Fleshwarp Handbook: PF2 Ancestry Guide – RPGBOT

Introduction

What if the text “content warning: body horror” was an ancestry? Well, you would get the Fleshwarp, a broad, vague term for a group of humanoids whose bodies have been warped beyond what anyone can consider “natural”.

The Fleshwarp has a decently large number of Heritage and Ancestry Feat options, but the majority of them provide very situational effects, so it’s difficult to bring them into a typical campaign. The best options cater to a front-line melee build, especially if you’re fighting unarmed, and a few options cater to high Charisma.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Disclaimer
• Fleshwarp Ancestry Traits
• Fleshwarp Heritages
• Fleshwarp Ancestry Feats
  • Level 1
  • Level 5
  • Level 9
  • Level 13

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks.

• Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
• Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
• Green: Good options. Useful often.
• Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

Fleshwarp Ancestry Traits

• Hit Points: 10 it points is standard, and a Constitution Increase adds even more.
• Size: Your choice of medium are small. Medium and small size have few functional differences in Pathfinder 2e.
• Speed: 25 feet is standard.
• Ability Boosts: Two ability boosts can be difficult for MAD classes, but for most classes Con and your Key Ability Score are all that you need. If you don’t want the Constitution Increase, the Alternate Ability Boosts variant turns it into two free Boosts.
• Languages: Common plus possible bonus lanuages. Most ancestries get a second language.
• Senses: Low-light vision is occasionally helpful.
• Unusual Anatomy: Poisons are common.

Fleshwarp Heritages

• Cataphract Fleshwarp^IL: For classes that already get armor proficiency, Armor Assist is borderline useless. For classes that don’t get armor of any kind (wizards, etc.) it may be worthwhile to put feats into armor proficiencies to boost your AC. Of course, Champion Dedication gets you armor proficiency all the way up to heavy for one class feat.
• Created Fleshwarp^AG: The bonus doesn’t stack with the +1 from Unusual Anatomy, so this is effectively a +1 bonus against disease. It’s not useful often enough to justify.
• Discarded Fleshwarp^IL: Too situational.
• Mutated Fleshwarp^AG: Only situationally useful.
• Shapewrought Fleshwarp^AG: Damage resistance is great, but psychic damage is rare.
• Surgewise Fleshwarp^IL: Oddity Identification is too situational.
• Technological Fleshwarp^AG: Emotion effects are common and include fear effects. With decent Will saves, this can be very useful.

Fleshwarp Ancestry Feats

Level 1

• Aberration Kinship^AG: Borderline useless.
• Deepvision^AG: Darkvision is really good. Note that you can also get Darkvision from many versatile heritages since the Fleshwarp gets Low-Light Vision already.
• Embodied Legionary Subjectivity^IL: Two good skills and a lore skill which might actually see use. The difficulty is in finding a build that can support Athletics and Arcana at the same time.
• Living Weapon^AG: Most ancestry feats that grant natural weapons don’t let you choose the type of weapon. The ability to pick and then to take this multiple times is great if you’re building around fighting unarmed without something like monk stances.
• Startling Appearance^AG: Intimidation and a great skill feat for it. A great choice for a Charisma-based build.

Level 5

• Embodied Dreadnought Subjectivity^IL: A Lifting Belt costs 80 gp.
• Finned Ridges^AG: Swim speeds are only situationally useful, and the speed is poor. If you’re worried, find a scroll or a potion or something.
• Gaping Flesh^AG: Good action economy, and Sickened is a great debuff. This is fantastic on almost any melee build.
• Mutate Weapon^AG: The effect is rarely good enough to justify the action cost.
• Powerful Guts^AG: Too situational. How frequently do you become Sickened? How often are you more than Sickened 1?
• Transposable Compliance^AG: Expanded Healer’s Tools cost 50gp and can totally replace this feat.
• Uncanny Awareness^AG: It’s not quite as good as Scent or something, but it’s still a great way to detect hidden or invisible enemies.

Level 9

• Captivating Curiosity^AG: Too situational to be only once per day.
• Coating of Slime^AG: Excellent for unarmed builds. If possible, look for other on-crit damage boosts like the Changeling Heritage’s Accursed Claws.
• Eerie Compression^AG: Why not just be small?
• Embodied Dragoon Subjectivity^IL: Useful, but these are very low-level spells that are broadly available.
• Gripping Limbs^AG: Climb speeds can be very useful, but this is very slow.
• Slip the Grasp^AG: Great action economy if you don’t like to be grappled. Not always useful because grapplies enemies are in the minority.

Level 13

• Augment Sense^AG: If you need to Seek over a larger area, why not just Seek twice? It has the same Action cost, but doesn’t cost a high-level Ancestry Feat.
• Spew Tentacles^AG: Only once per day, but still good area control, especially since the tentacles don’t affect you. If you’re built for melee, jump into the area and capitalize on your enemies being Grabbed.