Ancestries

Skip Ahead to Ancestry Choices?

During character creation, you must choose your character’s Ancestry, which represents the physical form your character takes in the world, such as Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling and Trokar. Each Ancestry has a list of Ancestry Traits, which you can gain by spending Ancestry Points.

Ancestry Traits

Ancestry Traits give your Character physiological properties or abilities based on your Ancestry. You can choose various combinations of Ancestry Traits to customize your Character to express the type of fantasy race you want to play.

Ancestry Points

Ancestry Points can be spent to gain Ancestry Traits. Most Traits cost between 1 and 3 Points, however, some Traits have a Point value of 0 or lower.

Gaining Ancestry Points

When first creating your Character, you have 5 Ancestry Points. You gain additional Ancestry Points every ten levels.

Types of Ancestry Traits

Each Ancestry has 5 kinds of Ancestry Traits.

Minor Ancestry Traits

These Traits cost 0 Ancestry Points and provide minor benefits that are respective of each Ancestry’s unique abilities and origins. They may also be core traits that are intrinsic to racial identity. You can only choose 1 Minor Trait.

Negative Ancestry Traits

These are Traits that have a negative Point value due to a penalty it gives your Character. These give you additional Ancestry Points equal to the negative value of the Trait.

Default Ancestry Traits

These are a set of pre-defined Ancestry Traits that are worth a total 5 Ancestry Points. These include a Minor Trait and may also include a Negative Trait.

Expanded Ancestry Traits

These are optional Ancestry Traits that you can choose from to customize your Character’s Ancestry for either mechanical or flavor reasons.

Potent Ancestry Traits

Potent traits are stronger than normal traits, and should only be selected with DM permission. Sometimes these traits cost XP, or have a limit of 1 across any category. Some Potent traits are exclusive for the game, preventing you from gaining one in any field, such as skills or feats.

Ancestry Origins

Ancestry Flavor vs Mechanics

Player Characters are unique in this aspect and with so many options, you are able to create a wide variety of Ancestry Origins. You can customize them and make them your own, either for mechanical reasons for certain traits you want to use, or for flavor / lore based reasons.

Ancestry Flavor

This is where you can say what your Character looks like based on their Ancestry. Maybe you choose Dwarf and Elf for your 2 Ancestries, now you get to decide how they look, which has nothing to do with game mechanics. Maybe you are a tall slender elf with a huge beard… or maybe you are a thick stocky dwarf with smooth hairless skin and pointy ears… or maybe you look 100% like a Dwarf… and all of those “Elven Traits” are more recessive and don't show themselves visually, you might have the EYES of an elf, but everything else looks Dwarvish.

If you wanted to play a Dwarf that had a backstory of being from a long line of Dwarves, you totally can! Pick Dwarf and then ask yourself “How else do I want to express my Character?”. If you are going to be a Divine Servant, then maybe look into the Angel-born Traits? This does not mean that you ARE that Ancestry, or that one of your parents were, it just is a way to further express your character and let them have the Traits that best fit them.

Ancestry Mechanics

This is where you choose your Ancestries based on the game mechanics of what Ancestry Traits they offer. Build out your character accordingly and then step back and see what your character would look like. There might be a Player making a character that just wanted to be a BIG Barbarian, so he chooses Giantborn and Orc. The DM might ask him, “what does that look like?” and after they talk the player decides that he is going to be an “Ogreborn” which ends up being a really cool enhancement to his backstory… even thought the intent on his choices was based on game mechanics.

Ancestry Creation

Every Character starts with the Base Ancestry Traits below, and your Ancestry gives you a list of additional Traits that you can spend your 5 Ancestry Points on.

Base Ancestry Traits

Size: Your Size is Medium

Speed: You have a speed of 25’ (5 spaces).

Creature Type: Your Creature Type is Humanoid.

Choose Your Ancestry

Pick 1 or 2 Ancestries to show where your Character comes from, what they look like, or how you want your Character to perform mechanically. This represents what Ancestry your Characters parents were. When you select an Ancestry you gain access to its Ancestry Traits List (Default and Expanded).

Increase Attributes

For each Ancestry you choose, you may select one one attribute increase. The increase highlighted in bold is their preferred and most common attribute increase. If you only select one ancestry (pureblood Dwarf for example) you may gain both attribute increases from the same ancestry, but one must be the one highlighted in bold.

Spend Your Ancestry Points

You have 5 Ancestry Points to spend on any Ancestry Traits from among your Ancestry Trait Lists. Your Ancestry needs to have a total of 5 Ancestry Points worth of Traits (including negative Traits). You can choose multiple Negative Traits, but you can only choose 1 Minor Trait. You must spend all your Ancestry points during Character Creation (you can’t save them for later).

Duplicate Ancestry Traits

You can’t choose a Trait of the same name multiple times, unless it says so otherwise. If you gain a Talent or Feature that grants you a benefit that’s identical to (or a better version of) an Ancestry Trait you have, you can choose to immediately replace that Ancestry Trait with 1 or more other Ancestry Traits available to you that are worth the same amount of Ancestry Points.

Ancestry Traits Requirements

If an Ancestry Trait has a requirement, such as a Level requirement, then you must meet that requirement to choose that Ancestry Trait. This is mostly listed or common in higher level ancestry traits.

Variants

There are options for custom ancestries, such as multiple lineages (3+), stronger or weaker ancestries, adopted ancestries, and Ancestry “Magic Items”. These are not a part of the upcoming campaign, but may be available in future games or upon request.

Ancestries