The wait is finally over. Non-human PCs now have the ability to purchase upgraded versions of their lowest-level racial abilities as they advance in level. Here's the breakdown:
- Angori can purchase improved versions of Ram.
- Dwarves can purchase improved versions of Unyielding Defense.
- Elves can purchase improved versions of Elven Precision.
- Empyreans can purchase improved versions of Music of the Spheres.
- Fairies have a new scaling racial ability called Winsome Verse that uses the Refresh effect.
- Gnomes can purchase improved versions of Calibrate.
- Ixifar can purchase improved versions of Phoenix Fire. (To anyone playing an ixifar, my apologies; I didn't realize I had restricted their racial abilities. That's fixed now.)
- Urdek can purchase improved versions of Umbral Touch.
Here's how it works. Because of how the system handles these skills, you don't purchase additional ranks in the same skill. Instead, you purchase progressively more powerful versions of the skill that become available at the appropriate levels. Thus, a fairy can learn Winsome Verse, Minor at 2nd level, Winsome Verse, Lesser at 4th level, Winsome Verse at 6th level, etc. Each step in the ladder requires you to know the previous step first and overwrites the previous action with an upgraded version.
As before, you're not required to purchase upgraded versions of a scaling racial ability. However, they don't improve unless you do. On the bright side, the cost is comparatively cheap; most upgrades only cost 1 or 2 skill points. And they're structured such that the skills only become available when the upgraded action is encounter frequency, so you don't have to worry about upgrading an action when you can only use the new version once per adventure. In case anyone is wondering, that's the reason the upgrades aren't always evenly divided across levels (e.g., elves can improve their Elven Precision at levels 2, 4, 8, and 12).
Note that any character who knew these skills before now knows the first, most basic level, so some of you may have a few more skill points with an action that's less powerful than it once was. If you want a partial respend in order to take advantage of the new racials, just send me a message and I'll make it happen.
Let me know what ya'll think. Enjoy!