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While I doubt this will come to pass, I would absolutely love to see an aberration themed book similar to the Book of the Dead one day.
Some personal wishes for it include:
* More aberration ancestries, heritages, and aberration themed backgrounds.
* An aberration eidolon.
* An aberration specific familiar.
* A bestiary chock full of wonderful, mind-melting horrors. Might be a great way to flesh out the Remastered Darklands a bit since there are lots of aberrations down there! Not all aberrations are evil either! Something similar to the Flumph would be delightful.
* Spells themed around summoning and controlling aberrations and occult knowledge. Maybe a tenth level spell to summon a tiny fragment of Azathoth to deal mindless devastation! Careful you're not in the way! XD
* Maybe have the Necronomicon in 2e?
* Possibly cursed magical items connected to aberrations and Outer Gods!
* Similar to the above, more information on the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods! Lovecraftian Cultist archetype! I know that creatures above level 25 won't happen in 2e, but I dream of having the statblocks we had for mighty beings like Cthulhu.
That's all I can think of for now.
If we get this pipe dream of mine, what would you want to see in it? Feel free to expand upon or refine any of my ideas above!
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The thing with Aberrations is it's such a wastebin taxon, it's anything that doesn't fit the model of life (or unlife, or construct, or whatever an ooze is) "as we know it."
Some are living things that are just modified a little bit sideways in a way that in some non-discreet way goes past just being a mutant or a cyborg or something.
Some are just life from a different, alien evolutionary baseline.
Some are outright created beings that might have been beasts or humanoids if the creator had done a better or slightly different job.
Some are conglomerate beings of somehow altered normal animals.
Some are cosmic horrors from beyond the basic concept of matter, molded from the stuff of dreams or imagination or void energy or time.
And then there's the K'nonna.
None of these are the same kind of thing! It's like writing eight biology textbooks about the different categories of mammal and then rolling all other life on the planet into the category of "Bugs," one volume.
That said I would also like an Aberration Eidolon, and to have some kind of Lovecraftian alien as a playable ancestry, we got Beings of Ib and Yaddithian in 1e!
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Seconding calls for an aberration Versatile heritage!
It is also weird as heck that playable fleshwarps right now don't have a feat to get adopted ancestry for whatever they were before getting fleshwarped. Like, skeletons get As In Life, So In Death, give fleshwarps a similar feat. They need a Remaster anyway.
Looking at the 1e race stats for aberrations, there's not very many of them and they're all Cthulhu Mythos beasties - Beings of Ib, Deep One Hybrids, and Yiddithians. Considering how weird and cool all the Starfinder playable aberrations are, I'd quite like to see a Paizo original aberration ancestry designed for Pathfinder.
Besides that... I want an aberration-themed Oracle Mystery, maybe with an insanity-based curse, or a more body-horror mutation one. Some messed-up rituals would also be cool - get spooky with it!
And, as they are the Iconic Occult Caster, Make Bards Creepier!
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Yeah, a Fleshwarper archetype would be great.
One of the monsters I'd like to see brought into 2e is the Color out of Space.
I know that it's one of those things that works better the less we know about it, but I'd love more information about the Beyond Beyond, and this seems like a good book to include even some light information about it.
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I always thought fleshwarp should be a versatile heritage. making it clear what you originally were and what you've been changed into.
Another aberation versatile heritage could be the Beyonder, whether you gazed too long into the abyss (only for the whole damn thing to blink at you) or one of your parents is something not quite of this plane of existence you are partially something else.
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In addition to seconding the Chthonian content (perhaps linked to Leng and/or the Dimension of Dreams), I would like to see a deep dive on the Dominion of the Black. I know that can be Cthulhu-adjacent, but I want to see what that looks like in Pathfinder - including creatures, gods, cults, and all appropriate equipment, spells, and rituals.
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A deep dive on the Dominion of the Black would be fascinating, especially in a Pathfinder book where it's from a distinctly fantasy-setting-eye view rather than from the Starfinder perspective. It still having this level of technology and scale that's truly incomprehensible to the people describing it.
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I always thought fleshwarp should be a versatile heritage. making it clear what you originally were and what you've been changed into.
Plenty of fleshwarps have no memory of any pre-fleshwarp existence, either because of traumatic amnesia or because they're custom-built beings - like, just about every Nexian fleshforged creature is completely unrelated to whatever actually got put in the vats.
