My Orcs are LG classical Greeks, with a hoplite fighting style being common for orc and half orc fighters.
So shield-walls with rank formation, using Reach weapons to get two lines attacking at once? The Int penalty seems to be in the way of that, but the method of fighting is actually very simple. Just needs good cooperation. Wisdom covers common-sense tactics for a reason. Maybe move the extra point of Dex to Str, so it's 18/10 on Str/Dex.
My goblins are CG steampunk-ish inventors and alchemists. Good at heart, but also nuttier than a bag of squirrels.
...-2 Wis, +2 Int over the current setup. Maybe shift some of the Charisma penalty over to Wisdom. Most, if not all, of the brainy classes have a strong Will save, after all, so some Wisdom penalty lets them work with Int and Cha based classes without being screwed in the Will saves.
Ogres are NG cheerful country bumpkins, pretty peaceful unless someone starts trouble.
Huh. Trying to think of a decent class/archetype setup to use as a good example that isn't just Barbarian or a derivative, but it's kinda hard... Maybe a melee-Bard? That'd be a good healer pick.
Hobgoblins fill the usual "LG Paladin/Crusader roll, with their lands being studded with great fortress-monestaries and beautiful cathedrals.
Well, if they're going to be Paladin, Monk and Cleric types, they need to do something about that Wisdom score. Maybe trade some Dexterity for some Wisdom? That Constitution score is a bit less needed with classes housing abundant self-healing, as well.
Conversely, my Elves are non-playable and always mid-high level. They are more like the classic "fae courts". Interacting with elves is almost always a bad idea.
Super-high-Intelligence Wizards with decent Wisdom probably make deals with them to work out how to more safely make deals with them for when they
actually need deals with them. Because the Fae Courts
have ironclad rules, they just never bother telling the mere mortals what those rules
are. What about Drow? Are you using those?
Dwarves are militaristic racial supremacists.
...do they keep the mountain-fortress-cities? It makes infiltration nigh-impossible, sieges have to deal with a city made
entirely of fortifications, and cities with absurdly overscale architecture help justify their feelings of superiority. After all, you don't see any
other races with cities able to comfortably house ten million people
after wasting half the space on grand displays of how much better Dwarven Construction is than anyone else's. Add in a touch of covering up the fact that most of the place is largely unfinished to conserve resources because it turns out the mountain-cities make food and water significantly more complicated and you can have an epic campaign backdrop with a barely-hidden major problem.
Gnomes are malicious illusionists, and their deceptions are the cause of many wars among the other races.
...Shadow Illusion makes this
so much more threatening. I strongly recommend making sure they have cultural aspects that make the more extreme uses of illusion magic less problematic. Being responsible for some wars is fine, having the capability to casually dissolve nations by causing
civil wars is not fine for a stable setting.
Halflings are pretty much all the negative stereotypes of gypsies, with a racial love for poison tossed into the mix.
Oh, god, Alchemists. Dear
god do I hate the design of that class... It literally has three separate sets of class features with next to no overlap in their function. At least Goblin alchemists have good options for bomb improvement that make the setup liable to actually be focused. Seriously,
where are the bomb-improving Extracts? Other than Alchemists for poison(
Fuck bombs and the yet-another-Vancian-system Extracts), the next likely classes are Rangers/Druids, Rogues(Vivisectionist Alchemist trades the annoying bombs for Sneak Attack to help cover that touch) and Mediums/Spiritualists. This covers a nicely sized range of potential abilities for antagonist characters.
Humans like always are the "balanced" race between good and evil, but even they get switched around. The largest human kingdom is a benevolent magocracy ruled by an ancient necromancer. Everyone eventually becomes undead. Either as "noble" (sapient) undead, a privilege earned by service to the state, church, or by paying off a necromancer to turn you early, or as "servitor" (mindless) undead, to labor in the fields, mines, etc... The massive labor force and the reversed necromancy also pumping life energy into the soil makes this kingdom incredibly prosperous, and the undead servitors are "paying back the debt they incurred in life".
Now originally, the state religion was Evening Glory (eternal love, beauty, immortality through undeath), from Libris Mortis, but that isn't in Pathfinder, so I may just create a similar deity for the new version.
Oh, look, a friendly, positive, necromantic empire! The issue with Spawn-making and incorporeal Undead is mitigated by the various control prevention and incorporeality blockers. Vampires have a variety of weaknesses, but the most important is a DC 25 Will save to operate within 5 ft. of a strongly presented Holy Symbol or any mirror. So expect doors of undead-hating areas to have holy symbols and mirrors on doorways. Plenty of PF Spawn abilities have workarounds of one sort or another, or at least a time to burn the corpse to prevent Spawn creation. Usually 1d4 days for time to deal with the body. So a lot of the problems with Spawn can be countered by funerary rites that work around the issue.
Also, the note about paying back the debts they got in life could be used with intelligent Spawn to literally pay off outstanding debts at the time of death before you get to be free-willed in Undeath. Utterly sucks for heavy debtors who got the chance to become "noble" Undead, but useful for keeping the economy stable.
I'm just sort of posting it here for opinions, suggestions, etc... while I work on converting major NPCs, setting up a campaign based on a dwarven invasion. (Heroes sent to find ancient weapons/magic to battle the dwarves giant war golems)
Well, a general suggestion is to shift around racial score penalties, because a
lot of Charisma penalties are tossed at monster races because of "they be ugly and rude by our demihuman standards." If they're the ones who define the civilized norm, then the Charisma penalties would presumably be differently placed.
