Conversion (Pathfinder to 5e): Changelings

[QuietBrowser]

No offense intended to any fans of the Eberron setting, but, I really like the Pathfinder take on the Changeling, as a species of hag-born witch-girls, and I'd really like to add them to my 5e games.

However, I'm quite a rookie when it comes to homebrewing, even for a game as mechanically simple as 5e, so I'd really appreciate it if folks could give me their feedback on my efforts here and make any suggestions for a better, more balanced Changeling.

I took inspiration to add Blood, Mute, Storm and Winter Hag changelings to the subraces here because Inner Sea Races includes rules for such, although I don't know if or where they might have originally appeared. I also don't know if there's any Pathfinder rules for Dreamthief, Sand or Flue Hag Changelings, so I've left them out.

Inspired by the Svirfneblin and its racial feat, I considered something like a "Hag Magic" changeling feat that gives a changeling access to spell-like abilities based on its haggish progenitor. Anyone have any opinions on this?

Changeling: Core Racial Rules
Ability Score Increase: +2 Wisdom
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 feet
Darkvision
Talons. You are proficient with your unarmed strikes, which deal 1d4 slashing damage on a hit.
Subraces: You must choose one of the following Hag lineages below, receiving additional attributes based on your lineage.

Annis Hag Changeling:
Ability Score Increase: +1 Strength
Iron Talons: Your Talons do 1D6 damage instead of 1d4 damage.
Armored Hide: You have Resistance against Slashing, Piercing and Bludgeoning damage.

Blood Hag Changeling:
Ability Score Increase: +1 Dexterity
Fire Resistance
Crawling Skin: You have Advantage on Charisma (Deception) checks.

Green Hag Changeling:
Ability Score Increase: +1 Charisma
Object of Desire: When you use an Enchantment spell, targets are at Disadvantage.
Green Widow: You have Advantage on Charisma (Persuasion) checks and Charisma checks relating to seduction and gossip.

Mute Hag Changeling:
Ability Score Increase: +1 Intelligence
Dead Eyes: You have Advantage on saving throws against gaze attacks and Illusions.
Heightened Senses: You have Advantage on Wisdom (Perception)checks.

Sea Hag Changeling:
Ability Score Increase: +1 Constitution
Amphibious: You can breathe air and water.
Swim: You have a Swimming Speed of 30 feet.

Storm Hag Changeling:
Ability Score Increase: +1 Strength
Electricity Resistance
Whipping Winds: You may cast the Gust of Winds spell once once with this trait, requiring no material components, and you regain the ability to cast it this way when you finish a long rest. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for this spell.

Winter Hag Changeling:
Ability Score Increase: +1 Charisma
Cold Resistance
Snow-walker: You are not affected by difficult terrain caused by ice or snow. You do not leave tracks in snow unless you wish to.

[Mordo]

Did you have a look at the Shifter from the Eberron Unearthed Arcana? It propose a subrace mechanic similar to what you are doing here. Maybe it could be an inspiration to balance your Changeling

Eberron Unearthed Arcana

[SmiloDan]

The Annis looks really powerful. Maybe replace the damage resistance with something else? Maybe +1 AC when not wearing armor?

You probably don't want to give a class ability (resistance to b/p/s dmg is a barbarian rage feature) to a race.

You might want to clean up the Green Hag's Object of Desire ability. I'm assuming you mean they have disadvantage on saving throws versus Enchantment school spells?

The Storm Hag sub-race should probably provide lightning resistance.

The Sea Hag sub-race seems very specialized, so it could be either very overpowered or very underpowered, depending on the circumstances it finds itself in. The bonus to Constitution mitigates that, since extra hit points and a bonus to Constitution saving throws is useful for everyone.

Other than all those critiques, it looks really good! :-D

[Dale McCoy Jr]

Might I recommend checking out Book of Heroic Races: Player Races 1 from Jon Brazer Enterprises (my company). We already did the heavy lifting on converting the race to 5e (calling them hagborn because of the Eb. changeling race) and the 3 main subraces. We are working on more subraces for these hags for the upcoming Player Races 2.

[/shameless plug]

[QuietBrowser]

Yeah, I have a copy of that UE, thanks for the reminder.

Althrough really one of the trickier parts in balancing all this is that, really, changelings in Pathfinder are actually kind of pathetic in terms of their power set.

