Homebrew False Cambion Species Details
"A couple weeks had passed since he arrived when she returned:
A girl from town whose father was an incubus they burned.
Not one of them had hated her, but something left her spurned,
and her travels had not found her that for which she dearly yearned.”
Children of Sin
A false cambion is technically a type of cambion, despite it's name. Cambions are born when a fiend has a child with a humanoid. The fiend is usually a succubus/incubus, and this is especially true for a false cambion. Suc/incubi, being fiends, are almost universally evil, but those that are the least evil can, on very rare occasions, feel genuine love and want someone to be happy more than they want to collect their soul. These relationships are still usually twisted and destructive in any of the ways you'd expect a relationship where one of the people is evil or on the worse side of neutral to be, and the suc/incubus will still work to collect other souls, but their magic is greatly weakened against the obejct of their affections. Their kiss will impart their love along with their pain and emptiness, and will not do damage to them.
If they bear a child, they will be a humanoid with magical similarities to cambions and tieflings. This type of demi-fiend is a false cambion. It's appearance will be of the race of it's non-feindish parent with a few odd traits, especially the hues of the hair and eyes tending toward red. It's magical ability will only grow as it matures, along with it's temptation (though not compulsion) to evil. It's theorized that most false cambions are made by a very small number of in/succubus who learned to love and go from one lover to another. In the case of the strongest of these relationships, especially when the humanoid parent is magically adept, the magical connection created by the in/succubus can be leveraged backwards to redeem them. In theory, at least. The humanoid would have to be extrodinarily virtuous and/or magical, and if it happens, it's so rare that those who have studied it most are the only ones likely to know of it, and they debate it's actual feasibility.
Hidden Heritage
Since a false cambion appears to be a mostly normal humanoid, they blend into society quite easily. Their human parent is typically very good or very evil, and not very mentally healthy. Less than half are good, and the way they are good is usually a self-damaging kindness. Also, their succubus/incubus parent is likely to only be nearby when they want to see their lover. Frequently, the humanoid parent is cheating on their spouse. This is, ironically, the best situation for the child in many cases, since they may have both parents and one of them may be good, rather than the practically guaranteed terrible environment they would have otherwise. All in all, they almost never know their fiendish parent, and combined with the fact that the suc/incubus most likely did not reveal their identity to their lover, that means it's highly unlikely for them to know of their fiendish blood.
If they don't know their parentage, a false cambion will typically discover their magic as an adult, but it could happen at any age. They may discover their inherent magic as a child because of magical training, or perhaps by trying to mimic things and transforming their voice or face. A shorter-lived race's first indication might be their slowness of aging after reaching adulthood. The magic grows stronger over time, however, so it typically requires willful ignorance to avoid it until the age of 150.
Author's note:
Mechanically, this is based on a tiefling. The shapechanging abilities seem strong, and they can be, but they come at a cost: they don't have a plus one in int or resistance to fire damage, and the racial spellcasting at 5th level is enthrall instead of darkness, so it's much less useful.
The ability to cast racial spells using your spell slots isn't intended as a buff, that's simply how I rule racial spells for all races in my games. I don't think the racial attacks get much use in any race because their normal attacks should be better, and the contact telepathy is specifically written to be easy for the dm to keep it from breaking things. I wanted it more for flavor and RP opportunities than anything. In my opinion, the flight makes up the biggest buff by far, but depending on the campaign, dm rulings, and the creativeness of the player, the ability to imitate other humanoids' appearance and some of their abilities could be very useful.
All in all, it can be very strong if you let it be, but I think it's fair enough. Of course, feel free to modify it however you want. It's already homebrew, after all!
I'm thinking I might like to add extra features that can replace subclass features for a more advanced version of this race, possibly including the ability to feed off of love or similar. I also might add subraces for general types of false cambions so your speed, size, etc. is correct, but I might not.
This is also my first public homebrew, so if I've messed anything up please let me know!
Anyways, that's it from me! Go roll some dice, commit identity theft, and have fun!
