Last Updated: March 21, 2022
Introduction
Changelings have a hag mother, and inherit magical capabilities from their mother. Every one of them has heterochromia (two eyes of different colors), but I spent the time to check: there is still normal heterochromia in Golarion, so if you see someone with differently-colored eyes that may just have cool eyes rather than having a weird mom.
Mechanically, the Changeling is neat, but doesn’t offer a lot of outstanding options. There are options to support sneaky characters, melee builds, and a little bit of spellcasting, but you’re not going to use the Changeling’s Ancestry Feats to totally disregard your actual Ancestry so look for combinations between what your Ancestry normally offers and what you can get from the Changeling. As an example: both the Catfolk and the Orc have Ancestry Feats which allow you to apply Persistent Damage on a Critical Hit. You can combine that with the Changeling’s Cursed Claws feat and apply two types of Persistent Damage on one Critical Hit.
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.
Changeling Traits
Like many Versatile Heritages, the Changeling grants low-light vision, or Darkvision if your Ancestry already has low-light vision. This on its own is a great option, and even if you don’t take any Heritage-specific Ancestry Feats it can still be an impactful Heritage option for Ancestries which normally have poor vision options.
Changeling Feats
Level 1
- : If you’re going to take this, why not pick an Ancestry/Heritage which can get you a swim speed?
- : A great tactical option for builds which can capitalize on Flat-Footed targets such as rogues.
- : Trained in two good skills and also Hag Lore.
- : A trio of situationally useful effects. The overnight healing looks tempting, but there is an abundance of inexpensive healing options (Focus Spells, the Medicine skill, etc.) which make overnight healing a mostly negligible part of hit point restoration.
- : Basically daggers. If your Ancestry provides better natural weapons you should consider those first. If you’re built to be Strength-based, go for Slag May instead.
- : If you don’t already get Darkvision between your Ancestry and the Changeling Heritage traits, this is an absolute must. The ability to see in darkness is simply too good to pass up.
- : A good natural weapon for Strength-based builds, and the fact that the claws are cold iron helps to overcome damage resistances which are typically hard to handle without manufactured weapons.
Level 5
- : Nearly all effects which target Will are mental, so this is an easy +1 bonus to nearly all Will saves. The additional benefit against effects which make you Controlled is neat, but since it only takes effects when you’ve already succeeded it’s not very impactful.
- : The increase isn’t huge, but if you’re consistently relying on concealment or stealth in combat it will pay off over the course of your character’s career. As an example, druids with Order of the Storm can already see through fog, and combining that capability with Mist Child puts you at a strategic advantage over your foes. However, remember that your allies need to make the same Flat Check to target you, which may make it difficult to recieve buffs or healing.
Level 9
- : Persistent damage is really good. It would be nice if there was some sort of scaling, though. If you can get other similar effects, such as the Catfolk’s Aggravating Claws, you can stack a bunch of persistent damage effects.
- : +1 to saves against one in four spells.
Level 13
- : A great concept, but the spell options aren’t great.