All PF changelings are Medium Sized Humanoids who have Normal base speed (30 feet per round), with a +1 Natural Armor bonus, two 1D4 damage Claw attacks, and Darkvision 60 feet. After that, they get one power based on their ancestry, from the following list.

Annis Hag Changelings can have either Hulking Changeling (+1 racial bonus on melee damage rolls) or Mist Child (+5% to miss chance of attacks made against her whilst she has concealment or total concealment).

Green Hag Changelings can have either Green Widow (+2 racial bonus on Bluff checks if the target is sexually attracted to her) or Object of Desire (+1 to caster level for Charm Person and Charm Monster).

Sea Hag Changelings can have either Sea Lungs (can hold breath for (three times Constitution) rounds before starting to drown) or Ocean's Daughter (+1 trait bonus on Swim checks, automatically succeeds at Swim checks made to avoid nonlethal damage from swimming).

Blood Hag Changelings receive Crawling Skin, which gives them a +2 racial bonus to Disguise checks made to imitate a specific individual.

Mute Hag Changelings receive Dead Eyes, which gives them one eye that is a solid dead black in color but which also gives them a +2 bonus on all saves against gaze attacks and visual illusions.

Winter Hag Changelings receive Frostlaced Flesh, which gives them a +2 racial bonus on all saving throws versus cold effects and means they leave no tracks when moving through snow.

Storm Hag Changelings receive Into The Wind, a +1 racial bonus on ranged damage rolls.

It might just be me, but in contrast to 5e's racial design, these powers feel kind of underwhelming.

[Dale McCoy Jr]

QuietBrowser wrote:

It might just be me, but in contrast to 5e's racial design, these powers feel kind of underwhelming.

I know, and I agree. I published almost all of those. There's a few that I don't recognize, but the majority came from my publication.

Which is why we changed the night hagborn/changeling's ability from:

Heartstone Heritor (Night Hag): The changeling gains a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against disease.

in Pathfinder to

Increased Ability Score. Night hagborn are easily liked and can convince others to do their wishes. Increase your Charisma score by 1.
Deceitful. You are proficient with the Deception skill and have an advantage on Deception checks made to pass yourself off as someone else.

for 5e. Just as an example.

Have no fear, we are working on that for the rest of the hag types. The only reason we didn't delay the publication until we finished all the subraces is that those kinds of hag don't exist in 5e (yet). All the subraces have been reskinned to match 5e's take on the hag.

[QuietBrowser]

Okay, blasted forum spasmed on me: when I made my previous post, I could only see Mordo's post, so sorry about that, SmiloDan, Dale McCoy.

@Smilodan:
I tried to avoid situation bonuses, because that's always been just a bloody pain in the ass. So, even if it is stepping on a class thing, I don't know if "+1 to unarmored AC" is a better choice.

I was basically trying to make it that Green Haglings are better at Enchantment spells, to the tune of "your victims are at Disadvantage to resist your Enchantment spells". I don't know how to properly state that?

Yeah, Storm Hags giving Lightning Resistance makes sense, I just wasn't sure that wouldn't be making them too strong.

Sea Hags are kind of specialized, yeah, but really they've always been the weakest and most gimmicky of hags. PF Sea Hags get an Evil Eye attack and are so ugly that they cause Strength damage just by being seen. 5e Sea Hags horrify with their appearance and have a lethal gaze attack. So I really wasn't sure what to do with 'em.

@Dale McCoy:
I wasn't aware of the publication of yours, which is why I started homebrewing.

The Blood/Mute/Storm/Winter Hag powers I published came from the Changeling racial statblock writeup in the back of Inner Sea Races, which may be why you don't recognize them. I'd never even heard of your PF Changeling additions until I took a look at the http://www.d20pfsrd.com/ page on them.

I went with Inner Sea Races because it's what I had, what I knew about, and as Paizo's official book... well. Incidentally, according to Paizo, "Night Hag Changelings" aren't a thing, since "Night Hags are Evil Outsiders, so their kids are Half-Fiends".

Which is absurd, because PF's Changeling lore is basically built on the reproductive lore that Paizo gave Night Hags in Ecology of the Night Hag for Dragon Magazine...

Anyway, will Heroic Races 2 include the 5e Lamia writeup? I recall you posting to my Lamia conversion topic with the possibility.

[Dale McCoy Jr]

QuietBrowser wrote:

Anyway, will Heroic Races 2 include the 5e Lamia writeup? I recall you posting to my Lamia conversion topic with the possibility.

We haven't decided exactly what is and isn't making it into #2 yet.