Homebrew Cambion (Proginy of Baatezu) Species Details
PHYSICAL TRAITS
Unlike tieflings, who usually possess fiendish traits from an ancient pact their ancestors made, cambions are the direct children of a fiend and a mortal. The fiend can be of any kind, devil or demon, with the mortal humanoid also of any race. Cambions inherit traits from both of their parents, but almost always have some form of horns, bat-like wings and a leathery tail. Their skin tone is most commonly a vibrant, blood red, with their eyes usually an insidious sulfur-yellow. However, their coloration and fiendish aspects can vary wildly depending on their fiendish parent — from black, yellow or blue skin, to hooves instead of feet, to extra digits and eyes. They can possess otherworldly beauty or be entirely grotesque.
BEHAVIORAL TRAITS
It is a Cambion’s fate to betray the trust of those who raised them. To their mortal relative, they are cruel, ruthless, and perverse. Even the kindest and most attentive mortal parent can only watch in horror at the monstrous behavior their child exhibits. To their Fiendish parent, they are emotionally weak, bound by their ambition and need to prove themselves in their love starved home.
There is one behavioral trait that proves most important to a cambions life, the desire to rule and control. Their endless ambition and need to prove themselves causes many to seek out power in any form, particularly in dominating weaker creatures.Their innate abilities often put them ahead of other children from an early age, though without a direction for their boundless ambition, their power and aggression can easily turn to chaos. Those who are raised among mortals exhibit wickedness, cruelty, ruthlessness, and perversion. Those raised in the outer planes grow up knowing only power, as that is the path to survival in those dark, twisted lands.
SOCIETY
Though rare and far between they can most frequently be found in places of fiendish worship or in areas having suffered a fiendish incursion where they have often been abandoned to fend for themselves in a world that doesn't want them. Yet, by their nature, they rise from roughest quarters of those places, where they often grow up to be commanders, lords, or rulers in some way shape or form.
BORN TO BE BAD
Cambions have an innate tenancy towards evil and sin due to their fiendish blood, thus a majority have a lawful evil alignment. However, some have bested their nature and may be neutral aligned even in some rarer cases, good aligned. In the end, whether good or evil, those are actions that are chosen. A cambion will always feel the pull of their fiendish blood, but if raised in an environment that is overall good, or has experienced a turning point that led them to good, they will choose to let good triumph over their evil nature.
ALT: GOOD ALLIGNED
Cambions are not devoid of feeling, however, and several align themselves with the ideals of goodness. Those raised by good-aligned mortals are naturally the most likely to reject their fiendish nature. Being so devoid of acceptance, they approach their tasks with maximum effort in an attempt to prove that they are worthy of the ego they possess.
Good-aligned half-fiends may experience a dilettante effect, finding it easier to get along, at least on the surface, with any race more easily than most, depending on just how demonic their appearance is. Their natural emotional isolation makes them highly effective at forming quick, loose bonds with those they meet, and easily rise to positions of leadership among strangers.
They are not dissimilar from tieflings in this manner, as most other species are unable to differentiate between them.
PAWNS OF THE MIGHTY
A cambion forced to serve its fiendish parent does so out of admiration and dread, but also with the expectation that it will one day rise to a place of prominence. Cambions raised in the Nine Hells serve as soldiers, envoys, and personal attendants to greater devils.
Although very aware of what they are and the conflict between good and evil that resides within them, Cambions usually find themselves caught up in the macchinations of their fiends Parent, often not realizing how bound they are to their fiendish parents plans. The mind of a devil has much greater capacity than any more, thus it’s common for fiends to hatch plans that span millenia with each event carefully set in motion to achieve their nefarious goals. Creating children is simply an easy way for firneds to access the material plane and exapand their reach. So, though a cambion may feel they are in complete control, they are more likely playing directly into the hand of their fiendish parent.
Cambion (Proginy of Baatezu) Traits
Your cambion has gifts from its fiendish descent.Ability Score Increase
Your Strength, Dexterity and Charisma score each increases by 1.
Age
You mature and reach adulthood the same time as your mortal parent. You then can live for multiple centuries or you can possibly be immortal.
Size
Cambions stand at roughly the same height as a human when fully grown, although both their fiendish and humanoid parents' sizes may influence this to see them end up slightly shorter, or taller. Your size is medium.
Speed
Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Flight
You have a flying speed of 35 feet. To use this speed, you can’t be wearing medium or heavy armor.
Darkvision
Due to your fiend blood you can see in the dark and in dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 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.
Languages
you can understand Common and most variants of Infernal.
Fiendish Prescence
For all intents and purposes you count as a standard, living creature and not a fiend. However, certain spells and effects that specifically deal in detection instead count you as a fiend. These include detect evil and good and a paladin's Divine Sense. The blood of the lower planes lives in you.
Fiendish Resilience
You can choose to be resistant to two of the damage types listed here, and another resistance at 5th level:
Fire, Lightning, Cold, Poison, Acid
Or you can choose to instead gain the benefit of Adding your Charisma Modifier to your Armour class (AC) and your choice of 1 resistance from the list above. This can be added along with your Dexterity Modifier. however you can only Add a +2 if you are wearing Medium or Heavy Armour. Feats such as Heavy Armour master and Medium Armour master boost this to a +3.
However you loose the benefit of this trait if you are hit with Radiant damage or a Silvered weapon, until you take a short or long rest.
Hellish Tricks
At 3rd level you begin to unlocking the powers of your hellish ancestry. You learn one cantrip you select here. Choose one of the following cantrips: control flames, produce flame, thaumaturgy or vicious mockery. Your spellcasting ability is Charisma.
Hellborn Power
When you reach 5th level you gain further mastery over the wicked powers of your malefic descent. You learn one fiendish spell. Choose one of the following spells you wish to gain at that level: burning hands, charm Person, command, disguise self or hellish rebuke. You may only cast your selected spell once, regaining the ability to use the spell after a long rest. Your spellcasting ability is Charisma.
Feature: Fitting in With the Crowd
your cambion's infernal heritage is front and center from the moment they are born. To fit in with mortals and gain their trust, a cambion can use this extended version of Alter Self to disguise their more Devil-like attributes such as wings, horns, or tail. More encompassing changes, such as fully transforming into a human, will require regular charisma checks, per every 3 in game hours.
at level 1, this feature can only be used once per session to disguise one aspect of your cambion's physical appearance.
at level 3, your cambion gets one additional use and is able to hold more elaborate disguises.
at level 5, your disguise magic gets stronger, you are able to roll with advantage on checks to maintain your disguise.
Feature: Gift of the Deceiver
Your words are as sweet as honey and your supernatural charisma makes people prone to believing you. If you spend at least 1 minute talking to a creature outside of combat, you can gain advantage for the next 5 minutes on all Charisma (Deception) and Charisma (Persuasion) checks made against that creature, and they have disadvantage on Wisdom (Insight) checks made against you for the duration of this effect. Once you use this feature you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
Feature: Plane Shift
At Level 5, This feature is meant to be a back pocket plan only and can be used only once per story arc (discuss with DM). Cambions can be killed on the material plane, and their self-preservation instinct is strong. They’ll bug out with plane shift when they’re seriously injured, and they may even do so sooner if the fight is going badly for them and its opponents seem determined to fight to the death rather than make a deal.
The location is generic and somewhat random. the cambion can determine which plane to shift to and a general location. for example, a cambion may plane shift, thinking of Baldur's Gate. they may end up in the outsirts, or the tavern in the noble quarter, or even at the docks. this only applies to themselves, they cannot bring any other living creature. Though any items they are carrying remain with them.