I think fleshwarps should be both an ancestry and a versatile heritage, so that those who more closely resemble their origin point (and/or retain memories of before their mutation) can get mechanical benefits, without locking away the option of playing a runaway failed experiment (or successful experiment) with no connection to any past life.
The thing with Aberrations is it's such a wastebin taxon, it's anything that doesn't fit the model of life (or unlife, or construct, or whatever an ooze is) "as we know it."
Some are living things that are just modified a little bit sideways in a way that in some non-discreet way goes past just being a mutant or a cyborg or something.
Some are just life from a different, alien evolutionary baseline.
Some are outright created beings that might have been beasts or humanoids if the creator had done a better or slightly different job.
Some are conglomerate beings of somehow altered normal animals.
Some are cosmic horrors from beyond the basic concept of matter, molded from the stuff of dreams or imagination or void energy or time.
And then there's the K'nonna.
None of these are the same kind of thing! It's like writing eight biology textbooks about the different categories of mammal and then rolling all other life on the planet into the category of "Bugs," one volume.
That said I would also like an Aberration Eidolon, and to have some kind of Lovecraftian alien as a playable ancestry, we got Beings of Ib and Yaddithian in 1e!
Definitely agree with this. I'm generally just kind of annoyed by how much stuff occult gets, seems to be paizos favorite. Personally I feel like most of the 'created in a lab' type stuff should be arcane. Magical beasts, fleshwarps, golems, more oozes, constructs, etc. I don't understand why a fleshwarp is occult other than that they can be creepy I guess? To me, while they have a wide variety, they are more like Frankensteins monster, which is much more arcane than occult. Its definitely possible I'm missing something or there's some lore I don't know about but that's the vibe I get. Plus, isn't nex have a major focus on fleshwarping, and is mostly an arcane focused city?
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I kinda have to agree with Perpdepog, Beyond making the equivalence of half-elves by giving them extra feats. you can already use Fleshwarp heritages as a versitile heritage using the Mixed Ancestry rules.
Custom Mixed Heritages are a GM permission only option. It would be quite nice to have explicit rules instead of having to play "GM May I" every time you wanna build one, y'know?
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Which is different from Uncommon/Rare character options how? These still require Access and GM permission with the GMCore explicitly telling GMs they can decide to allow them on a case-by-case basis.
Most GMs of my acquaintance put Custom Heritage in the "Basically Homebrew" category, rather than the pretty pro-forma "check for disruptiveness" that Uncommon/Rare ancestry options get, so they're more likely to get dismissed as either too much work or too likely to break something.
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Aberration eidolon, absolutely. It's one of the more painful missing elements for me.
I would also really enjoy an aberration instinct for the Barbarian class. I miss the old Aberrant Bloodrager from PF1, and the new way Barbarian works seems like it'd work great to absorb some of that flavor.
"Aberration archetype" is kind of vague, but it's something I'd enjoy. Maybe an archetype that leans into summoning them or has some weird body-modification feats.
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My first thought for "Aberration Archetype" is like… Rasputin in the Del Toro Hellboy movie with the Ogdru Hem writhing under his skin, but I feel like that's kinda covered with Living Vessel. Could also go for some kind of environment-warping control build, eyes and mouths appearing out of the walls all horror-like. My only other pitch is basically the last act of Akira. Kinda hard to toe the line between "unpredicatable enough to fit the genre" and "controlled enough to be playable" for this sort of thing.
If we're going for an aberrant versetile heritage, I'd put my vote on an Outer God Child so you can go full Wilbur Whateley. It was a monster adjustment in 1e, and it's not like it'd be overpowered (the source material got mauled to death by a regular dog!)
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In addition to seconding the Chthonian content (perhaps linked to Leng and/or the Dimension of Dreams), I would like to see a deep dive on the Dominion of the Black. I know that can be Cthulhu-adjacent, but I want to see what that looks like in Pathfinder - including creatures, gods, cults, and all appropriate equipment, spells, and rituals.
+1 to this! They're my favorite Paizo-original villains, but we've seen remarkably little of them.
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Now that I think of it, aberration would be the right umbrella for that figment ancestry I've always dreamed of. You are unsettling to look at because your appearance is always in a slight state of shift, because you are born from and made of dream stuff. but you have enough consistent identifiable marks and a psychic presence that always lets those who know you identify you, no matter how much you've changed. then you have feats that can lead into shapeshifting and illusions, or psychic manipulation.
