[3.P] Children of a War Troll Half-Fiend Half-Dragon

[ImperatorK]

I have a character that is/was a PC in my games and is an NPC in my other games. He's a War Troll Half-Pleasure Devil from a troll mother and devil father. The Half-Dragon template was a reward from a quest. He attained it through a ritual, but for all mechanical and fluff purposes he's a real half-dragon.
I want to state up some of his progeny and I want for his children to inherit some of his racial power. What templates would you suggest for his children? The LA/CR is unimportant. I know there is a Half-Troll template, so that's probably going to be the War Troll part. Then there's a Draconic template, lesser version of Half-Dragon. For the fiend half I could use the Fiendish template. But TBH Draconic and Fiendish are kinda lackluster. Aren't there any better options? And of course - are there any better templates in PF for a half-troll quarter-fiend and quarter dragon?

http://www.myth-weavers.com/showthread.php?t=183990
http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=7343.msg112576#msg112576
This thread on other boards.

 

[VariSami]

Humm... That's a puzzle I kind of like.
Genetically speaking, I believe that his templates are the fenotypes of genotypes which can become recessive in his offspring. For example, consider how Tieflings, Genasi and such can be born of normal people: it's akin to a recessive gene.

In effect this would probably mean that he can have offspring that have devil-like features, troll-like features and/or dragon-like features. While War Troll is his actual base creature, he is "half-devil" so neither troll, nor devil should dominate his genetic make-up (although he probably inherited more from his mother, which is why he's not a half-troll pleasure devil). Let's see the iterations...

"Pure":
1. Troll
2. Devil
3. Dragon

2-fold:
1. Troll-Devil
2. Troll-Dragon
3. Devil-Dragon

3-fold:
1. Troll-Devil-Dragon

All of these possibilities make up what can be inherited from him. In effect, they're the part "half what" the offspring get from your character, and the other half is of course comprised of their mother's genes (tell me that she is a Tauric Wendigo Natural Weretiger / Celestial Elephant).

I might be mistaken here: it's all based on basic education (though I need to do extra research for my masters thesis about memes).

Now then... What templates could you use for this? I'd say that the Bloodlines from Unearthed Arcana are actually a good start, though they mostly represent longer lineages of recessive genes. That way you could get one of your character's fenotypes known:
1. Devil Bloodline (UA 21)
2. Dragon Bloodline (UA 22-25)
3. Troll Bloodline (UA 30)

As for the rest... Yeah, I'd probably go with the templates you already mentioned, though you might as well use the "greater" versions as well since it's not necessary to "water down" your bloodline over one generation in my opinion. Maybe you could go with one greater template (Half-Troll/Dragon/Fiend), one lesser (Dragonic/Fiendish) and possibly a bloodline, in that order? So if a child only has one fenotype from your character, it's from the greater tier? Two results in one greater and one lesser and three in a bloodline in addition to these?

 

[ImperatorK]

I'm not interested in bloodlines. The rest sounds good, but I wouldn't involve genes and phenotypes and such RW stuff when talking about magical creatures in a fantasy world.

 

[VariSami]

Yeah, I understand both of your points. I don't personally like the Bloodlines either since they feel like bad design. And while I prefer taking a pseudo-scientific stance on world building and such to make suspension of disbelief easier, it's not necessary indeed.

So just to summarize, look up a few plausible templates (and possibly Heritage feats and such) and categorize them in tiers which run from least to most diluted blood and figure out which tiers feel appropriate for the offspring. My personal suggestion is that one should only allow for one template from the most powerful tier and the rest from lesser ones, if the offspring have multiple influences which show. Just to summarize.