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It begins. The (hopefully) long awaited playtest for more Bloodforge!
The first Bloodforge was a fun little book involving lots of crossbreeds, prestige classes, feats, and monster templates. Bloodforge Infusions will expand on a lot of ideas and themes presented in Bloodforge while also providing its own spin on things. The new races won't all be crossbreeds. In fact, most of them are not crossbreeds. Definitely less brain bleach required.
You can find the playtest document here!
Right now you'll find the following six new races:
Alafia—desert-dwelling superstitious viper folk with an Akashic connection
Atstreidi—a unique type of slime mold that grows sapience when it comes into contact with the psychic imprint left behind by a well-used suit of armor
Coreid—A psionic core that thinks its a real boy, building a body out of particulate matter from its surroundings.
Eiremian—Serene, detached planetouched with an affinity for negative energy.
Entoli—The entrancing offspring of maenads and sirens.
Ethumion—Supernaturally energetic descendents of ravids (somehow) and humans.
You'll also find variants for the sobek and suqur races from Akashic Mysteries, three new variant kitsune (and a universal alternate racial trait for them!), three new tiefling heritages, seven alternate tengu, a new rogue archetype, new feats including a psionic counterpart to Sanguine Sorcery & Spark of Divinity, and a new psionic power.
A lot of writer's hearts and souls went into this book, and we look forward to any feedback you all can provide. Thank you!
some immediate feedback on the alafia: they are described as an experiment involving volunteers (I assume ophiduan volunteers, as that is who they want to improve) and erliss symbionts (which we know little about), but then in the background section it mentions the sobek as cousins.
so the question is: is there a connection between the ophiduans and sobek? that could be a fun exploration.
mechanical conveniences: you may want to include all of the benefits of the akashic subtype in their description, for ease of reference. copy pasted from my copy of Akashic Mysteries:
Akashic Subtype: Creatures with the akashic subtype are all or partially composed of pure akashic energy and have the following shared traits.
• Essence Pool equal to racial hit die.
• Immunity to sleep effects.
• Low-light vision.
• Unless otherwise noted, akashic creatures always use Charisma as their primary veilweaving modifier.
Akashic creatures with class levels use the primary veilweaving modifier of their class.
more feedback to come.
The atstreidi may be my favorite thing ever (well, matched with Houri and Dreige). I will withhold judgment until I am done reading though.
mechanical questions about:
their Aberrant Physiology ability:
1) If they normally only need 2 hours of sleep, would a ring of sustenance further reduce that time, or would that aspect of it's magic not do anything?
2) they have a 25% chance to negate crits, sneak attacks, and called shots. does this stack with fortification?
Aegis favored class bonus:
Can this be taken more than once? It is odd and I like it.
atstreidi aegii sidebar:
Can they still form the astral skin without losing the benefits of their armor shell and assimilated armor?
Unrelated: What happens if some hapless soul tries to don a sleeping atstreidi? I imagine much embarrassment at the very least.
no real feedback for coreids. they don't interest me much for some reason.
Eiremians seem more like an emotional archetype than a race, fluff-wise.
Entoli are pretty cool. mechanical question: what all counts as a ray?
Ethumions largely falls into the same trap as eiremians, fluff-wise. luckily roleplaying vibrant, active, and emotional characters sounds more interesting than roleplaying the opposite.
Before moving into the other stuff, my wishlist:
1) Some form of Daeva-child.
2) Perhaps a true return of the ever-haunted 3.5 Dreamscarred race. this seems like a good place for it.
I love the new kitsune stuff. Yokai is pretty awesome, and the three racial variants expands the race in a cool way. perhaps a section about how they all interact with each other?
Sobek and suqur are starting to look more like a subtype to throw on a bunch of races. Not a bad thing, just an observation.
As far as actual feedback on the sobek variants:
They seem mechanically fine, but there isn't enough about them fluff-wise (I have this problem with all of the variants). Do all these sobek/suqur subraces have a shared culture or separate ones? I don't know, maybe I am being picky.
the tengu subtypes seem mechanically fine, no real feedback otherwise (maybe after I sleep on it).
Due to the weird nature of the tiefling race (one of my favorites), the tiefling material here adds quite a bit to them. I like it.
mechanical concern: Zurics silence area seems a bit powerful. it may just be me though.