False Cambion Traits
False cambions are inherently hybrid creatures, much more so than true cambions. They each have abilities from their fiendish parent, but they have the appearance of their humanoid one. You should have any essential features of your apparent race at the appropriate level, as described in the transformation ability in the Enchanting Blood feature, and as determined by the DM. The DM may also choose to let you replace certain False Cambion features with features from your apparent race, such as your ability improvement, or swapping some or all of the inherent spellcasting of this race with another one. However: be aware of the way this affects the game balance. In particular, swapping the thaumaturgy cantrip or the spell enthrall with other spells will probably make the player stronger, and could be unbalaced compared to other races.Darkvision
Thanks to your infernal heritage, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. 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 can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Ability Score Increase
Your Charisma score increases by 2.
Languages
You can speak, read, and write Common, Infernal, and one other language that your apparent race would normally grant you, if there is one.
Enchanting Blood
You are considered a shapechanger. You know the thaumaturgy cantrip. When you use it, you can also change your voice or change your appearance in the same ways as disguise self. When you use it in this way, it requires no spell components and it is not an illusion, but it cannot affect your clothes or other objects, and you cannot appear as a different race unless that race is tiefling.
When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the command spell at first level once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the enthrall spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. You also may cast these spells if you have the appropriate spell slots. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Also when you reach 5th level, your succubus/incubus blood has reached full strength. Your true form now has claws, horns, an arrowheaded tail and leathery wings, and the red tints of hair, eyes, etc. in this form are even more pronounced. Any temptations toward evil are harder to resist, and feelings of emptiness are amplified at your/your DM's discretion. In appropriate forms, you gain a natural weapon from the claws, (1d4+CHA slashing) and you gain flight from the wings. (50 feet) (see Natural Weapon and Flight abilities) You gain the ability to, as an action, transform into any other small or medium humanoid, back to your original form, to your new true form, or to something in between those two. The humanoid can be any small or medium humanoid, real or invented. Your voice and appearance is exactly as you imagine when you trasform into it. Any equipment you are wearing or carrying isn’t transformed. You revert to your true form if you die.
Your stats do not change, except in ways essential to that race, such as water breathing, movement types, and natural weapons, as determined by your DM, but they are not necessarily as strong as they would normally be. Something such as a damage resistance may work superficially, but not be strong enough to give you a gameplay bonus. For a racial attack, the damage type changes where appropriate, but the to hit bonus, damage, and range should not exceed the natural weapon also granted at this level. If there is a necessary ability that affects a creature in a way other than damage, it can make a save against it. The type of save is determined by the DM, as approriate for the ability. Anytime a save is required, it uses your charisma modifier to determine the DC. Your flight cannot exceed 50 feet, and any speeds besides flight or walking cannot exceed 20 feet.
The rule of thumb for if an ability is essential is this: Could someone tell that you're not a real member of this race because you can't do it? That being said, these are more guidelines for your DM to balance than anything. They may further expand or restrict the ability as they think is appropriate for your campaign.
Contact Telepathy/Empathy
Whenever you directly touch a creature (not their clothes, piercings, etc.) you can sense their surface-level thoughts - whatever words, concepts, and/or feelings they are thinking most strongly at the moment - and they can sense yours. Either of you can choose not to share as well, though a leyman may not be able to immediately figure out how. They would also have to be aware that you are doing it, though people trained in magic and nobles have often trained their minds to resist telepathic probing instinctively, or have magical objects to ward them.
Natural Weapon
At 5th level, when your fiendish form manifests, you gain claws you can use as natural weapons. You use your charisma bonus instead of strength to hit, and on a hit you deal 1d4 + your charisma bonus in slashing damage. You can instead use strength for both if you choose.
Flight
At 5th level, when your fiendish form manifests, you gain wings you may use to fly, as long as you are in a form that has them. Your flight speed is 50 feet in your fiendish form. In any other form with wings, it is 50 feet or the normal speed for that form, whichever is lower.
Size
You are the size of your apparent race, the race of your non-fiendish parent.
Speed
Your base walking speed is the speed appropriate for your apparent race.
Age
A false cambion matures at the same rate as their apparent race, but they live at least 300 years. Much longer if they're lucky or if their apparent race would live longer.
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