Aasimar + Scion of Humanity + Racial Heritage = ...?

[Red Fel]

Okay. I know this has been discussed (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?249687-How-Powerful-Can-Racial-Heritage-Be-PF) before (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?299358-Pathfinder-Heritage-Amusement), but I'd like to look at the more practical applications of the following combination.

Aasimars (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/featured-races/arg-aasimar) have an Alternate Racial Trait called Scion of Humanity, which allows them to count as both Outsider (Native) and Humanoid (Human) for various effects. Among other things, this qualifies them for the Racial Heritage (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/racial-feats/racial-heritage) feat, which allows them to count as yet a third race for various effects, including feats, spells, abilities, and archetypes.

The question presented is this: What practical and/or flavorful use could you produce with this? Or, more simply: What race would you use for Racial Heritage? Would you take a Peri-Blooded Aasimar with Ifrit racial heritage for extra burninating? Combine an Aasimar with a Dwarf and be incredibly dull thick stable, I guess?

Here's an example of what I mean.Okay. So you have your Aasimar who has taken Scion of Humanity. Let's go full-tilt on Alternate Racial Traits and swap out SLA and Skilled for Heavenborn, granting a +1 CL on [Light] spells and Knowledge (planes). Now, for Racial Heritage, let's take Elf.

We're building an Oracle (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/oracle). Now, Elf and Aasimar have the same Favored Class Bonus for Oracle - add 1/2 to your Oracle level for one Revelation. But the big deal here is the Elf archetype, Ancient Lorekeeper. Yes, you lose your Mystery's bonus skills and spells, but you replace those skills with Knowledge (arcane) and (local), and get your pick of bonus Sor/Wiz spells. Know what Sor/Wiz get? Spells with the [Light] descriptor, such as Campfire Wall, Wandering Star Motes, Wall of Light, and one of my personal favorites, Sunburst. Which you cast at +1 CL.
That's one example. So what would you do with an Aasimar with Racial Heritage?

[Serafina]

Racial Heritage has sooo many uses its hard to list all of them.

Generally, its great for grabbing any racial archetype of a class that doesn't have ideal stats for said class - Druid has quite a few flavorful ones (Naga Aspirant, Sky Druid, Treesinger - all on races without a wisdom-bonus), but there are also Undine Watersingers and plenty of others. Or any of the Goblin/Kobold-archetypes you like without having a race with loads of penalties.
The same goes for racial prestige classes, the most notable one being the Halfling Opportunist.

So, practical application? Play your favorite archetype without being stuck with a crappy race

Then there is Mythic Racial Heritage, which allows you to outright grab a racial trait which of course has a ton of potential applications.

Of course none of the above works better for aasimars than for humans, nor can i spot any specific synergy between Aasimar-traits and other races archetypes/feats right now - so chosing a Scion of Humanity is pretty much just a way to gain +2 to two stats while still having actual racial features.

[grarrrg]

From the crazy-non-optimal standpoint you can Aasimar > Human > oooh, lets pick Tiefling just cause.
Then take some levels of Crossblooded Sorcerer, picking Dragon and Orc. This notably gives you the Orc Subtype.
Then you take Eldritch Heritage and grab a third bloodline, lets go with Undead just cause I'm feeling saucy.

Now you are an Outsider/Human/Tiefling/Orc with significant Draconic and Undead influences.

Sadly, _ALL_ of the 'half' races are Half-Human, otherwise we could maybe cram and extra one in there somehow.

As for how _useful_ any of the above is....


[stuff]
Noticed the signature about a week ago. Nice.

[Keneth]

Sadly, _ALL_ of the 'half' races are Half-Human, otherwise we could maybe cram and extra one in there somehow.

By default anyway, that doesn't mean all halfbreed individuals are necessarily half-human though.

Sadly, instead of providing us with some options, Bastards of Golarion just included a sidebar that says "No, because reasons."

In the kitchen sink setting that is Golarion, I find that somehow incredibly irritating.

[Elderand]

Access to paragon surge is the obvious one, likewise, getting access to racial archetypes to get the interesting one while also getting a bonus to cha and wis.

Say for exemple you're interested in using the dragon herald archetype for bard but realise Kobold stats don't exactly mesh well with bard you could use aasimaar instead.

[Red Fel]

Of course none of the above works better for aasimars than for humans, nor can i spot any specific synergy between Aasimar-traits and other races archetypes/feats right now - so chosing a Scion of Humanity is pretty much just a way to gain +2 to two stats while still having actual racial features.

