Product Spotlight: Rogue’s Field Guide: Rare Races

by Tim Wallace

Hello, Readers! Yes, I know, I lost my job, and after promising a return of at least every-other-week posts, I disappeared. I am sorry. I will not bore you with excuses.

Today, I want to share with you the main project I worked on while unemployed, which will finally be seeing the light of day, the Rogue’s Field Guide: Rare Races. Shortly before I was laid off, Rahul Kanojia of Rogue Robot Studios, a fan of this blog, contacted me about contributing to a project he was developing. Having had a rough development and publishing process with my second project for a third party publisher, the Martial Arts Guidebook (which got a new 5-star review this past December, yay!), I was a little gun-shy about developing material for someone else again; but he said I would get to design new races, which I love, so I ultimately said yes.

Here is the publisher’s blurb about the book:

Join us in the adventure! Break free and explore brand new, untold possibilities with the Rogue’s Field Guide 1: Rare Races. Inside you will find twelve brand new, original and rare races, ready to bring some wild action to your next game of Pathfinder. Come fight for the fate of worlds as the planar-touched branchads. Come explore hidden wastes as a khartajan, one of the sword-horned, lords of the desert.  Brave the vast labyrinths and cavernous realms of the world as an iwaningen. Flip the page to encounter the obscure and enigmatic pallesytes, shining star-children that hail from dark corners of the cosmos. Unleash your wild side with the totem animal revering tiervesen. And if they don’t excite you enough, come take a wild ride exploring the world as one of the rough, tough and rugged roughriders known as a verechelen. All of these races and more await you to take the plunge into the Rogue’s Field Guide 1: Rare Races. This 283-page supplement features: ·       12 playable races, all created using the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Advanced Race Guide ·       13 racial archetypes for popular classes! ·       13 ready to play and insert Iconic Characters with complete stat blocks for levels 3, 6 & 12 ready to insert directly into your next game of Pathfinder. ·       A special Racial Template to apply a mind-bending twist to your next character! ·       Favored class options for all races included as well as racial deities and expansive lore for each race. Break free with these new races today!

One of the races that I enjoyed developing the most were the branchads (pronounced BRAHN-CHUHDZ). This is a much-varied race of native outsiders descended from neutral-aligned planar races, much as tieflings are descended from evil-aligned planar races and aasimar are descended from good-aligned planar races. Here are the base racial traits for the branchad race.

Artist: Naiche Washburn aka Aggroart; © 2015, Rogue Robot Studios, used with permission

Standard Racial Traits

·       Flexible (2 RP): Branchads are exalted for their innate insight and eclectic knowledge. Branchads characters gain +2 Wisdom and +2 Intelligence.

·       Type (3 RP): Branchads are outsiders with the native subtype.

·       Size (— RP): Branchads are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.

·       Speed (— RP): Branchads have a base speed of 30 feet.

·       Languages (— RP): Branchads begin play speaking Common and any outsider-derived language of their choice. Branchads with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following:  Abyssal, Aklo, Celestial, D'ziriak, Draconic, Infernal, Protean, and Sylvan.

Defense Racial Traits

·       Planar Resistance (3 RP): Branchads have cold resistance 5, electricity resistance 5, and fire resistance 5.

Feat and Skill Racial Traits

·       Skilled (4 RP): Branchads receive a +2 racial bonus to Diplomacy and Sense Motive checks.

Magical Racial Traits

·       Spell-Like Ability (2 RP): Branchads can use blur once per day as a spell-like ability (caster level equal to the branchad’s character level).

·       Axial Magics (2 RP): A branchads with a chaotic alignment adds +1 to the DC for all saving throws against spells they cast with the chaotic spell descriptor and takes a –1 penalty on saving throws against spells cast against them with the lawful spell descriptor. A branchad with a lawful alignment adds +1 to the DC for all saving throws against spells they cast with the lawful spell descriptor and takes a –1 penalty on saving throws against spells cast against them with the chaotic spell descriptor. A branchad with an alignment that is neither chaotic nor lawful gains a +1 racial bonus on saving throws against spells cast against them with either the chaotic or the lawful spell descriptors.

Senses Racial Traits

·       Darkvision (— RP): Branchads can see in the dark up to 60 feet.

TOTAL RP: 16 RP

In addition to the base racial traits for the branchad race, I got to design a bunch of racial heritages from specific neutral-aligned planar races, three of which I will showcase here.

Aeon-Blooded: (Equalists)

·       Ancestry: Aeon

·       Typical Alignment: N

·       Ability Modifiers: +2 Str, +2 Wis

·       Alternate Skill Modifiers: Knowledge (planes), Perception

·       Alternate Magic Trait: Aeon-blooded gain calm emotions as a spell-like ability usable once per day.

D'ziriak-Blooded (Hivebrood)

·       Ancestry: D'ziriak

·       Typical Alignment: N

·       Ability Modifiers: +2 Con, +2 Cha

·       Alternate Skill Modifiers: Knowledge (arcana), Use Magic Device

·       Alternate Magic Trait: D'ziriak-blooded gain flare burst as a spell-like ability usable at-will.

Psychopomp-Blooded (Wayfarers)

·       Ancestry: Psychopomp

·       Typical Alignment: N

·       Ability Modifiers: +2 Str, +2 Wis

·       Alternate Skill Modifiers: Perception, Sense Motive

·       Alternate Magic Trait: Psychopomp-blooded gain deathwatch as a constant spell-like ability.

For the full write-up on the branchad race and the 11 other races available in the Rogue’s Field Guide: Rare Races, be sure to pick it up on DriveThruRPG.com, OpenGamingStore.com, Paizo.com, RPGNow.com, or the Rogue Robot Studios store on February 12^th.