I'm not entirely sure which thread to put this into but I think this one should do.
In the Changeling section, it says "Claws: Changelings' fingernails are hard and sharp, granting them two claw attacks (1d4 points of damage each)."
Changelings are born of Hags but they are raised by the nearest community that will raise them. The Hags have no love for their children but don't want them killed or to have much special attention to them. If the children have long, sharp nails, they'd be pretty noticeable. Check the art for Feiya, the iconic witch for example of what have these nails would look like. She's not a changeling but the nails hex does basically the same thing.
If these nails are natural for the Changeling and pretty noticeable, people would make special note of it. They might even know what a changeling is and what she could become. A bad family might kill her and leave her to the wolves. A good family might give her to a good church where she will be protected and not be allowed to follow the call.
Seeing as this is all necessary for Hags to reproduce, it stands to reason that changelings be both rare and unknown by most people. Therefore I houserule that changeling nails are retractable like a cat's to better allow her to hide them.
Is this a fair houserule and should this be the new standard for the race?
I hate doing this but *bump*
I don't see that as a problematic house rule; my version for a lot of that sort of thing is to assume that they don't exhibit most of the features until right about adventuring age, ie it is a great excuse for why they left home to go adventuring.
I don't see that as a problematic house rule; my version for a lot of that sort of thing is to assume that they don't exhibit most of the features until right about adventuring age, ie it is a great excuse for why they left home to go adventuring.
That's interesting. My changeling went adventuring because of the "call" that all changelings feel when they hit puberty. The call is secretly their mothers trying to subtly trying to bring them home. But leaving to discover who you really are is a classic of fantasy and can make for a good character. Still seems difficult to hide the humongous nails without constant magic. This is also why I can't see a changeling martial class except natural style combat specialists.
Your suggestion though could be expanded to other pseudo half races like the Dhampir. The dhampir also usually hides their parentage and doesn't necessarily discover it until later in life. Them coming into their racial powers later in life might make more sense. It would certainly explain why a local priest never suspected them. If the powers are there since birth and the kid ever got injured, he'd be recognized immediately by the priest trying to cure light wounds. If it hits when he's an adult then he could conceivably run away and live on his own.
In a thread about Samsarans, James Jacobs said that they essentially appear as an infant without needing to be born. But in a home brew world, you could use the fluff along those lines. They feel a sense of spiritual unease until they learn of their true heritage at which point their skin turns blue.
Even the elemental races could be reimagined along these lines.
Yeah, a lot of the myths surrounding the real world mythological fey often indicated that the families knew the kids weren't theirs, but for fear of the fey (or whatever) they treated the child well to avoid being cursed, killed, etc.
I went with the idea of later development of abilities, though, for the sake of simplicity, though one could just go with puberty or any of the other rationales just as easily. The game seems to expect certain races are rare and that can be explained as the half breeds being abandoned in the woods or killed. They're rare because most don't survive.
James Jacobs gave me the official answer here.