Very true, this part. But the rest is fairly generic advice. Play your favorite archetype without being a crappy race, I totally agree with - but what would you do? Not just the general "this is what you can do with it," but when you stop, and think about it, if you were to do something specific, is there something that makes you stop and say, "Hey, this would be kind of fun?"


From the crazy-non-optimal standpoint you can Aasimar > Human > oooh, lets pick Tiefling just cause.
Then take some levels of Crossblooded Sorcerer, picking Dragon and Orc. This notably gives you the Orc Subtype.
Then you take Eldritch Heritage and grab a third bloodline, lets go with Undead just cause I'm feeling saucy.

Now you are an Outsider/Human/Tiefling/Orc with significant Draconic and Undead influences.

Sadly, _ALL_ of the 'half' races are Half-Human, otherwise we could maybe cram and extra one in there somehow.

As for how _useful_ any of the above is.....

I admit it's kind of silly. One of the quotes in the threads I linked above suggests "'Yes, the family motto is: 'Well, we haven't tried breeding with THAT yet.''" Which is awesome.

But ignoring even whether it's useful for the moment - although that should be a consideration - what would you do with it, apart from being an Aasimar-Human-Tiefling-Orc with Dragons and corpses hanging from your family tree?

... that was phrased a bit more morbidly than I'd have liked...


Access to paragon surge is the obvious one, likewise, getting access to racial archetypes to get the interesting one while also getting a bonus to cha and wis.

Say for exemple you're interested in using the dragon herald archetype for bard but realise Kobold stats don't exactly mesh well with bard you could use aasimaar instead.

Right; again, this a reason why some random person might do it. But what jumps out at you?

The combination itself has a rather straightforward effect - you count as an Outsider (Native), a Humanoid (Human) and an X(Y), for whatever purposes. Obviously, it gets you Aasimar features but lets you qualify for other things.

The question I'm asking isn't what the combination does - that's immediately apparent - but what you would do with that freedom, for fun, or for profit, or for a challenge, or to make your DM cry. What would you do with this Aasimar chameleon?

[grarrrg]

but realise Kobold stats don't exactly mesh well

YOU FOOL!
THAT'S THE MISSING PIECE!!

Human (or a half-breed) for Racial Heritage Kobold
Kobold Confidence (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/racial-feats/kobold-confidence) feat, replaces CON with CHA for FORT and negative-HP>death
Noble Scion (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/noble-scion) feat for CHA to Initiative
Lunar (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/oracle/mysteries/paizo---oracle-mysteries/lunar-mystery) Oracle 6, Prophetic Armor Revelation replaces DEX with CHA for AC and REF saves (optional Nature Mystery for CHA to AC and CMD instead)
Agent of the Grave (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/other-paizo/a-b/agent-of-the-grave) 1, use CHA for HP
Antipaladin 2, CHA to all Saves, also Smite Good, 1/day CHA to-hit
Marital Artist (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/monk/archetypes/paizo---monk-archetypes/martial-artist) Monk 1 for WIS to AC

You are (mostly) a Caster, so have little need for STR
DEX is now responsible for...umm...CMD. That is all.
CON manages HP for 6 levels worth. That is all.
INT does Skill points. If you _really_ want, there is the Duelist PrC to get some INT to AC, but that'd be losing even most casting so...skip it.
WIS is AC and WILL
CHA is FORTx2, REFx2, WILL, AC, Initiative, HP for all but 6 levels, and Casting.

For "team good" we lose CHA to HP, but get an extra few points of CHA to AC thanks to Enlightened Paladin (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/paladin/archetypes/paizo---paladin-archetypes/enlightened-paladin-paladin-archetype)


Also, not directly related to the above, but Racial Heritage Kobold will let you take the Tail Terror (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/racial-feats/tail-terror-combat-kobold) feat and give you a Tail attack.
Note: It does NOT technically give you a tail if you don't already have a tail, but you can make Tail attacks anyway.


I admit it's kind of silly. One of the quotes in the threads I linked above suggests "'Yes, the family motto is: 'Well, we haven't tried breeding with THAT yet.''" Which is awesome.
You will note that my shenanigans directly led to that quote :smallwink:

[Serafina]

Noticed the signature about a week ago. Nice.Heh, it was a particularly proud moment for me :smallbiggrin:
Hope you don't mind that i didn't notify you, kinda forgot that that is often customary.

