Race Preview: the Godblooded

I like that dynamic- one thought then is to base them more strongly on the idea of archetypal heroes like Achilles, Hercules and so forth- a distinctly greek flavor can help to distinguish them from aasimir- make it the race for when i want to play a larger than life figure made so naturally by virtue of their bloodline. If you make the benefits more human in that sense, you'll end up in a good place I think. I look forward to seeing what comes of it!

I appreciate the feedback, guys. While I was hoping this could be a quick and easy job I do have a few of the domains already converted to subrace like traits so I will soldier on with that. Once I have a few ready I'll post those and we can compare and contrast to see if it's worth moving forward. As for theme, the distinction I'm trying to draw between the Godblooded and the Aasimar is that the Aasimar are just kind of generically angelic or celestial while the Godblooded have inherited some of the nature of their divine parents (like Hercules or other fictional / mythological children of the gods).

Benjamin Huffman

I agree with Zack Wenning's concerns, but would also like to add a few of my own. First, thematically, this feels to me like it steps on the toes of aasimar, which is also a divinity-themed race. And, in most ways, this just feels like a better version of aasimar. Second, the race definitely feels like it gets not just too many features, but also far too powerful features. Channel Divinities, even limited to only one per day, are generally too powerful of effects to put on a race. Gaining proficiency in anything for 10 minutes, healing hit points equal to 5 times cleric level, a free aoe attack that also dispels any magical darkness in the area, etc. I also worry a lot about how powerful Divine Legacy could be. It's definitely a flavorful feature and works thematically, but taking Life or War Domain to give any class access to Spiritual Weapon without dipping 3 levels into cleric is very concerning to me. In terms of damage to spell slot efficiency, that is one of the single best spells in the game. It also doesn't require concentration and lasts an entire combat, taking only a bonus action to cast and make use of each turn. If I'm being entirely honest, I'd almost prefer to see this as a class or subclass than a race. A martial class with very limited spellcasting ability themed around the Divine Domains could be really cool, and you could include enhanced physical traits as built-in class features to make it really feel like the Hercules archetype. I bet people would be really excited by the idea of getting to play as their favorite characters from Percy Jackson & The Olympians and other such sources of inspiration. And knowing how awesome the other Sterling Vermin classes are, I bet this could be incredible.

This will absolutely break the game. Most Cleric divine domains give proficiency with heavy armor plus additional features. You get the first two levels of Cleric's features without multiclassing or meeting the Wisdom 13 requirement. Funnily enough this also forces Godblooded to not be Clerics of the same domain as their race if they want to get the best use of their features. Honestly unique features per subrace is probably the best way to get this idea to work.