The Half-Elf, Half-Orc Arcane Archer

Only a fool would claim that a half-orc is an opponent to take lightly. The ferocity of their forebears runs in their veins, and their night sight, in addition to their raw strength and hearty constitutions, can make them a serious threat on the battlefield. A half-orc with a bow can be particularly deadly, especially if his targets lack his ability to pierce the darkness. But when a half-orc archer raises his longbow, whispers a string of elvish words before letting fly, and then a ball of fire erupts where the arrow lands, that is a different kind of threat entirely.

Soldiers are dead, or frantically stamping out flames, and back-lit as they are it's child's play for the arcane archer to send shafts flying into each of them. But how did a half-orc ever learn the elvish magics that mesh with the mastery of the bow?

Maybe he beat it out of a teacher?

The Half-Elf, Half-Orc

If you're playing with the updated version of the rules, then you know that the "elf or half-elf" requirement was dropped from the arcane archer prestige class. However, even with that requirement removed, it's still a class that's associated quite heavily with elvish culture and heritage. But you don't need it to take levels of the class anymore.

With that said, you do still need to be considered an elf for feats like Stabbing Shot, and for certain items and spells that can add some serious punch to your character's abilities.

Now, in Pathfinder (as well as in the base rules for most of the recent editions of Dungeons and Dragons), say you're half-elf and half-orc is pure story flavor. Because while you can say that you are the child of two races, the racial abilities elf blood (for half-elves) and orc blood (for half-orcs) expressly state that you're treated as human and whatever your other race is for the purposes of effects, abilities, feats, etc. (taking classes and prestige classes falling under the "et cetera" label).

So, mechanically speaking, you only gain one half of your heritage. Which is where the Racial Heritage feat comes into things. If you caught my older post Bored Playing Regular Humans? Try Racial Heritage on For Size, then you know where this is going.

Strap in, because this is gonna get ridiculous.

 

So, you begin your character as a half-orc. You're considered an orc, and a human for all intents and purposes. Then, as your first-level feat, you take Racial Heritage (Elf). You are now, mechanically, treated as an orc, a human, and an elf for feats, magic items, spells, classes, prestige classes, and all that other stuff.

That's all it takes to get over that racial requirement hurdle for any abilities you want to add to your character, in a pure, mechanical sense. This is particularly true if you want to wield enchanted weapons that typically grant their abilities only to elves. Is it worth eating your 1st-level feat for access to those things? That's up to you to decide.

What's Your Story?

Getting the mechanics out of the way is easy; it's the story you're trying to tell that's going to be tough. Because someone with the strength of the orcs, and the guidance and grace of the elves, is going to become a terrifying archer with the proper training. But who gave this character that training? How did they unlock this potential?

Oh shit... my half-brother is nocking...

 

For example, did this character seek out a half-elf arcane archer? A mentor who knew how it felt to be sneered at as lesser, and told this was not truly his birthright? Alternatively, did this character get press-ganged into service by an orc tribe, who honed his natural instincts to a razor's edge before he figured out how to meld magic with his arrows? Or, unusually for a PC in an RPG, was this character part of a community that supported those with talent, regardless of where they came from and how they looked? Did the elders, upon putting a bow in his hands, realize that he had inherited more than his father's fine hair and silver eyes, despite the jutting brow and tusks from his mother's side of the bed?

There are all kinds of ways you can combine spellcasting and archery. The magus archetype myrmidarch is one of the simplest methods. If you want the original arcane archer, though, and you want to expand beyond the usual elves and half-elves, this is a fun little trick that lets you get away with something different.

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That's all for this installment of Unusual Character Concepts. Hopefully this one gave you something to chew over, whether you're a player, or a game master.

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Ethnicity and "Half-Breeds" in Fantasy RPGs

Anyone who's ever played a fantasy RPG is familiar with the idea of half-breed races. Half-orcs, for example, tend to lack the sheer ferocity of their full orc parents, but they tend to be smarter, and more cunning. Half-elves are not as long-lived as full elves, but they temper wisdom and enthusiasm in a way that alloys their human and elven heritages. There are also tieflings and aasimar, who reflect infernal and celestial heritages, as well as more unusual examples like dhampir and half-ogres.

The first question most people ask is why are there so few "half-breed" races to pick from? Are there no partial gnomes? Is there a half-halfing option? Has a dwarf never managed to have a child with an orc?

Don't let the charisma negative fool you, I'd hit that... with my ax!

The simple answer, which you find in books like Bastards of Golarion, is that certain races simply don't produce offspring. And, in other cases, the children may inherit features of both parents, but will only have the benefits and racial abilities of one template. So, for example, it's perfectly possible to have a child whose parents are an orc and an elf... but you can't get the benefits of both races. You need to pick which one is more dominant.

And maybe take the feat Racial Heritage to give you access to abilities usually reserved for the other side of your lineage.

The question I'd like to ask is why all our half-orcs, half-elves, and other characters with unusual heritage all tend to look the same?

