Real question for you centaur fans. How many of you have played centaurs that were in dungeoneering parties that encountered…rope ladders, rope access, ladders, hatchways - all the things centaurs aren’t really that…good…at?
Sure, there is “but…magic” to help, however sometimes even magic ain’t going to assist…
What does the centaur…do? I guess there are other ancestries that suffer similarly…lamias, ol’ yuan ti types, bariaur from Planescape etc…
Playing a centaur has challenges. If you pick one some planning and conversations with the party are highly recommended. The medium sized centaurs are a lot easier to work with the larger ones like any large ancestry can be a problem if you are going cave exploring.
I had a centaur kineticist that I wound up taking earth for one of my gates. The various ways to make walkable stepping stones/molding/widening earth/stone helped. Also a centaur charging at somebody in earthen armor is like the juggernaut.
Also note that especially for the medium sized ones but even the larger centaurs they are less big domestic horse body and more wild horse/pony bodies and wild horses/pony can be very sure footed in mountains/rocky areas.
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I imagine a centaur climbing a ladder probably looks a little something like this. Probably best not to overthink it. XD
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-I'm actually one of those people who's okay with serpentfolk never being playable. Sometimes, having a group that's just bad guys is okay. See MCDM/Draw Steel's war dogs. That said, the Darklands is rife with potential options, like the munavri, ulat-kini, and xulgath, likely among others.While I support more positive snake representation, I would think this could be fulfilled with Nagaji options. What do people want out of serpentfolk, mechanics-wise, you can't get by saying your Nagaji character is really one of them?
Story is the bigger part of it, otherwise you could as easily combine nagaji and vishkanya and just add more level 1 choices.
Mechanically, sacred nagaji are the only option for constriction, which also makes versatile heritages a barrier, and getting a venomous bite is awkward and excludes also getting constriction.
Serpentfolk have more narrative room for the weird, creepy, and animalistic elements. They are prone to mutations, are associated with different magic, sometimes have rattles, and are associated with different environments. Not being connected to a living religion like nagas are, there is also more room for sinister stuff overall.
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-I'm actually one of those people who's okay with serpentfolk never being playable. Sometimes, having a group that's just bad guys is okay. See MCDM/Draw Steel's war dogs. That said, the Darklands is rife with potential options, like the munavri, ulat-kini, and xulgath, likely among others.While I support more positive snake representation, I would think this could be fulfilled with Nagaji options. What do people want out of serpentfolk, mechanics-wise, you can't get by saying your Nagaji character is really one of them?
Nagaji are blessed guardians from one of the most stable and ancient nations in Pathfinder's equivalent to Asia. Sekmin are psychic mutants who who've spent the last few thousand years underground after Fantasy Altanteans chopped their god's head off, crushed their empire, and drove them underground.
They're both snakes in the same way that gnomes and halflings are both short.
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For very selfish reasons, I would dearly love for for vishkanya to get a heritage that has intoxicating rather than toxic blood and weak fangs. It would allow them to give some creepy vampire vibes and fits as an aggressive version of the concept origin. Give them a chain that leads to a dose of Stupify venom and you have a great compliment to nagaji gaze powers.
For very selfish reasons, I would dearly love for for vishkanya to get a heritage that has intoxicating rather than toxic blood and weak fangs. It would allow them to give some creepy vampire vibes and fits as an aggressive version of the concept origin. Give them a chain that leads to a dose of Stupify venom and you have a great compliment to nagaji gaze powers.
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For very selfish reasons, I would dearly love for for vishkanya to get a heritage that has intoxicating rather than toxic blood and weak fangs. It would allow them to give some creepy vampire vibes and fits as an aggressive version of the concept origin. Give them a chain that leads to a dose of Stupify venom and you have a great compliment to nagaji gaze powers.
That sounds cool as heck, and would also fulfil my personal desire for condition-inflicting effects tied to a different save than the "obvious" one. Like, almost everything that makes you drained or enfeebled is Fort, stupefied is pretty much always on a Will save, and so forth. It's more fun to mix it up a bit!
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I'm aware they'd have to be SIGNIFICANTLY watered down to be playable a la Battlezoo, but I'd love to have a swarm ancestry. I'm aware that Battlezoo has an ancestry that is a swarm in a skinsuit, and I love them, but I'd also like something official closer to a Swarm Strider. I adore the concept of the Spathinae from Starfinder 1e, and keep hoping they'll come back for second edition.
I don't have a specific concept or request in mind, but I always adore aberration ancestries, and would always love more!
