Pathfinder Reveals Four New Playable Ancestries

Pathfinder has revealed all of the playable ancestries that will appear in its 2024 Howl of the Wild rulebook. Yesterday, Paizo revealed the six new playable ancestries that will appear in its upcoming Howl of the Wild rulebook, a nature-themed rulebook that will be released in 2024. In addition to the previously confirmed minotaur and centaur ancestries, Howl of the Wild will also feature rules for creating merfolk, athamaru, awakened animal, and surki characters. The playable ancestries are each represented by a crew member of the Zoetrope, a crew of explorers featured in Howl of the Wild looking for the Wardens of the Wild, four mythical creatures said to watch over the various biomes of Golarion.

Although full rulesets weren't provided in the blog post introducing the new ancestries, Paizo did provide some basic details about the athamaru and the surki, the two new races in the game. The athamaru are a fish-like ancestry described as "being highly communal and with a more physical bent" with the ability to communicate with pheromones, keeping coral symbiotes, or training fish eels. Meanwhile, the surki are a brand new insectoid heritage who periodically burrow up from underground in a generational cycle. They passively absorb magic and then metamorphose later in life. 

Meanwhile, the awakened animal is described as a "highly versatile" ancestry, which suggests that players will be able to choose between a variety of animal species when creating a character. The merfolk will also be gaining some versatility thanks to several new items meant to help the merfolk traverse on land. 

In addition to the new playable ancestries, Howl of the Wild will also feature numerous new monsters and creatures, including variants of existing Pathfinder creatures. Also included are new feats and magic items related to nature and the wild. 

Howl of the Wild will be released in 2024.