Custom succubus/incubus and animal spirit races, PEACH

[Aldreck]

Posting this for a friend who's creating his own homebrew setting and some custom races to go with it. The fiendkin is supposed to be a playable succubus/incubus, the Yokai is an animal that has lived so long that it's become a sentient spirit with the ability to shapeshift between humanoid/animal form. The fiendkin in particular seems flavorful but really powerful, and I'm not sure how some of the Yokai subraces balance against one another, but I don't have enough homebrewing experience to know what to suggest to balance them. I'm typing this up from his notes and adding my own thoughts in brackets:

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Fiendkin:

Type:Fiend

Size:Medium

Speed: 30ft, plus 30ft Flying (I've suggested to my friend this should be staggered throughout levels)

Language: Common, and either Abyssal or Infernal

Stats: +2 Cha, +1 Wis

Darkvision: 60ft

Fiendish resistance: Fiendkin have resistance to one of the following damage types: Fire, Lightning, Cold or Poison, and are vulnerable to Radiant damage

Telepathic link: Fiendkin may mentally communicate with any willing target within 60ft (Not sure about this, it makes Great Old One Pact warlock redundant until higher levels)

Shapechange: The fiendkin may take the form of any medium or small humanoid or appear as its 'true' form except without its wings (giving up its flight speed if it does so), its size and movement speed change accordingly while other stats remain the same, equipment is not affected by the transformation. It reverts to its true form if killed while transformed

Charm: One humanoid the fiendkin can see within 30ft must succeed on a DC8 + Cha bonus saving throw or become charmed by the fiend and must carry out any commands given by it, a suicidal order will give it a chance to fight control and attempt another save. Creatures that pass the save cannot be charmed by the same fiend for 24hours (I'm assuming some kind of limit to duration and to uses/long rest, although my friend's notes don't mention it)

Draining Kiss: Once per long rest the fiendkin may attempt to kiss an enemy within melee range, forcing the victim to make a DC8 + Cha bonus Con save, if it fails the save it takes 1d10+ Cha bonus psychic damage. This increases to 2d10 +Cha bonus at 6th level and 3d10 + Cha bonus at 11th level

Fiendish Gift: at 5th level, once every 24 hrs a fiendkin can fade into the Ethereal plane or back into the Material plane. (Wording of this is a bit vague, I assume it means you spend a certain period of time on the alternate plane before returning to whatever plane you were on when it was triggered)

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Ascendant Yokai:

Type: Fae

Language: Common, Sylvan

Stats: +2 Cha, plus a bonus to another stat based on Yokai subtype

Shape Changer: As an action, a Yokai may shapeshift into the form of the animal it descended from. Your stats remain the same, while shapeshifted you are incapable of using any tools, weapons, armor or clothing designed for humanoids

Nature Awareness: Due to their inherent awareness of their surroundings, all Yokai have proficiency in the Perception skill

Animal Ancestry: select one subtype which determines what animal form the Yokai may shapeshift into and what other racial abilities they have:


Feline Yokai:

+1 Dex, proficiency in Stealth skill

Feline agility: Feline Yokai may double their base movement for 1 round. You may not use this again until you have spent at least one turn without taking a move action

Darkvision: 60ft

Sharp claws: Feline Yokai have a claw attack which deals 1d4+ Str slashing damage, and a climbing speed of 20ft


Wolf Yokai:

+1 Str, proficiency in Athletics skill

Keen senses: Double proficiency to any Perception skill checks that rely on smell and/or hearing

Tripping: After a successful melee attack, Wolf Yokai may force their target to make a DC 8 + Str Bonus + Proficiency Str save or be knocked prone for 1 round (Seems kind of broken when a wolf totem barbarian can't do this until they hit lvl 14.)

(The original version of Wolf Yokai had Pack Tactics, I didn't like this for the same reason as fiendkin's telepathy, that it makes wolf totem barbarian redundant, I argued this with my friend and assume he took it out because of this)

Fox Yokai:

+1 Wis, proficiency in Deception skill

Cunning Liar: double proficiency to deception skill checks

Fox magic: Fox Yokai know the minor illusion cantrip, with the saving throw based off their wisdom score. At 5th level they may cast disguise self 3 times/day

Sharp claws: Fox Yokai have a claw attack which deals 1d4+ Str slashing damage, and a climbing speed of 20ft


Bear Yokai:

+1 Str, proficiency in Athletics spell

Hulking size: If a Bear Yokai is proficient in the intimidation skill they may add double their proficiency to all intimidation checks. They count as one size larger for determining lifting and carrying limits

Feral rage: Once per long rest Bear Yokai may drive themselves into a frenzy, dealing an extra weapon dice of damage with all successful melee attacks for 1 minute (If I've understood what he's going for, basically 1 minute of free crits? seems pretty broken)


Otter Yokai:

+1 Int

Nimble swimmer: Otter Yokai have a swimming speed of 30ft and can perform a burst of speed for 1 turn (this seemed incomplete when I copied it from my friends' notes, I assume it works the same as feline agility and you can't use it again until you've spent a turn without taking a move action)

Sharp claws: Otter Yokai have a claw attack which deals 1d4+ Str slashing damage.