I love the Deceiver archetype and the rogue stuff. but it also makes me scratch my head a little; what if an atstreidi or coreid took this archetype? Would they be able to pass for 'normal'?
The feats and power are fine. I like them.
Coreid has this favored class bonus as an option:
"Fighter: Increase the fighter’s reach when fighting with a weapon from one of their weapon groups by 1 foot per 4 levels (granting +5-foot reach at 20th level)."
I don't imagine too many people taking this as it takes much longer than many games last to kick in. though getting it earlier than 20th also presents possible balance problems. I'd ditch or change this one. Perhaps a bonus on CMB and CMD for feinting, steal, and other dextrous combat maneuvers (representing their strange shifting form)?
after sleeping on it I have some question about atstreidi:
1a) An Atstreidi's Armor Shell racial feature (and fluff) indicates that generally they have a metal body. How do effects like repel metal, rusting grasp, rust monsters etc. Interact with them?
1b) Depending on the answer to 2, do crysmals serve as a special threat against Atstreidi who have assimilated (deep) crystal armor?
2) Can they use their Assimilate Armor ability on armors made of materials that are 'treated as metal' such as crystal and deep crystal?
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I am forwarding questions on coereid and atstreidi to the rest of the development team. Hopefully we can get an answer though. I can confirm that a coreid who takes the deceiver archetype gets to enjoy Terminator 2'ing it up!
As for the Coreid fighter FCB, that is being discussed internally. There are a few wording glitches leading to unintended RAW. Changes may be coming soon to it.
Good point on the Akashic subtype. I think it warrants reprinting.
For Entoli, the attack has to say its a ray to count as one. So like Ray of Frost, or Ray of Enfeeblement.
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So, the players of my thursday night game acquired a companion: which i am stating out as an atstreidi Guru. I'll let you know if any odd situations come up in play next thursday.
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Hello all, thanks for your patience. The Playtest for Bloodforge Infusions has been updated.
Good to see some free Blood-forgery play-test stuff. ;)
Hello all, thanks for your patience. The Playtest for Bloodforge Infusions has been updated.
I saw that the file gained two pages but I can't seem to find where the new stuff went; that one favored class bonus changed, but otherwise, I must just be blind.
Hello all, thanks for your patience. The Playtest for Bloodforge Infusions has been updated.I saw that the file gained two pages but I can't seem to find where the new stuff went; that one favored class bonus changed, but otherwise, I must just be blind.
Huh. How long has it been since you looked? Were the tengu variants in there before? Most of the changes were wording changes, adding details to the fluff, and otherwise. We haven't added a bunch of brand-new data in a while.
yeah, it was 38 pages with Tengu in there. Either way, good stuff. Haven't seen my questions addressed, which is fine as most are pretty easy DM calls.
would still be intrigued by this though, if you guys had plans for it:
my wishlist:
1) Some form of Daeva-child.
2) Perhaps a true return of the ever-haunted 3.5 Dreamscarred race. this seems like a good place for it.
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1) Some form of Daeva-child.
iirc, Daeva-planetouched were planned to be in an akashic book.
A few observations about the Kitsune stuff:
- If I understand the polymorph rules correctly, Yokai are kind of broken. Stuff merges into your body when you use a polymorph effect. Yokai end a polymorph effect when they change into fox form. You might want to put a specific exception there allowing them to merge stuff into their fox body, but make them "de-merge" it when they die or walk into an AMF (so a dead fox Yokai doesn't keep its stuff forever).
EDIT: wait, just took another read through. Let me get this straight - the Yokai has a natural form, but they shift into that natural form with a polymorph effect? That seems like an excellent way of creating all sorts of bizarrness. Stepping into an AMF, getting hit by True Form or taking a standard action to remove Baleful Polymorph will de-merge all their gear. So will accepting any other polymorph effect that doesn't also permit gear merging, even if it is something trivial like Aspect of the Falcon.
- I found Liminal Mediator's wording weird with regards to its DC bonus. I know that it is similar to Spell Focus's wording. I just found it confusing to parse and on my first pass I though that it gave a save bonus vs death effects instead of a bonus on death effect DCs. Maybe it is just me, though.
- A Huli Jing can drain its own familiar, animal companion or fellow party members each day with no downsides so long as a drained creature never take more than a single point of constitution damage.
