Celebrim
Legend
I think it is always dangerous to apply the term 'genetics' or any other highly specific scientific term to a fantasy world. There is absolutely nothing to indicate that genes, DNA, cells, or anything else associated with real world biology exists in a setting like D&D. There are probably fantasy equivalents. Indeed, it is essential that there be fantasy equivalents that perform roles like inheritance and phenotype creation, but it need not be assumed that these things have a one to one correspondence with the real world or that they are governed by the same rules. That isn't to say that there aren't rules, but that Mendel might have discovered completely different laws governing peas if he happened to live elsewhere.
For instance, it is highly unlikely in a fantasy setting that body shape is governed by a physical molecule of any sort. Instead, body shape is probably governed by some group of spiritual attributes for which we (being of this world and not sages of that one) do not have terms. Arcane lorists of that world probably have as many special terms for the biology of thier world as we have for ours (which is to say 100's of thousands). Being ignorant, we might collectively describe them as the True Name of the creature, an assertion probably laughed at at the Institute for Arcane Biological Studies. Nonetheless, we can make some assertions about how breeding might work in a fantasy settings based on this and how we would like it to work.
Breeding is successful if the 'true names' of two species are when blended compatible. Some species might be more compatible than others, and other species might successfully crossbreed only very rarely (and usually the offspring will be an aberration, which is probably where a good many of those critters come from). The resulting blend governs the phenotype of the child. Some species, like humans, have names which are highly 'generic' (submissive names) and thus blend well with almost everything. Humans apparantly can breed with almost anything, even things that don't cross breed well, but there heritage quickly falls away (if you are 1/4 or 1/8th human it probably means nothing significant). Dwarves on the other hand don't apparantly cross breed well. Others, like outsiders, have names of such power (dominating names) that they force meaning onto any other name that is not highly incompatible. For instance, a water elementals name might well create meaning with anything that isn't a fire type, by virtue of its overwhelming dominate meaning. Even if you are only 1/4 or 1/8 water elemental it will still be apparant.
Interested parties could probably work out an extremely complex 'science' (one much better defined and written than anything I'm saying here) that would actually be a fantasy 'genetics'.
I do agree that the answer to the riddle is either a celestial(ish) human or a dracon(ish) human. However, I do not agree that the celestial template could be applied. The celestial template, despite being 'less powerful' than the half-celestial template, refers to something that is fully celestial and in some ways is superior to the half-celestial template. For instance, celestial templated creatures get good SR and DR. Half-celestials do not. The problem might arise from the fact that Half-Celestial does not refer to an offspring of a Celestial (templated) creature, but rather to the offspring of a particular powerful subgroup of the celestial beings (Devas, Eladrin, Ghaeles, and the like), commonly just called Celestials but actually not making up the whole of the Celestial ecology. What is really needed is a 'Celestial Touched' template, which refers to the offspring of a celestial templated creature or a half-celectial templated creature but which is more specific than plane touched. Similarly, a Draconial template refers to a creature that is fully dragon but has a basic shape similar to some other creature. I'm not sure we'd really want such a thing, but you could have Draconial Sheep for instance, that were full dragons. A Drgaon Touched template is probably more in line with what we want.
This brings up another point, which is that if we are going to stack racial templates we should be careful not to let racial bonuses stack. A celestial touched, dragon touched, human should not get bonuses to CON from both celestial touched and dragon touched. This suggests further that we should be particularly careful when applying templates that didn't take that into consideration. The templates work fine if the half thing is normally vastly healthier than the creature that we are adding to, but not so well when both things are already quite healthy. For instance, if a Dragon and a Palanatar mate, it is not clear to me that the offspring (either a Half-Dragon Palanatar or a Half-Celestial Dragon, 50/50 chance) would be significantly stronger or healthier than either parent. For example, if I created a half-celestial gold dragon, I would compute the racial STR bonus of the gold dragon and immediately realize that it was better than that of the half-celestial template and just toss it out (unless the racial strength bonus of whatever it was mated with was greater than the racial strength bonus of the dragon!). Indeed there is no reason to assume that a half gold dragon half deva wouldn't be weaker than pure blood gold dragon, even if the dragon heritage proved dominate.
