Kasatha

Let’s get this out of the way first: kasathas are not Golarion’s thri-kreen.  I will hear none of that talk.  Yes, four arms.  Yes, difficult for outsiders to gender. Yes, hunters in a desert environment.  But that’s it.  Thri-kreen are insects from Dark Sun; kasathas are humanoids from a planet with a red sun.  (…Which, ironically, makes these aliens less alien in many ways than the thri-kreen bugs.  Go figure.)

More thoughts: kasathas first appeared as an experiment in the Advanced Race Guide.  But it was clear that they were more than an afterthought, and sure enough they wound up in Bestiary 4 and then got a starring role in the Iron Gods Adventure Path and related supplements like People of the Stars.  Bestiary 4 also adds some nice notes like that fact that they have a matriarchal society and are working to get back to their home world.

In your campaign, how they act and how PCs react to them is probably related to how common or uncommon they are, and whether they know where their home world is.  A kasatha who believes he is the last of his race will likely behave very differently from a teenage kasatha on walkabout for his gap year.

If you want to play a kasatha player character, PotS has more details and unique traits, feats, etc., including their spinal swords and a really badass double-bow-wielding ranger archetype.  (I also love that Sphinx is a possible starting language for kasatha PCs…a possible cultural tie that I don't explore below but am fascinated by.  Sphinx astronomers, anyone?  Maybe even sphinx mission commanders!)

And yes, if you want to do a Pathfinder version of Dark Sun, and you want it to have thri-kreen, then you can use kasathas for a quick-and-dirty version.  But you better add some funky insect traits and maybe bump up their size pronto.  Because they're not the same.  Grrr.

The secretive witchwyrds didn’t just come down from the heavens for trade.  They hunt their escaped slave race, the kasathas.  While their desire to mask their presence by blending in with the locals has slowed their search, they nevertheless have agents in every desert market.  These agents will pay handsomely for news of elusive four-armed desert hunters.  Meanwhile, an adventuring party bearing goods with witchwyrd marks may find themselves treated as enemies by any kasathas they come across.

A four-armed gladiator is the only one of his kind…or so he believes.  His singular existence and prowess in the arena have given him a bit of a god complex, and he rules over the other gladiators—including captured adventurers—with four iron fists.  His world is upended the night the stars align and the entire coliseum becomes a sort of space bridge—and a kasatha war party materializes inside the arena.

Kasathas are a commons sight on desert worlds and rougher spaceports. But when a white-cloaked explorer claims to have found the kasatha home world, the race is galvanized into a mass exodus.  Adventurers coerced into helping the stranger will soon come to suspect his “discovery “is really just a strong hunch…but also an accurate one.  Too bad brain collectors, denizens of Leng, and worse dominate the home world now.

—Pathfinder Bestiary 4 174

Hi guys!  Ever since I came back after my broken computer fiasco I feel like I’ve been posting to you rather than interacting with you.  A lot of that is just a) my crazy work schedule, b) continued sick loved one/hospital stuff, c) more gym time, and d) SPRING!!!—but I will try to be a little better about the back-and-forth if I can. 

Speaking of which, a rather neat conversation happened this week when stopgivingthemthings posited a kind of tempter monster and then asked for help identifying/naming it.  Here’s the original post, the dr-archeville post that got me involved, my response, and this truly epic follow-up from vee-charlotte.  (Also see Dr. A. re: some calming, much needed perspective on Ant-Man.)

And please keep sharing and reblogging as the impulse strikes you!  This second go-round the monsters much less familiar to a non-Pathfinder audience, so your enthusiasm remains the very best way to help this blog grow.