I've been considering making a Strix character recently, and I want to know what people think of them (if anything). Has anyone made one? Does flight break the game in anyone's opinion? (Remember, any wizard/alchemist/witch can fly by 5th level, at the same speed and with better maneuverability). How are they over (or under) powered? Are they adequate for player use?
A link to the Strix entry from the Pathfinder SRD:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/humanoids/strix
Edit: I realize that the Strix's backstory and the fact that they kill humans on sight might complicate things role playing wise. Ignore their lore in your responses if you can, because I'd love to reflavor them. I don't want any "It can't be done! They're mean!" kind of responses.
I don't have much problems with flying characters. Level 5 is achieved rather quickly even if you start at level 1.
Flying has some penalties (like against gust of wind) and in a dungeon with low ceiling it is useless anyway).
Wait, didn't you already make a thread like this?
Anyway, I quote myself for once to give my view.
Edit: I realize that the Strix's backstory and the fact that they kill humans on sight might complicate things role playing wise. Ignore their lore in your responses if you can, because I'd love to reflavor them. I don't want any "It can't be done! They're mean!" kind of responses.I'm all for reflavoring to suit the needs of the gamers are the table, but trust me, you cannot avoid the posters who will attack you for "daring to question these sacred cows and attacking the status quo" like people did with those who didn't approve of non-evil orcs.
Either way, how about you go with making the flight abilities of the strix similar to those of the 3.5e race, the raptorans? They could only glide until level 5th, but even that was pretty helpful. As for their racial hatred, just make it so that some smaller communities of them are wary of humans but not openly hostile?
Ah, so the general consensus is that it would work? Yay!!!
I demand more discussion.
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I demand more discussion.
Played a Strix from 1st (rogue sniper if you must). Pretty hardcore at low levels but soon the Dm began to compensate. Besides a flying rogue makes a great fly by attack-snatch-fly away snack. Not many of those pesky paladins up there in the breeze to stop you.
Nothing game breaking really.
I demand more discussion.Played a Strix from 1st (rogue sniper if you must). Pretty hardcore at low levels but soon the Dm began to compensate. Besides a flying rogue makes a great fly by attack-snatch-fly away snack. Not many of those pesky paladins up there in the breeze to stop you.
Nothing game breaking really.
That sounds AWESOME.
I was curious about how the strix work as different classes, and the rogue was one of the first things that came to mind. I'm still wondering about warrior and mage style classes though.
If you made a strix archer character you would not have to worry about melee or other at first level and then taking deadly aim as an npc was an annoying build I thought of.
I don't think it will work with cavalier well but that is sort of obvious.
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Ok so I ran a campaign of strix Chars and this is what I discovered. Part 1: Flight (it seems to be the big one) makes moving from place to place less dangerous. For combat there are issues. If you want to fly and attack you must make a fly check or drop 10 feet so be careful you cannot just flyby and attack without purchasing feats.. this takes a number of levels, it is not a given. Your in the air (no cover) you get hit with ?whatever? you make a fly check or drop. Summons can be BAAAAAD vs you falling hurts.
Part 2: Interactions with Humans (you are Drizt) basically being a rare and unknown that looks evil things are going to treat you as if you are evil until (maybe) you act in ways to really earn trust (regionally) despite this some people are just racist and will still fear/hate you.
Part 3: Nocturnal, not as bad as it could be but... A GM could nail you on the bright sunlight thing... just depends.
Creating a Nocturnal Creature
Weaknesses: A nocturnal creature gains the weakness Light Sensitivity (Ex).(Creatures with light sensitivity are dazzled in areas of bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.)
Skills: A nocturnal creature benefits from a +4 racial bonus to Perception and Stealth checks. When inside or looking into an area of bright light (daylight spell or greater illumination), the nocturnal creature takes a -4 on Perception checks.
Part 4: Wings ok so here is the real problem and there are few rules i have seen laid out. A Strix has a wingspan of 12 feet so flight is near impossible in any space confined to less than say 15 and you cannot just hover/featherfall down with partially open wings either (In my opinion) so indoors, caves, in trees and so on you are grounded. Furthermore if you look at the picture the wings would likely be restrictive to movement so I think the Strix would have difficulty with backpacks, and similarly restrictive items, armor would be almost a no go other than custom crafted leather. Try crawling through a confined space with those wings...negatives? it's not written as such but really an obese human would likely get through a small hole easier due to lack of encumbrance.
I suppose in the end it all depends on your GM, what restrictions you might have and how s/he implements them. Personally I found the ranger and witch to be very appealing to this class. I wouldn't focus so much on this being a flying creature but rather a creature that when it needs to can fly from place to place. need to get on that roof ok. fly in combat.... well that all depends on how long i want to live.
Hm... Interesting.
Hm... Interesting.
bump.
I demand further satisfaction.
: )
I'll be playing a Strix Oracle sometime in the future, but that'll be a year or so down the road.
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16
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Dunno, but I have a player with a strix rogue in my Carrion Crown game. Early access to flight has not been game-breaking. Early access to flight does have the potential to circumvent some kinds of low-level encounters, particularly encounters involving climbing, getting across obstacles, reaching a high place, or melee opponents that lack ranged attacks or flight. Those kinds of encounters are hardly the norm, however.
Even then, unless the Strix is brutally strong, it's only going to get one party member past the encounter.
Rise rise oh form of man. . .
and let the Strix discussion begin again!
I have a player wanting to play an aasimar with flight from level one but I told him he has to follow the normal progression and would not gain flight until level 10.
After some research, I found the Strix race and suggested that to him.
Has anyone had experience GM'ing for a Strix character before?
Any horror stories that I should be aware of?
Rise rise oh form of man. . .
and let the Strix discussion begin again!
