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So I know we are getting Lizardfolks in Lost Omens this year, but I've got somebody playing one in my Rise of the Runelords game and I don't want to wait. So let's talk about Iruxi, and what we know about them.
Zel from Oblivion Oath was our first window into them. We know he has a heritage (called Riverlands IIRC) which grants him a 15 foot swim speed and the ability to hold his breath hella long. (Did we get a definite amount of time here?) He wears leather armor and has claws which are finesse and agile, either doing a d4 or d6. He's got a 12 in strength and since he gets Dexterity to damage thisis a possible indication that Iruxi get that as one of their set boosts. He seems to have 8 HP from his ancestry.
The Bestiary has lizardfolk, and some very interesting discoveries there. First off, their Cold Blooded weakness is gone-- probably to make them more suitable as PCs without a glaring weakness. They also lost their claw attacks -- instead they have d6 jaw strike which seems to have no traits and d4 tail strike that is agile and finesse.
2 of the 3 have 20 foot swim speeds while the other has a 15 foot speed. They all have the same land speed, so I'm not sure what the deal is there. They can all hold their breath for hella long, at 15 minutes, 17.5 minutes, and 20 minutes. I'm not sure how those specific times are calculated though. They all speak Iruxi and Draconic but only the scout speaks common.
Two of the lizardfolk have the "Terrain Advantage" ability from the playtest, allowing them to treat non-lizardfolk in difficult terrain or in the water without a swim speed as flat-footed. (The latter seems kind of irrelevant since creatures without a swimspeed are already flat-footed in the water, unless this overrides things like the Underwater Marauder feat.) They all 1 higher AC than their level+2+Dex would suggest. While monsters aren't built like PCs, most of the humanoid NPCs in armor I've seem to follow the same rules for AC. They seem to get a +1 "natural armor" thing.
Now, let the rampant speculation begin. I'm guessing based on the stats of Zel and the 3 NPCs that Lizardfolks get boosts in Strength, Wisdom, and a free ability score, and a flaw in intelligence. They lack the enhanced senses of other ancestries, the speed of elves, the extra hit points of dwarves, or the flexibility of humans. So they probably got those jaws and tail strikes to make up for that, which seems fair. I'm guessing either training in claws comes from an ancestry feat or Zel's not using the same rules that made it into the final version of the game.
Despite the NPCs mostly not knowing common, I don't think the Xenophobic PF1 trait is coming back because having a PC that starts without common is obnoxious. Especially if they need 12 intelligence to offset it and have to get past a penalty. Similarly, I'm guessing the extra natural armor is a monsters only thing since Zel wears armor, although there should be an option to snag something similar. Which brings me to: Lizardfolk already had 5 heritages in PF1.
1. The default Riverlands.
2. Cliffborn: hailing from mountainous rainforests, they had a climb speed instead of a swim speed. I'm guessing they will start out with something akin to the Woodland/Jungle elf and get feats to improve their climbing later.
3. The Unseen: Racial stealth bonus from the ability to change their scale colors a la the Chameleon. Or Chameleon gnome in PF2 balance terms.
4. Sandfolk: Desert dwelling scaly boys covered in thick, horny scales. They lose the Deep Breath stuff for the ability to spit poison. The Forge Dwarf is a good example of a desert heritage, but spitting poison seems like a hard ability to balance for PCs.
5. Lizard Scion-- these were born only once every few generations, grew to large size, and lived twice as long. I think making a Scion to be who is still growing out of medium could work well--they don't get formerly honored as scions until their 100th birthday even if they start showing the signs, which leaves plenty of wiggle room to be an adventurer. I'm playing around with the idea of letting them grow to large size around 9th or 13th. It certainly shouldn't be overpowered since Barbarians start doing it at 6th, but they can shrink down to avoid getting stuck. But feats like Quick Squeeze could help offset this.
More importantly, the Scion strikes me as the best place to put an option for going unarmored, which is a pretty big trope for lizardfolk, and really shouldn't be limited to monks. I haven't quite worked out the mechanics yet, because it needs to not become overpowered on a monk, but I'm drawing some inspiration from the Animal Skin barbarian feat.
Coming soon: Iruxi heritages by Captain Morgan. We will see how close they wind up looking to what Paizo winds up putting out, eh? Also probably gonna do one for an Oread Heritage.
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Here we go. All your scaly needs until we get the real thing in October.
Sorry for the formatting is poop, and I didn't focus very much on flavor text-- this is a stop gap, after all. I may try to pretty it up, and tweaks down the road are to be expected.