(There are mentions in my friend's notes of a hidden pouch ability for Otter Yokai, but he hasn't figured out how to apply it. As I was typing this I had an idea that it could provide advantage on Sleight of Hand checks to conceal an object?)


Boar Yokai:

+1 Con, proficiency in Intimidation skill

Relentless Endurance: Once per long rest, if Boar Yokai are reduced to 0hp but not killed outright, they may instead drop to 1hp instead


Rabbit Yokai:

+1 Dex

Bounding leap: After moving up to ten feet a Rabbit Yokai may add twice it's proficiency to any melee attacks and twice it's strength bonus to any damage it does when it lands a hit


Deer Yokai: (No notes on this, assume it's a work in progress)

[JeffreyGator]

You are right this is overpowered. It has most of abilities of CR4 12HD creature and gets them at level 1

There are a couple of less powerful versions of the succubus out there including one by JamesMusicus (http://zappyman2.wixsite.com/musicushomebrew) originally on reddit.

Possibly the best approach is to start with a winged tiefling and acquire the spell like abilities through class levels.
+2 cha, +1 INT, 60 darkvision, bat wings with 30' flying speed, fire resistance

Arguably the Tiefling is a less powerful race especially with adverse roleplaying considerations thrown in.

The succubus charm is probably a 3rd level spell or better. (it lasts longer than suggestion with similar mechanics)

Humanoid Shapechange (alter self) at will is a level 15 druid or warlock feature or a 2nd level spell.

Draining Kiss is pretty close to Vampiric Touch a 3rd level effect.

The player could get all of these easily by level 5 (as well as a host of other abilities)

Ethereal shift even 1/Long Rest is a level 7 spell ability and not generally available until level 13 so I'd leave it out completely

[Ninja_Prawn]

I've been reviewing homebrew on here for nearly 2 years, and the Fiendkin is - by some margin - the most ludicrously overpowered race I've ever seen. Flight, 3 points of ASI, darkvision and fire resistance on their own is plenty for a race. Anything above that is too much... and you've got at-will alter self, at-will, unlimited dominate person (neither of which require concentration), something that works like a damage cantrip but better, and what I assume is meant to be etherealness?! Yikes. Whoever wrote that needs to have their homebrewing license revoked.

The yokai (those that are finished, at least) are less extreme, but still towards the high end of the power scale. Feral Rage obviously needs to be nerfed. As it goes, I did something a bit like this in here (https://www.dropbox.com/s/s3crmpfdbc5u5x5/Fey%20Creatures%20Complete.pdf?dl=0) (pages 34-35). You're welcome to borrow from that if you like.

[Aldreck]

Thanks for the feedback, both. My friend is in the process of seriously overhauling these, he just sent me some updated notes and these are the tweaks he's made so far:

* Fiendkin gains flight speed at level 4 instead of level 1
* Charm replaced with the the ability to cast suggestion 3 times/long rest starting at lvl 4 and charm person 3 times/long rest at lvl 10
* Draining Kiss: notes now say 'use vampiric touch as a base', seems even more powerful than before

* Yokai now have shapechange at 3rd level instead of 1st

* Bear Yokai's feral rage now adds a d6 damage to melee attacks instead of the same damage die as your weapon

Charm and Flight nerfs seem like a step in the right direction, although further nerfs to fiendkin's other abilities are still needed in my opinion. Any thoughts?

[Ninja_Prawn]

Charm and Flight nerfs seem like a step in the right direction, although further nerfs to fiendkin's other abilities are still needed in my opinion. Any thoughts?

Personally, I think you're going to have a hard time negotiating your friend down to something that is genuinely balanced. If that's their idea of concessions... :smallsigh:

Radical suggestion: It might be more fun for everyone involved if you upgrade all the other races to whatever level they want to play at. It'd be fair, at least.

Otherwise, I stand by my original suggestion of 30 ft flight, fire resistance, darkvision and 3 points of ASI for the Fiend, and I've linked you to how I'd implement the yokai. I feel those designs are balanced with the core races (you'll get people arguing about racial flight until the cows come home, but I've found it to be fine) and represent the concepts well enough. If you're trying to negotiate them down, that'd be the target to aim for.