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What qualifies a creature as an extraplanar outsider, an extraplanar animal/humanoid/etc or an extraplanar native outsider?
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<blockquote data-quote="VelvetViolet" data-source="post: 6272031" data-attributes="member: 6686357"><p>"PlH" is an abbreviation for the Planar Handbook, not the Player's Handbook or PHB. The <em>revive outsider</em> spell debuted in the Spell Compendium. The extraplanar outsiders in the PlH are given aging tables and repeatedly stated in their fluff descriptions to require food and other basic necessities, but this is not reflected anywhere in their racial traits that still consider them immortal outsiders who don't need to eat/sleep/reproduce.</p><p></p><p>The celestial creature template in the SRD (not the PFSRD, which cuts out lots of explanatory rules for no apparent reason) states "Celestial creatures dwell on the upper planes, the realms of good, although they <strong>resemble </strong>beings found on the Material Plane. They are more regal and more beautiful than their earthly counterparts" and ""Celestial" is an <strong>inherited </strong>template." The template rules state "inherited templates, are part of a creature from the beginning of its existence. Creatures are <strong>born </strong>with these templates."</p><p></p><p>The outsider type states "Some creatures start out as some other type and <strong>become </strong>outsiders when they attain a higher (or lower) state of spiritual existence." So material creatures can become outsiders through unexplained processes.</p><p></p><p>An outsider is defined as any creature that contains the "essence" of a plane other than the material plane, and this implies an <strong>unstated </strong>rule that "all creatures from a plane other than the material are outsiders" that is broken in the SRD by the existence of planar versions of normal creatures. Planar creatures are explicitly not material creatures that emigrated to the outer planes: they "resemble" their "earthly counterparts" but are just as much born of their home plane as any outsider is. The outsider type, therefore, does not automatically apply to any creature that originates solely from an outer plane.</p><p></p><p>EDIT: When you're playing a campaign set on the material plane, the creatures you run across range across the full gammut of types. When you're playing a campaign set on the outer planes, however, you run into an odd difference where virtually every living creature you encounter is an outsider despite having just as much physical and intellectual variety as creatures on the material plane do. Its lends a strange air of sameness to a setting that otherwise should seem wildly diverse. It would be exactly like saying that all creatures from the material plane automatically have the "insider type" and not aberration, animal, dragon, etc.</p><p></p><p>EDIT: Apparently a lot of aberrations like beholders and mindflayers are from the Far Realm, which is technically another plane. Despite this, they're considered aberrations rather than outsiders and aren't even considered extraplanar on the material plane. On a related note, driders are considered aberrations while scorpionfolk (MMII) are considered monstrous humanoids despite both creatures being arachnid centaurs.</p><p></p><p>The PF bestiaries include several creatures that, if judged by the same criteria as planetouched, should be outsiders but are treated as extraplanar versions of other types (usually aberrations, since most of these examples are conversions from <em>Call of Cthulhu</em>). For example, the <a href="http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/aberrations/spawn-of-yog-sothoth" target="_blank">Spawn of Yog-Sothoth</a> is an aberration (extraplanar) despite being the offspring of a mortal and a deity/outsider and therefore logically qualifying for the outsider (native) type. This sort of thing is fairly common as the types themselves are poorly defined and whether a monster qualifies for a particular type or not is made on a entirely arbitrary basis that contradicts decisions made for similar creatures (see my note about driders vs. scorpionfolk above).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="VelvetViolet, post: 6272031, member: 6686357"] "PlH" is an abbreviation for the Planar Handbook, not the Player's Handbook or PHB. The [I]revive outsider[/I] spell debuted in the Spell Compendium. The extraplanar outsiders in the PlH are given aging tables and repeatedly stated in their fluff descriptions to require food and other basic necessities, but this is not reflected anywhere in their racial traits that still consider them immortal outsiders who don't need to eat/sleep/reproduce. The celestial creature template in the SRD (not the PFSRD, which cuts out lots of explanatory rules for no apparent reason) states "Celestial creatures dwell on the upper planes, the realms of good, although they [B]resemble [/B]beings found on the Material Plane. They are more regal and more beautiful than their earthly counterparts" and ""Celestial" is an [B]inherited [/B]template." The template rules state "inherited templates, are part of a creature from the beginning of its existence. Creatures are [B]born [/B]with these templates." The outsider type states "Some creatures start out as some other type and [B]become [/B]outsiders when they attain a higher (or lower) state of spiritual existence." So material creatures can become outsiders through unexplained processes. An outsider is defined as any creature that contains the "essence" of a plane other than the material plane, and this implies an [B]unstated [/B]rule that "all creatures from a plane other than the material are outsiders" that is broken in the SRD by the existence of planar versions of normal creatures. Planar creatures are explicitly not material creatures that emigrated to the outer planes: they "resemble" their "earthly counterparts" but are just as much born of their home plane as any outsider is. The outsider type, therefore, does not automatically apply to any creature that originates solely from an outer plane. EDIT: When you're playing a campaign set on the material plane, the creatures you run across range across the full gammut of types. When you're playing a campaign set on the outer planes, however, you run into an odd difference where virtually every living creature you encounter is an outsider despite having just as much physical and intellectual variety as creatures on the material plane do. Its lends a strange air of sameness to a setting that otherwise should seem wildly diverse. It would be exactly like saying that all creatures from the material plane automatically have the "insider type" and not aberration, animal, dragon, etc. EDIT: Apparently a lot of aberrations like beholders and mindflayers are from the Far Realm, which is technically another plane. Despite this, they're considered aberrations rather than outsiders and aren't even considered extraplanar on the material plane. On a related note, driders are considered aberrations while scorpionfolk (MMII) are considered monstrous humanoids despite both creatures being arachnid centaurs. The PF bestiaries include several creatures that, if judged by the same criteria as planetouched, should be outsiders but are treated as extraplanar versions of other types (usually aberrations, since most of these examples are conversions from [I]Call of Cthulhu[/I]). For example, the [URL="http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/aberrations/spawn-of-yog-sothoth"]Spawn of Yog-Sothoth[/URL] is an aberration (extraplanar) despite being the offspring of a mortal and a deity/outsider and therefore logically qualifying for the outsider (native) type. This sort of thing is fairly common as the types themselves are poorly defined and whether a monster qualifies for a particular type or not is made on a entirely arbitrary basis that contradicts decisions made for similar creatures (see my note about driders vs. scorpionfolk above). [/QUOTE]
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What qualifies a creature as an extraplanar outsider, an extraplanar animal/humanoid/etc or an extraplanar native outsider?
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