Something else that would be fun is a cryptid-themed ancestry with feats similar to the Gap-touched heritage that make it hard for you to be noticed or remembered. Fresno nightcrawlers are FAR too niche to ever be a heritage for that ancestry, especially since Golarion doesn't HAVE a Fresno, but I can dream. XD This would probably work better as a rare archetype like ghost or zombie, or a Mythic Destiny though.
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On the Starfinder side of things there are a lot of requests for Anacites, which I would love but don't see being possible. Anacites don't possess souls and therefore can't be resurrected. They could always go the SRO route and say that a rare few Anacites gain souls.
For both games more construct ancestries would be immensely appreciated.
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Back in my day, we had four--count 'em, four--races, and by the gods, that was more than enough! You picked human, dwarf, elf, or halfling, and you were grateful for it. None of this "ancestry" nonsense. Ancestry? Bah! In my time we called 'em races, and they meant something! A dwarf was tough as old boots, lived underground, drank ale that'd strip paint, and hated orcs on principle. An elf was graceful, long-lived, and probably writing poetry while the rest of us were actually fighting. Gnomes were quirky little inventors who might blow themselves up, and halflings? They knew how to stay out of trouble, enjoy a good meal, and still stick a knife in a goblin's ribs when needed.
Humans? We were the versatile ones. Jack of all trades, master of some if you rolled lucky. No fancy bonuses everywhere--just good old-fashioned grit. And that was it. No catfolk prancing around with tails and attitude problems. No fish-people gillmen or whatever the hell an "azarketi" is supposed to be. No spider-folk anadi turning into eight-legged weirdos at the dinner table. No walking plants, no bird tengu, no ratfolk, no kobolds playing at being dragons, no androids from outer space, no fleshwarps that look like they lost a fight with a wizard's cauldron.
We didn't need versatile heritages or rare ancestries or books full of options so bloated the core rulebook couldn't even hold 'em all. You wanted to play something exotic? Tough luck, kid--roll up a half-elf or shut your yap and play a human like your grandpa did. We had depth, not width. You learned to roleplay the hell out of a dwarf because there weren't fifty other short grumpy options competing for the spotlight.
Now look at you lot today! Whining on the Paizo forums about what new "ancestry" you're still craving. "Oh please sir, can we have more centaurs? More slimes? More dragon-people? More whatever-the-hell a conrasu is?" Spoiled rotten, the whole generation! You've got more choices than a wizard has spells, and still you're not happy. Back in the day we'd have killed for half the options you crybabies take for granted, and we ran entire campaigns with just the basics and had the time of our lives.
You kids and your fancy ancestries... pah! In my day we had humans, dwarves, elves, gnomes, and halflings, and by thunder, that was more than enough! Now get off my lawn before I hit you with my +5 vorpal cane of "back when games were simple."
On the Starfinder side of things there are a lot of requests for Anacites, which I would love but don't see being possible. Anacites don't possess souls and therefore can't be resurrected. They could always go the SRO route and say that a rare few Anacites gain souls.
For both games more construct ancestries would be immensely appreciated.
Anacites don't have souls? That's sad news for a people who built a deity.
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I still want Cecaelias and Moth-people. That is enough to make me happy.
N. Robin Crossby, creator of Hârnworld and Hârnmaster, placed elves and dwarves in his world, but did not allow players to play them because 'they always turn out to be "humans with pointy ears" or "short gruff bearded humans"'. His point being that it is difficult (impossible?) for a human to play character whose worldview is so completely alien. I think he had a good point.
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N. Robin Crossby, creator of Hârnworld and Hârnmaster, placed elves and dwarves in his world, but did not allow players to play them because 'they always turn out to be "humans with pointy ears" or "short gruff bearded humans"'. His point being that it is difficult (impossible?) for a human to play character whose worldview is so completely alien. I think he had a good point.
Why can the GM embody their alien perspectives when players can't?
Canes aren't swords, or deal slashing damage. They aren't eligible to be vorpal weapons. Your argument is therefore invalid; CHECK AND MATE, OLD MAN!
I'm still surprised that the Sword Cane doesn't have the Versatile S trait though ^^;
We don't even know how different other sapient life would evolve from us, given convergent evolution, so it's an impossible metric. Stories of alien minds predate writing, writers get better at it every generation as we teach each other new ideas, and people within our own society often find each other incromprehensible, even their own siblings.
Some people put less effort into making non-humans feel different from humans, and that's all.
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I think that most worlds have a Fresno. It's just that the nightcrawlers are better at hiding those other ones than they are at hiding ours. It's why you keep hearing about schools of phrenology in fantasy worlds; they're supposed to be schools of fresnology, but the mind-muddling power of Fresno makes them come out wrong, and then everyone starts touching skulls or whatever.
