Querritix System Set—Race: The Haesten (SFRPG) PDF

Race:

So, the new race here would be the haesten, who receive +2 Dex and Cha – 2Str, 4 HP, darkvision 60 ft. and a +2 racial bonus to Acrobatics and Athletics. They are Medium aberrations and get +2 to KAC versus combat maneuvers. Oddly, here, the bonus is untyped, when typing it as racial would make more sense. The glowing eyes and membranes of the haesten also provide a +2 racial bonus to Bluff checks made versus creatures that can see them. A big plus here would be that the race is actually interesting: The haesten, while known for being a race of philosophers and smart folks, do have a unique lifecycle and represent an interesting inversion: Artwork-wise, they are very much reminiscent of the mi-go, though they represent a more benign version of the classic. That being said, their hatchlings are pretty much dangerous animals. When haesten approach the end of their life-cycle, their limbs drop off and they become a brain pod – their hatchlings fuse with it and thus gain a kind of racial memory from the brain pod, though variations do occur here, meaning that new haesten are not necessarily copies of their progenitors. As you could glean from that, the race is genderless and comes with a full racial write-up, one only missing the “Playing a haesten…” sidebar that the SFRPG core races feature. I love this race from a thematic point of view – it’s a really cool idea!

That being said, the rules presented for them are slightly less interesting than the concept deserves – the concept is great, the rules less so. Hence, my rating for this component will be 3.5 stars, rounded up.

Endzeitgeist out.