Homebrew Cambion Species Details

They crawl from their mothers' wombs to spread corruption throughout the multiverse. What's not to love?

— Baba Yaga

 

Born of the union between humans and fiends, belonging to neither. Cambions are constantly torn between their two natures, with the fiendish half often winning over their humanity. They are ambitious, seeking to take a piece of the world for themselves, often without realizing the role they are playing in a far greater game that governs their very destiny.

Cambion

The circumstances surrounding a cambion's birth are usually gruesome, rarely pleasant and fortunately uncommon, often the result of the efforts of a fiend-worshipping cult or a dark pact between mortals and fiends. Cambions have their lot cut out for them before they are even born, with the evil that forms part of their nature being either fostered or poorly controlled by their parental figures. The lack of filial bonds, friendships or emotional attachments sets them on a very narrow path towards evil, yet this is not always the case, either by outside intervention or their own volition cambions can choose a different path be it for good or bad, setting aside the purpose that was imposed onto them.

A typical cambion matures at the same rate as a human, and as a life span of 500 years.

The mind of a cambion is a troubled thing, even if they are completely set in their evil ways they always harbor an inner turmoil stemming from the two aspects that make up their body, mind and soul. To a cambion born of devils the world is an unruly and unorderly mess that must be set straight; to one born of demons the world is way too quite and stale with nothing distracting them from the constant impulses of violence that assault their minds, and to one who's born of yugoloths and other fiends nothing is ever quite right, a constant sense of misplacement haunting them. This factors combined with the fact that they are acutely aware of what they are, and what their existence means to the wider cosmos, while mortals lead their lives blissfully unaware is what often leads cambions to see themselves as superior, only by learning to ease their minds and putting these notions to rest can a cambion ever find peace.

The mothers of true cambions always died in childbirth, serving to strand the newborn on the Material Plane, where it would be orphaned, or in the Abyss where it would be abused by the demons who looked down upon such children. Never accepted by either society, cambions invariably grew up bitter and twisted but, due to their powers, they often became exceptional assassins. Many though, were made ambassadors to the worshipers of various demonic powers, usually Graz'zt, Demogorgon, Orcus and Lolth.

Loners by nature, they liked to get lost in the crowds of large cities, especially in places where people didn't ask questions. Good-aligned cambions were rare, but sometimes, if their mother was good- or neutral-aligned, they took on her non-evil nature and were subsequently doomed to a life of loneliness, as not even their demonic patrons would accept them.

Creating Your Character

At 1st level, you choose whether your character is a member of the human race or of a fantastical race. If you select a fantastical race, follow these additional rules during character creation.

Ability Score Increases

When determining your character’s ability scores, increase one score by 2 and increase a different score by 1, or increase three different scores by 1. Follow this rule regardless of the method you use to determine the scores, such as rolling or point buy. The “Quick Build” section for your character’s class offers suggestions on which scores to increase. You can follow those suggestions or ignore them, but you can’t raise any of your scores above 20.

Languages

Your character can speak, read, and write Common and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for the character. Typically for a Cambion, this would be Infernal or Abyssal, depending on it's heritage.

Creature Type

Every creature in D&D, including each player character, has a special tag in the rules that identifies the type of creature they are. Most player characters are of the Humanoid type. A race tells you what your character’s creature type is.

Here’s a list of the game’s creature types in alphabetical order: Aberration, Beast, Celestial, Construct, Dragon, Elemental, Fey, Fiend, Giant, Humanoid, Monstrosity, Ooze, Plant, Undead. These types don’t have rules themselves, but some rules in the game affect creatures of certain types in different ways. For example, the cure wounds spell doesn’t work on a Construct or an Undead.

Life Span

The typical life span of a player character in the D&D multiverse is about a century, assuming the character doesn’t meet a violent end on an adventure. Members of some races, such as dwarves and elves, can live for centuries. If typical members of a race can live longer than a century, that fact is mentioned in the race’s description.

Height and Weight

Player characters, regardless of race, typically fall into the same ranges of height and weight that humans have in our world.

Cambion Traits

As a Cambion, you have the following traits.

Creature Type

You are a Fiend.

Size

You are Medium or Small. You choose the size when you select this race.

Speed

Your walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision

You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light and in darkness as if it were dim light. You discern colors in that darkness only as shades of gray.

Fiendish Resistance

You have resistance to one of the following damage types: cold, fire, lightning or poison. You choose this resistance when you create your character.

Fiendish Power

You know the detect magic spell. Starting at 3rd level, you can cast the charm person spell with this trait. Starting at 5th level, you can also cast the alter self spell with this trait, without requiring a material component. Once you cast charm person, detect magic or alter self with this trait, you can’t cast that spell with it again until you finish a long rest. You can also cast these spells using any spell slots you have of the appropriate level.

Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells when you cast them with this trait (choose when you select this race).

Fierce Presence

When another creature hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to add your Proficiency Bonus to your Armor Class for that attack, potentially causing the attack to miss you. You can use this trait a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.