Critterlings are people who have had animal parts grafted unto their bodies. These grafts give the person some useful resistances, enhanced senses, and the use of a tail. Unfortunately, in order for the grafts to function properly it is necessary for the person to receive them prior to puberty. Furthermore, the process involves years of painful acclimation. Because of this, people who become critterlings voluntarily are unheard of. They are almost always kidnapped by their creators, and usually destined for some sort of slavery.
Most critterlings encountered outside their master's homes are escaped slaves, and for them adventuring is a natural pursuit. They have no culture or place in the world, and many find them monstrous. They are durable, strong willed, and perceptive, and are skilled at a large variety of combat roles, but are not often well educated and therefore not particularly skilled in more scholarly pursuits.
Critterlings can have a great many appearances, depending on what animal parts were grafted on to them. Most have animal eyes and ears, with color varying widely based on where they came from. Some, but not all, have fur all over their bodies instead of just their animal parts. Animal internal organs are also common, providing a measure of hardiness and resistance to poisons. Most free critterlings spend a lot of time masquerading as humans, and they have some skill in it.
Racial Traits
Monstrous Humanoid (Grants 60 ft. darkvision) (2 RP)
Medium (0 RP)
Standard Modifiers (+2 Con, +2 Wis) (0 RP)
Hold Breath (1 RP)
Hardy (1 RP)
Poison Resistance (1 RP)
Prehensile Tail (2 RP)
Skill Bonus Perception (2 RP)
Integrated (1 RP)
The racial traits are explained in the ARG playtest. Thoughts? Like it? Tomorrow I'll spruce up the fluff text and incorporate it into my campaign setting. It is balanced as a 10 RP race except for the lack of a stat penalty. This is because all the other races in my campaign setting lack stat penalties. To balance it for other campaign settings, add a -2 Int penalty. Most are former slaves, and nobody likes an educated slave.
I like catgirls, and this is meant to be my take on them. It seems the best way to realistically give a human cat ears and a tail. It's also a bit tragic, and I have to admit I'm a sucker for that.
At first I thought this was some kind of alternate take on the Mongrelfolk, but then I saw it was catfolk and got reminded of my own homebrew race, just replacing the cat traits with bovine ones and linking them to minotaurs in a loose manner.
I think the racials are fair (hell, my race is at 20 points so yeah) but now I wanna know where do these kitties hang around in Golarion. They don't seem to have their own ethnic groups, so I can only wonder how the various human cultures react to them.
I switched a few things around. Now it has:
Monstrous Humanoid (Grants 60 ft. darkvision) (possesses Human subtype) (2 RP)
Medium (0 RP)
Standard Modifiers (+2 Con, +2 Wis) (0 RP)
Climb (1 RP)
Swim (1 RP)
Desert Runner (2 RP)
Prehensile Tail (2 RP)
Skill Bonus Perception (2 RP)
I got rid of hold breath, poison resistance, hardy, and integrated and added climb, swim, and desert runner. Their body modifications are usually to optimize them for a specific type of slave work, and it very often includes some sort of work in hazardous terrain. That just happens to be what animal parts are good for. Their perceptiveness is useful for noticing hazards or finding things they are looking for, their climb and swim speeds enhance their maneuverability, and desert runner allows them to work long hours with little sustenance. The tail is useful as a third appendage of sorts, allowing them to do some tasks quicker. The con and wis bonuses allow them to notice hazards easily and work longer and harder without succumbing to exhaustion. Though I classify them as monstrous humanoids, not humanoids, they still have the human subtype from having once been human.
They are designed for my homebrew campaign setting, not Golarion, but in Golarion they'd probably do the same thing they do in my campaign setting: live wherever they feel comfortable. Because they are usually escaped slaves with nowhere to go (if you are going to kidnap children for slavery, orphans are the perfect target) and they lack a culture do to being created, not born, they have no choice but to find a new home. Human reactions to them are mixed. Some think the animal parts thing is cool (despite the fact that the process requires using children, is incredibly painful, and is for creating slaves with desirable attributes), some react to them with sympathy, some see them as abominations to be destroyed, and some are indifferent. Although I created them with catgirls in mind, one could just as easily use canine parts or monkey parts or something else when creating one. They do not have to be cats.
Yeah, I certainly think of Mongrelmen and Broken Ones, not Rakasta or Litorians.
But I really like the idea. Have you thought about making it a Template instead, though -- seems like it's apropos.
(Oh, and for my personal taste, I'd change the name.)
What would you suggest for the name?
I thought about having a template, but the problem is balancing it so that they aren't more powerful than those without it. I'd have to give them a lot of disadvantages, and I'm not sure I want to do that.
Ooh. I like Amalgams. It sounds very steampunkish, and the campaign I created them for is a steampunk campaign.
I'll have their favored class options up soon. I gave modified favored class options to all the other races in this campaign (I tweaked the roles of the core races enough for the APG options not to fit), and I think the amalgams should have their own list. I believe the classes they get options for should be:
Barbarian
Druid
Ranger
Witch
Alchemist
Rogue
Sorcerer
Barbarian, druid, ranger, and witch all strike me as wilderness classes, and amalgams are usually intended for labor in the wilds (which is why they have swim and climb speeds and keen senses). After escaping slavery, taking on a wilderness focused role would conceivably be natural to many. It takes skilled alchemy to create one, so they might develop an interest in the sciences that created them and become alchemists. Rogue is another natural fit for an escaped slave, and the alchemical magics used to create them can sometimes activate latent sorcery talents.