Something Else, PF1

[astral_druid]

I've just returned to gaming after a few years of none, but it was the tabletop face-to-face thing. I don't feel that in me any more. It does not fit my life. But I'm still hungry for adventures, so here I am. I'm also sick and tired of the same old tolkienesque setup. It's no worse than before, I'm just bored to catatonia with it.

So...

the antagonists:

mind-sucking creepy elves in spirit-crafted biomechanical buildings and vehicles, looking for 'subject material'
dwarven cyber-killer squads hunting for test subjects to build better cybertech
necromantic humans in search of sending sacrificed souls screaming to their lich-emperor to keep the Unified Sovereignity of the Autarch functional
organized-crime psycho halflings terrorizing the common people with emotional abuse, hexes (bad luck, halfling specialty) and elemental magic


the protagonists:

nomadic spiritual goblins keeping the faith and hope of the remaining freefolk
samurai-like sophisticated hobgoblin clans fighting the tyrants undaunted
ghostly skeletons / skeletal ghosts / [heaps of bone kept together by sheer will] doing their ninja stuff
red / blue / turquoise / purple / orange-hued medusa artisans creating magic item from stone statues


the world:

the skeleton of a dead titan floating in astral space, with very non-human anatomy, the different body parts occupied by different factions, the richly colorful sky is visible from every direction, orbited by a few moon-sized trees with their own biomes and cultures
an infinite cliff face, with different climate types emerging by underlying world-energy emanations
moon-sized orbs interconnected with living-tissue wormholes, travel controlled by different factions
islands in an infinite ocean, the different-colored currents bringing proto-life in a convoluted path, seeding the islands with vastly different biomes along the path of different currents


This is far from the final version, I'm open to ideas.


Platform: GitP forums
Lots of exploration and roleplaying, moderate amount of combat and other action encounters
Background and character description: better interesting / creative than very long
2-3 players
2-3 posts a week
PF1, Paizo only
level 3
Classes: Core, Base, Hybrid, Unchained, Occult
Multiclassing: either standard with max. 2 classes OR variant multiclassing
Your own race from 10 RP
Ability scores: high fantasy
Hp: max at level 1, half the hit dice (rounded down) later
Starting wealth: standard per level
Elephant in the Room feat tax fix
Make your rolls, I'll make mine

[BelGareth]

Looks awesome, is this a game you intend to dm?

[namo]

Nice start!

But you still make the antagonists sound cool, so you'll have to forbid them as races. Otherwise a mind-sucking elf might be tempting. :smallwink:

I like the last world the most I think - perhaps because it gives me vibes of One Piece (but more serious), or Sixth of the Dusk (probably not-well-known novella by Brandon Sanderson, with a jungle island populated by deadly mind-seeking big running birds, ants that kill you with one bite, ...). It may be the least "crazy", perhaps, but subverting the races already changes everything.
The titan is nice as well.

edit: perhaps a Hobgoblin Zen Archer, vaguely inspired by Ghost Dog

[Triskavanski]

How would you do ghost skeleton race thing with PF1 1st party only?

I do have a character I'd like to play that kinda fits that area, but she's most of a ghost in a suit of armor thing.

[BelGareth]

Nice start!

But you still make the antagonists sound cool, so you'll have to forbid them as races. Otherwise a mind-sucking elf might be tempting. :smallwink:

I like the last world the most I think - perhaps because it gives me vibes of One Piece (but more serious), or Sixth of the Dusk (probably not-well-known novella by Brandon Sanderson, with a jungle island populated by deadly mind-seeking big running birds, ants that kill you with one bite, ...). It may be the least "crazy", perhaps, but subverting the races already changes everything.
The titan is nice as well.

It totally does have a sixth of dusk feeling!

[Zarthrax]

Posting for interest.

[astral_druid]

Looks awesome, is this a game you intend to dm?
Yeah, the "Recruiting" tag should be used for that, ain't it?


But you still make the antagonists sound cool, so you'll have to forbid them as races. Otherwise a mind-sucking elf might be tempting. :smallwink:
:) There are always exceptions, like Drizzt, as PCs.


How would you do ghost skeleton race thing with PF1 1st party only?
I can add me-party stuff, but I don't want a landslide-amount of craziness. I'll probably specify a list of books later.

