You know what Drow are. I was kind of glad that there weren’t any Drow on Golarion when I first cracked open Pathfinder. Turns out there were, they were just hiding. Just as Dwarves and Gnomes have a different kind of background on Golarion (Dwarves don’t tunnel into the earth on Golarion, they tunneled out of it/Gnomes aren’t cackling tinkerers, but weird adrenaline-junkie exiles) the backstory to the Elves and Drow is a little bit different. Sensing the rise of mankind and an approaching catastrophe, the Elves left Golarion. Just left, went away. Leaving behind a remnant of their race that grew embittered and malicious as they struggled through the next few – very difficult – millenia. Then the Elves came back once mankind had managed to get over its savage phase.
The Drow eventually start making their way back into Golarion’s lore, albeit slowly. One good thing is that during the first three adventure paths Paizo made, you weren’t even allowed to play a Drow, which cut down on the number of misunderstood outcasts who were the one in a million Drow who wanted to do good in the world by being tragic and kewl. You know when Batman isn’t just punching guys or schmoozing as Bruce Wayne, but having deep internal conflicts about whether or not Gotham needs blah blah blah. That’s the Drow PC, all the god damn time. Fuck the Drow and fuck everyone who plays them.
Good: +2 Dex, +2 Cha; crossbow, rapier and shortsword proficiency; immune to Sleep effects, +2 vs Enchantment, Spell Resistance 6+Lvl, +2 Perception, Dancing lights x1 day, Faerie fire x1 day, Darkness x1 day, Poison Use, Double distance darkvision.
Bad: -2 Con, Dazzled in bright light (-1 attacks and perception), blinded for the first round of bright light; you must tell everyone about your character, all the damn time.
How excited I would be to see a Drow PC: 1/10
The Ratfolk are native to plains areas and travel in trade caravans, although they can also be found in tightly-knit communities in and around human settlements. They’re polite and sociable, preferring to spend time with other polite and sociable races. They’re not much concerned with the acquisition of wealth as they are the acquisition of cool stuff. They are compulsive hoarders and traders as well as skilled mechanical tinkerers and I CAN’T GET THE SKAVEN OUT OF MY HEAD.
On one hand, its great news that Games Workshop have been churning out plastic miniatures for this fringe race for years (you can buy hundred different ratmen for every miniature of a dwarven woman that any one miniature company makes), on the other hand, I can’t not think of the disease spreading, backstabbing, chemical warfaring Skaven. Of these two variations on rat-men one was definitely based on a class pet and the other based on the thing that bit your sister when she went to get her bike out of the garage.
This is the first of three races that are really just anthropomorphic versions of an existing animal, which is a super lazy way of coming up with new races. Still, there isn’t anything here that is egregiously bad.
Good: +2 Dex, +2 Int, Small, +2 Craft (alchemy) Perception and Use Magic Device; Swarming, 2 ratfolk can occupy the same square and will count as flanking if they attack the same opponent. Darkvision. Plenty of miniature choices.
Bad: -2 Str, Small, +4 Handle Animals (Rodents)…. seriously.
How excited I’d be to see a Ratfolk PC: 6/10
You knew this was coming, didn’t you? You had to.
As I mentioned, just making a race a out of an animal-made-manshaped is lazy and choosing the coolest animals seems like lazy fan service for absolutely the worst people. Tigers are the coolest fucking animals on the planet. They’re the best. They’re amazing. If you make the tiger walk upright, it stops being an amazing tiger and starts being just another bipedal douchebag. And it brings up stupid integration problems between animal and humanoid form: like, what’s with the tits? Cats have eight sets of mammary glands and no breasts – breasts are peculiar to human women, mammary glands are universal to female mammals. So how did this process work whereby Catfolk evolved to lose 6 nipples and gain two pointless fat bags?
Speaking of pointless fat bags, you know this is going to lead to some weird furry shit… my disdain is severe and unyielding for this species.
Despite the poor Wisdom, catfolk are fine with being monks, but stay away from any devotion to a cause.
Good: +2 Dex, +2 Cha, +2 Perception, Stealth and Survival, +10′ to Charge, Run, or Withdraw, Low Light Vision, reroll Reflex saves 1x day. Catfolk regard Ratfolk as vermin, which is funny.
Bad: -2 Wis, you are never able to clean that spot just beneath your chin, but it won’t stop you from trying, to the laughter of everyone around. Also when you fail a roll, you have to – have to – pretend you meant to do that. Also, Daylight spells should function as Sleep spells for Catfolk. Good luck finding a miniature.
How excited I’d be to see a Catfolk PC: 2/10
Planar-kin are half-human, half-elemental, often the result of Genies including one clause more in a bargain than someone accounted for. The five planes that interact in this way are Shadow (Fetchlings), Earth (Oreads), Water (Undines), Air (Sylphs) and Fire (Ifrits). Of all of the races in the Advanced Race Guide thing, the elemental planar kin seem the least inspired, even lazier than the animal-men. The Fetchlings are an exception to this, as they were originally humans that were forced to the plane of Shadow and adapted to life there. Now they often work as emissaries between the two planes.
Fetchlings
Good: +2 Dex, +2 Cha, +2 Know (Planes) & Stealth, Increased miss chance when they are attacked in dim light, elemental resistances, Disguise Self and the some other free spells at later levels, Low light and darkvision.
Bad: -2 Wis
HEIATSAFPC: 6/10
Oreads
Good: +2 Str, +2 Wis, Elemental Resistance (Acid), Magic Stone x1 day, Darkvision, +1 Caster level for Earth domain spells + powers.+2 Cha for Sorceror purposes which just puts you on a level peg, +1 Caster level for Earth domain spells + powers.
Bad: -2 Cha, 20′ Move.
HEIATSAOPC: 4/10
Undines
Good: +2 Dex, +2 Wis, Elemental Resistance (Cold), Hydraulic Push x1 day, Darkvision, +1 Caster level for Water domain spells + powers; +2 Cha for Sorceror purposes, +1 Caster level for Water domain spells + powers.
Bad: – 2 Str
HEIATSAUPC: 4/10
Ifrit
Good: +2 Dex, +2 Cha, Elemental Resistance (Fire), Burning Hands x1 day, Darkvision, +1 Caster level for Fire domain spells + powers; +2 Cha for Sorceror purposes, +1 Caster level for Fire domain spells + powers.
Bad: -2 Wis
HEIATSAIPC: 4/10
Sylphs
Good: +2 Dex, +2 Int, Elemental Resistance (Electricity), Feather Fall x1 day, Darkvision, +1 Caster level for Air domain spells + powers; +2 Cha for Sorceror purposes, +1 Caster level for Air domain spells + powers.
Bad: -2 Con
HEIATSASPC: 4/10
I donât care who but someone has to play a Tiefling that is the spawn of Albedon and that succubus from the runeforge.
Ooh. bonus for anyone who wants to play a 1/4 Elf, 1/4 Dwarf 1/2 Demon Tiefling.
The thing about goblins is that I think a whole party of them would be super fun. Just everybody building everything around “I can stab it/I must flee” for an entire game would be a short-term riot.
I don’t see how you could even play one if it’s not everybody just overreacting to everything that happens all the time though. How long could a goblin cooperate with a human before neither of them can take it anymore?
They have written goblin-specific adventures, which would be fun, I’d bet. But I think they included them just because of their totemic quality to the company, rather than believing anyone would include them as part of a traditional party.
That said, a Tengu/Kobold/Goblin/Gnome party would be pretty rad. Briefly.
That would be some fun, fun, fun, low-survival-rate, fun.