Oh, this made my day, thank you! XD
Given Fresno is home to valley fever I think the PF equivalent is the Mana Wastes.
--
Whatever else is doen the pipe, I hope we get some new darklands folks and anything with connections to transitive planes.
An official ooze ancestry would be nice. (Or did one of those appear in Starfinder? It's hard to keep track.)
Definitely would like to see more creature types get ancestries.
There is a really neat SF2 ooze ancestry. They do have some small brains that are by default not fully goo but they can take feats that let them be squishy too so you can squeeze through almost anything.
The Fonqugons are the new ooze ancestry in SF2.
Funny enough, we have Aakriti (The Evershifting), an ooze deity somewhat related to life and creation, as well as insects.
N. Robin Crossby, creator of Hârnworld and Hârnmaster, placed elves and dwarves in his world, but did not allow players to play them because 'they always turn out to be "humans with pointy ears" or "short gruff bearded humans"'. His point being that it is difficult (impossible?) for a human to play character whose worldview is so completely alien. I think he had a good point.Why can the GM embody their alien perspectives when players can't?
I don't know that he can. Which is probably why in Crossby's own version of Hârn, elves and dwarves existed but were very rarely seen.
Golarion is getting to be awfully crowded.
Absalom, essentially the metropolis of the world, where people congregate from every continent to trade, from every plane, even. The most obligatory cantina location in Golarion.
Population: 306,900
That's not a bad population for a pseudo-medieval city. Small compared to some of the great centers, but an understandable underestimation.
The problem being that Golarion stopped being pseudo-medieval a long time ago (if it ever was).
World designers need to stop working off old D&D books.
Considering IRL Baghdad, Kaifeng and Hangzhou all had a population over a million in 1200 CE, putting less than 400 000 people in Absalom is a hilarious underestimation. (Honestly, considering Imperial Rome managed a population of about a million (possibly higher) at the turn of the Common Era, Absalom - inherently less vulnerable than any real medieval city to famine and plague - could well have been much higher.)
As for ancestries, I'd quite like to see a playable shabti. They've got a fun narrative hook and some good starting points for heritages/ancestry feats in their 1e material.
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Hey, at least it's not as bad as Starfinder, where Absalom Station, a tremendous futuristic arcology, the last bastion of an entire incredibly diverse planet, and the center of trade and culture for probably hundreds of equally technologically advanced and densely populated worlds, which has… less than half the population of New York City today.
Seconding Shabti, though I wonder if they'd be modded into a Versetile Heritage for 2e, since the idea is they're a spiritual duplicate of another humanoid. Either way, I'd bet they're saving them for a Lost Omens: Golden Road.
Tossing my vote for Shabti in as well. Personally I'd prefer a full ancestry, but I can definitely see the argument that thematically they'd make more sense as a heritage.
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Hey, at least it's not as bad as Starfinder, where Absalom Station, a tremendous futuristic arcology, the last bastion of an entire incredibly diverse planet, and the center of trade and culture for probably hundreds of equally technologically advanced and densely populated worlds, which has… less than half the population of New York City today.
Hey, maybe they'll fix it in the new Absalom Station book! And yeah, 2026 New York pop feels more like a reasonable lower bound on Absalom Station. (Genuinely, the canonical number only makes sense if they're doing Greek polis levels of shenanigans on legal statuses, and counting only a very small subset of the sophonts living there as residents). I'd actually suggest basing the numbers on the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan area, myself, but that's more than a tenfold increase (37-41 million).
Back to the ancestries... What might we get in LO: High Seas? Aquatic elves seem pretty likely, and Grindylows are still around. Not sure we'd get playable sedacthy or a 2e version of adaro, as both have a lot of overlap with existing ancestries. And while kuru are native to the Shackles, their 1e depiction is... Extremely Bad, so they'd need quite a lore overhaul to not be doing the racist savage stereotype again.
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I find really funny that Paizo keeps putting the population numbers even to this day when they are so off lol. They also aren't really needed? I mean, they could use the tags "village", "town", "city", and "metropolis" to be an approximation of the population of each settlement, with metropolis being something like "100,000 or more" like gargantuan is "20 feet or more" for sizes. I don't think we really need the exact amount of people living on a place.
Thats why I think using terms like "village", "town", "city", and "metropolis" can be enough if we have estimate numbers for each. In the case of Absalom I agree we ideally should have both, because its the most important place in the setting so the number of people there is important to know the scale of the place. But besides that, we don't really need to know there's like 100 people living on a random town in the middle of Katapesh.