A problem with the "Adopted Ancestry" feat.

[Bad Coyote]

I just realized that the typing of Adopted Ancestry should not be General. It is a first level feat and should be chosen at only first level because it is about thinks that happened before the character was first level. So it should be an Ancestry Feat and not General. Also, General Feats are not available to characters until 3rd level.

-- Gary Ciaramella

[Xenocrat]

General Feats are available to humans at 1st level. You spend your ancestry feat to get a general feat that you use to get an adopted ancestry.

[Grimcleaver]

The biggest problem with Adopted Ancestry is that you sacrifice a feat for it but you don't actually get the feat from the Ancestry you're looking to dip into. Then that ship sails and you're stuck waiting five levels for something you were hoping to start the game with--something that's only a first level feat. By the time you qualify for it, I'm not it would matter anymore. It just strikes me as a frustrating and needless straightjacket.

We have a player in the game I'm GMing. We're making characters for the second part of the playtest adventure. He wants a talking dog. His character has ties to gnomish culture in his backstory and it sounded like a blast. Seems easy enough. I figured he could sacrifice his human feat to pick up an Adopted Ancestry to grab the gnome familiar, so he can be a human fighter with a talking dog, just like he wants. But that's not possible according to the rules: he either has to be a gnome or a spellcaster. I'm not sure what in the rules makes it so he can't just start with another races' Ancestry feat at the cost of his own. Seems plenty balanced to me. I wish I could do it for him.

[Vaku]

Bad Coyote wrote:

I just realized that the typing of Adopted Ancestry should not be General. It is a first level feat and should be chosen at only first level because it is about thinks that happened before the character was first level. So it should be an Ancestry Feat and not General. Also, General Feats are not available to characters until 3rd level.

-- Gary Ciaramella

It could also occur due to a romance or intense friendship, it would make sense to take after level 1 if you were a halfling in a party of dwarves, and after traveling for years, you feel more dwarvish than halfling.

Grimcleaver wrote:

The biggest problem with Adopted Ancestry is that you sacrifice a feat for it but you don't actually get the feat from the Ancestry you're looking to dip into. Then that ship sails and you're stuck waiting five levels for something you were hoping to start the game with--something that's only a first level feat. By the time you qualify for it, I'm not it would matter anymore. It just strikes me as a frustrating and needless straightjacket.

We have a player in the game I'm GMing. We're making characters for the second part of the playtest adventure. He wants a talking dog. His character has ties to gnomish culture in his backstory and it sounded like a blast. Seems easy enough. I figured he could sacrifice his human feat to pick up an Adopted Ancestry to grab the gnome familiar, so he can be a human fighter with a talking dog, just like he wants. But that's not possible according to the rules: he either has to be a gnome or a spellcaster. I'm not sure what in the rules makes it so he can't just start with another races' Ancestry feat at the cost of his own. Seems plenty balanced to me. I wish I could do it for him.

Yea, you’re right. RAW, the adopted ancestry only allows you access to those ancestries. You would need to either wait for your next ancestral feat or burn your next general feat on the skill, which seems like a lot for what are kind of average feats.

[David knott 242]

The real problem with this feat is that every 1st level character has one feat fewer than he needs to take advantage of this feat. Giving out a general feat at 1st level would let a character take Adopted Ancestry as his 1st level general feat and any desired ancestry feat as his 1st level ancestry feat.

[Cantriped]

Considering that is also one of the Half-It feats' biggest problems as well, I like that plan. An extra general feat can alternatively become an extra concept-setting skill or ancestry feat.

[GM OfAnything]

Grimcleaver wrote:

The biggest problem with Adopted Ancestry is that you sacrifice a feat for it but you don't actually get the feat from the Ancestry you're looking to dip into. Then that ship sails and you're stuck waiting five levels for something you were hoping to start the game with--something that's only a first level feat. By the time you qualify for it, I'm not it would matter anymore. It just strikes me as a frustrating and needless straightjacket.

You can get an ancestry feat at 3rd level. That's about the same delay as taking the Racial Heritage feat in PF1.

[Scythia]

Ever seen Dances With Wolves? Sometimes characters adopt, or are adopted by, a new culture well into their life.