So what are your favorite non-core player races to play as?
I really like Aasimar, Catfolk, Dhampir, Kitsune, Lashunta, Merfolk, Naiad, Rougarou, Suli, and Tiefling.
I also like Android, Aphorite, Ganzi, Ghoran, Grippli, Ifrit, Nagaji, Oread, Ratfolk, Skinwalkers, Sylph, and Undine.
Haven't played a Strix, yet, but I want to.
Had a lot of fun playing a Tengu.
Right now I am having a blast playing a Drow Noble.
Changeling, Cecaelia, Gillperson, Grippli, Tengu, and Shabti.
Goblins, Vanara, Lizardfolk are my top 3 non-core races.
Goblins because being awesome stealthy characters whatever your class is cool. Vanara because good stats and climb speed and prehensile tail. It has pretty much everything you want for monkey person.
Lizardfolk have 3 primary natural attacks making them a great chassis for that and are non-evil cannibals.
i had a blast playing a ratfolk alchemist (the race really suit nicely for this class).
he was aiming to improved the life of all rat-kind.
and was rather binary in his thinking - if he liked it he gave it cheese if he disliked it he blow it up. was working on exploding cheese for them complicated hate\like issues...
as for goblins, beside the obvious rogues (and arcane tricksters) i made a living grimoire goblin. he the 'most holy of books' (a book which is mostly filled with holes) that only had pictographs as words writen would steal his thoughts from his head. yep a little guy smacking the enemy with a book.
(basic goblin pictograph - one horse = 'danger', 2 horses = 'great and terrible danger', team of horses running over goblins = 'run you fools!!')
Too bad Paizo never gave us a giant-blooded race. Would have liked that as well as a fey blooded one, a dragon blooded one, and some other stuff.
Vanara and Grippli I remember from D&D, too bad Paizo never got the Kercpa. I would have loved those guys to have made it in.
I remember the Thri-Kreen though I do like the Kasatha more.
I, for my own personal thematic tastes, never play non-core. I just ...don't...feel..inspired to. It's kind of one of those things, like where you can explain to me how awesome anime is, or Nascar, or GoT tv show (I'm the book reader); I simply don't care. I just can't be made to invest in it.
Has anyone played as or allowed someone to play as a Lasunta in Pathfinder?
What is the most powerful race you have had in in your game?
I used to be a core race snob but really enjoyed playin a gripple in a home brew campaign. Now I look for opportunities to play non-core if I can come up with a good backstory to tie them to the adventure. Since then I’ve played goblins, ratfolk, aasimars, and tieflings.
For me it is important to have a good reason for the non-core race to be adventuring and avoid the PC becoming a distraction.
Grippli
I cannot wait for Grippli Ancestry...
Kobolds, kitsune, vishkanya, the elemental-touched races, catfolk, ratfolk, tengu.
Drow, Goblin, Skinwalker amd Android in that order.
Drow because I love the lore/culture of the Menzo proper drow (Not drittz) and I build mine like that as well.
Goblins are just plain fun and have all opportunity for creative ideas. Are you the traditional chaotic Goblin exposed to pink skin society Amd freaking out from simple things like words or are you the rare intelligent goblin.
both Skin walker and Android for RP flavor.
It is a shame that some of these interesting races didn't get much (or any) love like alternate racial traits and racial feats, love those player options.
|
Oh, so many...
Just in Bestiary 1, there's the Tengu, Gnoll, Kobolds, Hobgoblins and Lizardfolk.
Then in later Bestiaries, the Androids, Ratfolk, Vishkanya, Reptoid, Caligni and Samsaran.
I love Eberron Changelings and Daelkyr Half-Blood as well, and the Charduni of the Scarred Lands, Xixchil from Spelljammer and Aarakocra and Killoren (a fey race from Races of the Wild for 3.5 AD&D), for races of other d20 fantasy worlds.
I'm kind of stoked that a Tengu got to be one of the first non-core race Iconics (along with the goblin Alchemist), since they are one of my favorites (although Wolfgang Bauer has done some fun things with his own ravenfolk race in his setting, and I sometimes conflate his ideas with Paizo's tengu...).
Orcs are my favorite non-core player race. I love the simplistic barbarity of their culture, and that +4 to Strength is appropriately monstrous for a people who believe might makes right. With some lucky dice rolls you can have a Barbarian with a 26 Strength while raging at level 1.
Set, look how long it took them to get a half-orc iconic. There are a lot of class iconics I wish used non-core races like a female Catfolk Swashbuckler, male Oread Brawler, female Lashunta Psychic, male Ratfolk Alchemist, female Aasimar Paladin, male Tengu Samurai, female Kitsune Ninja, male Tiefling Magus, etc.
My fave core race is Gnome
My fave none core races are Grippli, Naiad and Ratfolk
So I guess I like small races.
I haven't ever played a Centaur, but I gave some class levels to a Centaur in my Kingmaker campaign and got to pal around with the party with her...
The class leveled adjustments to a Centaur are quite favourable. I gave her the Two-handed Fighter archetype and everything she has been required to do, she has done quite well.
It was fun while it lasted, and I could see the Centaur as a very fun race to play. Roleplay with a small sized mounted archer on your back, or a small sized lancer on your back, and have all sorts of fun...
Changelings, but I love hags.
Wouldn't it be "Changelings, because I love Hags";)
Never played as a Centaur...well not including videogames.
Thri-kreen were always a powerful race, but so are Warforged.
All the races in the Book of Heroic Races Advanced Compendium, but I am professionally biased.
What races are in this book you speak of?
What races are in this book you speak of?
- Androids
- Catfolk
- Changelings
- Elans
- Gillmen
- Lizardfolk
- Merfolk
- Samsarans
- Skinwalkers
- Tengu
- Wyrwoods
- Wyvarans
It includes the race's stats, archetypes, class options, spells, magic items and more all themed for the individual races.
I should mention that it will be tomorrow's Deal of the Day at DriveThruRPG where this 250+ page PDF that normally sells for $14.95 will be $2.99, or 80% off the regular price. But that is for one day only. If you miss that, grab it over at the JBE Shop there it and everything else is 25% off for the rest of the year for our After the Holidays Sale.
I recognize all of them but the Elans, what are they?
I recognize all of them but the Elans, what are they?
Ultimate Psionics by Dreamscarred Press. They are psionic humans.
Quick FYI, the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium is DriveThruRPG's Deal of the day. You can grab it for $2.99, 80% off the regular price. This only lasts until about 11 am Eastern time tomorrow.
Has anyone (as a DM) allowed or played as a race that can fly at first level?
Me, personally, no. I like the way the half faerie dragons do it where they have wings and it gives them a bonus to falling damage and feats allow them to fly.
I swear I'm not trying to promote my own products with every post I make. It is simply working out that way.
I haven't ever played a Strix, but I would allow it my table without question.
Unless the character is born right before they join the party, it is more likely that if they have wings, they already know how to use them...
Why would levels/feats after they join a party be required to use the wings they were born with?
What did they do with their wings before they decided to join a random group of adventurers?
How does it make any sense that a creature born with wings does not know how to use them by the time they are old enough to consider going on adventures?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Yeah, call me old fashion, but if a race has wings at level 1, it should be able to fly at level 1. The ability to fly is not super game breaking especially if you spend a lot of time in claustrophobic caves, dungeons, sewers, etc.
I, for my own personal thematic tastes, never play non-core. I just ...don't...feel..inspired to. It's kind of one of those things, like where you can explain to me how awesome anime is, or Nascar, or GoT tv show (I'm the book reader); I simply don't care. I just can't be made to invest in it.
I largely feel the same way, but about non-human core races. If I'm not going to play something exotic/monstrous like a hobgoblin, a goblin, or a lizardfolk, wich have strong themes cooked into them, then I may as well play a human instead of playing the "human with pointy ears", the "short human with pointy ears", the "short human without pointy ears", the "human with extra pointy ears", or the "human with pointy teeth". I've very occasionally made a character with a non-human core race when it suited the build, but I'm only remembering one off the top of my head (a gnome sorcerer). Whereas I make more monstrous characters whenever allowed, such as a hobgoblin cleric of Abadar (who later turned paladin after he was murdered and had his family's souls destroyed), a goblin conjuration wizard, a lizardfolk bloodrager.
But a dwarf, or an elf? The monstrous races are a bit gimmicky, but at least they bring something forward. An elf is just gimmicky without benefit. A load of stereotypes loaded from humans, without anything that truly makes them distinct from humans. Any elf character could just as easily be made a human without much impact on his personality, his upbringing, his culture, or his combat capacities, it'll still make sense, because they lack any ability or other trait that's completely alien to (civilized) humans.
To each his own, though.
Has anyone (as a DM) allowed or played as a race that can fly at first level?
I'd have a hard time seeing any GM at our table every allowing any race that has a fly speed, regardless of level. Flight is very powerful, and the forms to obtain it are either counterable (spells, mounts), or come at steep costs (archetypes, iirc, which enable it rather far down the line too).
IMO swim speeds don't change much, climb speeds are relatively handy, burrow speeds are powerful, and fly is just too powerful. It'd have to be a very slow and clumsy fly speed for me to even consider it, if a player asked me.
|
|
Yeah, call me old fashion, but if a race has wings at level 1, it should be able to fly at level 1. The ability to fly is not super game breaking especially if you spend a lot of time in claustrophobic caves, dungeons, sewers, etc.
The problem, as a player, I have with a fly speed, is that I'm tempted to *use it* to go places the rest of the party might not readily be able to, therefore exposing me alone to CR appropriate challenges *for the entire party.*
Followed by my needing resurrection, often enough to make me question the wisdom of having wings.
I have encountered the same problem with only one party member having a swim speed, or with only one having a high stealth and being 'sent ahead to scout,' or, in other games, with one character being 'the decker' or 'the rigger' and having their own little mini-game of cyberhacker or piloting the whooziwhatsis while everyone else stands around holding their cheese (or, more commonly, wandering off to watch Princess Bride or Spaceballs or something, and kind of spoiling the momentum of the game).
Having a fly speed is kind of a 'split the party' thing, unless *everyone* has a fly speed, and I've seen enough Scooby Doo growing up that I know better than to split up.
TLDR; The first rule of 'split the party' is.... Don't.
"Don't Split The Party". Pretty sure there are numerous songs and books dedicated to this. :P
We occasionally do things like that at our table, but indeed, it's very risky, it has to be short so as to not bore everyone not involved, and it needs a contingency. Ideally.
Because not only the guy that can "get places" faces higher risk of death, he also faces higher risk of getting left behind if a retreat is called. In which case: no body. And thus, for most parties, no resurrection.
That's also part of my ranking for the different speeds. Fly can get you to almost everywhere. Burrow can bring you to a lot of places you would not be able to otherwise, though usually much more slowly. These are very powerful. Climb and swim speeds, though, just let you do stuff PCs can already do with enough skill ranks. They don't change much. Swim in particular is rather situational, on top of things. Rarely are PCs fighting in water.
Well at least we don't have a player race that can teleport at will.;)