- Kumihos getting +wis seems a little...jarring (IMHO). I am not particularly keen on a race of viscous predators who seduce, bluff and disguise their way through murder after murder but often get caught out through fairly obvious means being considered "wise". I get that they have a Hunteresque theme, but in both the sub-race description and the Korean mythology which it is based on there aren't any indications that the Kumiho is strongly attuned to nature, the gods or anything else (the mythology I have read, at least). They seem to stay in the wilds as a means of survival, and try to manipulate their way into civilization whenever feasible. +cha seems more appropriate. Heck, +int seems more appropriate(there isn't anything that contradicts it, and +int would help with cha based skills through raw skill points). +wis is something I find just weird in a sub-race that is more predisposed to being SCP-953 style sociopathic killers than it is predisposed to being wise fonts of harmony that are deeply attuned with the natural order (but then again, none of the mental ability scores are a perfect match, so YMMV).
- As written, the Kumiho can arguably get two days of life from a single creature by consuming both its heart and its liver.
- Sworn Secrecy (Ex) doesn't technically protect from effects such as Share Memory or Detect Thoughts, since they aren't forcing the Zenko to reveal their secrets. They are reading the secrets directly.
- As far as I know, there are no Kitsune FCBs for DSP classes. This would be a pretty good place to show them some more love, if you can manage to find some space for it.
Oh, and if you can squeeze it in, I have an idea for another subrace .
Get this...try to imagine a Kobold, but like...not terrible.
Yeah, that would be awesome. Plus I imagine that KC will be so happy.
I haven't taken more than a quick skim through the other races/subraces, but my first impressions are good. I will try to give them a serious look later today.
Oh, and if you can squeeze it in, I have an idea for another subrace .
Get this...try to imagine a Kobold, but like...not terrible.
technically, Dreamscarred Press already did this. take a look at their Third Dawn stuff. THAT is a product line that needs more love.
what sorts of places/environments would the atstreidi be found in (the slime-mold, not the living armor)?
So, the players of my thursday night game acquired a companion: which i am stating out as an atstreidi Guru. I'll let you know if any odd situations come up in play next thursday.
I attacked the party with lightning elementals. they got a +3 bonus to hit the atstreidi. besides that not much to mention mechanically yet as far as this guy goes.
A few observations about the Kitsune stuff:
...
- If I understand the polymorph rules correctly, Yokai are kind of broken. Stuff merges into your body when you use a polymorph effect. Yokai end a polymorph effect when they change into fox form. You might want to put a specific exception there allowing them to merge stuff into their fox body, but make them "de-merge" it when they die or walk into an AMF (so a dead fox Yokai doesn't keep its stuff forever).
EDIT: wait, just took another read through. Let me get this straight - the Yokai has a natural form, but they shift into that natural form with a polymorph effect? That seems like an excellent way of creating all sorts of bizarrness. Stepping into an AMF, getting hit by True Form or taking a standard action to remove Baleful Polymorph will de-merge all their gear. So will accepting any other polymorph effect that doesn't also permit gear merging, even if it is something trivial like Aspect of the Falcon.
- I found Liminal Mediator's wording weird with regards to its DC bonus. I know that it is similar to Spell Focus's wording. I just found it confusing to parse and on my first pass I though that it gave a save bonus vs death effects instead of a bonus on death effect DCs. Maybe it is just me, though.
- A Huli Jing can drain its own familiar, animal companion or fellow party members each day with no downsides so long as a drained creature never take more than a single point of constitution damage.
- Kumihos getting +wis seems a little...jarring (IMHO). I am not particularly keen on a race of viscous predators who seduce, bluff and disguise their way through murder after murder but often get caught out through fairly obvious means being considered "wise". I get that they have a Hunteresque theme, but in both the sub-race description and the Korean mythology which it is based on there aren't any indications that the Kumiho is strongly attuned to nature, the gods or anything else (the mythology I have read, at
Copied from the post on Giantitp:
Yokai are kinda weird, but there's not really a better mechanical way to handle it. Even your proposal ends up causing more headaches down the line. We've got our eye on this but trust me, we tried it the other way and it was a nightmare from which there was no waking.
We'll take a look at Liminal Mediator.
