Darkling - Drow-Changeling Hybrid Race

[TheYell]

Darklings

The mating of a green hag and a male drow can on occasion produce a monstrous humanoid called a darkling. Darklings have the usual appearance of a very comely drow, though they can assume any form of humanoid they desire. These darklings are at the pinnacle of the slave societies among the drow, being seized from their hag mother at birth for a lifetime of training. An unknown number of darklings have infiltrated the surface world, moving at will among surface societies for unguessed purposes.

Darklings are about 5 feet high and weigh 150 pounds on average. They reach adulthood at 110 years.

Monstrous Humanoid 3 RP
Darklings have darkvision to 60 feet and eat and breathe and sleep.

Standard Statistics 0 RP
+2 DEX -2 CON +2 CHA

Medium Size 0RP

Linguist 1 RP
Darklings speak Undercommon and Common. Darklings with higher INT scores can speak any language save secret languages such as Druidic.

Natural Armor 2RP
Darklings have sturdy hides of +1 natural armor.

Lesser Spell Resistance 2RP
Darklings have spell resistance of 6 + Character Level

Greater Change Shape 6RP
Darklings gain the following supernatural ability: they can assume the appearance of a Small or Medium humanoid as the alter self spell, save that it does not adjust its ability scores.

[eternalink]

I had a very long post with lots of background, but I lost it to a crash. Suffice it to say, I'm very excited by the ideas here and would love to be involved in further development. My summary of suggestions and some overall thoughts are at the bottom, but first the point-by-point analysis.


I think this is a mistake. I know green hags are monstrous humanoids, and these are offspring of monstrous humanoids, but all you get for this 3 RP is Darkvision, which you could get for 2RP as the Darkvision trait, and immunity to the person spells. If that's what you want, then alright, this is probably the best way to achieve it. I feel, though, that this would simply make life more complicated for both the DM and the player. The player can't be affected by charm person or dominate person, but also can't be affected by enlarge person or reduce person. This is the sort of thing that is likely to be forgotten often, and even if it isn't forgotten, is likely to just make things more complicated.

This is fine. I particularly like the Cha bonus. Possibly a Str bonus would make more sense than a Dex bonus, since Green Hags have very high Str scores.

Medium Size

Linguist

This is fine, but it's not necessary. If you need an extra point or two, this is the first thing I'd remove.

You should make sure this is really what you want to do. Like Monstrous Humanoid, this will actually make the player's life more difficult. I do like SR on PCs, but you should be aware that it makes life hard for the player, especially for certain classes and party compositions, since they have to spend a standard action to take it down, otherwise buffs also have to overcome their SR.

This is the core of the race, the thing that makes it really interesting. Don't let anyone convince you to change this.


My recommendations:

Drop Monstrous Humanoid in favor of Humanoid (shapechanger)
Grab Darkvision (assuming you wanted it in the first place) for 2 RP. If you didn't really want Darkvision, I'd use these points to pick up Claws or better statistics, or possibly upgrade the below SLA to at-will (assuming you're okay with adding monstrous traits to PCs).
Pick up Spell-Like Ability (Auditory Hallucination) for 1 RP. This is a callback to the Green Hag's mimicry ability, in the same way that greater change shape is a callback to alter self & tree shape at will.



I don't want my criticism to come off as overly harsh, I am IN LOVE with the concept of a half-hag PC race. All that said, I'm frankly not sure why the drow are involved. I'd consider the drow thing as fluff to the race, and I see no reason to assume the offspring of a hag and another humanoid couldn't exist and be represented by these stats.

[TheYell]

Thanks for the feedback! I hadn't remembered the downside to Monstrous Humanoid and I see that Humanoid still qualifies for Shape Change, Greater, so we can swap that out and add Darkvision for an ability.

Auditory Hallucination as a Spell-Like Ability for 1 RP would be a good throwback to a Hag, and could replace Natural Armor.

Drow heritage was a personal quirk of a character I was building, so if you think it very narrow we can skip it and drop Spell Resistance. Name would probably change to something else.

Let me fiddle with the numbers and I'll post a modified half-hag race.

[TheYell]

Falseling

Sometimes the offspring of a green hag and a humanoid can result in a powerful shapechanger called a Falseling.


Humanoid (Shapeshifter) 0RP

Flexible Statistics 2RP
Falselings gain a +2 bonus to any two ability scores.

Medium Size 0RP

Standard Languages 0RP

Darkvision 60 Ft 2RP

Lesser Spell Ability 1 RP
Auditory Hallucination 1/day

Shape Change, Greater 6 RP
Falselings can assume the appearance of a small or medium humanoid as the alter self spell as a supernatural ability, save that it does not adjust its ability scores.

Beguiling Liar 2RP
Falselings gain a +4 racial bonus on Bluff checks to convince an opponent that what they are saying is true when they tell a lie.

Gift of Tongues 2RP
Falselings gain a +1 racial bonus on Bluff and Diplomacy checks, and they learn one additional language every time they put a rank in the Linguistics Skill.


This gives us the same 15RP as the Darkling without the Drow heritage.

[eternalink]

I like it! For what it's worth, you could certainly keep the SR, either as a core feature or as an alternate racial trait. While drow are known for their SR, as far as I can see, all hags also have SR. I'd maybe set up the SR as an alternate race trait as well, so players have to opt into it, giving the DM a chance to point out the downside when the player asks to use the alternate trait.

If I may propose some more alternate racial traits:

Nightmare Spawn: While most falselings are the offspring of green hags, some are descended from the more dangerous night hags. Just like their progenitors, these falselings can be tough to track down if they become a problem. Such falselings gain vanish 1/day as a spell-like ability. This ability replaces Lesser Spell-like Ability.

Veiled From Magic: Some falselings seem to naturally shed magical effects in the same way their hag mothers are known to do. Such falselings gain Spell Resistance equal to 6+ their Hit Dice.
This ability replaces Gift of Tongues.

Bloodthirsty Fingers: Most falselings attempt to pass as humanoids in order to conceal their dark heritage. However, some falselings struggle in this regard as their fingernails grow thick and long if not kept closely manicured. Such falselings gain 2 primary natural claw attacks.
This ability replaces Beguiling Liar.

[TheYell]

Good variants! Hags have a variety to them and you're conveying that there.