using bloodlines for standard races

[Afrodyte]

Has anybody tried this? What did you do? If you haven't attempted it, how would you set it up?

 

[Hairy Minotaur]

My game had/has an elf with a bloodline. The player initially had the titan bloodline, that character died. The next elf has the storm giant bloodline, both bloodlines were/are majors.

In my game, bloodlines (99% anyway) are the result of experimentation by titans who enslaved the surface of the world the characters reside on.

There is also two other players with bloodlines, but they are playing nonstandard races. My players have embraced the bloodlines as more options on the standard races.

Hope that helps.

 

[Afrodyte]

I must have been way too tired, so let me clarify what I meant.

Has anybody used bloodlines to create standard races? In lieu of level adjustments? What did you do? If the idea intrigues you, how would you go about doing so?

 

[Gez]

I've thought about using bloodlines for the subraces.

So, there would be "gnome" with bloodlines for rock gnome, forest gnome, and deep gnome. "Elf", and high, grey, wood, wild, dark bloodline. Without bloodline levels, only the cosmetic details (and favored multiclass) would change depending on the subrace.

But I've already so much house-rules than I haven't given it more thoughts.

 

[mercucio]

Hola.

Converting bloodlines to standard races is easy:

Minor Bloodline: Remove the affinity trait and increase the stat bonus to +2.
LA: +0.

Intermediate Bloodline: Remove the affinity trait. Increase each +1 stat bonus to +2. Check the base creature's lowest stat and add that as a -2 penalty.
LA: +1

Major Bloodline: Remove the affinity trait. Increase each +1 stat bonus to +2. Check the base creature's lowest stat and add that as a -2 penalty.
LA: +2

The big difference here is that while taking a bloodline as a race provides you with less stat bonuses overall, each bloodline level counts toward your effective caster level; monk level for HTH, ac, speed, ect.

 

[Afrodyte]

I've thought about using bloodlines for the subraces.

So, there would be "gnome" with bloodlines for rock gnome, forest gnome, and deep gnome. "Elf", and high, grey, wood, wild, dark bloodline. Without bloodline levels, only the cosmetic details (and favored multiclass) would change depending on the subrace.

This is something I considered as well, and I think it's a vast improvement over the way subraces are created right now, and I would even use this for racial paragons. I may even use these as cultural permutations instead of "bloodlines" anyway. I'll show you a human variation:

Human bloodline (minor; for cultural packages)
4th: Cultural skill +2, 8th: Cultural feat, 12th: Cultural attribute +1, 16th: Cultural feat, 20th: Cultural affinity +2.

Human bloodline (intermediate; for human paragons)
2nd: Craft, Profession, or Knowledge +2, 4th: Bonus class skill, 6th: Any attribute +1 (max 18), 8th: Bonus feat (entry-level), 10th: Human affinity +2, 12th: Bonus class skill, 14th: Craft, Profession, or Knowledge +2, 16th: Bonus feat (entry-level), 18th: Any attribute +1 (max 18), 20th: Bonus class skill

Human bloodline (major; for cultural paragons?)
1st: Cultural skill +2, 2nd: Cultural feat, 3rd: Cultural attribute +1, 4th: Bonus class skill, 5th: Human affinity +2, 6th: Cultural feat, 7th: Cultural skill +2, 8th: Bonus class skill, 9th: Cultural attribute +1, 10th: Bonus feat (entry-level), 11th: Human affinity +4, 12th: Bonus class skill, 13th: Cultural skill +2, 14th: Bonus feat (entry-level), 15th: Any attribute +1 (max 18), 16th: Bonus class skill, 17th: Human affinity +6, 18th: Bonus feat (entry-level), 19th: Cultural skill +2, 20th: Bonus feat

My only quibble would be based in the fact that the abilities don't get more potent as bloodline levels increase. However, I don't know if that is a problem or simply a feature of design. Are you supposed to get a bunch of small bonuses, or would more sizeable bonuses as you go up in level be better? Obviously, you would get nothing on par with a 20+ levels in an adventuring class, but you still should get something that won't make you scoff by the time you reach the appropriate level. Just as the affinity bonus increases, it'd be cool to have other bonuses increase as well. Of course, there's nothing preventing me from doing this in the "special" levels, but... *shrug*