The races we agree upon will all be remade using RPs, anyway.

[Heavenblade]

Looks fun - character concept, Im not sure if thats the direction but tell me if it is!


The Daikyo family were descendants of the great wyrms of the past, a great and noble family of magic - and Heligo Daikyo singlehandedly lead them to ruin. He inherited the house and lands at a relatively young age - and went on a ruinous spending spree which put his house into enormous debts with pretty much everyone - the elves, the dwarves, the halflings, the humans. They started paying visits regularly - and he was powerless to stop them. After they took the money, they took the treasures, the houses themselves, and even the people - and he was left alone in an empty shell of his palace.

And when he still didnt pay his debts, they came for his organs. The blood of the wyrm is truly rare, worth 10 times its weight in diamonds. So slowly but surely, his debtors destroyed him, took him apart piece by piece - replacing each organ with a mechanical, cybernetic, magical, or biological prosthetic - so their precious resource wouldnt expire.


And when only his heart was left, a terrible fight began between all those who wanted to keep the heart for themselves. The fight was over when a Hobgoblin Samurai came to his aid - seeing all that happened, he offered him a second chance at life, and a second chance at redemption. He left his broken home behind, swearing to one day come back to fix what he has broken.


He learned the ways of the Samurai under his saviour's watchful eye, until he eas declared ready. And so The Brokensteel Samurai set out into the world - to collect his lost blood and body, which by now were spread over half the world - each part used in some other terrible piece of cruel machinery



Still have no idea what is the mechanical concept, but that is the gener plan

[JNAProductions]

I do think this sounds pretty cool.

Dibs on Goblin nature PC! :P

[tonberryking]

I may try for this...

Are there any other class/race restrictions? Like.. what about androids? Or half-orcs?

Unchained classes?

[Triskavanski]

Yeah, the "Recruiting" tag should be used for that, ain't it?


:) There are always exceptions, like Drizzt, as PCs.


I can add me-party stuff, but I don't want a landslide-amount of craziness. I'll probably specify a list of books later.

The races we agree upon will all be remade using RPs, anyway.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/776531899270299698/1186925868342333552/0.png

This is what I'm looking at making.

[astral_druid]

@Heavenblade
That's a cool character concept, I like it very much.


I do think this sounds pretty cool.
Dibs on Goblin nature PC! :P
Thanks :smallcool:


Are there any other class/race restrictions? Like.. what about androids? Or half-orcs?
Unchained classes?
Other races are welcome, those listed in the first post are examples of the direction where want this game to go.
Unchained classes are ok.


I do have a character I'd like to play that kinda fits that area, but she's most of a ghost in a suit of armor thing.
That's fine for this setting.

Available Options:

Core Classes
Base Classes
Hybrid Classes
Unchained Classes
Occult Classes
Your own race from 10 RP

[namo]

If you allow custom races, I suggest restricting the ability scores options to Standard and Human Heritage (0 RP options... or some of the Weakness options if people really want to go that way), since many of the others (Advanced, Paragon) are a little too good in my opinion.

I've started working on a reptilian race with a tail instead of legs, though I'm not sure if rules are built to accommodate that part; if not, it would be for flavour and would only differ from legs when I pay RP for specific mechanical effects.

[tonberryking]

Elephant in the room in play? And how do we determine stats?

[Heavenblade]

Im considering a couple of alternatives for the buld, focused on using different abilities of the organs I was implanted with.
Here is what I got so far:

1. Adaptive shifter
2. Feral hunter
3. Racial paragon talent vigilante - possibly using racial/planar heritage to chain different racial feats, if that would be allowed.

[Sutr]

So concept wise not a true skeleton. I'm thinking a type of revenant that instead of tracking down the one who killed them tries to track and kill the person who raised them. Debating between paladin, antipaladin or oracle for class.

Revenant 1
Considering two race builds
Race points
16 Undead
-1 Slow rotting corpse
-3 Greater Weakness
-2 Light Blindness
-1 Resurrection Vulnerability
That's not so good, and I feel like it encourages too much throwing everything into charisma for the character

Revenant 2
5 Half undead
- 1 slow rotting corpse
-2 Light blindness
- 1 Resurrection Vulnerability
4 Focused Study (revenants are good at skills of their past life)
1 Weapon Familiarity (remember weapons from past life)
1 Skill training (remember skills from past life)
1 Toxic (Revenants are gross)
I think I like this better might want to switch weapons to a natural bite though.