For instance, it is highly unlikely in a fantasy setting that body shape is governed by a physical molecule of any sort. Instead, body shape is probably governed by some group of spiritual attributes for which we (being of this world and not sages of that one) do not have terms. Arcane lorists of that world probably have as many special terms for the biology of thier world as we have for ours (which is to say 100's of thousands). Being ignorant, we might collectively describe them as the True Name of the creature, an assertion probably laughed at at the Institute for Arcane Biological Studies. Nonetheless, we can make some assertions about how breeding might work in a fantasy settings based on this and how we would like it to work.
Breeding is successful if the 'true names' of two species are when blended compatible. Some species might be more compatible than others, and other species might successfully crossbreed only very rarely (and usually the offspring will be an aberration, which is probably where a good many of those critters come from). The resulting blend governs the phenotype of the child. Some species, like humans, have names which are highly 'generic' (submissive names) and thus blend well with almost everything. Humans apparantly can breed with almost anything, even things that don't cross breed well, but there heritage quickly falls away (if you are 1/4 or 1/8th human it probably means nothing significant). Dwarves on the other hand don't apparantly cross breed well. Others, like outsiders, have names of such power (dominating names) that they force meaning onto any other name that is not highly incompatible. For instance, a water elementals name might well create meaning with anything that isn't a fire type, by virtue of its overwhelming dominate meaning. Even if you are only 1/4 or 1/8 water elemental it will still be apparant.
Interested parties could probably work out an extremely complex 'science' (one much better defined and written than anything I'm saying here) that would actually be a fantasy 'genetics'.
I do agree that the answer to the riddle is either a celestial(ish) human or a dracon(ish) human. However, I do not agree that the celestial template could be applied. The celestial template, despite being 'less powerful' than the half-celestial template, refers to something that is fully celestial and in some ways is superior to the half-celestial template. For instance, celestial templated creatures get good SR and DR. Half-celestials do not. The problem might arise from the fact that Half-Celestial does not refer to an offspring of a Celestial (templated) creature, but rather to the offspring of a particular powerful subgroup of the celestial beings (Devas, Eladrin, Ghaeles, and the like), commonly just called Celestials but actually not making up the whole of the Celestial ecology. What is really needed is a 'Celestial Touched' template, which refers to the offspring of a celestial templated creature or a half-celectial templated creature but which is more specific than plane touched. Similarly, a Draconial template refers to a creature that is fully dragon but has a basic shape similar to some other creature. I'm not sure we'd really want such a thing, but you could have Draconial Sheep for instance, that were full dragons. A Drgaon Touched template is probably more in line with what we want.
This brings up another point, which is that if we are going to stack racial templates we should be careful not to let racial bonuses stack. A celestial touched, dragon touched, human should not get bonuses to CON from both celestial touched and dragon touched. This suggests further that we should be particularly careful when applying templates that didn't take that into consideration. The templates work fine if the half thing is normally vastly healthier than the creature that we are adding to, but not so well when both things are already quite healthy. For instance, if a Dragon and a Palanatar mate, it is not clear to me that the offspring (either a Half-Dragon Palanatar or a Half-Celestial Dragon, 50/50 chance) would be significantly stronger or healthier than either parent. For example, if I created a half-celestial gold dragon, I would compute the racial STR bonus of the gold dragon and immediately realize that it was better than that of the half-celestial template and just toss it out (unless the racial strength bonus of whatever it was mated with was greater than the racial strength bonus of the dragon!). Indeed there is no reason to assume that a half gold dragon half deva wouldn't be weaker than pure blood gold dragon, even if the dragon heritage proved dominate.
