A new day calls for a new kind of hero. The Book of Heroic Races brings you new and balanced races to play in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. From deep within the woods, the tree-like seedlings defend their territory against savages and monsters. The strength of their wooden bodies and the power of their divine magic shall prove true in your hands.
This 26-page PDF details the seedling race, their unique fighting styles, and their magical abilities. Download this unique race to enhance your world and your game.
Written by Marie Small
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Like every other race product I buy Seedlings came from a need. I needed a plant race for a homebrew setting and picked up this book with hopes that I could deliver a satisfying race for the game. So how did this do?
Pretty good actually. The basics are there like Alternate traits and favored class options, plus the race itself is non disruptive and balanced. But this delivers in all kinds of ways. There is a TON of fluff, talking about their magic, technology and art. Even if I didn't use all of it, the fluff inspired a lot of my final write up and influenced my setting. Seriously the fluff is amazing and incredibly useful. There are racial archetypes, a prestige class, racial feats, racial equipment, deities, spells and even NPCs. This book gives you a lot to work with, from fluff to mechanics, and I loved it as opposed to the Ghoron race from the Inner Sea Bestiary. This is my go-to plant race right now. Five stars.
This pdf is 26 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC/introduction, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 21 pages of content, so let's take a look!
Kicking off with in-character journal entries that depict the life of one of the race of seedlings, thois book introduces us to the new race called Seedling: These beings get +2 to Con, +2 to Wis, -2 to Dex, low-light vision, +1 natural AC, +2 to con to avoid suffocation, drowning and starvation as they can draw sustenance from photosynthesis, can as a standard-action treeshape (and gain tremorsense 30 ft.), +2 to saves versus mind-affecting effects and paralysis, and 1/ day speak with plants. As you may notcie, seedlings get the distinct fluff of being plant-like creatures and appropriate benefits wthout succumbing to gaining the subtype and its associated benefits, going thus a similar route as RiP's Ironborn did for constructs. If you want more alien plant-beings, I'd point you to Purple Duck Games' Fehr's Ethnology: Xhesa.
The race is extremely detailed and up to current rules-developments: From favored class options, alternate racial traits (which include resistance to fire and electricity, having thorns, hailing from the underdark with darkvision and burrow speed and resistance to disease and poison) to favored class options, all niches are covered. Better yte, I don't have anything to complain about!
In stark contrast to many race-supplements, we get quite extensive pieces of information on seedling-culture-lore and land and of course, also on their takes regarding other races and classes - two thumbs up for these avidly and well-written pieces that make the race stand out and feel integrated into a campaign world, not just some addition. The race also gets two racial archetypes, with the first being the Switcher, a fighter that uses the new weapon of the seedlings, the signature switch whip (which is essentially their hair) and allows it to be used to inflict bleeding damage, ooze a poison that makes its victims flat-footed, grow razor-sharp leaves on the head etc. VERY COOL! The second archetype, the tree spirit druid, is extremely adapt at scrying via trees by focusing senses into trees - again, very cool!
The race also gets an exclusive PrC, the negotiator. The PrC gets d8, 6+Int skills per level, 3/4 BAB and medium will-saves as well as a gamut of abilities that allow them to form binding aggreements and make them superb "face"-style negotiators. Nice! The 9 new feats allow seedlings to further expand their switch whip powers and also do some interesting things via their rooting-ability, allowing them to better weather assaults and also increase their healing/photosynthesis.
Beyond aforementioned switch whips, we also get a new armor, glow moss and a serum the seedlings use for ritual scarring and healing. Beyond these crunchy bíts, we also get a massive genesis-story told in captivating prose, a write-up of their 4 deities (with appropriate domains, subdomains and mysteries - nice indeed!) and 4 cool new spells, themed for plants and seedling flavor and anatomy. Among the new magic items we get explosive seeds, the dread aurora pendant, heartwood, two iconic artifacts (one of which can grow a forest - over night!) and even more:
5 fluff-only community-write-ups (I.e. no settlement-blocks, but ideas galore) provide further ideas for GMS and players alike to capitalize on and the write-up also features extensive advice for DMs to fit this race into a campaign.
Finally, the pdf includes 4 sample seedling characters, using the content herein, all ready to be dropped into your game and spanning CR 1/2 to Cr 14.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are impressive, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to a printer-friendly b/w-no-frills 2-column standard and the pdf comes with extensive nested bookmarks. The pdf also features gorgeous b/w-artworks, all of which are original and up to the cover's excellent quality - two thumbs up! Finally, we also get herolab-files for the seedlings.
If you're following my reviews on a regular basis, the you know that races are a hard sell on me: I require interesting cultures, solid, well-balanced rules and a place and reason to exist in a given world for a race to be even considered for making an appearance in my game. Seedlings did it. This race is interesting and feels alive, with their unique cultural items, the great prose and the balanced, well-crafted rules, we have an excellent supplement for a great new race that is perhaps one of the best takes of a floral playable race I've seen so far. Iconic, full of details and cultural tidbits, this supplement misses nothing and is a joy to read as well. Congratulations to author Marie Small for a thoroughly enjoyable, well-made race. My final verdict is rarely seen upon race-pdfs, but here it is justified - with every little component feeling balanced and like it brings something to the table, I feel justified in giving this 5 stars + my seal of approval.
Just a quick update. I just updated the PDF to include the Treat language. Again, thank you for the idea Lastbook. Also Steev and I are in the process of error checking the Hero Lab file. I'd say that it would be done and uploaded early next week but I'm going to be away from my computer with Hero Lab on it for much of the week. So look for it late next week, Halloween at the latest.
I just updated the Book of Heroic Races: Seedlings to include the Hero Lab file, v0.9. Now you can integrate your seedling character with ease into your Pathfinder game, using your favorite gaming software. Download this fun and exciting race today.
Just picked this up and I am really in love with this race. I've been disappointed many times by plant based races, but I look forward to trying this out in my groups next session. With that being said, I do have a few questions and critiques involving the "Switcher" archetype.
1.)How does one enchant a switch? It can't really be made masterwork as far as I can tell ,and it doesn't qualify as a natural weapon for the purpose of Amulet of Mighty Fist.
2.) It seems odd that the "Switcher" archetype would receive Weapon Finesse when the race has a Dexterity penalty. Why that over Weapon Focus (Switch)?
I really do love this book so far and I can't wait to use it in play. Thanks for doing such a great job!
1: At least in my game, I've ruled that they can be enchanted and made masterwork via the usual item-creation rules - think about the seedlings using salves and lotions of mandragora, yellow musk petals and lotus and massaging them into their hair. (These are expensive, hence the masterwork cost...) There's nothing in the weapon that would be too powerful or preclude them from being further improved, at least in my book.
Re 2: Probably due to the archetype being more the agile trick fighter; The designer would have to answer that, though I'd allow for the substitution of Weapon Focus (Switch).
Thanks for the opinion Endzeitgeist! I talked to my gaming group about implementing the same system for masterworking/magic crafting when I first bought the book, I just wasn't sure if the designers had any ideas on it. For now we'll keep that system in play. It will hopefully lead to some fun side quests when I need special herbs to achieve certain effects. Thanks again!!
This is a crazy good book! I love how there is so much lore incorporated into it in addition to the mechanics. It's also cool how the lore and mechanics fit so well together. Great job!
