Star Log.EM: Borai Options (SFRPG)

Star Log.EM: Borai Options (SFRPG)

This Star Log.EM clocks in at 9 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 4 pages of SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

On the introductory page, we also have the Borai’s racial statistics – the race btw. represents undead that managed to retain fragments of their souls. Borai get +2 Con and Cha, -2 Wis, are Medium and have a 30 ft. base speed, unless specified otherwise. They have Darkvision 60 ft., and for effects that target creatures by type, they count as both humanoids and undead, whichever effect is worse. They are immune to negative energy damage and have a +1 racial bonus to saves vs. pain, exhaustion, etc.

As an aside: To my knowledge, negative energy damage hasn’t yet been used in Starfinder, but since the energy type is around (as evidenced by plenty of references), and since the Starfarer’s Companion does make plenty of use of the damage type, I’ll let that stand. It’s something to bear in mind, though. Borai count as living creatures for the purposes of healing, and they take no penalties from energy drain effects, but may still be destroyed by them. Borai shake off negative levels automatically after 24 hours. Borai have 6 Hit Pointa[sic!] and are mainly defined by old talents – they select a racial trait to represent the original race they were, and this is a huge draw of the race.

You see, at the GM’s discretion, borai may not only have the same size as the original race. Additionally, the pdf takes a look at ALL legacy races, the Alien Archive races and a metric ton of races from the Xa-Osoro system/Blood Space setting: From kitsune to deoxyians, we get a ton of old talent options for the borai, including skinwalkers, yroometji, gnolls, msvokas (YEAH!), ganzi, arich, nashi, ydreft (double yeah!), glynwyrians, xaursi and rougarous, and even taking astrazoan, bantrids, khizar and strix into account! Now this is one massive amount of options to make sure the borai are sufficiently diverse!

The pdf also includes the borai paragon archetype, which is exclusively available to borai. This one allows you to, at 2nd, 4th, 6th, 9th, 12th and 16th level, choose a racial trait from a race you chose as your original race via old talents, or a feat that has being a borai as a prerequisite. Since all borai feats have only the race as prerequisite, this has no issues regarding prerequisite-bypassing.

Speaking of feats: 4 are provided: Borai Resiliency increases the aforementioned racial trait’s bonus by to saves by +1. Dead Man’s Heritage nets you the subtypes associated with the race chosen as the old talent/original race. Easily Necrografted allows you to install an additional augmentation (necrografts only) into one system of your choice. Restitched Corpse helps when you lose a limb other than your head, allowing for the use of Medicine to reattach limbs you lost in a pretty quick manner. The feat does include notes for improperly reattached limbs, which is a nice component here.

The pdf also contains a new mystic spell, the 4th level reanimation, which requires 10 minutes to cast. This spell codifies transformation of a recently deceased creature as a borai, and the spell properly codifies e.g. poisons and diseases affecting the returned character, and the spell does codify how returning the dead interacts with Resolve etc. And yep, a 1K cost of an expensive component means that the spell can’t be abused. Creatures exempt from being healed by mystic cure may not be revived thus.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good; apart from typo-level minor stuff, I noticed no issues. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the artwork included is nice. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Alexander Augunas’ highly flexible Borai are a cool race that provides the solution for the templated undead race; it’s, in design paradigm, similar to the excellent Star Log.Deluxe: Planar Scions Reforged. As such, the material presented is pretty cool and allows for a ton of different concepts. While I’m not blown away by all the feats, this still is very much worthwhile getting. My final verdict will hence clock in at 4.5 stars, rounded up due to in dubio pro reo.

You can get these versatile undead here on OBS!

Endzeitgeist out.

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