Next week sees the release of the Book of Heroic Races: Age of Races 2, and we couldn’t be more excited. We are taking many of the races we developed in-depth for Pathfinder and bringing them over for your 13th Age Compatible game. We’ve got 5 races in total in this book: androids, geppettoans, gillfolk, moonblooded, and tengus. Today we are going to look at the moonblooded.
I will be honest, I was hesitant about bringing a shapechanger playable race into 13th Age with Richard Moore proposed it. As far as I know, there hasn’t been one yet, and I was not sure how it would be received. I know Richard knows his stuff so I gave him the green light. After seeing the race, I am glad I did. I really like this race and think it is a solid addition to any 13th Age game. See for yourself.
Moonblooded Racial Traits
Moonblooded have the following racial traits. +2 Wis; also see Racial Power.
Change Shape (Racial Power)
You may shapeshift into a bestial form as a standard action once per battle. When you do so, you can increase either your Str, Dex, or Con by +2, and your unarmed melee attacks deal damage as though you were wielding a two-handed light or simple weapon for your class (unless you are a monk and your damage dice and attack bonus for such an attack would be higher than this amount, in which case you use the better of the two). Champion Feat: You now change shape as a move action, and your unarmed melee attacks benefit from the effects of two-weapon fighting (see the “Attacks” section of Chapter Five: Combat Rules in the 13th Age Core Rulebook).
Go beyond the standard fantasy races and play a new breed of hero. These intrepid adventurers forge their place in legends with splinter, gill, electron, and scale. Now you can play one of these heroic races in your home game and battle monsters like never before.
Book of Heroic Races: Player Races 2 introduces a number of playable races for your fifth edition game. This 13-page supplement gives you everything you need to include the following races at your table:
Androids, machines with human-like souls, including subraces powered by alchemy and technology
Geppettoians, a halfling-sized, wooden construct race possessing free will to forge their own paths
Gillfolk, a race mutated by powerful sea monsters to serve as slaves who have won their freedom, featuring two subraces defined by where they live in the sea: the shore-line gillfolk and their deep-sea cousins
Lizardfolk, scaly swamp-dwelling heroes whose subraces originate from draconic progenitors or stewards of nature
About 2 years ago, I walked out of Guardians of the Galaxy and said, “I want a raccoon race in my sci-fi games.” I liked Rocket, but I would rather him be a race rather than a one of a kind creature. So I asked my favorite artist to do a few drawings, and that is where this image came from. Man, do I love it!
Aliens are going to be a cornerstone to any Starfinder game in the way that fantasy races are to Pathfinder. So for the next installment in my ongoing series about what kind of Starfinder setting would I make, I would like to talk about some of the alien races in it. Of course there will be humans, androids, lashunta, and ratfolk in there, as well as any other race in the core rulebook, but I just have to add my own (if it is not already in there). First one will be a raccoon race. A nice scrappy race that is all about nocturnal life. That’s them. So they should be a crazy, go in guns blazing little guys. I also need to add seedlings in there. You know where I am going with this so I am just going to stop here.
But what else should I do with races: change the flavor of the core races. As I have said many, many places, I always prefer Dark Sun to the Forgotten Realms. Give me a cannibal halfling any day. So how would I change the core races: during the great war that plunged the once great StarRealm into darkness and ruin, the lashunta saw their world bombarded by asteroids by the Cycrom Collective (the cybernetic undead). The lashunta, as a result are scarce in numbers and many of the older generation have gone insane with grief. The younger generation tend to be either exceptionally practical, having grown up taking care of their parents all throughout their childhood, or are angry extremists, wanting revenge on Cycroms for robbing them of a life they can only dream of now.
That is as far as I have created at the moment. If you enjoy this series, please let us know, tell a friend, and sign up for our Starfinder newsletter to stay up on all our latest articles.
We took a bit of a hiatus for a number of personal reasons, but we’re back and bringing the good. With this in mind, we are presenting to you the wyrwood race. This is a race of constructs carved from wood yet fully sentient. They were originally created as a servant race for wizards long ago, but choose to rise up against their masters and fought for their freedom. Now they have earned their place as a heroic race, as worthy as humans, dwarves and catfolk.
