So, disclaimer, I love the weird races. One of my favorite characters was a deep-one hybrid alchemist I played in my skulls and shackles campaign. I love ganzi, I love tieflings, and I love aasimar.
My problem is that one of my players plays only aasimar, and I'm fairly sure they only play them because they hate not having darkvision, but also don't want to roleplay as a pariah. They don't use their angelic blood in any way, never comment on their relationship with the gods, and basically just play as a human with better stats, a spell-like, and darkvision. They have spoken of their distaste for races without darkvision often, and when I've suggested half-orcs, tieflings or drow they treat it like shooting yourself in the foot because of the societal implications.
Should I be trying to rope them into things based on their angelic heritage, and if so do you all have any ideas on how? Is this even a problem, or should I let them play how they want? They don't play tactically enough to be a problem balance wise, and I actually have to help them optimize their characters to keep up with the rest of the party, but that's not from their lack of trying.
I'd rather not ban stuff, but it feels like it weakens other player's stories when they play aasimar in the same group who are actually doing things with their race and kinda kills the idea that aasimar are rare and special when every one of our games has an aasimar in it.
Maybe you should encourage your player to try out one of the geniekin races next time. They have darkvision but are slightly less powerful than aasimar. Their abilities tend to make their elemental connections rather obvious, and they don't have the social baggage of races with evil origins.
I must admit that I actually very seldom play races with darkvision. The last time I played an aasimar, I took the Halo alternate racial trait (so I "lit up my hair" whenever we went into dark places). I also took Scion of Humanity, as it made sense for my character's background for there to be considerable uncertainty as to which members of my character's family were actually fully human and which ones just looked human.
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I don't see how one player having a weak or non-existent backstory missing deep pathos about their race hurts another players backstory.
Based on what we know, most Aasimar aren't going to know anything at all about their extra-planar heritage. They grew up normal in a human family and then got some minor super powers and a weird feature or two. Unless they have knowledge: the planes, they might well not know what they are, let alone how they got to be that way. Great-great-grandma shacking up with a angel could well be something that isn't remembered any longer.
Typically though any of the non-core races are going to be rarer than the core races. An Aasimar should be far more remarkable than a Half-Orc and therefore more likely to be treated with prejudice. There are plenty of reasons that an angelic blooded creature might be frowned upon by certain groups, and even more common might be ignorant people just not liking something they don't understand. Additionally, even if tolerated the are likely to be remembered and remarked on, which sometimes can matter.
If you are making Half-Orcs and Tieflings more of a pariah in the games you run, then it is understandable that someone would not like to play them, and it isn't really justified in the campaign setting, especially in the case of half-orcs.
Mostly though, this is an Aethetic difference between you and your player. You like one style (deep backstory etc.) and he likes another (more mechanical in focus.) Neither one is better than the other, and probably the best bet is to try and accept that just because you wouldn't do it that way, that doesn't make it wrong.
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Aasimar don't really have any particular connection with the gods other than their heritage. They tend toward good because of the Golarion multiverse's metaphysical properties, but even "the good ones" are simply people. They generally come across as humans with special powers rather than a distinct race with its own cultural history or ancestral homeland or thing like that. Given that, it's hard to fault a player for playing an aasimar like a human with special powers--how else would you play them?
As for having disdain for races without darkvision, that seems pretty silly. Built-in darkvision is nice to have but hardly anything to base a long-term, game-changing decision like what race to play unless your build absolutely depends on it. Light is a thing, as are external sources of darkvision. It's useful, but then so is a bonus feat or weapon familiarity.
If it's "weird", random people should react, and most won't know of the celestial implications. Gods have little to do with any of that though.
If your skin looks metal or marble, that will lead street randos to look at you. For many, that will be the first aasimar they ever see, short of fellow adventurers and more learned individuals.
And just because your ancestors fooled around with celestials doesn't mean you're immune to or protected from discrimination.
Which by the way can take unusual forms in this case, like folks having way too much faith into aasimars, placing them on a pedestal whether they want it or not. Never leaving them alone, coming to them for everything and anything, from trivial neighbourhood troubles to crazy stuff way above their power level.
They have the blood of goodness in their veins. Angels, gods maybe ! Surely they can take care of it, no matter what "it" is !
And that's without looking at the family tree : who was this ancestor ? AncestorS ? They still around ? Any old enemies still holding grudges ?
