Introduction
Aquatic humanoids with a history deeply entwined with Aboleths and other Alghollthus, the Azarketi is a nearly-human ancestry which works very well in aquatic campaigns.
For such an obscure race, the Azarketi has a lot of options. 9 Heritages, nearly 30 feats, and two weapons. That said, most of them are unusable outside of water, and even in water many of them are questionably useful. Do not bring an Azarketi to a campaign where you’re not persistently in or around a body of water.
Table of Contents
Disclaimer
RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks.
- : Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
- : OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
- : Good options. Useful often.
- : Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.
Azarketi Ancestry Traits
- : 8 hit points is standard, and the Constitution increase helps.
- : Medium. Medium and small size have few functional differences in Pathfinder 2e.
- : 20 feet is slower than most ancestries, but the Fleet feat will close the gap. You also get a swim speed, but in a typical campaign that will rarely be helpful.
- : Easy to fit into a variety of builds. Charisma-based spellcasters are a natural fit. Martial builds which can also benefit from Charisma also work well, including Champions, Swashbucklers, and some Rogues.
- : Ancestry language plus Common is standard. Unfortunately, Algollthu isn’t spoken by many creatures, and most of them are underwater eldritch horrors like Aboleths.
- : Low-light vision.
- : You’re required to return to “aquatic environments”, which likely means a large body of water. Diving into a barrel of water likely isn’t intended to work. This severely limits the Azerkati’s ability to participate in non-aquatic campaigns.
Azarketi Heritages
- Ancient Scale AzarketiACLO: Darkvision is excellent. The phosphorescent pods are not really impactful in most games, but they provide non-magical light underwater, which may be helpful occasionally. If all that you want is Darkvision, consider a Versatile Heritage which provides Darkvision to characters that already get Low-Light Vision from their Ancestry.
- Benthic AzarketiACLO: Resistance to a common damage type, plus other stuff that might be helpful in an aquatic campaign.
- Inured AzarketiAG: Resistance to a very common damage type, and the ability to survive longer outside of water makes it much easier to bring an Azarketi into a typical campaign.
- Mistbreath AzarketiACLO: Want to be an Azarketi without the difficulty of needing to return to “aquatic environments” every 24 hours? Problem solved. You still get a modest swim speed, and you get access to all of the Azarketi’s feats.
- Murkeyed AzarketiAG: Only situationally useful.
- River AzarketiACLO: Extremely situational. RAW, you only need to make an Athletics check to swim if you don’t already have a swim speed, so this will only matter if the GM imposes a check to do something unusual like swim against a strong current or to escape a whirlpool. Having a swim speed gives you a +4 bonus on these checks, so success is likely, provided that you’re at least Trained. You can still choose to make an Athletics check to swim in hopes of a Critical Success instead of taking an automatic Success, but there is no universal reason for you to do so.
- Spined AzarketiAG: Potentially helpful for unarmed combat builds, which are frequently locked into melee. However, poison resistance and immunity are common.
- Tactile AzarketiAG: Amazing in an aquatic campaign, but totally useless on land.
- Thalassic AzarketiACLO: Underwater Marauder may feel silly because a swim speed means that you’re already not Flat-Footed while underwater, but remember that it removes the penalties for bludgeoning and slashing weapons. Removing the range penalty for ranged weapons is excellent, too. If you’re playing a martial Azarketi underwater, this is a great option. However, outside of water it’s completely useless.
Azarketi Ancestry Feats
Level 1
- Alghollthu BondACLO: Very situational.
- Ancestral InsightAG: Lore skills are really difficult to use to any great effect, and getting two of them doesn’t make that better.
- Azarketi LoreACLO: Athletics and Nature are both good skills, but they may be hard to use effectively on the same character.
- Azarketi Weapon FamiliarityACLO: All piercing weapons, which is great since using non-piercing weapons underwater is penalized. This is a great way for classes which only get Simple Weapons to get proficiency in the Boarding Axe and the Gill Hook, which may be better than comparable Simple Weapons.
- CynicalACLO: The bonus is too small for how infrequently this will apply.
- Hydraulic DeflectionAG: The same bonus as a Parry weapon or the Shield cantrip, and it doesn’t require a free hand to hold an item or to perform Somatic Components, making it a great option for two-weapon fighting and for two-handed weapon users.
- Pelagic AptitudeAG: Too situational and easy to replace.
- Perfect DiveACLO: Too situational.
- Striking Retribution: Too situational unless your campaign features Algollthus as prominent, recurring antagonists.
- Surface Skimmer: Too situational. It’s extremely unusual to fight in locations where you can conveniently submerge yourself while fighting enemies on dry land.
Level 5
- Aquatic ConversationalistAG: Only situationally useful. It’s more useful in aquatic campaigns, but in most campaigns you’re going to struggle to find creatures that are both useful and amphibious/aquatic.
- Azarketi Weapon AptitudeACLO: Critical Specialization Effects are fantastic, and many martial classes either don’t get them or only get them with frustrating restrictions.
- Drag DownACLO: Too situational. This is only consistently useful if you’re constantly fighting non-aquatic creatures in or around deep water, which doesn’t happen often. Against creatures that swim well and/or breath water, this is minimally impactful.
- Marine AllyAG: Familiars are great, but being locked into using one ability for a swim speed is frustrating, and other Ancestries which can get a Familiar from an Ancestry Feat can get that feat at level 1.
- Water Conjuration: It’s a 1st-level spell. Buy a wand.
Level 9
- Aboleth TransmutationACLO: Good options if you have an ally who can’t function underwater, but, if your whole party needs to go for a swim, this isn’t enough. On land, this is useless.
- Azarketi Purification: Only situationally useful. Purify Food and Drink is a 1st-level spell. Sure, a wand won’t work every 10 minutes, but it will also work on food.
- Replenishing Hydraton: Only useful if your party doesn’t have access to inexpensive healing like the Medicine skill or a Focus Spell.
- Riptide: This will make Drag Down much easier to apply, but the situations where you can use it are still rare in most campaigns. This isn’t good enough for the two feats it costs to get.
- Water Dancer: Only situationally useful. In water, the ability to move up or down at full speed is a huge tactical advantage.
- Water Strider: For most characters, it makes more sense to fly. For the Azarketi, it makes more sense to dive into the water and swim.
Level 13
- Aquatic AdaptationAG: Very situational. In the vast majority of cases, casting Water Breathing is sufficient.
- Aquatic Camouflage: Excellent in aquatic campaigns, but otherwise useless.
- Azarketi Weapon ExpertiseACLO: If you’re not already advancing proficiency, you shouldn’t be using these weapons.
- Hydraulic ManeuversAG: Get a reach weapon with whatever trait you need so that you can get an Item Bonus.
- Mist StrideAG: Very cool, but at this level there are enough options for magical flight that this is hard to justify.
- Rehydration: You made it this far, and you’re just now looking for a solution?
Level 17
- Underwater VolcanoAG: Limiting this to the floor of aquatic environments makes it borderline useless.
