Frequently the first choice you make while creating your character, Ancestries and Heritages do a great deal to define your character moth narratively and mechanically. You choices will give you access to Ancestry Feats which you will select over the course of your character’s career, keeping your choices of Ancestry and Heritage important throughout the game.
Ancestries provide a set of Attribute Boosts and Flaws. Some Ancestries provide two fixed Boosts, a Free Boost, and a Flaw, while some Ancestries provide a single fixed Boost and a Free Boost. In addition, you can use the Alternate Ancestry Boosts rule to choose two Free Boosts instead of whatever your Ancestry provides. Getting three Boosts and a Flaw in your dump stat is ideal, but for the bast majority of cases you’ll do just fine with two Boosts.
The handbooks listed below include those for options published prior to the Pathfinder 2e Remaster. These handbooks are left in place for players using pre-remaster content, all of which is still considered legal. For information on moving from legacy content to remaster content, see our transition guide.
For a full list of ancestries and heritages, see Archives of Nethys.
Ancestries
Remastered Ancestries
- Athamaru Guide
- Awakened Animal Guide
- Centaur Guide
- Leshy Guide
- Merfolk Guide
- Minotaur Guide
- Orc Guide
- Surki Guide
Legacy Ancestries
- Anadi Guide (Legacy)
- Android Guide (Legacy)
- Automaton Guide (Legacy)
- Azarketi Guide (Legacy)
- Catfolk Guide (Legacy)
- Dwarf Guide (Legacy)
- Elf Guide (Legacy)
- Fleshwarp Guide (Legacy)
- Gnoll Guide (Legacy)
- Gnome Guide (Legacy)
- Goblin Guide (Legacy)
- Halfling Guide (Legacy)
- Human Guide
(Legacy)
- Half-Elf Heritage Guide (Legacy)
- Half-Orc Heritage Guide (Legacy)
- Kitsune Guide (Legacy)
- Kobold Guide (Legacy)
- Ratfolk Guide (Legacy)
- Skeleton Guide (Legacy)
- Tengu Guide (Legacy)
Versatile Heritages
Versatile Heritages are unique heritages which can be taken by characters of any Ancestry. In addition to providing traits specific to the Heritage, Versatile Heritages also give the character access to Ancestry Feats unique to that heritage, allowing you to find powerful combinations of Ancestry Feats and to create unique builds around those options.
Remastered Versatile Heritages
Legacy Versatile Heritages
- Changeling Heritage Guide (Legacy)
- Dhampir Heritage Guide (Legacy)
- Planar Scions
- Aasimar Heritage Guide (Legacy)
- Duskwalker Heritage Guide (Legacy)
- Tiefling Heritage Guide (Legacy)