Venomblade (Fighter Archetype; Nagaji)
We begin this week with another rare example of a truly race-exclusive archetype, one tied to a racial (or alternate racial) trait and/or the ability to take a race-exclusive feat.
Given their strange blending of human and naga traits, it is only natural that nagaji sport the full gamut of possible serpentine traits, including the ability of some to spit venom (or more accurately, squirt it from special holes in their fangs) at foes like a spitting cobra.
While this ability works quite well for underhanded sorts, there are those among these snake-folk that use their venom in a more up-front way, mastering a martial art of blending weapon play with sprays of venom.
These-so-called venomblades use their poisons to weaken foes and open them up to strikes, delivering lethal blows.
Obviously, the warrior must have the ability to spit venom, and as they master this path, they learn to do so faster and faster, avoiding reprisal and taking less time and focus to do so reliably.
While not truly trained as rogues, the entire purpose of the ability to spit venom is to blind foes, and so these warriors learn the art of dealing precise blows to vulnerable foes to take advantage of this.
Poisons work best once they enter the bloodstream, and venomblades master a technique for spitting right into the wound of a foe immediately after making the strike, making them more susceptible to the blinding effect and any other effect, as well as weakening their body to be more vunerable to strikes temporarily.
You can make plenty of builds with this archetype since spitting poison requires no free hands to do, but an agile combat build that strikes repeatedly, such as a two-weapon fighting build, makes a lot of sense. Also consider that Potions and Poisons, the very same book this archetype comes from, also has a short list of feats for improving their poison further, adding acid and bleed damage, as well as an entangling effect on foes. It’s interesting to see a racial archetype that is based on a racial feat, rather than a racial trait though.
Given that in Golarion canon, the nagaji are a created race, one might wonder whether those with the talent for spitting poison were deliberately introduced into their population to create warriors that used their abilities as such, or if they were a happy accident that they and/or their naga creators capitalized on. Additionally, this is a perfect way to illustrate how different species and cultures might view the concept of “honorable combat” differently.
In the nation of Najeri, humans, nagas, and their nagaji offspring walk the streets together as one. However, it is not exactly perfect. A new cult has cropped up stoking tensions between humanity and their serpentine bedfellows recently, and it has had the venom-spitting cobra guard under a lot of pressure to root it out.
The divine sirrush dragon known as the Ancient Librarian is worshipped as a demigod by the nagaji of Kulan. His temple is more of a library, but it is still heavily defended against those who would spread fear and ignorance. Befitting the dragon’s pacifism-first approach, their warriors specialize in blinding intruders and knocking them out.
Much to the party’s confusion and possibly disappointment, the “Green Dragon” that is housed in the arena is a strange snake-scaled person who proves a fierce and dirty fighter with a literally venomous tongue. She is, however, just as much a prisoner as if she were indeed being used as a battle-beast.