Edit: And of course you had to pick up on tail terror too...but at least i made the connection with draconic stuff :smallwink:

What i forgot to mention so far is that you can also pick up other races favored class options - you get the human one for free due to Scion of Humanity and can access others via Racial Heritage. You could even combine an Aasimar/Human FCB with the racial archetype of another race that way (or the other way around for human/aasimar archetypes).

Further Shenanigans:
Take Tail Terror (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/racial-feats/tail-terror-combat-kobold) to gain a versatile natural weapon - its actually great for giving yourself reach (via the long lash tail attachment), plus it suffers none of the drawbacks of natural weapons (easy to enchant and apply special materials) while having the advantages of one (automatic proficiency, counts as a natural weapon for several effects, extra attack).

With Kobold Heritage you can also take Scaled Disciple (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/racial-feats/scaled-disciple) to be a divine Dragon Disciple - and both that and your heritage could be justified as being descendant from some sort of draconic outsider/deity. And that could actually work quite well on a natural weapon gish - take the Metallic Wings Aasimar feat and you have Claw/Claw/Bite/Tail/Wing/Wing along with the potential combat-boosts from Oracle- or Inquisitor-levels.
Now that sounds like a fun build - maybe i'll put something up later.

[grarrrg]

Hope you don't mind that i didn't notify you, kinda forgot that that is often customary.

Notify? Customary?
You realize who you're talking to right? :smalltongue:


With Kobold Heritage you can also take Scaled Disciple to be a divine Dragon Disciple...take the Metallic Wings Aasimar feat and you have Claw/Claw/Bite/Tail/Wing/Wing

Needs a level of White Haired Witch (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/witch/archetypes/paizo---witch-archetypes/white-haired-witch).
And possibly a Helm of the Mammoth Lords (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/h-l/helm-of-the-mammoth-lord).

[Serafina]

Well, lets see.

An Aasimar with Draconal (https://sites.google.com/site/pathfinderogc/bestiary/monster-listings/outsiders/agathion/agathion-draconal).
Hence, we take Agathion-Blooded (Angel-Blooded would be good too, but eh this fits waay better) - +2 Constitution and Charisma is almost exactly what we need.

We need good Strength, decent Constitution and Charisma and can mostly ignore the other stats.
Starting with 16 Strength and 14 Constitution/Charisma (both boosted to 16 via racial bonuses) works well in a 20-point buy.

Level 1-5 are Oracle-levels. We take the Lunar (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/oracle/mysteries/paizo---oracle-mysteries/lunar-mystery) Mystery and pick Prophetic Armor as our first-level revelation. Of course, Racial Heritage is our first feat.
For our curse, we pick Wolf-Scarred which gives us a Bite Attack - for now we use it as a secondary attack and mostly fight with a weapon.
Our third-level feat is Tail Terror, giving us our second natural attack. We also pick up the Gift of Claw and Horn Revelation and get a time-limited Gore-attack - fitting, since Draconals have a crown of horns. The Aasimars FCB can be applied to this to boost the duration.
At fifth level we get increased bite damage and have to take Scaled Disciple. Still primarily using a weapon, but that will change soon.

Because from 6th-level onward, we have two claw attacks. They have a limited duration, but are still good enough to replace our weapon attacks.
At 7th-level we enjoy a boost to our Strength. We also gain a Bite whenever we manifest our claws - sadly, you can only have one bite-attacks unless you have multiple heads and we already have one. So its redundant, but try to convince your GM that the latter extra energy damage can apply to your normal bite-attack.
For our bonus feat, Power Attack is the obvious choice

It's also time to face a decision - we can take Angelic Blood now, Angelic Wings at 9th-level and Metallic Wings at 11th. Thats three feats to gain two 1D4 attacks and not much more, since Dragon Disciple already grants a flight-speed.
Multiattack is a much more gratifying choice for now, and while wing-attacks are very thematic consider skipping it entirely for the purpose of other combat feats.



Aaand thats about all i got for now, since its rather late and i need sleep. Still, a build with some potential and definetly a lot of flavor, and at least the wing natural attacks can only be pulled off with being an Aasimar (to my knowledge at least).

[grarrrg]

Multiattack is a much more gratifying choice for now, and while wing-attacks are very thematic consider skipping it entirely for the purpose of other combat feats.

If we're going all-in on Naturals then Multiattack can wait until we get the Wing attacks anyway.

