What would 2e Lashunta look like?

[keftiu]

I’m really, really hoping for some more of the setting’s weird space stuff creep into Second Edition, and it has me wondering about one of my favorite Ancestries in the setting; lashunta! So to get the ball rolling, I’m curious what people would expect Heritages and other mechanical elements to look like, as well as what storylines could be told with them in the world.

I know it’s unlikely, but seeing some of the work Starfinder mentions of decoupling gender from [what I now assume would be Heritages?] “on-screen” would be a joy - maybe in an elf-y AP that has an excuse to detour to Castrovel, or on a jaunt around the solar system?

[Ascalaphus]

I think we could definitely expect the sexual dimorphism to be toned down significantly, because that doesn't really fit Paizo's style of doing things anymore. (Also, it's nice that you can play either variant without being pigeonholed into a gender!)

I'm not sure if korasha and damaya will become heritages per se, because that would eat up a lot of the room for other possible heritages. We tend to get at least four.

The spell-like abilities look like good candidates for ancestry feats. The telepathy is probably a species-wide ability, with more feats to expand it. Perhaps with a telepathy-with-mount feat chain.

The "student" ability might result in them getting an extra trained skill at first level, or perhaps something like humans' Skilled heritage being an option. It's also possible we'll see a level 5+ ancestry feat that works with getting higher skill proficiencies, a bit like elves do.

We'd probably also get four or more different ethnicities, perhaps loosely aligned with some different cultures among the city states. As usual, with the option to mix and match ethnicities and heritages, although some combinations will be more obvious. You're more likely to see variety in skin tones based on ethnicity than on heritage - I think Paizo prefers the more mechanical elements like heritages to not be too tied to a skin color.

[Temperans]

Based on the fact that PF2 is not too far from PF1 lore wise compared to Starfinder. I would say that the gender dimorphism would still be very relevant. But then given recent trends, there is a recent chance they change it to be less relevant.

I can see the potential of them writing it in such a way that gender dimorphism is the norm. But some lashunta are working on ways to affect which subrace/heritage end up. This would effectively make it lore wise so that PF2 Lashunta the origin of the Startfinder version.

[WWHsmackdown]

Im not sure of how willing paizo is to pilfer from starfinder to inject into p2e. They might wanna keep them separate to help keep starfinder healthy. Personally, I'd love to have the alien races but from a business standpoint they might wanna relegate starfinder content to people buying and supporting starfinder. Such a cool setting but I'm not in love with the system.

[Rysky]

P2 is not beholden to whatever Starfinder does and vice-versa, case in point Nocticula never ascended in Starfinder.

You can have Starfinder style Lashunta in P2, and Starfinder remains unchanged.

[RiverMesa]

I could see it as, your choose whether you're korasha or damaya (some Starfinder web fiction calls them 'clades' rather than 'subraces', which is fun wording), which may have some options tied to them (be it heritages, ancestry feats, or hell, ability scores)?

It might even be something along the lines of "some ancestry feats are uncommon but have an access entry of belonging to one of the clades" - but that's all spitballing, but I do have faith in Paizo to do them justice.

[Saedar]

Might be interesting to provide some ritual that allows one to transition from one group to the other that is a distinct and embraced part of their culture. Keep the sexual dimorphism but embrace the opportunity to define your own identity. Toss in an "I've Seen Both Sides" Background for this happening in the past for a given character.

[keftiu]

Any obvious tie-in pitches for Archetypes?

[Ascalaphus]

keftiu wrote:

Any obvious tie-in pitches for Archetypes?

I think the trend is a bit away from archetypes that require a really specific ancestry/heritage/ethnicity, because so few people can use them.

An archetype built around telepathy would make a lot of sense, and you could use that for lashunta, formians and so on.

[keftiu]

Spitballing for Heritages: one about telekinesis (maybe giving Mage Hand or Telekinetic Projectile?), one about bonding with animals, one about empathy, and one about being scholarly.

I’m struggling to figure out what a naturally telepathic Ancestry looks like in 2e, as I don’t think we’ve got anything equivalent to lean on officially so far.

[Temperans]

Could make it an uncommon ancestry and just give them telepathy. No reason why it should be based around common ancestry abilities.

[Ascalaphus]

I wouldn't want to lock too many things behind a heritage, stuff like bonding with animals I'd prefer to do with archetype/ancestry feats.

Scholarly heritage makes sense though, you could easily copy the humans' Skilled heritage for that.

---

I was thinking about the sexual dimorphism. One way to approach it would be to just say it was all a big misunderstanding, kind of like how humans aren't sure if female dwarves have beards and it's easy to mistake the slender elven frame for feminine. Just because one or two human visitors to a lashunta city thought that all damaya were women and all korasha were men doesn't mean they were right. In reality there are maybe even more morphs than that (taking into account COM's mind-forward and hunter lashunta), but the visitors just didn't meet any or recognize them for what they were.

[keftiu]

Found a curious difference; 1e Lashunta all get a bonus to Intelligence (and then their other two modifiers are sex-based), while Starfinder has them all with a Charisma boost (and then the decoupled-from-gender subspecies). Does anyone have a strong o preference for Intelligence or Charisma?

[Rysky]

With their telepathy I'd lean to Charisma, capable of being more empathic, but they do love to learn, hmmm

[Temperans]

Well in PF2 could you given them say: 1 +2 for Int or Cha, and 1 +2 based on the heritage/semi-gender thing?