I created a simple anthromorphic race once. Thunderscape has a wonderful idea on an anthropomorphic race. Unfortunately, it's really overpowered. I've wanted to create my own version of it.
http://paizo.com/companies/ericMortonPresents Has released a series called Animal Races that is good.
Dovabear!
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Eric Morton's Animal Races is a personal recommendation I would give, though I have not had the money to buy any of their books yet.
The Fursona book also has a bit of Ero in it that I would just as soon not introduce by Proxy. Two of our players are new, and the last thing I want is to show them a spell of Tentacle Rape and run them off lol.
Personally, I would take the good parts of Fursona and create my own document that my players can use without the fetish related parts that might scare them off. That is my answer to the potential issue, not even give them the book to look through.
That will probably be my solution. That, or give them a Race Builder template that cuts out all of the options that are not fitting for the campaign such as Dragon and Construct types, RP requirements to make a character Huge, and so on.
That will probably be my solution. That, or give them a Race Builder template that cuts out all of the options that are not fitting for the campaign such as Dragon and Construct types, RP requirements to make a character Huge, and so on.
That's kind of how the Ferran race works in Thunderscape. You choose from a body type (big, medium, small), which determines your ability scores. Then, you choose from a list of racial traits, like natural attacks and such. The list of racial traits depends on the body type.
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Keep in mind flying races such as bats and birds.
Birds especially I would suggest balancing WITHOUT gimping with 'fake flight' options, but instead suggesting perhaps 20 movement speed with clumsy maneuverability with feats that increase speed and/or maneuverability. Also with the understanding that since flying races are more common other races have adopted to coming up with ways to counter flight (a.k.a. anti-air tactics).
Races based on winged and flying animals should be able to fly.
I whole heartedly agree. I am allowing Tengus as a race, and they do have flight options. I'll cater some of my encounters for and against it depending on the party make up... Close quarters battles one time, the need for long range recon in another.
Hmm. Animals native to North America specifically? Okay. Time to roll back my Native American History sleeves and make a few race suggestions. I can't provide sources, but I like creative exercises and would be willing to actually write up some possible racial stats if you ask me to.
One thing to note is Native American cultures are very, very varied. I mean, American Indians have huge differences in religious practices, in where they live, how they live, in what they eat, etc. (Present tense is intentional.) So, my first bit of advice when you're drafting ideas for races is to avoid making them be too much... the same? Calling a Pueblo and a Huron the same back in the day would have been like calling an Englishman and a German the same.
Just compare these housing differences. These are all images I quickly snagged from the internet. Housing alone can vary massively between these cultures. These are examples of houses from Canada, from the eastern woodlands, from the southwest, and... yeah, basically, keep in mind these kinds of differences. I'll stop rambling on that topic.
So, here are animals I'd look at...
1) Coyotes. Dude, Coyotes are a HUGE part of a LOT of Native American myths. They also have perfect flavor for a trickster race if you go with that flavor; Coyote is frequently shown as a cunning, trickster-like character (and sometimes as a wise man, true). You want Coyotes.
2) Rattlesnakes are native to the Americas, so you may want to look at reskinning Yuan-Ti, Lizardfolk or Vishkanya. I think this is a good animal to base a race off. Plus... seriously, think of the racial abilities you could apply to the rattles. Perhaps they can use their rattles to perform intimidate actions against a group of enemies rather than just one at a time?
3) Bears. Bears also have a place in several Native American myths from different cultures. One story that I recall is about a human girl that marries a bear which angers a deity figure which causes the bears to be punished, etc. They also provide you with a strength and constitution based race, or constitution and wisdom. You'll want that.
4) Eagles and other large predatory birds would work. The Thunderbird is a mythological creature with roots in Native American lore. You could tap into that pretty easily. In a homebrew setting of mine a friend and I actually made a rain deity (domains: air, liberation, glory, weather) that steals water from the water goddess to make rain. This deity is a Thunderbird. Just an example of what you can do with this mythological creature.
5) Ravens come up fairly often in Native American mythologies.
