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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder RPG (1st Edition) Pathfinder RPG (2nd Edition) Starfinder RPG

Rules Index | GM Screen | Player's Guide
Core Rulebook

Chapter 2: Ancestries & Backgrounds

Source Core Rulebook pg. 33 4.0
Your character’s ancestry determines which people they call their own, whether it’s diverse and ambitious humans, insular but vivacious elves, traditionalist and family-focused dwarves, or any of the other folk who call Golarion home. A character’s ancestry and their experiences prior to their life as an adventurer—represented by a background—might be key parts of their identity, shape how they see the world, and help them find their place in it.

A character has one ancestry and one background, both of which you select during character creation. You’ll also select a number of languages for your character. Once chosen, your ancestry and background can’t be changed.

This chapter is divided into three parts:
  • Ancestries express the culture your character hails from. Within many ancestries are heritages— subgroups that each have their own characteristics. An ancestry provides ability boosts (and perhaps ability flaws), Hit Points, ancestry feats, and sometimes additional abilities.
  • Backgrounds, starting on page 60, describe training or environments your character experienced before becoming an adventurer. Your character’s background provides ability boosts, skill training, and a skill feat.
  • Languages, starting on page 65, let your character communicate with the wonderful and weird people and creatures of the world.

Ancestry Entries

Source Core Rulebook pg. 33 4.0
Each entry includes details about the ancestry and presents the rules elements described below (all of these but heritages and ancestry feats are listed in a sidebar).

Hit Points (HP)

Source Core Rulebook pg. 33 4.0
This tells you how many Hit Points your character gains from their ancestry at 1st level. You’ll add the Hit Points from your character’s class (including their Constitution modifier) to this number. For more on calculating Hit Points, see Step 7: Record Class Details, on page 25.

Size

Source Core Rulebook pg. 33 4.0
This tells you the physical size of members of the ancestry. Medium corresponds roughly to the height and weight range of a human adult, and Small is roughly half that.

Speed

Source Core Rulebook pg. 33 4.0
This entry lists how far a member of the ancestry can move each time they spend an action (such as Stride) to do so.

Ability Boosts

Source Core Rulebook pg. 33 4.0
This lists the ability scores you apply ability boosts to when creating a character of this ancestry. Most ancestries provide ability boosts to two specified ability scores, plus a free ability boost that you can apply to any other score of your choice. For more about ability boosts, see here.

Ability Flaws

Source Core Rulebook pg. 33 4.0
This lists the ability score to which you apply an ability flaw when creating a character of this ancestry. Most ancestries, with the exception of humans, include an ability flaw. For more about applying ability flaws, see here.

Languages

Source Core Rulebook pg. 33 4.0
This tells you the languages that members of the ancestry speak at 1st level. If your Intelligence modifier is +1 or higher, you can select more languages from a list given here. More about languages can be found on page 65.

Traits

Source Core Rulebook pg. 33 4.0
These descriptors have no mechanical benefit, but they’re important for determining how certain spells, effects, and other aspects of the game interact with your character.

Special Abilities

Source Core Rulebook pg. 33 4.0
Any other entries in the sidebar represent abilities, senses, and other qualities all members of the ancestry manifest. These are omitted for ancestries with no special rules.

Heritages

Source Core Rulebook pg. 33 4.0
You select a heritage at 1st level to reflect abilities passed down to you from your ancestors or common among those of your ancestry in the environment where you were born or grew up. You have only one heritage and can’t change it later. A heritage is not the same as a culture or ethnicity, though some cultures or ethnicities might have more or fewer members from a particular heritage.

Ancestry Feats

Source Core Rulebook pg. 33 4.0
This section presents ancestry feats, which allow you to customize your character. You gain your first ancestry feat at 1st level, and you gain another at 5th level, 9th level, 13th level, and 17th level, as indicated in the class advancement table in the descriptions of each class.

Ancestry feats are organized by level. As a starting character, you can choose from only 1st-level ancestry feats, but later choices can be made from any feat of your level or lower. These feats also sometimes list prerequisites—requirements that your character must fulfill to select that feat.

Backgrounds

Source Core Rulebook pg. 60 4.0
Backgrounds allow you to customize your character based on their life before adventuring. This is the next step in their life story after their ancestry, which reflects the circumstances of their birth. Your character’s background can help you learn or portray more about their personality while also suggesting what sorts of things they’re likely to know. Consider what events set your character on their path to the life of an adventurer and how those circumstances relate to their background.

At 1st level when you create your character, you gain a background of your choice. This decision is permanent; you can’t change it at later levels. Each background listed here grants two ability boosts, a skill feat, and the trained proficiency rank in two skills, one of which is a Lore skill. If you gain the trained proficiency rank in a skill from your background and would then gain the trained proficiency rank in the same skill from your class at 1st level, you instead become trained in another skill of your choice.

Lore skills represent deep knowledge of a specific subject and are described on page 247. If a Lore skill involves a choice (for instance, a choice of terrain), explain your preference to the GM, who has final say on whether it’s acceptable or not. If you’d like some suggestions, the Common Lore Subcategories sidebar on page 248 lists a number of Lore skills that are suitable for most campaigns.