Claws/Bite from Dragon/Oracle are all Primaries.
Only the Tail attack would be a Secondary, all all Multiattack does is reduce the accuracy penalty to -2 instead of -5. So all you'd gain would be +3 accuracy on one attack.

Now it you still planned to use a Weapon then Multiattack would be a priority.

[Red Fel]

YOU FOOL!
THAT'S THE MISSING PIECE!!

So basically, if we're willing to hop around in classes a lot, an Aasimar with Kobold blood (ew) gets Cha to basically everything. That's more than a little awesome, and frankly entirely appropriate for a Celestial.


Well, lets see.

... Aaand this is how a Kobold (or Kobold-ish) gets turned into a melee nightmare. I love it. It's exactly what nobody expected from the sad sack of D&D.

See, this is where the awesome is. "Kobold angels? Why the heck not, Kobold angels, go." Magnificent.

[stack]

Bah, get psionics allowed and take two levels of aegis (aberrant). Four tentacle attacks to top off you routine. Fun if you can get bonus damage.

[Red Fel]

Okay, try this one. The theme is "Light."

Aasimar + Scion of Humanity + Heavenborn. Pick a caster class with a Light domain or spells or what-have-you.

First feat: Racial Heritage -> Tiefling. You now count as Tiefling.

Second feat: Fiend Sight (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/racial-feats/fiend-sight-tiefling). Requires Tiefling (which you count as) and Darkvision 60. It assumes Darkvision 60 as the Tiefling trait, but you also have it as an Aasimar - one of the few aspects you didn't trade away. Gives you Low-light Vision, and upgrades your Darkvision to 120.

Third feat: Fiend Sight (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/racial-feats/fiend-sight-tiefling) (again). This time, you gain the See in Darkness (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/rules-for-monsters/universal-monster-rules#TOC-See-in-Darkness-Su-) ability. The light reveals all truths to you.

Waste of several feats? Probably. But flavor? In abundance. You cast light spells with increased CL, and darkness is no longer an obstacle to you.

Throw on some fire-related stuff and you could go around announcing that "The night is dark, and full of terrors," and nobody would bat an eye.

Alternate but similar concepts: Racial Heritage -> Ifrit, Firesight (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/racial-feats/firesight-ifrit) feat, gain immunity to dazzling and ignore cover/concealment from fire/smoke. Racial Heritage -> Half-Orc, Keen Scent (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/keen-scent) feat, gain Scent (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/special-abilities#TOC-Scent). Bonus: Access to Scarred Witch Doctor. (Should probably take Agathion- or Archon-blooded for the Con bonus.)

[Eternal Drifter]

Sorry to burst your bubbles, but there is a misconseption that a good number of people here have.



Racial Heritage

The blood of a non-human ancestor flows in your veins.

Prerequisite: Human.

Benefit: Choose another humanoid race. You count as both human and that race for any effects related to race. For example, if you choose dwarf, you are considered both a human and a dwarf for the purpose of taking traits, feats, how spells and magic items affect you, and so on.


The devil is in the details, or so they say. The problem arises with the very first setence of the Benefits of the feat: "Choose another humanoid race." This allows one to become part dwarf, elf, gnome, halfling, catfok, dhampir, drow, goblin, hobgoblin, kobold, orc, ratfolk, tengu, changling, duergar, gillmen, grippli, kitsune, merfolk, nagaji, samsaran, strix, svirfneblin, vanara, vishkanya, or wayang. It does not allow a human to become part-something that has the outsider type (like Ifrit or Tiefling, for example).

I thought it would be best to clear this up. Sorry about that.

[Red Fel]

Sorry to burst your bubbles, but there is a misconseption that a good number of people here have.

The devil is in the details, or so they say. The problem arises with the very first setence of the Benefits of the feat: "Choose another humanoid race." This allows one to become part dwarf, elf, gnome, halfling, catfok, dhampir, drow, goblin, hobgoblin, kobold, orc, ratfolk, tengu, changling, duergar, gillmen, grippli, kitsune, merfolk, nagaji, samsaran, strix, svirfneblin, vanara, vishkanya, or wayang. It does not allow a human to become part-something that has the outsider type (like Ifrit or Tiefling, for example).

I thought it would be best to clear this up. Sorry about that.

... Yeah, it looks like I got just a bit over-eager with that one. Good catch, good point.

At least Elves, Half-Orcs and Kobolds are still on the table, though. Plus those others you mentioned.