6) Foxes have their place, too. Arctic foxes would be a good choice if you wanted to have a snow-themed race.
7) This isn't a specific animal, but the Inuit people have this idea that everything has a soul. There's a good summary of this in the game Never Alone. You should get some use out of it by using this to create a race of the ghosts of things that weren't "people" in the setting you're making.
These are the first ideas that came to my head. There's plenty of other choices available, obviously.
I disagree with JonathonWilder. Giving flight at low levels is overpowered and somewhat broken. A slow, clumsy flight doesn't offset any of the upsides of having flight.
The most common trap I see in designing races on this forum comes from the designer forgetting that PC races are not monsters. A PC gains all of their power from classes whereas monsters gain their power from racial Hit Dice. As a result, each PC race needs to be designed with abilities appropriate for a 1st level character. At-will flight is not appropriate for a 1st level PC because it's a 9th level ability.
Giving flight to a humanoid bird does not make much sense, anyway. They're not animals. Tengus and many anthropomorphic characters in fiction cannot fly. Gliding wings and offering a flight as a 9th level feat works out. Alternatively, you could have a racial trait that scales with level: begins as gliding wings, functions as the witch's Flight hex at 5th level, and then an at-will fly speed at 8th or 9th level.
Rite Publishing In the Company of Henge offers hengeyokai - furry humanoids in a variety of species: monkey, hare, raccoon dog, dog, cat, and badger. These are shapeshifters that can appear as one human individual (they can't make themselves look like any human, but one of example each).
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I disagree with JonathonWilder. Giving flight at low levels is overpowered and somewhat broken. A slow, clumsy flight doesn't offset any of the upsides of having flight.
And I disagree with you Cyrad, as I have seen flying races work and it isn't over powered. More, both in fiction and media you have had flying races.
Yet if you insist, perhaps flying races can be given glide and over time gain enough strength in their wings and skill to use them to actually gain proper flight. Another option is having it bea limited resource, as flying can be both tiring and after a while the wings would need rest. One shouldn't be able to fly 24/7 just as you can't walk or run for an unlimited amount of time.
Still, I believe that no it is not overpowered or somewhat broken. You have anthromorphic bird races they should be allowed to fly at first level! I would't care if 'Fly' is a 9th level spell... but it isn't. In truth fly is a 3rd level spell.
The tengu in In the Company of Tengu have no flight start (if taking Hishoken, the tengu racial paragon class) gains glide at 5th level and eventually flight at 10th level. So I agree races who get flight before 6th level is a bit too overpowered for most games
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Flight: Able to fly for a number of minutes equal to level + Dex or Str modifier, whichever is higher. This ability starts at clumsy maneuverability and a speed of 20ft fly, the race may only fly in light armour and when carrying a light load. The race loses the ability to fly if wearing medium or heavy armour and if they have heavier then a light load. Lastly, during combat the character must pass a concentration check.
Speed and maneuverability can be increased by the proper racial feat, as can allowing heavier loads and armours. Perhaps other feats related to flying can be considered.
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In my eyes, this would be fair. Allowing flight, but not unlimited flight and with penalties. Of course, these penalties most strongly apply only if the DM enforces encumbrance rules and requires player to take necessary feats to improve flight.
I'm not tooting out random opinions here, either. The game is benchmarked assuming PCs will not receive flight prior to 5th level and generally cannot do it semi-at-will until 9th level. Giving flight before those levels makes the character more powerful than normal for Pathfinder content.
Flight: Able to fly for a number of minutes equal to level + Dex or Str modifier, whichever is higher. This ability starts at clumsy maneuverability and a speed of 20ft fly, the race may only fly in light armour and when carrying a light load. The race loses the ability to fly if wearing medium or heavy armour and if they have heavier then a light load. Lastly, during combat the character must pass a concentration check.
Speed and maneuverability can be increased by the proper racial feat, as can allowing heavier loads and armours. Perhaps other feats related to flying can be considered.
--------------------In my eyes, this would be fair. Allowing flight, but not unlimited flight and with penalties. Of course, these penalties most strongly apply only if the DM enforces encumbrance rules and requires player to take necessary feats to improve flight.
