As you may have seen in the thread about the Goblin Warchanter, I got started in Pathfinder. One of the player races was the changeling, but it wasn't like D&D's changeling. Instead it was more like what the folklore changeling was, a fairy child in a sense. Changelings in Pathfinder were the daughters of hags who left them with their adoptive parents to be raised, and on reaching maturity, they would hear their mother's call beckoning them into a trap where they'd be turned into a hag. I liked them because they had a built in plot hook, something that could be put into the campaign by the GM and it gave that character a sort of free character arc, especially if they either didn't know about their heritage or did know and were terrified stiff by it. I also like this version of how hags perpetuate their kind more than the one found in the Monster Manual, since the poor soul does have some agency in what their fate is rather than being doomed right from the get go. I wanted to bring something like that to my 5e game and I could use some feedback on what I have come up with. Obviously, I couldn't call them changelings, so I went with foundling since that is pretty much what they are, and it rolled off the tongue better that witchblood or witchbrood.
Now, I know that there's a lot of goodies that come with this: Darkvision; +'s to Dex, Int, and Cha; and three free cantrips from a pretty good list of utility spells, but in exchange, you also have a powerful entity pursuing you from level 1 with the potential to catch the eye of something even worse. Basically, the mechanical goodies are a way to balance out a story element that is not in anyway beneficial to your character. It is up the GM to play this out, but that's true of a lot of things that exist in the fluff but not the mechanics. I think it's valid to balance things this way, so please keep that in mind when you review this.
I will admit that how I tend to play did color some of the flavor, so if you think of something that should change, let me know and offer suggestions. The worst I'll do is say no thanks.
As always I appreciate any feedback y'all may have and I'm looking forward to seeing what y'all think.
Details on Foundlings can be found here.
As you may have seen in the thread about the Goblin Warchanter, I got started in Pathfinder. One of the player races was the changeling, but it wasn't like D&D's changeling. Instead it was more like what the folklore changeling was, a fairy child in a sense. Changelings in Pathfinder were the daughters of hags who left them with their adoptive parents to be raised, and on reaching maturity, they would hear their mother's call beckoning them into a trap where they'd be turned into a hag. I liked them because they had a built in plot hook, something that could be put into the campaign by the GM and it gave that character a sort of free character arc, especially if they either didn't know about their heritage or did know and were terrified stiff by it. I also like this version of how hags perpetuate their kind more than the one found in the Monster Manual, since the poor soul does have some agency in what their fate is rather than being doomed right from the get go. I wanted to bring something like that to my 5e game and I could use some feedback on what I have come up with. Obviously, I couldn't call them changelings, so I went with foundling since that is pretty much what they are, and it rolled off the tongue better that witchblood or witchbrood.
Now, I know that there's a lot of goodies that come with this: Darkvision; +'s to Dex, Int, and Cha; and three free cantrips from a pretty good list of utility spells, but in exchange, you also have a powerful entity pursuing you from level 1 with the potential to catch the eye of something even worse. Basically, the mechanical goodies are a way to balance out a story element that is not in anyway beneficial to your character. It is up the GM to play this out, but that's true of a lot of things that exist in the fluff but not the mechanics. I think it's valid to balance things this way, so please keep that in mind when you review this.
I will admit that how I tend to play did color some of the flavor, so if you think of something that should change, let me know and offer suggestions. The worst I'll do is say no thanks.
As always I appreciate any feedback y'all may have and I'm looking forward to seeing what y'all think.