I know this actually could extend to a number of races (ifrit, oread, sylph, undine..ect.), and one could go on tangents regarding them two, but these are the two I want to focus on for this question.
While predominantly human in ancestry, that is the base assumption afterall, it has been established that both can come from a variety of humanoid races. Are there any humanoid races one or the other cannot have as an ancestor?
Only one I am remotely sure of is android, and I think dhampir, but thats not for problems with celestial or fiendish races but instead is for other problems.
I know this actually could extend to a number of races (ifrit, oread, sylph, undine..ect.), and one could go on tangents regarding them two, but these are the two I want to focus on for this question.
While predominantly human in ancestry, that is the base assumption afterall
I wouldn't say that tieflings and aasimar are predominantly of human ancestry by default; their planar blood shouldn't insinuate itself into any mortal race more than another. It really depends on the demographics of the mortal races on a given world. Tieflings might be largely of human stock, but humans are probably the largest species around. If a world was largely elven, or halfling, I would expect tieflings to be of largely elven or halfling stock respectively.
I wouldn't say that tieflings and aasimar are predominantly of human ancestry by default; their planar blood shouldn't insinuate itself into any mortal race more than another. It really depends on the demographics of the mortal races on a given world. Tieflings might be largely of human stock, but humans are probably the largest species around. If a world was largely elven, or halfling, I would expect tieflings to be of largely elven or halfling stock respectively.I know this actually could extend to a number of races (ifrit, oread, sylph, undine..ect.), and one could go on tangents regarding them two, but these are the two I want to focus on for this question.
While predominantly human in ancestry, that is the base assumption afterall
That is an excellent point. Both are described initially as humans with celestial/fiendish blood in their ancestry, and aasimar have an alternate racial trait called Scion of Humanity, but none for other races, but their own books do bring up that they can be of other races and there is no reason why they'd be restrained to or be largely of human stock except for the.. prominence of humans in the setting's focus world.
That is an excellent point. Both are described initially as humans with celestial/fiendish blood in their ancestry, and aasimar have an alternate racial trait called Scion of Humanity, but none for other races, but their own books do bring up that they can be of other races and there is no reason why they'd be restrained to or be largely of human stock except for the.. prominence of humans in the setting's focus world.I wouldn't say that tieflings and aasimar are predominantly of human ancestry by default; their planar blood shouldn't insinuate itself into any mortal race more than another. It really depends on the demographics of the mortal races on a given world. Tieflings might be largely of human stock, but humans are probably the largest species around. If a world was largely elven, or halfling, I would expect tieflings to be of largely elven or halfling stock respectively.I know this actually could extend to a number of races (ifrit, oread, sylph, undine..ect.), and one could go on tangents regarding them two, but these are the two I want to focus on for this question.
While predominantly human in ancestry, that is the base assumption afterall
In Inner Sea Races, Tieflings and Geniekin (Ifrits, Oreads, Sulis, Sylphs, and Undines) all have access to alternate racial traits similar to the Aasimar's Scion of Humanity.
But these traits all make members of these native outsider races qualify for the Racial Heritage feat, which in turn lets them qualify as members of yet another race. So, while it is rather feat intensive, you can have an Aasimar or Tiefling qualify as nearly any other race.
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While absolutely supported by the flavor of how these heritages are granted and passed down, I think the decision to only have the base races presented (aasimar, oread, tiefling, etc.) be based off-of humans is for mechanical simplicity/balance.
It is inarguable that halflings are (by statistic trend) more evasive than humans (which aids in survivability), and more than a few "character builds" feature along being a small sized race.
Now imagine combining the stats of an Aasimar (IE, No penalties) plus small size. Suddenly that angelkin halfling is suddenly much more attractive than quite a number of other player-friendly races from a mechanical standpoint. The poor neglected Grippli would soon fade into memory,
Additionally, while we do have the race building rules from Advanced Race Guide, the Creative Director/T-Rex James Jacobs has mentioned that creating half-x races for every combination would be A. Cluttering to the extreme, and B. Unnecessarily confusing.
While I believe he was more referencing half-dwarf/half-elf or half-halfling/half-gnome combinations, the same premise applies here.
I would argue that most of the races that are presented as "human + other creature stock" wouldn't work as the base race for something like that. For example, I would say that the son of a dhampir and a tiefling isn't some sort of weird dhampir+tiefling mix; he would just be one or the other. That leaves out quite a few - aasimar, tieflings, all the elemental-touched, dhampir, changelings, and a few other more obscure races.
I would agree with you that androids couldn't be planetouched; they don't seem to have children, after all. From the description of the race, they just seem to reboot every so often with a fresh spirit inside them.
Wouldn't think samsarans could be planetouched, either - they've already got their own weird thing going on, and it doesn't seem to involve sexual reproduction. Admittedly, I did something similar with an aasimar character - the idea I had for him was that he was perfecting himself over multiple incarnations, and had finally managed to "purify" himself enough that he was starting to take on celestial features. I figured it fit well enough for a warpriest of Irori.