Skill feats expand the functions of your skills and appear in Chapter 5: Feats.

Languages

Source Core Rulebook pg. 65 4.0
The people of the Inner Sea region speak dozens of different languages, along with hundreds of dialects and regional variations. While a character can generally get by with Taldane, also known as Common, knowing another language is vital in some regions. Being able to speak these tongues can help you with negotiation, spying on enemies, or just conducting simple commerce. Languages also afford you the chance to contextualize your character in the world and give meaning to your other character choices.

Your ancestry entry states which languages you know at 1st level. Typically, this means you can both speak and read these languages. Having a positive Intelligence modifier grants a number of additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier. You can choose these languages from the list presented in your character’s ancestry entry and from those available from your region or ethnicity. Ask your GM if there’s a language you want to select that isn’t on these lists. If your Intelligence changes later on, you adjust your number of languages accordingly.

The languages presented here are grouped according to how common they are throughout the Inner Sea region. Languages that are common are regularly encountered in most places, even among those who aren’t native speakers. Languages that are uncommon (see Table 2–2 and Regional Languages) are most frequently spoken by native speakers, but they are also spoken by certain scholars and others interested in the associated cultures.

Druidic is a secret language, and is available only to characters who are druids. In fact, druids are prohibited from teaching the language to non-druids (described further in Anathema on page 130).

It is possible for your character to learn languages later in their adventuring career. Selecting the Multilingual feat, for example, grants a character two new languages chosen from those listed in Table 2–1: Common Languages and Table 2–2: Uncommon Languages. Other abilities and effects might grant access to common or uncommon languages, as detailed in their descriptions.

Table 2-1: Common Languages

LanguageSpeakers
CommonHumans, dwarves, elves, halflings, and other common ancestries
DraconicDragons, reptilian humanoids
DwarvenDwarves
ElvenElves, half-elves
GnomishGnomes
GoblinGoblins, hobgoblins, bugbears
HalflingHalflings
JotunGiants, ogres, trolls, ettins, cyclopes
OrcishOrcs, half-orcs
SylvanFey, centaurs, plant and fungus creatures
UndercommonDrow, duergars, xulgaths

Table 2-2: Uncommon Languages

LanguageSpeakers
AbyssalDemons
AkloDeros, evil fey, otherworldly monsters
AquanAquatic creatures, water elemental creatures
AuranAir elemental creatures, flying creatures
CelestialAngels
GnollGnolls
IgnanFire elemental creatures
InfernalDevils
NecrilGhouls, intelligent undead
ShadowtongueNidalese, Shadow Plane creatures
TerranEarth elemental creatures

Table 2-3: Secret Languages

LanguageSpeakers
DruidicDruids

Regional Languages

Source Core Rulebook pg. 65 4.0
Regional languages depend on the game world you’re playing in. Chapter 8: The Age of Lost Omens lists the regional languages of the Pathfinder world and where they’re spoken (page 432). These languages are uncommon.

Most characters learn the Common language. This is the most widely used language in the region where the campaign takes place. In the Inner Sea region of Golarion, the Common tongue is Taldane, for example. Characters with Common might face a language barrier if they travel somewhere with a different Common language.

Regional Languages

Source Core Rulebook pg. 432 4.0
These languages are uncommon outside the region of their genesis. A character hailing from one of the regions listed below automatically has access to that language. In the Inner Sea region, the language referred to as Common elsewhere in the rules is the same as Taldane—a result of Taldor's legacy of control and influence over the whole region. Nearly every language listed here is spoken on the melting-pot streets of Absalom.

Table 8-1: Regional Languages

LanguageRegions
HallitIrrisen, Mendev, Numeria, Realm of the Mammoth Lords, Sarkoris, Ustalav
KelishKatapesh, Kelesh, Osirion, Qadira
MwangiMwangi Expanse, the Shackles, Thuvia, Vidrian
OsirianiGeb, Katapesh, Mana Wastes, Nex, Osirion, Rahadoum, Thuvia
ShoantiHold of Belkzen, Varisia
SkaldIrrisen, Lands of the Linnorm Kings
TienLands of the Linnorm Kings, Realm of the Mammoth Lords, Tian Xia
VarisianBrevoy, the Gravelands, Nidal, Nirmathas, Ustalav, Varisia
VudraniJalmeray, Katapesh, Nex, Vudra

Sign Language and Reading Lips

Source Core Rulebook pg. 65 4.0
The language entry for most characters lists languages they use to communicate in spoken words. However, you might know the signed languages associated with the languages you know, or how to read lips. You can learn these by taking the Sign Language or Read Lips skill feats, or both. If you are creating a character who is deaf, hard of hearing, or unable to speak, discuss with your GM whether it makes sense for your character to know sign languages or lip reading. If so, your GM might allow you to select one of these feats for free (even if you don't meet the prerequisites) to represent your character concept.