Half-Vistani should be allowed to be Voodans, perhaps?

[Swan]

During one of my many daily rituals of putting off sleeping and sating my asinine desire to have six hundred million alts, I decided to make a Voodan a couple of days ago. It's a class that I have pretty much no experience with, and I was curious to see how the Moon Madness changes feel. So I figured hey, may as well kill two birds with one stone, right?

Apparently not. When selecting Land of the Mists as your setting of origin as a Voodan, the only option given is to be fully Souragnian. While it's obvious why that would be the main choice, I was curious as to why Half-Vistani are barred from being Voodans as well. I'm aware that Vistani tend to not be religious whatsoever, but since it seems that a majority of Half-Vistani are left to be raised by their non-Vistani parent (that's the impression I've been given from my reading, anyway), I don't see why a Half-Vistani born to a Sourangnian mother couldn't be raised on the beliefs of the Voodan.

Thoughts? Comments? Concerns? Your favourite pizza toppings?

[zDark Shadowz]

Half vistani is a full human subrace so I don't see why not personally, unless there's a culture in Sourpatchland where a half vistani raised by their human parent would be denied communing with spirits or inheriting their culture.

Is there anything preventing multi-classing into Voodan?

There was an argument on discord a couple weeks back where it was debated that only pure humans could be a voodan due to the phrasing of a post, but imo it left room for ambiguity, since it didn't actually exclude them outright, it just said along the lines that non-humans practicing it would be so few as to be negligible or non-existent and thats why they were denied outright.

If its an oversight or a bug, or whether it's intended, I can't honestly say nor have the developer tag to say it.

[Swan]

Half vistani is a full human subrace so I don't see why not personally, unless there's a culture in Sourpatchland where a half vistani raised by their human parent would be denied communing with spirits or inheriting their culture.

Is there anything preventing multi-classing into Voodan?

There was an argument on discord a couple weeks back where it was debated that only pure humans could be a voodan due to the phrasing of a post, but imo it left room for ambiguity, since it didn't actually exclude them outright, it just said along the lines that non-humans practicing it would be so few as to be negligible or non-existent and thats why they were denied outright.

If its an oversight or a bug, or whether it's intended, I can't honestly say nor have the developer tag to say it.

Yeah, I think I remember seeing some sort of conversation about that in the Discord, and it ended with some dev/dm asking for the names of the non-Human voodans that a user mentioned they had seen. I didn't...really get the sense of urgency there, since it literally says in the Voodan Roleplay Resources thread that "In other settings, elves, half-orcs and halflings from wilder regions sometimes gravitate toward worship of the loa. Gnomes and dwarves rarely find the faith appealing, but some of the monstrous humanoid tribes adopt it." Seems a bit odd to write that it's completely possible, yet reprimand (or I assume that's what they did, at least) those who make them.

But yeah, hopefully a DM and/or a dev sneaks in here and gives an answer. I'd really like to know what is and isn't allowed.

[MAB77]

The thing is that half-vistani tend to be loners and are rarely integrated in other's societies. A souragnian half-vistani voodan would be so rare as to be virtually inexistant. I'll bring up the point with my fellow devs, but I make no promise this will be changed.

[herkles]

The thing is that half-vistani tend to be loners and are rarely integrated in other's societies. A souragnian half-vistani voodan would be so rare as to be virtually inexistant. I'll bring up the point with my fellow devs, but I make no promise this will be changed.

aren't a number of half-vistani raised as if they were just regular humans?

[BahamutZ3RO]

How's a vardo gonna travel through a swamp, guys? C'mon.

[Chabxxu]

How's a vardo gonna travel through a swamp, guys? C'mon.

It can if it's dressed in black and red

[Swan]

The thing is that half-vistani tend to be loners and are rarely integrated in other's societies. A souragnian half-vistani voodan would be so rare as to be virtually inexistant. I'll bring up the point with my fellow devs, but I make no promise this will be changed.

aren't a number of half-vistani raised as if they were just regular humans?

^ This.

