This is the first what I hope will be an every other week blog entry. Basickly its going to be taking about the development of whatever it is I happen to be working on for the Pathfinder Role Playing Game. The poll showed the highest interest in Races and Monsters. So lets start with Races since I was working on that earlier this year with only the beta as a guide.

One of the problems that I never felt was really answered was, “There is no race that just scream, ‘This race is for women!‘” Sure there’s the elf/half elf, but neither of these possess the grail-shaped light over their heads to draw in the female gamer. Well with some wonderful inspiration from my girlfriend and the Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathon we’re both enjoying thanks to netflix, I found the perfect female to base a race off of: Cordelia. She’s social, kicks ass when necessary, a survivalist, possesses indepth knowledge of certain aspects of life, and makes witty remarks. Granted she’s not very knowledgeable about many other aspects of life. Oh well. So I leaf through the Monster Manual to find some base of reference for a Cordy-like race. Succubus? No! Not going there … yet. Dryad is cool. … The whole “cannot be more than 300 yards away from their tree” thing makes it a major no go. … How about a half-dryad? Hmmm, potential! I mean what human moral-less man wouldn’t want to be with an elf-looking woman that can’t follow him back home and find out he’s married. Plus they can entangle at will. That’s wrong on so many levels, but I think it could work.

So what should a Cordelia-themed half-dryad race have at its disposal. Entangle as a spell like ability would be quite dryad themed. Then there Cordy’s native survivalist abilities and she’s highly social. Con and Cha and Survival skill bonuses. Definitely an Int penalty. Definitely. She’s going to need a natural armor bonus (+1) since she’s part dryad and other fey qualities like low light. Maybe the natural armor could be a feat, to keep the race balanced. I’ll have to playtest that some. I think that about wraps up the crunch.

How about the fluff? Well they have a Cha bonus so they’re pretty and social. They like to make themselves the center of attention. Definitely a Cordelia trait. They can leave the woods and leave their parent stuck at an oak tree. Probably grew up with little change of scenery, except when getting away from the parent. So no matter where they go, they’re seeing a whole new world. New possibilities lay before them where ever they go. Sounds like the perfect adventurer race to me. What else?

What about restricting their sorcerer bloodlines to fey only? They can certainly be destined, so keep that one allowable. Well it is possible that their human parent had some infernal or draconic influences. They’re fey should overpower such shouldn’t it? Possibly, but (to use a cooking metaphor) I don’t need to add alot of garlic or oregano to greatly influence the taste of spaghetti sauce. So I think the others should be allowable. Must think more on this.

Please feel free to comment on this. Tell me what you think of this race?