There's More To The World Than Fantasy England

I harped on this in Do Dwarves Surf? Tips For Diversifying Non-Human Fantasy Races, as well as in the post Ethnic Homogeneity in RPGs (Or, Why So Many Burly, White Adventurers?), but there's a tendency for us, as players and DMs alike, to default to the same half-dozen acres of English countryside that's carved out of J.R.R. Tolkien's back garden. Even if the setting we're playing in is diverse in terms of races, ethnicity, cultures, and traditions, it's like Lord of The Rings is a comfort zone we just can't step out of for too long.

Thanks, Tolkien!

So, the question I think we should all ask ourselves the next time we put together a PC with only a partially human heritage is to ask who their human parent was. Where did they come from? What features did they inherit from their human mother or father? Most importantly, Who Raised Your Character, and How Did That Shape Them?

There's a whole layer of character development here that we often ignore. Take the map of Golarion, the base world for Pathfinder (it's the one I know best, so it's the one I tend to default to for examples). Say you want to play an aasimar, and you decide that his lineage comes from both the Mwangi Expanse, as well as from the celestial realm. So you end up with a tall, handsome black man, with eyes of silver, a halo of light, and wings inherited from the supernal planes.

There are all kinds of examples you could pursue with this idea. What would a half-elf born to the Shoan-Ti, and raised in their burning deserts and arid wastes, look like? How would a half-orc born from a union where one parent had Tian heritage appear? What would a dhampir reared in the Land of The Linnorm Kings look like? Or a tiefling from the top of the world, born to the Mammoth Lords?

It also bears repeating that, just because a character shows a certain ethnicity, that's no reason to declare they must be from a certain place. Between traveling merchants, wandering adventurers, wars, and the slave trade (all common elements in most fantasy RPGs), it's usually possible to find all kinds of heritages in places that aren't their "homelands". Which is just one more element you have to consider. If you're the child of immigrants, even if your parents, and their parents, were born in your home country, how were you treated? And what are the attitudes toward your non-human heritage in that part of the world?

Just some food for thought!

Thanks for checking out this week's Fluff topic. Hopefully it got your wheels turning, and made at least a few folks want to step away from playing regular humans for a while. If you'd like to help keep Improved Initiative going, stop by The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to toss a little bread in my jar. As little as $1 a month keeps the wolves from the door, and gets you some sweet swag, too! In fact, if you become a patron before the end of the year, I'll double the amount of stuff I usually hand out. Lastly, if you haven't followed me on Facebook, Tumblr, or Twitter yet, well, what's the hold-up?

Bored Playing Regular Humans? Try Racial Heritage on For Size

Humans are, without a doubt, one of the most common race choices in Pathfinder. It's hard to beat a bonus skill point and a bonus feat at first level. This is especially true in games where you're limited to the core races, where humans tend to win out more often than not. However, just because you might favor humans, there's no reason to play a vanilla human, especially in such a rich, varied world as Golarion where you can do (and be) almost anything you want.

Lord Bearington approves this message.

I mentioned a while back in How To Power Up Your Pathfinder Characters With The Eldritch Heritage Feats, that giving your character an unknown, or bizarre, heritage can lend you mechanical power, in addition to making your story that much more compelling. However, as I mentioned in that article, the Eldritch Heritage feats have both a feat tax (they require Skill Focus in the bloodline's skill), and they're only of use to character who benefit from a high Charisma. So if you're not a paladin, a swashbuckler, or one of the other charismatic classes, then you're going to find those feats aren't nearly as helpful for you, even if you love the flavor.

Racial Heritage (Advanced Player's Guide 168) doesn't have that kind of tax. All it requires is that your character is human (which means that half-elves and half-orcs qualify as well). This means you qualify as your race, and the humanoid race your heritage is linked to for the purposes of feats, traits, spell effects, magic items, etc.

What Good Does That Do You?

Well, that depends on what you're looking for. For example, say you're a first-level human, but you want to do a Tarzan concept as the human baby raised by orcs. Maybe you have a little orc blood in you, but not enough to matter. So, your first two feats are Racial Heritage, and Keen Scent. Then, when you take your traits, you might select Finish The Fight, which is typically for half-orcs raised by orcs, but fits right into your story.

Note: You may have to take the feat Additional Traits feat in order to gain the traits you want.

That is, of course, one of the tamer ways you could use this feat.

How ridiculous can this get?

Well, some of the possibilities can get pretty damn ridiculous.

For example, as I said in For A Change of Pace, Give Your Pathfinder PC Some Monster Feats, there are a lot of monster feats that require you to be a certain monstrous race. For example, you might take Racial Heritage (Storm Giant) in order to take the feat Storm Soul, which grants you immunity to electricity (and which is ideal for a Thor concept). You might, instead, take Racial Heritage (Stone Giant) in order to take the feat Stone Awareness, which grants you tremorsense out to 15 feet when in contact with earth or stone.

And if you have a DM that says you only gain the general subtype of a creature, you could take Racial Heritage (Giant), and take the feat Will of Giants, which makes you immune to enchantment effects that only target humanoids like charm person or hold person.

Giants are just one of the ridiculous options, though. You could combine goblin feats with a barbarian's fighting style, gaining benefits of the small race's tactics, while remaining a Medium-sized brute. Something like Burn! Burn! Burn!, which grants you bonuses on non-magical forms of damage would be ideal for a build that utilizes the Underground Chemist archetype, letting you tack a little more damage onto your alchemical attacks, over and above being able to deal sneak attack damage with them.