Below we present their racial traits so you can play them in your game. Thank you for reading all about them
Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Wyrwoods is part of the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium. Download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium now at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, d20PFSRD, and Paizo.com.
Wyrwood Racial Traits
+2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, –2 Charisma: Wyrwoods are quick on their feet and are highly intelligent, but they are not gifted conversationalists. No Constitution Score: Wyrwoods have no Constitution score. Any DCs or other statistics that rely on a Constitution score treat a wyrwood as having a score of 10 (no bonus or penalty). Wyrwoods start with 10 bonus hit points. Construct: Wyrwoods are constructs. Small: Wyrwoods are Small creatures and gain a +1 size bonus to their AC, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a –1 penalty on their combat maneuver checks and to Combat Maneuver Defense, and a +4 size bonus on Stealth checks. Normal Speed: Wyrwoods have a base speed of 30 feet. Darkvision: Wyrwoods can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Low-Light Vision: Wyrwoods can see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light. Construct Immunities: Wyrwoods are immune to all mind-affecting effects, ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, energy drain, and nonlethal damage. Wyrwoods are also immune to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects or is harmless). Wyrwoods do not breathe, eat, or sleep, unless they want to gain some beneficial effect from one of these activities. A wyrwood can drink a potion to benefit from the effect and can sleep to regain spells, but neither of these activities is required to survive or stay in good health. Construct Healing: Wyrwoods cannot heal damage on their own, nor can they be healed by spells of the healing subschool such as cure light wounds, but they can be healed through spells such as make whole. Construct Life and Death: Wyrwoods do not risk death due to massive damage, but they are immediately destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points or fewer. Also, wyrwoods cannot be raised or resurrected. Languages: Wyrwoods begin play speaking Common. Wyrwoods with a high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Aquan, Auran, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Ignan, and Terran.
Last week and this week we are showing off what is inside of the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Androids for Pathfinder. Last week, we saw the racial traits, one of the archetypes, and some of the feats that androids can take. Today we are sharing with you the interior artwork.
Combined with the cover arcane spellcaster and homunculus on the cover, we included an android priestess, ninja, magus, and archer. We hope you enjoy the artwork.
Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Androids is part of the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium. Download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium now at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, d20PFSRD, and Paizo.com.
Being a race of circuitry, androids have electricity flowing their entire bodies. So the androids racial feats makes more better able to handle electricity damage than most other races. As you can see from these feats, androids can use electricity to their advantage, regardless of the situation.
Conductive Body
Your body can conduct and diffuse even sudden bursts of electricity. Prerequisite: Con 15, Toughness, android. Benefit: You gain electricity resistance 5.
Improved Conductive Body
Electricity energizes your nanites, accelerating your body’s self-repair routines. Prerequisite: Con 15, Conductive Body, Toughness, android. Benefit: Whenever you take electricity damage that exceeds your electricity resistance, you gain fast healing 1 for a number of rounds equal to your Constitution modifier.
Magitech Spell (Metamagic)
You can infuse your spells with crackling energy from your circuitry. Prerequisite: Elemental Focus (electricity) APG, android. Benefit: A magitech spell deals 1d6 points of electricity damage per spell level, in addition to any damage it normally deals. A successful Reflex save (whether or not the spell normally allows a save) reduces this extra damage by half.
A magitech spell uses up a spell slot two levels higher than the spell’s actual level.
Overcharged Strike
You can bolster your unarmed strikes with bursts of electricity from your circuitry. Prerequisites: Con 13, Wis 13, Elemental Fist APG, Improved Unarmed Strike, android, base attack bonus +8. Benefit: Your unarmed strikes deal an additional +2 electricity damage at all times. When you use the Elemental Fist feat to deal electricity damage with an unarmed strike, you add an additional 1d10 electricity damage on a successful critical hit. Special: A monk of 6th level or higher can choose Overcharged Strike as one of his bonus feats. So long as he possesses the Elemental Fist feat, the monk need not meet this feat’s other prerequisites to select it as a bonus feat.
Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Androids is part of the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium. Download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium now at the JBE Shop. You can also find it at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, d20PFSRD, and Paizo.com.
With tomorrow being Star Wars Day (or today, or whatever), I thought I would share with you one of the psionic archetypes. The cryptic from Ultimate Psionics is one of my favorite classes. So when I saw this archetype, I had to share it. With an androids ability to recognize patterns, the cryptic is a sure fit to the race.
Wiremind
Androids, being hyper-logical, naturally see the patterns and structure in all things, and those who become cryptics and investigate the hidden patterns in the world around them sometimes turn their exploration inward toward the intricate patterns of their own circuitry. These wireminds learn to spread their mind’s energies throughout their biological circuitry, gaining greater insight into their own psionic potential. Associated Class: cryptic Associated Race: android Replaced Abilities: trapfinding, trapmaker, swift trapper Modified Abilities: pattern designs Mind and Body: Through meditation, the wiremind harnesses the power of his circuitry to enhance his mental capabilities. He adds 1/2 his level to Autohypnosis checks made to memorize and to recall information (minimum +1). He also adds this bonus on Knowledge (psionics) checks. Pattern Designs (Su): A wiremind’s powers show up on his body as tattoos much as they do for other cryptics, but these designs intertwine and interact with his circuitry-tattoos, giving him an intimate familiarity with his own abilities. When making a Spellcraft check related to a psionic power he knows, the wiremind gains a competence bonus equal to his class level. Circuitry Focus (Su): Beginning at 6th level, the wiremind can psionically focus his circuitry in the same manner which he normally gains psionic focus. Whenever he would need to expend or maintain psionic focus for an effect, he can expend or maintain his circuitry’s psionic focus instead.
Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Androids is part of the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium. Download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium now at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, d20PFSRD, and Paizo.com.
First off, my apologizes. My day job has been kicking my butt lately and I have not done as good of a job of keeping up on my previews and other communication as I would have liked. Having said that, let’s dig into Advanced Androids.
The Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Androids is a sharp change from our normal races, in that we are covering what cannot be considered a fantasy race. While it is true that the living machines have their origins in Frankenstein/Living Prometheus, this race is quite different from that story. This race is all about an artificially intelligent machine that has a human-like core to them. Since their base type is humanoid, an argument can certainly be made that this race is closer to the Borg (particularly the Hugh Borg) than to Commander Data and should be called cyborgs instead of androids. However, that would not account for the living soul within that can do and a new soul coming into the body. That separates them from cyborgs since members of that race die when the body dies. Androids live on, even if the soul exits the body and a new one enters.
So what exactly is an android then and how does it fit into a fantasy RPG? They fit in in the same way that Expedition to the Barrier Peaks fits into fantasy, by having science fiction crash land into your fantasy game. Certainly, the race is not for everyone. However, the exact same can be said about psionic races, dragon people, undersea characters, lizardfolk, or any other race in this the upcoming Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium. That was one of the reasons why we chose to include it.
Down to the business of what exactly an android is in terms of Pathfinder. Well the best way to answer that is to share with you their racial traits.
Android Racial Traits
+2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, –2 Charisma: Androids have swift reflexes and are very intelligent, but have difficulty relating to others. Humanoid: Androids are humanoids with the android subtype. Medium: Androids are Medium creatures and receive no bonuses or penalties due to their size. Exceptional Senses: Androids have darkvision out to a range of 60 feet and low-light vision. Alert: Androids gain a +2 racial bonus on Perception checks. Constructed: For the purposes of effects targeting creatures by type (such as a ranger’s favored enemy and bane weapons), androids count as both humanoids and constructs. Androids gain a +4 racial bonus on all saving throws against mind-affecting effects, paralysis, poison, and stun effects, are not subject to fatigue or exhaustion, and are immune to disease and sleep effects. Androids can never gain morale bonuses, and are immune to fear effects and all emotion-based effects. Logical: Androids have problems processing emotions properly, and thus take a –4 penalty on Sense Motive checks. Nanite Surge: An android’s body is infused with nanites. Once per day as an immediate action, an android can cause her nanites to surge, granting a bonus equal to 3 + the android’s character level on any one d20 roll; this ability must be activated before the roll is made. When an android uses this power, her circuitry-tattoos glow with light equivalent to that of a torch in illumination for 1 round. Languages: Androids begin play speaking Common. Androids with high Intelligence can choose any additional languages they so desire (except for secret languages such as Druidic).
Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Androids is part of the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium. Order and download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium now at the JBE Store. You can also find it at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, d20PFSRD, and Paizo.com.
Last week saw the release of the Book of Heroic Races: Player Races 1 for Fifth Edition. We’re already looking ahead to Player Races 2 and want to hear your opinion. Vote in the poll below and let us know which races you want in your game.
Races Beyond the Ordinary
Go beyond the standard fantasy races and play a new breed of hero. These intrepid adventurers forge their place in legends with beak, claw, spell, and sword. Now you can play one of these heroic races in your home game and battle monsters like never before.
Book of Heroic Races: Player Races 1 introduces a number of playable races for your fifth edition game. This 16-page supplement gives you everything you need to include the following races at your table:
Catfolk, including the near-human subrace of faol and the decidedly feline subrace of saebul
Hagborn, with three subraces distinguished by the type of hag that gave birth to them: green hagborn, night hagborn, and sea hagborn
Samsarans, featuring two subraces defined by how they communicate with their past lives: in vivid dreams or through mental personifications
Tengu, including a city-dwelling cosmopolitan subrace and a nomadic variant that travels the countryside
7 New Subraces for existing core races: dwarves, elves, gnomes, and halflings
We finished up Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Samsarans last week and released it to subscribers already. If you have not yet heard of the samsaran race, let me introduce you.
Samsarans are a human-like race that reincarnates into new life after death. This means that this life your character is experiencing is not his or her first life, and most likely won’t be the last. Samsarans remember their past lives like dream or by experiencing deja vu. This gives the samsaran a chance to right the wrongs committed in a previous life, or to reclaim the fortunes hidden by previous incarnations with no need for a map or divination spells. Samsarans are porcelain white in appearance with a hint of blue in their skin. The iris’s of their eyes are a washed-out white color.
Samsarans are born to human parents, and have exceptionally long lives. They typically begin adventuring around age 60, around the time that their human parents die of old age and everyone they grew up with has turned old and grey. Meanwhile, the samsarans are still youthful in appearance. As a result, samsarans begins adventuring after living what humans consider to be a full life. Samsarans typically worked for years in a profession and now that nothing is holding to the the place of their birth, want to go out and see whatever the world has to offer, and to see the places in their dreams.
The race originally appeared in Paizo’s Dragon Empire Primer, but with little detail. Since then the race has appeared in other official book with only a few paragraphs or a page of new accompanying material. We decided to take this race on and give it some serious detail. We hope that you enjoy our work as much as we do.
Samsaran Racial Traits
Samsarans have the following racial traits. +2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, –2 Constitution: Samsarans are insightful and strong-minded, but their bodies tend to be frail. Humanoid: Samsarans are humanoids with the samsaran subtype. Medium: Samsarans are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size. Base Speed: Samsarans have a base speed of 30 feet. Lifebound (Ex): Samsarans gain a +2 racial bonus on all saving throws made to resist death effects, saving throws against negative energy effects, Fortitude saves made to remove negative levels, and Constitution checks made to stabilize if reduced to negative hit points. Shards of the Past (Ex): A samsaran’s past lives grant her bonuses on two particular skills. A samsaran chooses two skills—she gains a +2 racial bonus on both of these skills, and they are treated as class skills regardless of what class she actually takes. Low-Light Vision: Samsarans can see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light. Samsaran Magic (Sp): Samsarans with a Charisma score of 11 or higher gain the following spell-like abilities: 1/day—comprehend languages, deathwatch, and stabilize. The caster level for these effects is equal to the samsaran’s level. Languages: Samsarans begin play speaking Common and Samsaran. Samsarans with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: any human language, Abyssal, Aquan, Auran, Celestial, Draconic, Giant, Ignan, Infernal, Nagaji, Tengu, and Terran.
Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Samsarans is part of the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium. Download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium now at the JBE Shop, DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, d20PFSRD, and Paizo.com.
With Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Merfolk coming out soon (probably Thursday), we wanted to share with you what you can expect in inside. Lets start with the basic racial stats and a pair of alternatives to the traditional merfolk itself.
First up we have the basic Merfolk Racial Traits.
+2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, +2 Charisma: Merfolk are graceful, hale, and beautiful. Medium: Merfolk are medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size. Slow Speed: Merfolk have a base speed of 5 feet. They have a swim speed of 50 feet. Aquatic: Merfolk are humanoids with the aquatic subtype. Amphibious: Merfolk are amphibious, but prefer not to spend long periods out of the water. Low-Light Vision: Merfolk have low-light vision. Armor: Merfolk have a +2 natural armor bonus. Legless: Merfolk have no legs, and cannot be tripped. Languages: Merfolk begin play speaking Common and Aquan. Merfolk with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Aboleth, Aklo, Draconic, Elven, and Sylvan.
Next up, we have the angufolk, a variant of merfolk that live in the deepest sees, where sunlight dares not tread.
Except as noted below, the angufolk are treated as merfolk. +2 Constitution, +2 Wisdom, –2 Charisma: Angufolk are heardy creatures that can withstand the pressures of the deep sea and perceive their prey in the great dark, but they lack a forceful personality. Type: Angufolk are aberrations with the aquatic subtype. Darkvision: Angufolk have darkvision with a range of 60 feet. Bite: Angufolk have long sharp teeth, granting a bite attack. This is a primary natural attack that deals 1d4 points of piercing damage. Deep Dwellers: Angufolk do not take pressure damage from being in very deep water, nor do they take the nonlethal damage from hypothermia or exposure. Lighted Lure: Angufolk are immune to light-based blindness and dazzle effects and are treated as one level higher when determining the effects of any light based spells or effects they cast (including spell-like and supernatural abilities). Angufolk with a Wisdom score of 10 or higher gain the following spell-like ability: at will—light. Water Dependency: Since Angufolk are from deep waters, exploration on shore wears on them. They take 1 point of Constitution damage after every hour out of the water. Languages: Angufolk begin play speaking Aquan. Angufolk with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Aboleth, Aklo, Common, Draconic, and Undercommon. Replaced Traits: Angufolk merfolk lose the following racial traits: humanoid type, amphibious, armor, legless, low-light vision
Last up, we have the octopi merfolk. This variant merfolk have the top half of a humanoid and the bottom half with eight tentacles.
Octopi have the same racial traits as merfolk except as noted below. +2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution: Octopi are graceful and hale like most merfolk but lack their enchanting beauty. Base Speed: Octopi merfolk have a base speed of 15 feet. They have a swim speed of 30 feet. Type: Octopi are monstrous humanoids with the aquatic subtype. Darkvision: Octopi have darkvision with a range of 60 feet. Watersense: Octopi can sense vibrations in the water, granting them blindsight 30 feet against creatures that are touching the same body of water. Octopod: Octopi merfolk gain a +12 racial bonus to CMD against overrun and trip attempts. Ink Cloud (Ex): One per day, an octopi merfolk can release an ink cloud. Treat this as an underwater obscuring mist using the octopi merfolk’s character level as her caster level. Camouflage: Three times per day, an octopi merfolk can adjust the color of her body to blend in with her surroundings, granting a +4 racial bonus to Stealth checks. The octopi merfolk can make Stealth checks without cover or concealment when using this ability, but cannot move more than 5 feet per round Replaced Traits: Octopi merfolk lose the following racial traits: humanoid type, armor, legless, low-light vision
Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Merfolk is part of the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium. Download the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium now at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, d20PFSRD, and Paizo.com.
