Does ASHERATI HAve anything going for it, for a player race?

[CyberThread]

Okay NPC race wise, you know you can have swimming sand NPC's and glow in the dark lightbulbs, but does the ASHERATI offer anything for an actual player?

[Spuddles]

Early entry for walker in the waste?

[Coidzor]

All I recall is that they're great as a form for alter self. And that might be me misremembering. Good natural armor isn't really going to measure up favorably against the Human bonus feat though or the relevant ability score modifications to have a leg up on one's primary ability score(s) and dump scores that aren't of interest.

There's plenty of races which suck as PCs though, so it's hardly a feature unique to Asherati. Case in point, the myriad flavors of elves are largely bad.

[Kuulvheysoon]

No need to ever have to carry a torch. Ever.

[Psyren]

They're good in desert campaigns due to needing less water, sandswimming and free Heat Endurance without needing to meet the prereqs. Outside of those settings they're a bit lackluster, but I gather that was the point.

[CyberThread]

makes me sad :(

[ArqArturo]

Walker in the Waste.

[TekHed]

Walker in the Waste.

...and AMAZING in a Dark Sun campaign, in which I am playing one now. :smallcool:

[Jack_McSnatch]

Stuff mentioned above, plus automatic proficiency with the eagle claw, maybe? I thought up a fairly nasty dervish build with just about 30 attacks in a round cause of those things. Maybe not what you'd call an optimized build, but certainly deadly in a low op campaign

[Andezzar]

Stuff mentioned above, plus automatic proficiency with the eagle claw, maybe? I thought up a fairly nasty dervish build with just about 30 attacks in a round cause of those things. Maybe not what you'd call an optimized build, but certainly deadly in a low op campaignNot automatic proficiency but treat eagle claws as a martial weapon instead of an exotic one. What do the eagle's claws change about the number of attacks for the dervish?

[Zaq]

Not automatic proficiency but treat eagle claws as a martial weapon instead of an exotic one. What do the eagle's claws change about the number of attacks for the dervish?

I don't have my book open, so I don't know if this is the relevant factor, but there's a feat unique to eagle's claws (Eagle's Fury or something similar) which fits in the Flurry of Blows/Rapid Shot/Whirling Frenzy/Snap Kick paradigm of "extra attack at the cost of –2 to all your attacks." Maybe that's relevant?

Anyway, from my perspective, asherati don't have anything really wrong with them, but they also don't really have anything very helpful about them outside of an actual "you're trudging through a sandy desert" campaign. If you don't need to be a specific race for a specific reason, it's unlikely to HURT you to be an asherati, but it's also not likely to catapult your character to new levels of competence. So outside of a sandy desert campaign, you can take the race if you like the flavor, but it'll only be as useful to you as you make it be.

I still like the idea of an asherati NPC (probably called "The Beacon") with the Nimbus of Light feat, the Diadem of Purelight soulmeld, maybe the Incandescent Champion PrC, and whatever other forms of "you're really glowy!" abilities we can find. They'd rent themselves out to enable people to hold outdoor parties and sporting events at night. (Yes, I know that by RAW, abilities like that don't stack, but it's FUNNY, dammit. Leave The Beacon alone.)

[Jack_McSnatch]

Not automatic proficiency but treat eagle claws as a martial weapon instead of an exotic one. What do the eagle's claws change about the number of attacks for the dervish?

There's a feat that gives you extra attacks with the eagle's claw. If you use snap kick, the twf tree, and a few things I can't remember right now, it came out to 13 or 14 attacks a round. With the dervish ability to double attacks, that's gonna be either 26 or 28... and there's a diamond mind manuever that doubles your attacks again. I dunno how viable that last one is since it's a high level manuever and you need all 10 levels of dervish, but if you can get it... well ****, I hope your group is patient, cause you're gonna be rolling a LOT of dice.

[The Viscount]

You can take improved natural armor several times, improving the natural armor bonus.

It could be argued that because the Asherati's body lamp is not natural light like a torch, it is capable of illuminating even through Darkness or similar effects. Also, if you take levels in monk, you can make jokes about having full body glow like Bruce Leroy in The Last Dragon.

Finally, because you have Heat Endurance already as a bonus feat, if you take Ranger with the Sandstorm ACFs, when you would normally gain Heat Endurance, you instead gain Improved Heat Endurance early. Also note that as an Asherati you have Heat Endurance at level 1, even if you're in a class without good Fort, which is an advantage over a human bonus feat.