Contents
1 This category includes barbarians, oracles, rogues, and sorcerers.
Sidebar: Non-Human Skinwalkers
Skinwalkers are found mostly in human populations. However, because of the nature of lycanthropy, skinwalkers can feasibly be of any intelligent humanoid race. So while uncommon, a lycanthropic bloodline can descend through non-humans like halflings, dwarves, orcs, or elves. Non-human skinwalkers perhaps more closely resemble their non-lycanthropic parent race, but possess the same statistics as human-descended skinwalkers with the exception of size and effects dependent on size, such as the damage die of natural attacks. For example, a gnome skinwalker is Small, but otherwise is statistically identical to the base skinwalker race presented here (unless, of course, the character is descended from an alternate skinwalker heritage, in which case she has the statistics of that heritage). Regardless, skinwalkers of non-human descent are typically raised in the same culture as their parent race, and thus usually have the same cultural understanding and education that anyone in their community possesses. So while a half-orc skinwalker raised in an orc tribe might not gain automatic proficiency with the orc double-axe, that doesn't necessarily preclude him from honing his aggressive battle tactics and learning how to fight like an orc. Skinwalkers resemble humans much of the time, but they possess the uncanny ability to transform into bestial humanoids who combine the most fearsome aspects of flesh and fur. Most people believe skinwalkers are half-breeds of lycanthropes, or that they share some slight version of the curse of those creatures. Skinwalker shamans say they are chosen by nature or the gods to be a bridge between the world of humanity and the animal world. The truth may lie somewhere between these two ideas. For indeed, skinwalkers are those with a lycanthrope crouching somewhere in the branches of their family tree. These distant progeny of monstrous werewolves and other creatures of the night have special talents unlike those of most civilized peoples, and they arise randomly among remote humanoid populations as well as within their own secretive sects. A pair of humans may give birth to a skinwalker—the dormant lycanthropic ancestry making itself known in a child neither beast nor human—or a pair of skinwalker parents may produce a skinwalker child, though these couplings can sometimes produce human children as well. Physical Description: Outwardly human, skinwalkers are virtually indistinguishable from others of the ethnic group into which they are born. Those rare skinwalkers who have bred true for generations tend to have dark eyes, straight dark hair, and richly colored skin. Skinwalkers' features vary greatly when they shapechange. They gain a bestial visage evoking the creatures they emulate; the snout elongates, teeth become more prominent, claws emerge from fingertips, and skin toughens into hide. Despite their shapechanging abilities, they are not immune to infection from full lycanthropes. Society: Skinwalkers sometimes weave themselves into other societies, hoping their peculiar talents go unnoticed. They may also be nomads found in lands with wide-open spaces. Groups of skinwalkers hidden among a larger community of non-skinwalkers may regularly gather for lunar rituals or nocturnal pack hunting. Relations: Skinwalkers mostly populate human settlements and communities. They tend to get along with catfolk, tengus, and members of other animal-like races (including lycanthropes), and are comfortable taking their animalistic forms in the company of these fellows. However, many natural lycanthropes see skinwalkers as weaker, inferior versions of their own kind, and some lycanthropes even take to infecting or even hunting their distant kin. Alignment and Religion: Skinwalkers tend toward neutral alignments, but may be of any. Many follow the Green Faith or venerate deities with close ties to nature and the animal world, as well as those connected with hunting, transformation, travel, and trickery. Adventurers: Often on the move, skinwalkers make for excellent adventurers. Once they become comfortable in a group, most skinwalkers come to see their adventuring allies as their pack or herd. Names: Skinwalkers born in human and humanoid societies share the naming conventions of the surrounding culture. Skinwalkers born in their own packs typically have names similar to their overarching ethnicities appended with flavorful, animal-inspired appellations such as Bearmaw, Wolftamer, Fangblood, or Owlmarked. Standard Racial Traits
Feat and Skill Racial Traits
Errata'd: Change Shape
The skinwalker's original Change Shape ability also included the following limitations: While in bestial form, a skinwalker takes a –4 penalty on Charisma and Charisma-based checks when interacting with humanoids that lack the shapechanger subtype. These limitations were removed in the revised skinwalker entry. [Source: PCS:ISR] Editor Note: Removal of these limitations would likely increase the Racial Point cost of skinwalkers to 11-12 RP, but there has yet been no clarification from Paizo on this. Magical Racial Traits
These benefits last until the skinwalker returns to her humanoid form as a swift action. A skinwalker must first return to her humanoid form before changing to bestial form again to change benefits. Different skinwalker heritages allow skinwalker characters to select from different sets of bestial features. Senses Racial Traits
Race TraitsThe following race traits are available to any skinwalker character:Alternate Racial Traits
Racial FeatsThe following feats are available to any skinwalker character who meets the prerequisites. The base skinwalker is merely the most common of its kind but there are those who've inherited a larger share of their ancestors' animalistic beings, and in whom can be seen the traits of very specific types of lycanthropes. Whether the scions of wereboars, the grandchildren of werecrocodiles, or the distant progeny of wererats, these individuals possess stronger ties to their ancestors than other skinwalkers. This book presents eight alternative heritages for skinwalkers, which can be selected during character creation. Once chosen, a skinwalker's heritage cannot be changed.
Variant Skinwalker Heritage DetailsWerebat-Kin (Bloodmarked)Those skinwalkers known as bloodmarked are a hungry lot— their predilection for blood is matched only by their flock mentality and adherence to strict hierarchy. Bloodmarked Ancestry Werebat Bestial Features
Bloodmarked, like werebats, are generally communal and often defer readily to their superiors within their flocks or even other leaders or employers. They tend to be gregarious yet savage, and enjoy using their unassuming natural forms to trick others before revealing their true bestial powers. Bloodmarked reveal their human ancestry in their ability to break from the group, make their own choices, and associate with humans without trying to force their way of life upon them, although troublemakers are strongly frowned upon and find it hard to get any other werebat-kin to take their side if in opposition to the group.
Werebat-kin ceremonies often involve wearing bat skins, sacrificing animals or humanoids, and drinking blood. Werebat-Kin Characters New Trait(s)
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