[Alhallor]

This does sound pretty awesome to be honest, thinking about some kind of plant-person, natures wrath condensed in a single creature or a whole folk of plant-people nearly extinct from either the elves or dwarfs or both. Going with something like

Plant (10RP)
Slow (-1RP)
Fire and Ice Vulnerability (-4 RP)
Treespeech (2 RP)
Hydrated Vitality (3 RP)

I already made a sheet too. (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheets/?id=2864326)

[Palanan]

Here’s a potential setting:

Immense and spherical trees, the size of moons, orbiting within a smoke-ring environment. The smooth outer surface of each tree is photosynthetic, and the trees have evolved a directed venting of waste gases that imparts a spin, so all the external regions receive sunlight in a regular day/night cycle.

That spin also means that there’s a gravity-equivalent on the interior surface of the photosynthetic sphere. The tree-moons aren’t completely hollow; their interiors are thickly grown with vast supporting structures, like the inside of an oak gall, as if colossal trees are growing up from the landscape of the inner surface, all reaching impossibly high into the sky.

Entire ecosystems have developed for each layer of the interior—a dense, tall forest of subsidiary growth on the interior surface itself, taking advantage of the sunlight suffusing through the outer surface; then a lighter-g environment along the vast sky-root supporting structures, more faintly illuminated; and finally a zero-g environment around the massive, tangled heart at the center of the tree-moon, where the supporting structures come together in a midnight maze populated by strange and fearsome predators.

Each tree-moon has its own unique assemblage of species within each of its interior biomes. The tree-moons are all orbiting in a loose stream within the smoke-ring, like ice skaters swirling around the center of a circular ice rink. There are other, smaller species of free-floating trees, mere motes against the size of the tree-moons, and the smoke-ring has its own vast and diffuse aerial ecosystem.

That aerial ecosystem has predators of its own, and travel between tree-moons is difficult and perilous—but some of the inhabitants of different tree-moons have managed the journey, each in their own inventive way. Not all tree-moons have intelligent inhabitants; some are completely wild and unknown. And not all inhabited tree-moons are ruled by monolithic cultures; some are occupied by wandering tribes or small chiefdoms, others by a complex patchwork of warring realms. The interior of each tree-moon is its own unique world—and the tree-moons themselves may be conscious in some alien fashion that transcends mortal awareness.

As a setting, how does that sound?

[tonberryking]

Honestly that sounds amazing. I had an idea for a setting where super trees were used as batteries/power plants (and I’m still using that idea for my own stuff) but entire cities and climates is on a whole other level.

My idea was to play a ninja android, with the idea that dwarves or the oppressive races created them as enforcers or arbiters of their idea of “justice” but in true PC fashion my character isn’t locked into the same programming as most of them. Anomalies like her aren’t unheard of, but they aren’t around in large numbers either.

[astral_druid]

If you allow custom races, I suggest restricting the ability scores options to Standard and Human Heritage (0 RP options... or some of the Weakness options if people really want to go that way), since many of the others (Advanced, Paragon) are a little too good in my opinion.
'Too good' is kind of vague. What do you mean by that?


I've started working on a reptilian race with a tail instead of legs, though I'm not sure if rules are built to accommodate that part; if not, it would be for flavour and would only differ from legs when I pay RP for specific mechanical effects.
Sounds cool.


Elephant in the room in play? And how do we determine stats?
Feat tax fix is fine for me. Stats by High Fantasy.


I'm thinking a type of revenant that instead of tracking down the one who killed them tries to track and kill the person who raised them.
Hm. Interesting take on the concept.


This does sound pretty awesome to be honest, thinking about some kind of plant-person, natures wrath condensed in a single creature or a whole folk of plant-people nearly extinct from either the elves or dwarfs or both.
Is this a natural species or an elven experiment? Either is cool, I'm being curious.


Immense and spherical trees, the size of moons, orbiting within a smoke-ring environment. ...
Cool idea. I think I'll adapt the moon-sized trees as moons orbiting the titan skeleton in astral space. I really like this setup.


