Hey folks! Any of you ever want to play a Cambion character? You know, half-demon half-mortal! Well, here is my try at one.
Starting off for level 1 the Cambion will get -
+2 to any one stat
1 feat at first level (if the DM doesn't allow feats another +2 to any other stat)
Fiendish Resilience - the Cambion adds it's Charisma modifier to it's Armor Class
Dark Vision 60'
Languages: Abyssal, Infernal, Common
Resistance to Poison
Also, at levels 4, 8, 12, 16, 19 where a character would normally be able to adjust a stat(s) or pick a feat, the Cambion can instead choose to gain Resistance to either Cold, Fire, Lightning, Bludgeoning, Piercing or Slashing damage from non-magical weapons. Each time selecting a new resistance.
That's kind of boring, no active powers, or even passive abilities that really stand out, the racial feat options are interesting but don't really save the base race, and are kind of dull themselves. I'm not sure cambion can really be done as a race and have it do justice to the concept, teiflings are supposedly on par with humans, cambions are out and out supposed to be more innately powerful than their mortal parent. Which admittedly isn't hard because most mortal races are pretty much defined by being inherently weak and reliant on class training to advance in any significant manner. I'd suggest reworking it so the base race is a bit more interesting, and some more racial feats that give out some more interesting powers, especially some fire based abilities.
A simpler approach however may be to create a racial class, and yes I know how much controversy that always sparks up but trying to build a cambion via the 5e race templates and feats alone is going to be pretty tricky, doable probably, but the class option should be kept in mind.
+ CHA to armor class is so overpowered it wouldn't even be balanced if you removed all other race traits including stat bonuses. Ask yourself: Why would a bard, sorcerer, warlock or paladin even consider playing another race when doing this?
edit: Hell, even as a fighter, monk or cleric I would go for high CHA and take this over any other race.
Proletheus wrote:
Proletheus wrote:
CCS wrote:
CCS wrote:
Just because there's more to the game than mechanics deosn't mean you should be sloppy with the mechanics.
Honestly, I put all of 5 minutes or less of thought into this 
I figured a Cambion would naturally be stronger than most other races. I wasn't try to balance it straight off. But, why add it if there is no balance, correct? Might as well balance it.
Slit518 wrote:
lawrencehoy wrote:
lawrencehoy wrote:
rampant wrote:
I never said globally true, I said I doubt people are so universally immune to jealousy that the OP's cambions could be mixed in without incident in most cases.
So + cha mod to Ac that stacks with everything is situational enough in your book that it won't majorly power up a cambion compared to a half elf or a dwarf in the same game?
It turns into too much imbalance when you go from incidental imbalance caused by rolled scores or rolled HP to flat out intentional imbalance like allowing this cambion to be played alongside the PHB races.
They're not loosing anything compared to the guys not playing cambions, you fail the roll you play a phb race or presumably one about that power level, call a cambion equivalent of 2 normal races and assume you can only play one 1 in 4 times, so over the course of 12 games the cambion players are averaging 1.25 times the power from race as the non-cambion players. Unless you introduce supremely long odds against playing the cambion the numbers never balance, because the cambions are powerful and provide a boost and not getitng the boost doesn't set you back form the baseline when you fail, so you always end up coming out ahead of the dwarf players. The only way for the cambion to balance in a randomization scenario is for the failed attempts to come with a cost such as playing a cambion with some sort of glaring flaw or detrimental mutation, or being forced to play a gully dwarf or something. Which of course doens't even begin to address the problem of balance in the individual campaigns, and in fact makes it worse.
Making things balanced has a major advantage, you don't punish people for playing their character concept when things are balanced. In a balanced game you can take the options presented and be confiedent that you will remain a useful and competent member of the party, in an imbalanced game you are punished for taking certain options by lower overall effectiveness depsite these options being presented along side and costing the same as other more effective options.
Balancing things in no way prevents people from coming up with interesting ideas, it simply insists that they price them appropriately.
rampant wrote:
Slit518 wrote:
lawrencehoy wrote:
draegn wrote:
Mechatarrasque wrote:
Slit518 wrote:
Proletheus wrote:
Agree with CHA to AC is too much, it just breaks the written math of the game, and the opinion Races shoud be balanced (as close as possible anyway) against each other for both diversity and group enjoyment, but If you want to keep the +CHA to AC aspect for lore/fluff maybe tone it down to something like this:
Fiendish Resisitance - You may use your Charisma modifier in place of your Dexterity modifier when determining your AC
Keeps the intent of the abilty but puts the feature back within base math rules.
Hmmmmmm I dunno, I like the limited use version better, COnsidering all the Cha synergy that already exists in this game I'm not sure allowing them to sub it for Dex is a good idea.
rampant wrote: