I've been looking at the beastkin versatile heritage, and it seems like they get a *lot* of juice compared to many of the others.
- Out of the box, they have a low-budget version of the vigilante trick. They have two distinct appearances that are far enough apart that it's not particularly trivial to connect them, and can swap between them in short order. That may not be overpowered in and of itself, but it's not like they're taking a hit up front in order to pay for the good stuff later.
- permanent Large at lvl 13, for a single feat (Dire Form). This is not usually something people can get out of their ancestry feats.
- permanent flight at level 17, for a single feat (Animal Swiftness). Most ancestries that offer permaflight do so at the end of a chain of feats that build on each other (like, say, kobold or sprite, both of whom spend *3*)
Now, sure, it's rare. Fine. It is, in fact, the *only* rare versatile heritage. Fine... but that doesn't make it more balanced, it just makes it easier for the GM to say "no".
Am I missing something, or is it just generally a bit OP?
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That may not be overpowered in and of itself, but it's not like they're taking a hit up front in order to pay for the good stuff later.
Don't really agree here at all. Other heritages give you things like darkvision, extra feats, unique senses, etc. The beastkin gets an unarmed attack that's more or less the same as the unarmed attack everyone gets for free. For a lot of builds, they might as well just not have a heritage benefit at all.
I've been looking at the beastkin versatile heritage, and it seems like they get a *lot* of juice compared to many of the others.
- Out of the box, they have a low-budget version of the vigilante trick. They have two distinct appearances that are far enough apart that it's not particularly trivial to connect them, and can swap between them in short order. That may not be overpowered in and of itself, but it's not like they're taking a hit up front in order to pay for the good stuff later.
- permanent Large at lvl 13, for a single feat (Dire Form). This is not usually something people can get out of their ancestry feats.
- permanent flight at level 17, for a single feat (Animal Swiftness). Most ancestries that offer permaflight do so at the end of a chain of feats that build on each other (like, say, kobold or sprite, both of whom spend *3*)
Now, sure, it's rare. Fine. It is, in fact, the *only* rare versatile heritage. Fine... but that doesn't make it more balanced, it just makes it easier for the GM to say "no".
Am I missing something, or is it just generally a bit OP?
Appearance changing isn't that strong compared to the likes of Darkvision or access to solid feats, especially since you need good Deception to pull it off. You put Darkvision on the same level as Appearance changing (which is quite limited), and I will take that Darkvision every single time; there are enough situations where not having Darkvision screwed me over, appearance changing not so much.
Permanent Large is definitely an interesting feat, but it's by no means ridiculous or overpowered. For starters, there are size constraints in certain areas, making it not very functional except in open room/area combats. Furthermore, it comes with penalties. Lastly, it is by no means solid compared to a Giant Instinct Barbarian with a Reach weapon, nor would it stack.
There are other means of permanent or pseudo-permanent flight in classes that it's really only awesome for builds not of those class choices, and as with Large, there are plenty of drawbacks with it to make it not extremely popular.
Well, lets look.
At start, you don't get the ability to upgrade low light to darkvision like Versatile Heritage including tiefling but get change shape.
Pack Tactics is nice at to get easy flatfooted with an ancestry feat.
Dire Form locks one of your forms into that state... it'd be pretty strong if it wasn't permanent but because it is it seems fine.
Animal Shape is nice for 17th level but you SHOULD get something nice then.
Looks fine to me. I wouldn't even see the need for uncommon/rare as it seems pretty balanced powerwise.
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Rarity does not strongly correlate to power level. Look at Shoonies and Androids.
But yeah, Beastkin are fine. I'm glad they got something other than darkvision, and wish that more heritages had done the same.
Edit: including the CRB quote:
The rarity system has two purposes: to convey how common or rare certain spells, creatures, or items are in the game world, and to give you an easy tool to control the complexity of your game. Uncommon and rare options aren’t more powerful than other options of their level, but they introduce complications for certain types of stories, or are less common in the world. For instance, it might be more challenging to run a mystery adventure when a player can cast an uncommon spell such as detect evil.
There is some nice stuff there for sure. But what you need to appreciate is it all comes on late. Example permanent enlarge at level 13, but enlarge is available at level 3. So its permanent and flexible and cool, but everyone else can probably have a bunch of potions that do the same thing for only a minor cost.
You can get flight at level 17 via Animal Shape. But that is level 17.
I'm not seeing a problem.