My idea was to play a ninja android, with the idea that dwarves or the oppressive races created them as enforcers or arbiters of their idea of “justice” but in true PC fashion my character isn’t locked into the same programming as most of them. Anomalies like her aren’t unheard of, but they aren’t around in large numbers either.
Another classic that I like.

[namo]

'Too good' is kind of vague. What do you mean by that?
Not balanced with people using core races.

If you pick up
Greater Paragon (2 RP)
Modifiers: Members of this race gain a +4 bonus to one ability score, a –2 penalty to one physical ability score, and a –2 penalty to one mental ability score.
as a caster or a Paladin, or
Paragon (1 RP)
Modifiers: Members of this race gain a +4 bonus to a single ability score, and a –2 penalty to either all physical or all mental ability scores. If the bonus is to a single physical ability score, the penalties apply to all mental ability scores, and vice versa.
as e.g. a Fighter, you start ahead for little cost. (And some classes can't take advantages of either of those, to their detriment.)

(I also had Advanced in mind, but I see it's unavailable within the parameters of this campaign.)

Of course, it's up to you, I don't really have a stake in this. :smallsmile:

[BelGareth]

So are we waiting on a 16?

It looks like we may already have one, but there is no info on starting wealth, point buy or rolls, how hp’s are calculated, et al

[Heavenblade]

If we are not set on character creation rules, bumping up the level by a bit (1-3 levels top) might be helpful un characterizing mechanicly an interesting character

[tonberryking]

GM said it was heroic which according to the SRD is 20pts…

[Aleph Null]

If we are not set on character creation rules, bumping up the level by a bit (1-3 levels top) might be helpful un characterizing mechanicly an interesting character

^ If it's about trying to break from tolkienesque fantasy, raising the build points for races could allow for a bit more wiggle room there as well...perhaps adding more points but banning the "raw numbers" features or restricting them so that those points get spent on having tails or extra heads or whatever (I don't think multiheaded is an option, but I think the point is clear...maybe)
I could be interested, but the 16 would defo make it easier to start ideating

[DarkOne-Rob]

I would be interested if we could have a bit more clarity in the opening post -

A "Big 16" for character creation and specifying which of the setting(s)(?) we are using would be a perfect start.

I'm a glutton for punishment, so would likely create a character that was as weird as the mechanics will allow, but I need some guidelines or my brain goes off into endless tangents and I never complete the PC...

Thanks!

[Benoojian]

An Angelic derived Half race, but based of she Bestial Guardianals instead of the Celestials. Basically I want to play a half angel Panda master. Will write up a proposal for 10 RP in the upcoming days.

[Starlit Dragon]

This looks cool as hell, but I'm not too familiar with Pathfinder and definitely don't have the books. Would that be a problem?
More importantly, I want to be a lizardfolk! Or something of that sort!

[astral_druid]

Hey, everyone, I've got a little time between the holidays.


Not balanced with people using core races.
I see. However, anyone can cook up a 10-RP race called the same as any of the core ones, so it's not necessary in this game.

Starting wealth: per level
Ability scores: high fantasy
Hp: max at level 1, half the hit dice (rounded down) later
Level bumped up to 5


This looks cool as hell, but I'm not too familiar with Pathfinder and definitely don't have the books. Would that be a problem?
More importantly, I want to be a lizardfolk! Or something of that sort!
You can use d20pfsrd.com for (almost?) all the options. If you need any help, ask away, someone will definitely help you.

I'll check out that Big16 everyone's talking about and update the original post.

[Benoojian]

This does sound pretty awesome to be honest, thinking about some kind of plant-person, natures wrath condensed in a single creature or a whole folk of plant-people nearly extinct from either the elves or dwarfs or both. Going with something like

Plant (10RP)
Slow (-1RP)
Fire and Ice Vulnerability (-4 RP)
Treespeech (2 RP)
Hydrated Vitality (3 RP)

I already made a sheet too. (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheets/?id=2864326)

Plant isn't available to use as a type for Standard races, only Advanced races "You cannot pick a type with an RP cost equal to or higher than the maximum RP cost of the power level of the race you are building." Also Fire and Ice vulnerabilities are only allowed for Outsider(Native) (personally I think that last bit is dumb but probably best to explicitly ask the DM for exceptions)

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

I'm kind of interested in the medusa artisans. Building them on the 10RP budget is fun! It makes me ask: how much of their role in the setting relates to their innate abilities, and how much is more from their most famous faction and class?

0 RP - Human Ancestry (Human subtype, +2 to an ability score of choice at character creation)
Medusas are descended from a faction of humans and elves that were condemned and expelled for apostasy.
2 RP - Stoneseer (Continuous Nondetection, magic stone & stone shape & stone tell 1/day, +1 CL for Earth spells)
The Medusa faction in named after their former leader, a famous elementalist wizard said to have wielded the very magic that shaped an elder titan into this fertile central planet. Her people are schooled in some magic to help evade capture by their evil cousins.
1 RP - Craftsman (+2 to Craft and Profession skills for building with stone and metal)
1 RP - Stonecutting (+2 Perception to notice things of unusual stonework)
2 RP - Darkvision 60 ft.
Originally, this was a faction of scholars and artists; where the dwarves have taken to using metal in place of stone and flesh alike, the medusas have moved in on their traditional niche. Medusas can tell with a glance whether something is made of petrified organic matter.
1 RP - Bite Attack (1d3)
1 RP - Toxic (Poison: 1d2 Dex damage per failed save per round, Con-based DC, Cures with 1 save, lasts 6 rounds max, <con mod> uses per day, can be applied to a manufactured weapon as a swift action)
2 RP - Prehensile Tail (snakes can grab stuff for you as a swift action)
The snakes started as an elfin body modification that was in fashion among crafters when the medusas were excommunicated. A modern medusa would feel naked without them.

On the other hand, maybe we should lean more into the colors? My first thought was that the colors would be based on which ability score bonus they pick, but that feels like a cop-out, so we should probably make some proper variants. I like the idea of swapping the viper snakes for constrictors that give Improved Grapple, for instance.

- Stonecutting II: A medusa's snake saliva is a unique oil that softens stone. They gain a +2 bonus on craft checks involving stone and are always considered to have appropriate tools on hand. Their snake bite attack ignores the hardness of mundane stone as well. This would take the place of Craftsman.

- Petrifying Venom: A medusa's snake bite calcifies tissue. This is an injury poison, just like the one listed in Toxic, except a creature reduced to 0 dexterity this way is turned to soft stone until cured. This can be done with an 8-hour procedure and a heal check (DC as the poison +5), or with Remove Poison or similar magic. Non-creature plants and wooden objects can also be petrified this way; a dose of venom affects one tiny such thing or a tiny-sized section of a larger such thing. This venom is unique to the snake bite and can't be applied to weapons unless you use some other ability to harvest and apply it. This would modify Toxic.

Other Ways to Do Ability Scores:
- +2 Con, +2 Int, -2 Wis: Medusas are creative and hardworking, but tend to be absentminded and self-absorbed.
- +2 to any two ability scores, -4 to an ability score determined by their color: Versatile and individualistic, Medusas sacrifice a part of themselves to better focus on their interests.

Color Subraces:

Blue: +2 Int, -2 Wis, +2 to any one physical ability score chosen at character creation: This is the "default" medusa from I've made, based on stone crafting, petrifying venom, and a wizardly culture focused on earth spells.

Orange: +2 Cha, -2 Int, +2 any one physical
- Constrictors: Orange medusas have larger snakes that are built more for hugging than biting. They gain Improved Grapple as a bonus feat. Replaces Bite and Toxic.
- Climber: Their muscular snakes also pull them through the orbiting tree biome with ease, letting them evade pursuers that way. They have a 20 ft. climb speed and a consummate +8 bonus on climb checks. Replaces Stone Seer.
- Woodcutting: Craftsman applies to working with wood instead of stone and metal, and they get +2 to perceive unusual woodwork. Replaces Stonecutting.

Purple: +2 Con, -2 Str, +2 any one mental
- Poisoner: Purple medusas gain a +2 bonus to craft(alchemy) checks and gain the Poison Use ability. They can use alchemist's tools to harvest their own venom as often as they can produce it. Replaces Craftsman and Stonecutting.
- Healthy: Purple medusas are at home in the gross and rotten parts of both biomes. Their snakes are short and fastidious. They gain a +4 bonus on Fortitude saves against disease and poison, including magical diseases. This replaces Prehensile Tail.