Yeah, Half-Vistani do end up being loners for the most part, but that's when they're adults and split off from their parents to live their own lives. That's still 18-20 years of them being raised by their non-Vistani parent, who is more than likely involved in their own culture? I don't really get how it would be virtually nonexistant. Parents almost always pass on their traditions to their children. Vistani parents can't do that when they leave them behind- which is supposedly what most of them do.

[EO]

This is taken ad verbatim from the sourcebook that introduced Voodan:

Races: In the Ravenloft setting, in which Souragne is the only domain from which voodan hail, humans make up the entirety of the class. (If any nonhuman voodan do exist, they are so rare as to make up a statistically negligible proportion.) In other settings, elves, half-orcs and halflings from wilder regions sometimes gravitate toward worship of the loa. Gnomes and dwarves rarely find the faith appealing, but some of the monstrous humanoid tribes adopt it.

Half-Vistani aren't considered humans for the purposes of rules, neither are half-elves or half-orcs. Half-Vistani can, later in their character's life, become Voodan though, nothing prevents people from multiclassing into it later on.

[zDark Shadowz]

"If any do exist, they are rare" doesn't mean they don't exist... on the same vein though, there is a difference between growing up with the culture and being trained early to perform the rituals. So thats fair enough.

I'd make an argument that lvl 2 pure voodan training as your characters first levels could be the same as lvl 2 wizard or cleric training done later in life as this is when the "commoner" acquires their class levels but meh, its not my server.

Its not that they cant be taught its that they wont be taught deal..

It does make me wonder what the voodan training culture is like though for the SourAgnes.

Is it a human supremacy one?

Is the communion & training with loa kept within certain family trees or bloodlines to remain pure, an inherited tradition only from direct family members?

Is a half-vistani seen as impure, in that they'd allow half-vistani to become clerics or druids in Souragne but they dare not teach them how to have a loa ride them?

Can a loa be tainted then? Has this happened before?

Is there some preconception about Vistani that they have abused, or would abuse or otherwise corrupt the loa if they were given permission for direct contact? So many RP plot point questions that could add to the backstory of a multiclassing half vistani voodan at the least.

[Swan]

This is taken ad verbatim from the sourcebook that introduced Voodan:

Races: In the Ravenloft setting, in which Souragne is the only domain from which voodan hail, humans make up the entirety of the class. (If any nonhuman voodan do exist, they are so rare as to make up a statistically negligible proportion.) In other settings, elves, half-orcs and halflings from wilder regions sometimes gravitate toward worship of the loa. Gnomes and dwarves rarely find the faith appealing, but some of the monstrous humanoid tribes adopt it.

Half-Vistani aren't considered humans for the purposes of rules, neither are half-elves or half-orcs. Half-Vistani can, later in their character's life, become Voodan though, nothing prevents people from multiclassing into it later on.

Then I guess, with all that is posted above, my only question is... why are Half-Vistani not considered Humans? I can understand why Half-Elves and Half-Orcs aren't, but in everything I've read across, Vistani are always described as a Human sub-race, or just Humans. Is there a change for PoTM that I'm missing, or have I just been looking in the wrong places?

Either way, it's nice to know that you can at least multiclass into it later on at the very least, I suppose.

[Fungal Artillery]

Hello, I play a Souragnien Voodan.

I don't believe it's a human supremacist thing for Souragnien people, but rather a scarcity problem. Souragne is made up of 99% humans. It's a swampland where travel is difficult.

Personally I would buy in to the argument that an outlander appears on Ravenloft, ends up in Souragne and learns Voodan magic in apprenticeship under a master, hence starting play with the Voodan class. The "multiclassing later" argument never sat right with me.

However I guess the ultimate purpose of what all this red tape is about, is to give Voodan an unique feel and to preserve their thematic identity. Every Voodan, with the exception of Gothic Earth Voodan, practice Souragnien religious practices. It's very easy to lose that identity and the class becomes "Divine magic guy 3471".

Do I think Voodan should be available to other races? Yes.
Do I think players have managed to respect the themes? Not really.
Should players have the opportunity to have another crack at it? Absolutely.