Basic Fantasy RPG Forums

Half-demon

Description:
Half-demon are from human and Infernal bloodlines. Their demonic heritage is apparent- horns, of varying shape/size, some have tails, forked tongues, red, gold, silver colored eyes, even cloven feet.. Skin tone covers the normal human spectrum, but also shades of red, purple or black. They are the same size as a normal human.
Half-demons are usually loners or outcasts. They are seen with fear, suspicion and outright hostility in some places.

Restrictions:
May be any class.
They are required to have a Intelligence and Charisma of at least 9.
Outcasts, Reputation for Evil

Special Abilities:
Darkvision 60'
+4 saving throws vs fire, 1/2 damage on a failed save, 1/4 on successful save.
Languages- Infernal, Common
at 2nd level they gain the power to cast Hellfire bolt 1x day(as Magic Missile spell at level)
at 5th level they can cast darkness (opposite Light spell at level) 1xday

I'd like to try and convert the other 5e races and possibly others.
There is no "Hellish Rebuke" so I just simplified and used Magic Missile.

I'd like to convert a Dark Elf, but I don't see Faerie fire or Dancing Lights.

Nice. I don't think BFRPG has any other races that have level dependent abilities, but I don't have a problem with it as it is described.

You can get ideas for Faerie Fire in the Libram Magica (Showcase section).
I cannot remember if Dancing Lights has such representation there. Seems like an omission on my part... I tried to get many of the staples of other editions added to the spell lists when I was creating stuff. I am sure it isn't the only such omission though.

This is a work in progress. I am very open to suggestions. I tried to keep it close to the 5e version, so kept the leveled magic abilities. But I want to keep it pretty simple.
I hope to do Dark Elf, Dragonborn, others.

Also bear in mind, that not all of the races are Open Content. Some are protected IP that cannot be copied/used indiscriminately.

That said, it is often just as good to figure out what the particular niche is, then craft an all new race that fills that niche but is not a flat knock-off.

For instance: Tiefling might be such IP, so instead craft the race as "Abyssling" with rather similar traits but perhaps with some unique twists on the idea. We could not put a true 5e Tiefling into print for BFRPG, so the Abyssling (just the first similar sort of name I could think of) both protects us from unnecessary conflict with those Mages near the Ocean, and also gives BFRPG it own flavor (even more important in my mind).

Same Niche but with subtle changes to give us our very own vibe on the idea.

Thanks for the advice, I'll switch up the name. It's basically just a half- demon character.

Blood axe wrote:Thanks for the advice, I'll switch up the name. It's basically just a half- demon character.

It's great to come up with a unique name but here's another option I'll just throw out. There are already several other half-xxxx races so why not just leave it as half-demon. It would fit in nice with all the other demi-human races - half-orc, half-elf, half-demon.

A suggestion for the by-level abilities. Perhaps use something like the initial levels from the monsters as players supplement. Where you start with negative XP and gain your tiefling abilities first, then you progress to a class when you reach 0 XP.

Then you get all the iconic tiefling abilities and it would fit with some of the other popular supplements.

I want to keep it simple as possible, so no negative XP. If played properly the demonic heritage should be a real drawback. Suspicious townsfolk, cant stay at Inns or buy equipment openly, possibly attacked by locals, always thought to be evil.
(kind of like poor Drizzt the drow)

SmootRK wrote: I don't think BFRPG has any other races that have level dependent abilities, but I don't have a problem with it as it is described.

I would prefer if no race has those kind of abilities, take the gnome, in some iterations it has some spell-like abilities whether our own Gnome has none.
An option is to take the Combination Class route and select the 2 classes that most resemble the concept and use it as allowed as a Combo.
Another option is to give special benefits inside a class (like elven fighter-mu armored casting).