Red: +2 Str, -2 Dex, +2 any one mental
(Same as the Orange except for the ability score swap)

Turquoise: +2 Dex, -2 Con, +2 any one mental
(Same as the Blue except for the ability score swap)

- Charisma never gets a penalty (as a group, they're known as ambitious rebels)
- Wisdom never gets a preset bonus (In this setting, I imagine that's the Goblins' niche.)

[Escheton]

This seems fun.

Does the 2 classes max include possible prestige classes down the line?

edit: I ended up making like, a celtype/symbiotic parasite to the dead titan. One who finds rot/decay/poison and then marks it with magical lanterns for the white bloodcel equivalent to come and scrub the area:
-----------------------------------------------------------
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/f1/31/9c/f1319c2da24d9155a70c5000c5ccbb1f.jpg
------------------------------------------------------------
Rotfinder (Aberration) [10 RP]
3 RP Aberration (includes Darkvision)
0 RP Standard Ability Array +2 dex, +2 wis, -2 str
0 RP Small Size
-1RP Slow Speed
0 RP Standard Linguistics
1 RP Carrion Sense
3 RP Constant Spell-Like Divination: Detect Poison
2 RP: Spell-Like Ability, Lesser: Continual Flame
2 RP Climb
1 RP Kneecapper
–1 RP Negative Energy Affinity
-------------------------------------------------------------
I'm considering some kind of light sensitivity as an additional -RP thing, so they would naturally avoid areas already marked by their kind. But not sure what to buy with the points it would open.

[paddyfool]

dwarven cyber-killer squads hunting for test subjects to build better cybertech

Heh. This makes me want to reimagine Duergar as a hidden somewhat Luddite Jedi-like society pursuing purity of mind… although I doubt you need another group of protagonists

[Alhallor]

Is this a natural species or an elven experiment? Either is cool, I'm being curious.

It could be both or a combination (an already mobile plant type, given a bit more of a push by the elves.) I'm still thinking about it a bit and try to come up with something cool.

Is the race build okay? I never used that option myself and as it was pointed out.



Plant isn't available to use as a type for Standard races, only Advanced races "You cannot pick a type with an RP cost equal to or higher than the maximum RP cost of the power level of the race you are building." Also Fire and Ice vulnerabilities are only allowed for Outsider(Native) (personally I think that last bit is dumb but probably best to explicitly ask the DM for exceptions)Hm. Interesting take on the concept.

The build:
Plant (10RP)
Slow (-1RP)
Fire and Ice Vulnerability (-4 RP)
Treespeech (2 RP)
Hydrated Vitality (3 RP)

[Benoojian]

Panda Annointed One
Native(Outsider, Human) 3RP
Medium 0RP
Normal Speed (0 RP)
Specialized (1 RP) +2 Cha, +2 Int, -2 Str.
Standard languages (0 RP) Celestial and Common.
Spell Resistance, Greater (3 RP)
Celestial Resistance (3 RP)

Born out of the marriage of a Agathion(Guardinal) and a mortal, these saintly creatures embody all that is Good. Though some use this inherent appearance of goodness to swindle and deceive instead, most Annointed Ones are Good aligned. Annointed Ones lose some of their ancestor's bestial strength in their long years seeking wisdom and enlightenment. Their bodies are fortified by their powerful minds and magic. Annointed Ones often seek out magical careers, making good clerics or sorcerors.

Other subraces include Fox (loses Celestial Resistance for Shadow Resistance and Envoy), and Eagle (Switches Int for Wis, drops Spelll resistance for Gliding Wings). No Leonal has ever been known to dally with a mortal, though the pairing should be possible and create a Lion Annointed One

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/692811778522087445/1191587865335967784/panda_Dnd_small.jpg?ex=65a5fbad&is=659386ad&hm=61bc136447f310249a2babb465324ef736f95b131e6b1e0 67d84037b69acc2be&

[astral_druid]

For now, just a short line that I'm here and like all the ideas. The holidays were/are very busy for me, but surprisingly, my first week of next year is going to be relatively easy, so expect more specific stuff then.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

I mentioned somewhere in my Medusa write-up that the goblins felt like they were meant to be this world's devoted traditionalist and naturalist group. Well, at some point, I looked up how goblins work in Pathfinder and realized that were really only semi-okay at that. So, I went to look up a few Druid archetypes to see if there were any designed for them (there weren't) and found the Devolutionist archetype. In execution, it seems like it should be reserved for Evil druids what with the Doctor Moreau body horror, but it counters the ideals of our antagonist elves so directly that it felt like a fun idea to point out anyway.