A huli jing with restoration can also just feed on whoever they like. This is not a solvable issue.
When Perception, Survival, and Sense Motive stop being Wis based, the kumiho will stop being Wis based. Additionally, Wisdom is the stat most often associated with animal cunning, helps the kumiho shake off effects that would end their killing spree (fear, mind control) and aids in the selection of targets and the tracking of fleeing victims. They're fine as Wis.
You talk about them getting more than one day per victim as if it is a problem. It is not, and was intended.
Sworn Secrecy, likewise, intended.
We'll look into the FCB thing.
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The playtest document has been updated! In this update you will find clarified wording to many race's abilities such as the Coreid's Vital Core and Entoli's Entrancing Voice. There have been a lot of changes here. More than I can recount.
Additionally, there are two new Akashic race variants. The mighty Rosmaro and studious Vritrith. Walrus and salamanderfolk respectively.
We even have more Tiefling variants! Idol-Born spawned from Namuci and Meldspawn with Yatudhana origins. These have been submitted by Taveena. I would like it if we got feedback on them along with any of the newer content would be appreciated!
Atstreidi, Eiremian, and Ethumion are looking like they will be in the first Bloodforge Infusion release, so if anyone has any final feedback on them, it would be appreciated as well.
The arrival of the vritrith make me wonder about the possibility of a Vritra sorcerer bloodline and maybe a half-dragon variant template (that that would be more a DM tool than for players).
Besides that, as i mentioned in above posts, you may want to include a sidebar indicating what the akashic subtype gives, cause a few races here get it.
Besides my previous feedback, everything looks mechanically fine for now (considering it is late, I'll give it another look tomorrow).
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Alright everyone,
New update to the Playtest. Biggest addition is the new Half-Dwarf race, with some minor wording fixes, but mainly the new race. Enjoy!
my previous game died due to schedule conflict. That said I have looked at the half-dwarf and am curious about why they are psionic? Nothing wrong with it, but it seems kinda left-field.
Related: "Their sterility removes them from one of the most fundamental aspects of being alive."
this struck me as an very odd detail. not bad, just... weird.
Will their be some alternate racial traits for half-duergar?
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my previous game died due to schedule conflict. That said I have looked at the half-dwarf and am curious about why they are psionic? Nothing wrong with it, but it seems kinda left-field.
Related: "Their sterility removes them from one of the most fundamental aspects of being alive."
this struck me as an very odd detail. not bad, just... weird.Will their be some alternate racial traits for half-duergar?
Sounds like they're based on the Dark Sun Muls, which are bald and sterile dwarf/human hybrids.
my previous game died due to schedule conflict. That said I have looked at the half-dwarf and am curious about why they are psionic? Nothing wrong with it, but it seems kinda left-field.
Related: "Their sterility removes them from one of the most fundamental aspects of being alive."
this struck me as an very odd detail. not bad, just... weird.Will their be some alternate racial traits for half-duergar?
Sounds like they're based on the Dark Sun Muls, which are bald and sterile dwarf/human hybrids.
I can see that now (but didn't notice before)!
Still thinking a half-duergar options would be fitting too.
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Hello everyone, I apologize for the long silent period. There have been some major changes to the playtest document:
1. Released materials such as the atstreidi, eiremian and ethumion have been removed from the playtest document, as they are no longer in playtest (though if you spot any errors in those releases, you can let us know!).
2. New races have been added to the document!
Liath: Drow/Elf hybrids who are quite excellent at raising spiders.
Saremir: The strong and graceful children of elves and orcs with a tranquil sort of rage.
Svartálfar: Children of elves and dwarves with a natural affinity for geomancy.
3. New stuff for old races:
Catfolk: Cheetah, manul, lion, lynx, jaguar and tiger catfolk variants.
Kitsune: The buda variant of kitsune and a tightening of wording to yokai.
4. New feats:
Bigfolk training: A feat to help small folk hold their own against big folk.
5. Traits:
Bakeneko: A race trait for catfolk to allow them to transform into cats.
Hot-Blooded: A trait to help make burn a little less punishing.
Thank you everyone for waiting for this new material and for all of the feedback you have given us so far!
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I have mixed feelings about the Hot-Blooded trait.
one one hand, it is nice. but on the other hand, it kind of feels like a must have have trait for kineticists.