I have a player wanting to play an aasimar with flight from level one but I told him he has to follow the normal progression and would not gain flight until level 10.
After some research, I found the Strix race and suggested that to him.
Has anyone had experience GM'ing for a Strix character before?
Any horror stories that I should be aware of?
I am confused, what exactly about losing their racial spell-like (which can be very good) for a 20 foot fly speed with poor maneuverability seemed op to you?
I think you're addressing someone else's concerns. In regards to the Strix, they start with Flight 60' not 20'. 20' is only if they take the winged clipped trait.
Starting fly speed of 60' seems WAY OP to me. That is why I want to hear if other GMs have ever found it to be a problem.
If not, then I will let him play it as written because I want my players to play what they like.
Overpowered?
Not especially. Though it does make archers or caster strix very difficult to threaten at low levels. Once you reach level 5 or so it becomes less advantageous. Especially if your NPCs use potions of fly frequently. It is a cheap and very reasonable way to give NPCs a way to combat flying characters.
Early on it can be problematic, and having access to easy non-magical flight is a big bonus.
It wont break the game, but it is powerful. And it will trivialize a lot of situations that might otherwise be more challenging for a low level party.
I truly feel players and NPCs should make better use of potions. I think potions can help martial characters overcome a lot of the basic problems they encounter in pathfinder. Of course that problem is derived from the fact that no one wants to spend their gold on temporary solutions when you could be saving up for that new bigger and better +X weapon, armor, cloak of resistance, etc.
A link to the Strix entry from the Pathfinder SRD:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/humanoids/strix
This NOT a link. THAT is a URL address.
THIS is a link: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/humanoids/strix
Well, they are still weak to the (possibly) best martial strategy in the game, bows.
Jsut have your martials use the most effectve strategy (usally bows), and flight isn't so op anymore.
Build your enemies like you would a charecter-
Well made, farely powerful.
Really, in universe, I'd think most people would be spellcasters, beucase it's such a good option thst even in-universe people would think of it as the best option.
I often find it hard to make a martial charecter, beucase logically, once he saw the mage, he'd start training in that, becuase it's kinda just... Better.
I had a syrinx alchemist in one game that went to third level. His ability to fly definitely came in handy a few times, though I don't think the rest of the party ever felt marginalized and the monsters in my game stayed a threat. Then again, the player was not taking full advantage of his wings most of the time, only flying when it was necessary or dangerous; for the average fight he was happy to stay on the ground and risk getting punched in the face. I didn't go out of my way to build bird-killer NPCs, but every other encounter took place in tight caverns or indoors as the plot dictated.
The most memorable use of the wings we got was when the 3-man party had to figure out how to handle a docked viking ship, with probably a hundred barbarians. I assumed they would snag a few patrols, find out the location of the leader, and take him out when he was exposed. Instead, the party figured, "Hey, we're on a wild island! Let's blow up the ship!" So the resident owl-chemist took to the air and dropped his full supply of bombs on the galley's deck, one round at a time. The gunslinger sniped any vikings that managed to mount a counterattack (by statistics, their ranged options were limited), and the cavalier took his underwater mount and greatsword and applied both very liberally to the ship's rudder. Obviously, at 2nd-3rd level this wasn't going to be enough damage to destroy the ship, but I ruled that it did ruin their masts and steering, burned some holes in the deck, and caught a lot of unfortunate rowers in the flames--basically landlocking the vikings for a few weeks.
It was a pretty baller scene--though Mr. Owl almost took a ballista bolt up his backside as he made his retreat, and I don't think he woulda been walking away from that crash if the dice had been less favorable.
I think you're addressing someone else's concerns. In regards to the Strix, they start with Flight 60' not 20'. 20' is only if they take the winged clipped trait.
Starting fly speed of 60' seems WAY OP to me. That is why I want to hear if other GMs have ever found it to be a problem.
If not, then I will let him play it as written because I want my players to play what they like.
I was speaking of the aasimar, the only way they can get a fly speed at level one i know of is trading away their spell-like (which varies from decent to pretty good) and in return they get a 20 ft natural fly speed with poor maneuvverability
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Well, there's two parts to this:
I have a player with a 3rd level archery-focused strix in a pbp game I am GMing. They've been underground a lot so far, which probably does a lot to reduce the power of flight. That said, there have already been several instances where her flight has been beneficial.
But a racial feature being beneficial doesn't make it overpowered. It makes it...not redundant. So far she hasn't overshadowed the other PCs.I will say, though, that I think the default fluff for Strix is exceedingly dull. It basically boils down to "these people hate humans!" If I were making a strix character (PC or semi-important NPC) I'd probably refluff it as something else. I've never really been a fan of Paizo's handling of racial fluff, though.
To be fair, the strix are a throwaway race; they have less support than gillmen (to whom they share other fluff similarities - geographically limited, obscure Golarion-specific race, etc). Perhaps Hell's Rebels will give us more on them. I hope so. The "I hate humans" thing is extremely world-specific, and really needed an alternate racial trait in the setting-neutral ARG. Basically, they're so hunted by the Chelaxians that settled their region that "attack on sight" has become a prudent defense. If you want to know more, I recommend Liane Merciel's Nightglass.
I was planning to play a strix fighter (airborne ambusher/Dawnflower dervish) in a likely-defunct Legacy of Fire campaign. I took a lot of inspiration from the M:tG card Bird Maiden, refluffing the race as a half-harpy.
The strix we've seen so far on Golarion are a small group that somehow were blown across the sea from Arcadia, so may not be representative of the greater strix race as a whole. IIRC they were enslaved by the owl people from the Inner Sea Bestiary.
Someone above had mentioned the strix as being vulnerable to bright light, but that's the nocturnal bestiary feature, the strix nocturnal feature from Advanced Race Guide is just a bonus to perception checks in dim light.