Anyway, I tried making a goblin variant that might work a bit better in the setting. They're probably the most numerous and varied of our protagonist groups, though in retrospect I may have leaned into that a little too hard.

The most famous class associated with goblins might be the Devolutionist Druid archetype, standing as the mirror opposite of the elves and dwarves who have co-opted natural selection for their twisted ends. Pathfinder-style goblins are arguably paragons of the devolutionist school of thought. Those who live in enemy territory survive as rats do, nesting in any nook and cranny they can find, feeding their kids all the meat they can steal, and moving on as soon as they're discovered.

Still, for the rest of the world, the elves' quest for mutagenic transcendence has left a niche behind, and nature abhors a vacuum. In their fight for survival in the wilderness, a few small troops of goblins experimented with strange new concepts, like community, and hygiene, and the preservation of knowledge by oral tradition. The result was that their populations quickly exploded beyond all reason, establishing these weirdos as a new goblin variant all their own.

Verdan Goblins
- Goblinoid Subtype
- Darkvision 60
- Small size.
- Speed: 30 feet.
After centuries of actually eating food in their formative years, Verdan goblins are taller and less prone to neoteny than their feral cousins, occasionally even scraping the four-foot mark. They're still small. Their high speed for their size is quite possibly the goblins' single most iconic feature as a group.
- Ability Scores: -2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Wis.
- Eternal Hope: +2 on saves vs. fear and despair, and can re-roll a 1 on any d20 roll once per day. This and the above replace the goblins' usual paragon ability score distribution.
Modern goblins are relatively personable, and find their success by passing on wisdom between their short generations. They love stories and maintain what ideals they have always had. With their collective hope, they survive in the face of the conquering monsters that always seem to surround them.
- Hyperfixation: Verdan goblins get two copies of Skill Focus as bonus feats at first level, in skills of their choice. They get a third bonus Skill Focus at 8th level and a fourth at 16th. This replaces Sneaky Rider.
Goblins already had so many random variants on their Skilled trait that they eventually gave up and made it an individual choice. Each only has one short life to live, so they quickly hone their natural gifts to perfection or dive deep into some narrow field of study. Stealth and Perception are still the most popular fixations, but that's fine. It helps the group stay safer overall.

Hobgoblins might actually work about fine as-is? Where goblins oppose the elves and medusas compete with the dwarves, hobgoblins would stand across from humans, where they grate against one another precisely because they're so gosh-darned similar. They're both harshly militaristic and label one another as dishonorable cretins even as they sacrifice their own principles for the sake of victory.

Where their mindsets diverge is largely connected to where they keep their company. Humans believe in the existence of a strict essential hierarchy (a habit they get from the elves) and they establish that hierarchy with noble lineage and technocratic might (techniques they copied from the dwarves). By contrast, the Hobgoblins' best friends are rebels and other goblinoids. They have egalitarian ideals, or at least meritocratic ones, prioritizing creativity and professional skill to keep up with their show-off medusa allies. From the goblins, they inherit a love of nature's primordial beauty, of motivational storytelling, and of good old-fashioned guerilla tactics.

Hobbos retain their huge bonus to stealth checks and have a knack for setting up the most unfair ambushes. When they do fight out in the open, which is also very often, they like to ride in on big exotic animals - the goofier the better. Hence, I only need to make one change:

Hobgoblin!
- Goblinoid Subtype
- Darkvision 60
- Medium size, 30ft. speed
- Ability Scores: +2 to your choice of Str or Dex, +2 Con
Okay, I guess that makes it two changes, but we don't have half-orcs in this game so someone needs to fill our beefcake quota.
- Replace the Hobgoblins' Sneaky trait with the Sneaky Rider trait, giving them +4 to both Stealth and Ride. This brings them up to 10 RP.