The combinations, while not endless, are pretty varied, and there is a lot of potential for discovering abilities you never knew you could bring to the table.

It's Not For Everyone

While a post like this shouldn't require this disclaimer, I'm putting it here because if I don't there will be brush fires all over the comments both here, and on social media. So, please, pay attention. And, if you want to, apply this to any other Crunch post I've made that focuses on potential combinations in any game.

Are you listening?

What I propose are only possible options. I'm going through the gigantic tool box that is the game system, and pointing out where little-known or less-used tools have been set aside, and showing that you can use them to achieve your goals. Can is, of course, different than saying you should use them, or that anyone who doesn't use them is somehow guilty of playing the game wrong. I'm just saying these are things you can do. If you like them, and want to use them in your game, more power to you. If you feel this doesn't fit your concept, or your gaming style, then don't. It's no skin off my nose. All I care about is that as many gamers know as many of their options as possible.

There now, with that said, thanks for checking out this week's Crunch post. As always, if you'd like to help support Improved Initiative, then I'd ask you to please go to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a patron. As little as $1 a month gives you some sweet swag, and it helps me keep writing posts that will (I hope) improve your game. Lastly, if you haven't done it already, why not follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter?

For A Change of Pace, Give Your Pathfinder PC Some Monster Feats

Anyone who's played Pathfinder knows that feats are often the key to an effective character build. Whether you want to smash through an enemy's spell resistance, cut foes in half with a single swing of your sword, or bullseye someone the wrong way through an arrow slit, feats are one of the biggest investments you're going to make.

Which is why it's so funny most players completely ignore the monster feats in the Bestiary.

The what feats, now?

If you've never been behind the screen, in the back of the Bestiary, there's a list of monster feats. These are feats that are typically available only to monsters; things like Awesome Blow, or Snatch which can give creatures the advantage in a fight. However, if you look at this list of monster feats, you'll notice something unique. Put simply, it isn't too hard for PCs to meet the prerequisites for a lot of these feats.

Who Needs Monster Feats?

Adventurers are a diverse lot, and some parties are made up entirely of characters who would be called monsters in most civilized places. The answer to the question, though, is that monster feats are often overlooked tools that can help you accomplish what you're trying to do with a little extra zing.

For example, say you were playing a half-orc with a bite attack (either through the Toothy trait, or by taking the feat Razortusk). You like being able to bite people, but you want more. So you decide to take the monster feat Improved Natural Attack to up your bite damage from 1d4 to 1d6. That's more like it. Then you decide to play a druid, and you take the feat Aspect of the Beast, which gives you 2 claw attacks. Now you have a 1d6 bite, and 2 claws that each do 1d4. But you want to beef them up, too, so you take Improved Natural Attack a second time, so all of them now do 1d6 damage. Now, if you want to fight with both weapons and natural attacks (something I covered in Natural Attacks Can Turn Your Pathfinder Character Into A Monster), you simply take Multiattack so that the penalty to your natural attacks is -2 instead of -5 per attack.

You now have an angry, orcish thresher. And we haven't even started statting out her bear.

Not pictured: The remains of the last encounter this smiling creature wiped.

But are monster feats good for more than just natural attacks? Well, what if your character gains a fly speed? Whether you have it as a racial benefit like a Wyveran, or you get it through a feat like the Bloodmarked Skinwalkers can, feats like Hover or Flyby Attack are great tricks to have up your sleeve if you want to keep the advantage against ground-borne targets. If you've ever said to yourself, "I want to build golems!" then you need to take the Craft Construct feat off the monster feats list.

It's not a small list, either, which is why I'd recommend giving it a long, hard look to see what tasty treats catch your eye, and open up entirely new concepts to you.

Some of My Favorite Monster Feats

I love the monster feats list, especially because it helps me create unique, unusual concepts. Some of my favorites off the list include:

- Scent of Fear: You automatically know the location of enemies within 30 feet of you, you gain bonuses to attacking creatures with a fear condition, and you gain a +2 on Will saves as long as someone shaken is nearby. Excellent feat for all those Intimidation lovers who have the Scent ability (Keen Scent feat will give it to a half-orc... just saying).

- Sow Terror: Anytime you win an opposed Stealth check by 5 or more, you can make subtle creakings and scratchings that worry away in someone's mind. If they fail a Will save, they're shaken for 1d4 rounds.

- Storm Soul: You gain immunity to electricity. This feat requires that you be considered a cloud or storm giant, both of which are humanoid races, and thus you could gain their subtype for prerequisites and effects with the feat Racial Heritage.

- Multiweapon Fighting: This is the feat that replaces two weapon fighting when you have more than two arms.

There are, of course, so many more monster feats that can supercharge a concept. Especially if your DM is allowing you a goblin, a tiefling, or other traditionally monstrous races like bugbears, hobgoblins, and even gnolls. There are no guarantees, but it can't hurt to look at some of those tools that occasionally slide to the back of your box, forgotten, but no less useful.

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