. I've never quite liked the term Werecreature, and Lycanthrope is too specific; Lycan coming from the Greek word for wolf. There is however another Greek word that I think would work as a collective name for Were-creatures in general: that being Therion, meaning "wild animal" or "beast". The term is used in the word Therianthropy, which refers to the ability of men being capable of shapeshifting into animals. Thus, Lycanthropy would be a particular form of Therianthropy. The term works better for the way that Lycanthropy is represented in Pathfinder: being a curse/disease that causes the bearer to shift into the forms of various different animals, as well as hybrid forms. The word Zoanthropy is also used interchangeably with Therianthropy; Zoan being used in Zoology to form words to categorize animals. I believe Therion or Zoan would make great names for either Werecreatures or Skinwalkers. This is of course assuming Paizo doesn't just come up with their own name for these creatures. Given the fact that, at least in PF2s Bestiary, Paizo has seemingly done away with the word Lycanthropy, it's entirely possible that they will create their own identity for the creatures moving forward. If Werecreature is that identity, I'd be okay with that; but would much prefer the term Werebeast personally. And I've yet to see mention of Skinwalkers yet. So I'd probably use Therion as the proper name for them; with the Skinwalker, as well as Were-kin and Beast-kin, being used as alternatives for the heritage. ---- So what are your ideas for particular names of creatures? Perhaps Taurians is the collective name given to Centaur and similar creatures whom posses the lower half of animals? Maybe Outsiders can be re-purposed as the word used to describe planar ancestries and heritages, such as Aasimar and Geniekin. Lets have fun trying to further the world and game we all love to play. |