Having it be a once per day helps. Perhaps with a feat that will let you use the ability in 1 minute increments at later levels. However, that rules text there needs a lot of work. The limitations with armor are messy. Why would you need a concentration check?
Honestly, the best things I've seen with a flying-on-low-level-characters is...
1) Glide.
2) You can fly but you can't wield weapons or attack while flying.
If 2), you get to pass certain obstacles like... bridges... I guess. Hoorah? OP? No, I don't think so. Most times that I see 2), it doesn't come with the "or attack" clause, just the weapons one.
Here is my take on wings from Leveled Mutations...
14: Wings. Class Skill Fly. The Mutant grows wings and the muscles to use them. Armor costs 50% more, but GM may allow magic armor to adjust.
1st level: Can glide, downhill unless there is an updraft.
3rd level: Fly speed 10, maneuverability poor.
5th level: Fly speed 20, bonus flying feat(even one normally available to monsters).
7th level: Fly speed 30, maneuverability average.
9th level: Fly speed 40, bonus flying feat.
11th level: Fly speed 50, maneuverability good.
13th level: Fly speed 60, bonus flying feat.
15th level: Fly speed 70, maneuverability excellent.
17th level: Fly speed 80, bonus flying feat.
19th level: Fly speed 90, can hover.
Sorc. Bonus spells 3rd-Mage hand, 5th-Feather Fall, 7th-Gust of Wind, 9th-Wind Wall, 11th-Fly, 17th-Control Weather, 19th-Wail of the Banshee.
It's based on sorcerer bloodlines but you could allow flyers to control the weather by herding clouds and such.
Iron or other heavy metallic armor would make flight impossible, unless magicked to be almost weightless.
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2qkwf?Leveled-Mutations#30
Here you go Leveled Mutations..
In the 80s, a friend ran a NA game with anthro-humanoid variations of stock races (dwarf/wolverine, elf/deer, halfling/squirrel) only with serious deviations in terms of abilities. His coyote race was geared towards wisdom being the key stat. When he ran 3.0, he remade the races with rogue being their favored class. They had a racial ability to use wisdom as a base for anything up to their level times per day. Their clerics could only take the Coyote god and only got the Trickery domain. They got light armor and Rogue skill numbers and SA and Evasion.
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I'm not tooting out random opinions here, either. The game is benchmarked assuming PCs will not receive flight prior to 5th level and generally cannot do it semi-at-will until 9th level. Giving flight before those levels makes the character more powerful than normal for Pathfinder content.
Having it be a once per day helps. Perhaps with a feat that will let you use the ability in 1 minute increments at later levels. However, that rules text there needs a lot of work. The limitations with armor are messy. Why would you need a concentration check?
Once per day starting up perhaps, tweaking the number of minutes can also be considered, though perhaps with a feat have it that the flying could be used more often. At the moment I am not exactly certain about the 1 minute plus modifier as at first level that would at best be six minutes with each level offering one more minute. Perhaps having it that the number on minutes increases by two plus modifier at each level.
On armour and encumbrance the idea was that too much extra weight messes with the ability to fly, that any more then light armour and encumbrance would be too much... without the proper training and level in which can then be shown by paying a feat. Another consideration is as an additional cost, in creating armour specially fitted for flyers.
It could use rewriting though as it was just a quickly created draft, if you have suggestions for such I am willing to hear them. As two, writing out a much fuller and self contained set of rules for flying races.
The reason why there is the bit involving concentration checks is because I had the though that a flying race would be dividing his attention between flying and, most likely, fighting in some way whether with a weapon or with spells. The idea was that trying to concentrate on flying and attacking would require passing a concentration with perhaps Fly check well just to stay in the air. Failure would mean a botched attack or falling to the ground.
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Flight can work I believe, one just needs to consider there being limitations or challenges involving flight that can only be overcome as one goes up in level by taking feats and investing in the Fly skill. That it doesn't have to be overpowered or unworkable at low levels or even first level.