For the non-human races of Kaidan I am creating Kappa, Hengeyokai and Tengu.
Kappa - the turtle shelled diminuitive goblin of Japanese folklore, the main aspects I touched upon in the creation of my version are: small stature (2 to 2.5 feet tall), natural armor due to shell on back, 2 claw attacks, free unarmed combat feat (despite the claws to comply to feat prerequisites), some Ki powers, weakness in the hollow spot on the top of their heads for sacred water, a special attack maneuver required to spill that water, no combat maneuverability penalty due to size, and a special skill at breaking bones in combat. The Kappa's main feature is a diminuitive monster race that is actually good at physical combat. They are slow on foot (20' speed) but fast in water, Swim (40', but increases with level).
Hengeyokai - animal shapechangers with an especially sylvan affinity, they make good rangers, druids and barbarians. Without Wildshape powers they can shapechange to a specific animal and human form, both considered their other true forms as they cannot disguise themselves to look like a different human. Species including: Badger, Cat, Dog, Hare, Monkey, Raccoon Dog, and Rat forms. They feature a trickster paragon class.
Tengu - bird (crow or owl) forms, not a shapechanger, includes sorcerers, fighters and paladins, with a not-yet-determined paragon class. We're using the basic racial stats for Tengu from Pathfinder Bestiary 1, but changing the subtype from Oni to Yokai (oni are only demons in Kaidan).
While there will be other monster races, the above three are the only ones available to player characters. Each will be published as its own PDF book, and In the Company of Kappa has already been released - available at RPGNow, DriveThruRPG and the Paizo Store.
Humans still comprise the bulk of character races and several classes are exclusive to humans, including Inquisitor (metsuki) as they are members of the Shogunate Secret Police (and thoroughly evil), while most of the animal yokai races above are neutrally aligned (some good, some evil). The empire and shogunate are rather ethnocentric in their beliefs and tolerations.
Its very cool working on new racial traits, optional racial traits, class archetypes, yokai paragon classes, yokai specific religion, feats and weapons, as well as backstory, origin mythos, and each one's view of society and the world.
GP
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