Bloodlines need options - Should not hardwire features

[Cole Lane]

Bloodlines are cool!

They just need to have a list of options rather than a few hardwired features.

MSN transcriptish thingy!

Spoiler:

tic says: Like, Khob'ael in Pathfinder would be a rakshasa with bat wings

tic says: like wtf

I say: You have to have wings?

tic says: If you take the Infernal bloodline

I say: That's silly.

tic says: and as a rakshasa I think you are obviously quite infernal

Should EVERY infernal caster abound suddenly grow wings, or would it be better to perhaps have a few options to choose from.

Rather than giving a set progression you can either have two or three options at each bloodline power level for each bloodline.

Or make a list of ten equally balanced (I know, easier said than done) abilities for each bloodline and let the player choose one every X levels.

You can add in bizarre/neat abilities as well as abilities that circumvent one of the sorc's most limitting factors: its spell selection. That would only work by giving choices at specific levels, of course. Say a Infernal sorc has a choice of wings or an aura or having Demand added to its spell list. In addition to making it an extra spell, let them access it a level early , since the primary complaint on the forums seems to be with slow spell progression.

[Anetra]

As I said on the Sorcerer think tank thread already, the obligatory wings and such also create problems for characters of races which already have wings. For instance,

A half-celestial Sorcerer with the Celestial bloodline would not get the same benefit out of "temporary wings for X rounds/day," as they racially already possess wings.
A water genasi Sorcerer with the Water Elemental bloodline would not get the same benefit out of a 30ft swim speed, as they racially already possess a swim speed.

It's essentially the same situation as trying to be a Dragon Disciple as a half-dragon in 3e, all of the Dragon Disciple abilities are modelled around turning the character "into" a half-dragon over a series of class levels. This is all well and good for a prestige class, but as a core class it limits the character races it would appeal to.

Particularly consider the results on Sorcerous NPCs. You may not have a Sorcerer Erinyes or Rakshasa PC wandering around your game, but it's entirely possible for something like this to come up as an NPC, and it would be somewhat of a shame to restrict full-blooded outsiders and the like - creatures that are wholly what the bloodline represents - from taking their related bloodline.

The Celestial energy resistance abilities are even a little repetitive with the Aasimar race, and I suspect Abyssal and Infernal may be with Tiefling as well. By level 9 they increase to 10, which is better than the 5 possessed by the Aasimar, but it remains a useless ability until then. (Not to mention this "it becomes useful by level 9" will actually be ECL 10 for an Aasimar.)

A possible workaround on the energy resistances, if making a list of equally balanced abilities (as the Rogue class) isn't plausible, would be to just have them stack with anything the character possessed racially, as it would be a shame to cut them entirely.
This same solution *could* be applied to the wings and swim speeds, increasing the speed or manoeuvrability, but characters with swim speeds of 60ft and fly speeds of 120 may be a tad excessive.