As for my Beyonder the main thrust with them is how the fundamentally break reality, such as a once per day ability to give anything they are wealding reach or sweep traits because of the weird geometry their native plane. Or a visual traited action that requires a will save agaisnt some psychic damage as you reveal a part of yourself reaching into dimensions mortal minds aren't meant to perceive.
Now that I think of it, aberration would be the right umbrella for that figment ancestry I've always dreamed of. You are unsettling to look at because your appearance is always in a slight state of shift, because you are born from and made of dream stuff. but you have enough consistent identifiable marks and a psychic presence that always lets those who know you identify you, no matter how much you've changed. then you have feats that can lead into shapeshifting and illusions, or psychic manipulation.
Remember, animate dreams just have the [Dream] trait, and that's the sort of oddball option I'd quite like to see an ancestry get. Like, we've got a lot of playable types (fey, spirits, undead, aberrations, beasts, constructs, dragons, plants, and fungus, on top of the standard humanoids), so getting something weird like dream would suit something as odd as a figment.
Anyway, if we do get a versatile heritage for aberrations, I reckon it should be - like aberrations themselves - kind of a wastebin taxon. Lineages for actual blood connection (maybe linking to specific kinds of aberration, maybe not), mutagenic infection (look, all I'm saying is that it's a crying shame the Colour Out of Space never got a corruption option in 1e...), a birth under unfavourable stars, and maybe an option where you (mostly) survived getting ritually sacrificed?
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I must categorically object to certain points.
First, we should not provide exhaustive information regarding the Dominion of the Black. This is not because the subject matter would be uninteresting; rather, the issue is that when dealing with entities utterly alien to the human psyche—beings too bizarre and incomprehensible to grasp (as Lovecraftian horrors invariably are)—any attempt to shoehorn them into the realm of conventional politics and factionalism results in abject failure. The same principle applies to the various races and creatures drawn from Lovecraftian mythos—such as the Cosmic Polyp—and similar entities.
The second point I wish to address concerns the problematic nature of defining "Aberrations" as a single, unified
The point isn’t to provide exhaustive information on the Dominion of the Black. As a big fan of Call of Cthulhu, I acknowledge the necessity of having many unanswered questions for these entities beyond mortal understanding. However, this is a different game, which means that some (most?) of that mystery and terror doesn’t translate well. As a GM, I want enough information, including stats on some unique creatures dialing into that mystique with their abilities so I can provide touch points in my campaign.
It’s not a matter of “shoehorning them into the realm of conventional politics and factionalism,” but acknowledging these things exist in our much more mechanical game. Furthermore, that these entities exist and some mortals deign to worship, or at least try to ‘understand’ them, begs for interaction opportunities with my players’ characters. What do those NPCs and cults look like (and what are their stats)?
With the different focus of gaming systems, each will have to approach these concepts differently. I just want some crunch and inspiration to more easily introduce the Dominion of the Black to my campaign.
In case the implications of all the above isn’t clear, I agree with you that an aberration-focused book is too abstract and obtuse. As I’ve said, I’m interested in the creatures, the lore /knowledge (limited that it may be), and the specific contexts in Golarion where these creatures and their minions have an effect on conventional politics and factionalism. What does that look like, and how, as a GM, can I leverage that?
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I suppose this would lend itself well to a book that isn't "objective truth from the Paizo head offices".
For example, the Dominion chapter could be written as a correspondence between some scholars who all believe somewhat different things about the Dominion, comparing reports, sightings, rumors etc. As a reader, it'd quickly become clear that none of the authors really knows for sure, and besides they don't really agree with each other.
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I suppose this would lend itself well to a book that isn't "objective truth from the Paizo head offices".
For example, the Dominion chapter could be written as a correspondence between some scholars who all believe somewhat different things about the Dominion, comparing reports, sightings, rumors etc. As a reader, it'd quickly become clear that none of the authors really knows for sure, and besides they don't really agree with each other.
Isn't that why basically all the lore stuff these days is from the perspective of a specific in-Universe character? Like, the reason Yivali and Geb and the crew of the Zoetrope are our sources of information, rather than the third-person omniscient narrator? Means you can flex the lore a bit more, or have common misconceptions, disproven hypotheses, and other such methods to preserve ambiguity (also allows for "soft" retcons more easily). I really don't think any narrator for Dominion content is going to be a member of the Dominion themself, y'know?