Homebrewing Pathfinder Ancestries


Homebrew and House Rules


Alright, so, I've been meaning to swap my homebrew efforts over from 5e to pathfinder to maybe encourage my group of trying it out, and since I used to mainly focus on races/species, I'd figure I give homebrewing an ancestry a shot. Does anyone have any advice regarding making feats and how many feats I should make for an ancestry?


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I'd suggest at least two feats per level, and more likely three if you can manage it. By and large it looks like spells are handed out in an ancestry feat four or so levels after a caster would be able to cast them, at least to judge from a lot of spells handed out by the planar scion heritages.
It also looks like ancestry feats are more open to chaining off of each other than class feats might be. Class feats may have a feat that feeds off an earlier one, while it's not uncommon for an ancestry feat chain to have three feats in it to make them good at doing the thing.

Alternate movement modes don't seem to show up in ancestry feats until around level 9, beginning with climbing and swimming most frequently, though you can also find limited flight around that level as well.

Oh, and it looks like the average for heritages specific to an ancestry hovers around four when they are first created.

Naturally the number of how many feats/heritages you have available should only really matter too much if you want to publish, or if you just like writing up feats.


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Paizo seems to use specific rules depends the rarity

Flying ( if given )

-Common ( no access )
-Uncommon ( permanent by lvl 17 )
-Rare ( permanent by lvl 13 )

Size increase ( if given )

-Common ( no access )
-Uncommon ( by lvl 17 )
-Rare ( by lvl 13 ))

Climbing Speed

- Common ( lvl 9 )
- Uncommon/Rare ( lvl 5 )

and so on ( being tied to rarity, it would quickly allow a dm to prevent specific specific mechanics that might be given to players too early ).


Any general tips on how to format feats? I never homebrewed them in 5e, and I'm only doing it now in Pathfinder out of necessity.


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Syntax_error wrote:
Any general tips on how to format feats? I never homebrewed them in 5e, and I'm only doing it now in Pathfinder out of necessity.

I'd just copy the feats you see as close as you can. If you mean fonts and the symbology and stuff I don't think that'll be a big issue, and IIRC there is a font pack you can download if you want to. I want to say it's on Paizo Infinite somewhere?


Perpdepog wrote:
Syntax_error wrote:
Any general tips on how to format feats? I never homebrewed them in 5e, and I'm only doing it now in Pathfinder out of necessity.
I'd just copy the feats you see as close as you can. If you mean fonts and the symbology and stuff I don't think that'll be a big issue, and IIRC there is a font pack you can download if you want to. I want to say it's on Paizo Infinite somewhere?

Thanks, and I just wanted like a general guide so I can limit confusion for my friends.

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