So, if you want his race to have implications, go for it. Don't go overboard, but be the one to take the first step, see how the player reacts.
You can just start by asking him how inhuman he looks : he has the same disguise penalties as an orc, a nagaji or a tiefling, why is that ? And how do people first react upon seeing him ?
But, importantly, on the other hand : a character's race doesn't have to define him either.
Never using it in any way obviously is a bit more than that, but still, focusing on one's race is not a contractual obligation either. Humans rarely do it.
If you want more, try to prod and nudge him ingame.
If and when there are other aasimars in the group, they should end up doing it too if they're exploring the race thing.
Sometimes, finding the right approach is all it takes. And that's not always the grandest of scales, so maybe start small, family level stuff or barely above.
For one : How did his family react to his aasimarness ? That's a surprise for mom and dad, probably.
But if he doesn't bite no matter what, not much else you can do : that's just not something that player cares about.
If that's all and he's playing fine otherwise ... Maybe worth it ? He doesn't seem allergic to roleplay, from what you're saying. Race is not and doesn't have tonalways be a big thing for characters.
I have much less of an issue with that behavior than I did with that one "I only ever play paladins, and they're all the same, no matter the game, setting or whatever" guy I played with - briefly.
Playing an aasimar for darkvision is horrible.
If you want to see in the dark, you play a fetchling. They get darkvision *and* low-light vision. They even have their own version of "Scion of Humanity" ("Bound to Golgarion"), allowing them to pass as a human without a disguise check.
They also get the coolest Summoner archetype.
You can trust my opinion on this, I'm definitely completely unbiased.
Not a single person mentioned dwarves? Not the OP? Not anyone else?
...
what!?
Dwarves get darkvision, a host of good stuff attached to their race, and dump Cha for free making them excellent for the average min-maxer in the first place; but it's not like having a -2 Cha doesn't mean you can't be a dwarf with 14 cha or some such.
________
Personally I do the "NPCs that you befriend can be your replacement when you die" and they can choose among those that I allow them to. This solves loads of issues pertaining to PC death and replacement; but it's too much to leave in an unrelated thread.
A player in my group has a half-elf PC with darkvision. I don't know how he did it, but apparently it costs only one feat.
Are aasimar that "overpowered"?
They're ahead of the core curve. Honestly, if they had given them an ability score penalty to go with the two bonuses then they'd be pretty much on par.
I don't like aasimar because they don't strike me as being a race at all, but if somebody likes a particular race (or class, or whatever), bully for them. I might encourage them to try something out of their comfort zone, but ultimately they're playing the game to have fun, and identity choice is one of the core means a player has to affect the game. Who am I to take that way from them?
Drow-blooded alternate racial trait, possibly with a feat I'm not aware of to nullify the light blindness. Maybe some Eldritch Heritages and he was talking about how it only cost one feat on top of the other EH feat he was already taking. Shadow (most likely, its commonly taken as Eldritch Heritage for hide in plain sight) or Possessed would both work.A player in my group has a half-elf PC with darkvision. I don't know how he did it, but apparently it costs only one feat.
Are aasimar that "overpowered"?
There's a newer racial trait--blended view--that grants both low-light vision and darkvision without the light blindness at the cost of multitalented. Pretty nice trade if you're okay with being half-drow.
Honestly, if that's what he wants to play, then let him. He obviously likes Aasimars. One of my players specifically plays Elf only, and I don't stop her from doing that. If they're happy and having fun, isn't that the point of the game? /shrug.
I'm personally not seeing a problem, but rather than remove them completely, it sounds like you could just lower their Darkvision. Or limit them to 1 good score, like a Human.
It's a bit worse if you are allowing the variants too. A bonus to wisdom and charisma isn't that great, as there are very few builds that benefit from both and most of those are support builds. So, you may just want to ban variants, if he's doing that.
I really don't see a problem.
This is the correct answer.
The OP said the Aasimar player has trouble optimising enough to keep up, so their metagaming choices clearly aren't really hurting the game.
Some people like to win - this isn't a problem. Just because someone has fun a different way to you doen't mean they're doing it wrong. If being an Aasimar makes him happy then let him be an Aasimar. If the other players know he's going to play this way (and it sounds like they do) they can plan their own characters around him without too much dificulty.