Is there some only-male stuff?

[Michael Talley 759]

There are Male Changelings, but there Monster Stat Block had no PC playability to them. Likely due to them being pretty dumb [Int I think was around a 6] But physically they where pretty powerful.

can't remember which book I saw them in though

[The NPC]

Michael Talley 759 wrote:

There are Male Changelings, but there Monster Stat Block had no PC playability to them. Likely due to them being pretty dumb [Int I think was around a 6] But physically they where pretty powerful.

can't remember which book I saw them in though

I want to say that was the 3.5 FR hagspawn you're thinking of.

[Rysky]

The NPC wrote:

Michael Talley 759 wrote:

There are Male Changelings, but there Monster Stat Block had no PC playability to them. Likely due to them being pretty dumb [Int I think was around a 6] But physically they where pretty powerful.

can't remember which book I saw them in though

I want to say that was the 3.5 FR hagspawn you're thinking of.

Caliban from Tears at Bitter Manor

[Mystic_Snowfang]

Rysky wrote:

The NPC wrote:

Michael Talley 759 wrote:

There are Male Changelings, but there Monster Stat Block had no PC playability to them. Likely due to them being pretty dumb [Int I think was around a 6] But physically they where pretty powerful.

can't remember which book I saw them in though

I want to say that was the 3.5 FR hagspawn you're thinking of.

Caliban from Tears at Bitter Manor

Sees chaotic evil monster...

First thought is

That poor dear!

Second thought.

It sounds like a lizard-puppy thingy. DAWWWW!

[the nerve-eater of Zur-en-Aarh]

Cruel Illusion wrote:

Thank you. It's an odd change, but I like that Lashunta move away from the problematic tropes they embodied

I kind of regret that, because there are enough examples of very strong sexual dimorphism in nature that having some sentients where that is the case in a setting with numerous different sentient species/races seems an interesting option to me. There are also ceratioidi, I suppose, but there doesn't seem much leeway to integrate many of those into many places on Golarion.

I suspect that if I ever do run something with lashunta in, the way I would try to make them unproblematic would be for them to have developed (or been manipulated) to be overstimulators that other races find unreasonably attractive (in the same way that there are some flowers that look like exaggerated versions of insects so that other insects of the same species will be drawn to them and hence transfer pollen between them); making female lashunta as initially presented into "these are hyperattractive to people attracted to elf women" and male lashunta as initially presented into "these are hyperattractive to people attracted to male dwarves" would strike me as interesting and doable without being obnoxious.

[PossibleCabbage]

I feel like in the interest of "space aliens that don't reflect human notions of sex or gender" I'd much rather see species with 1 option, or way more than 2 options before I see especially stark sexual dimorphism.

I mean, with a setting where permanent shape changing effects of all kinds are available, it makes a whole lot more sense to explore the mental or cultural aspects of this stuff than the physical aspects.

I mean, if you know the right Dwarves it will cost 260 gold (5 gp a dose, 2 doses/week, 26 weeks) to permanently change your secondary sexual characteristics, and this works on Lashunta too (or at least there's no rules text that says it doesn't).

[the nerve-eater of Zur-en-Aarh]

PossibleCabbage wrote:

I feel like in the interest of "space aliens that don't reflect human notions of sex or gender" I'd much rather see species with 1 option, or way more than 2 options before I see especially stark sexual dimorphism.

No argument there, but we do have shirren and maraquoi as examples of the latter already in the setting.

Quote:

I mean, with a setting where permanent shape changing effects of all kinds are available, it makes a whole lot more sense to explore the mental or cultural aspects of this stuff than the physical aspects.
I mean, if you know the right Dwarves it will cost 260 gold (5 gp a dose, 2 doses/week, 26 weeks) to permanently change your secondary sexual characteristics, and this works on Lashunta too (or at least there's no rules text that says it doesn't).

The more I think about this the more I want to develop a community of ceratioidi who made it through from Pathfinder to Starfinder and what their culture is like now, because extreme sexual dimorphism and fusion into a dual-minded entity (they are very like sentient anglerfish) is so central to them as conceived in PF.

[thejeff]

PossibleCabbage wrote:

I feel like in the interest of "space aliens that don't reflect human notions of sex or gender" I'd much rather see species with 1 option, or way more than 2 options before I see especially stark sexual dimorphism.

Or at least ones that aren't blatant riffs on bad old pulp "beautiful women/ugly men" races.

I mean, I like playing around with the old pulp tropes, but you've got to be careful, especially with more prominent use. The Lashunta were fine in PF - as an rare alien race for PCs to run into exploring distant worlds. As a core player race in Starfinder, they'd have been more of a problem.

Honestly, if you're going to go sexual dimorphism, go big and weird. Get away from exaggerated human stereotypes.