Last time, I started building out gyers, a new ancestry of honorable and reclusive vulture-people. I finished their introduction to establish their flavor, so now I’ll turn to their base statistics. These are the rules that apply to all gyers, before adding in a heritage (next time!) and picking feats (the time after that!).

Base Statistics. Gyers have 8 Hit Points (the usual), Medium size (the usual), and a Speed of 25 feet and a fly speed of 30 feet (distinctly not usual). 

Now, for the ability boosts and flaw. Gyerfolk in the Run Amok Bestiary had a bonus to Strength and Wisdom and a penalty to Charisma; I think I want to change that to be a boost to Constitution and Wisdom, with a flaw in Charisma. They seem like they are more “hardy” than “mighty” to me. But then I see that makes them the same boosts/flaws as dwarves, and so maybe I should try something else. Back to Strength and Wisdom boosts, with a flaw to Charisma. Sheesh. That seems just about perfect for any character other than a champion or sorcerer, so maybe a flaw to Dexterity makes this fit better. Ability Boosts: Strength, Wisdom, Free. Ability Flaw: Dexterity

I’m already seeing some good game balance here. Any ancestry that can fly might decide to plink away at landbound enemies from above, mitigating many encounters. A boost to Strength means these guys want to get in close to fight, and a flaw to Dexterity makes ranged combat less appealing to them. That seems like a good design choice to me.

Languages are Auran and Common, which they knew before, and other common languages for having a high Intelligence score. Their traits are Gyer and Humanoid.

Gyerfolk had darkvision before, but that was because they were monstrous humanoids. Now they aren’t, and desert-dwellers don’t need darkvision. Maybe they don’t even have low-light vision, either.

Since they can fly, which is already pretty powerful, I don’t think they need any other abilities. In fact, because they can fly, they shouldn’t be a Common race and should require the GM’s permission to play.

Their base statistics look like this:

Rare

Gyers are scarce throughout the world as they rarely leave their desert homes to interact with others. You should clear your decision to play a gyer with your GM.

Hit Points

8

Size

Medium

Speed

25 feet, fly 30 feet

Ability Boosts

Constitution

Wisdom

Free

Ability Flaw

Dexterity

Languages

Auran

Common

Additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if positive). Choose from Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnomish, Goblin, Jotun, and any other languages to which you have access (such as the languages prevalent in your region).

Traits

Gyer

Humanoid

If this all seems pretty blah, like they don’t have as many neat and flavorful abilities as a Pathfinder First Edition race, note that most other ancestries don’t anymore, either! That fun comes in the heritages and feats, which I’ll continue with in the next blog entries.