Ultimate Races and Pathfinder Society

[Chernobyl]

So...is Ultimate Races going to be legal for Society play? please say no. I mean, as a judge, its bad enough having to keep up with all the new feats and classes and spells that have been released...but allowing players to come up with whatever that want regarding PC race just seems like the ultimate in powergaming.
I dunno. just seems like a bad idea.

[Talonhawke]

If it is legal it will only be the new options for existing races.

The stuff on race creation is a GM tool at no point in any game should a player just show up with a custom race. If you have an idea for one in your home game then dicuss it with your GM. But in society the book will be just new race features such as the varying favored class bonuses or alternate racial features.

[Enevhar Aldarion]

It was stated back in the playtest threads and the blog about Ultimate Races that the build-a-race chapter will not be legal for Society play. As for the main new races that will get the 6-page spreads, Mark and Mike have stated that there will be no decision til they have had a chance to review the final version of the book.

[Icyshadow]

I don't care if they allow them in PFS or not (though it seems confirmed they are not), but I am sick and tired of this hate against "homebrew" races in general. As much as there are min-maxers and munchkins around, there are also people (like me) with races that have an interesting story to tell instead of just having stats. And how has a little power-gaming ruined a game by itself? Min-Maxing and Munchkining ARE NOT THE SAME.

Munchkins make combos that let them one-shot a Balor without Saves.

Someone who min-maxes a bit makes sure his Fighter doesn't fall behind the Wizard until a certain level where it really can't be avoided.

It has little to nothing to do with race in this context, aside from the times when someone picks a race just for that one little thing in the combo, like picking a human for the bonus feat, a Kobold to make that god character in 3.5e (I wonder if it's possible to do that in Pathfinder as well) whose name I forgot or picking a Goliath because it gives a nice +4 racial bonus to Strength AND Powerful Build (and other Strength-related bonuses), and the latter racial has gained an ill reputation just because of this.

[Dennis Baker]

Building races is world building which isn't part of PFS. The race building chapter is almost certainly going to be excluded from PFS.

[Mikaze]

Heh, my concern was the opposite. I wouldn't want PFS-requirements to be a strong influence on the race building rules at all. It would reduce its usefulness as a worldbuilding tool.

[Feral]

For every player that will use the rules to make cool interesting races there will be a hundred that absolutely have to game the system.

I'm okay with losing out on the "fun" races if it means avoiding playing with or around the optimizers.

[Jiggy]

Feral wrote:

For every player that will use the rules to make cool interesting races there will be a hundred that absolutely have to game the system.

I'm okay with losing out on the "fun" races if it means avoiding playing with or around the optimizers.

You're convinced that those who abuse the rules so outnumber decent people that you'll make whatever sacrifices necessary to avoid having to share space with them?

Bitter much?

[Mark Moreland]

As we've said before, Mike and I will review the book prior to release to see what elements are appropriate for the campaign and what are not. Since the book is still months away from release, that's not the highest priority for us at the moment. As always, we'll post what is and isn't Pathfinder Society legal in the Additional Resources list on the book's official street date.