One player asked me if he can play a Hellspawn, as follow:
Not exactly a hellspawn, more like a "dude coming from hell with a symbiont that let him fight things". He want to play a synthesist, but with no magic powers whatsover (no caster levels or summons SLAs), adjusting just a way to heal the symbiont "HP" (fast heal evolution, or letting it being healed by cure magic).
Normally I would say no to the synthesist. I even showed him the much more balanced aegis DSP class, reworking the fluff to fit a hellspawn, but he didn't liked it, as he wanted the "symbiont to be a living thing, with his own HPs". But taking the casting and SLAs, I'm not sure. As the guy is our resident min-maxer, is there any way that he could break a cast-less synthesist? And if yes, ways to counter it if he became out of hand?
You say he's a min-maxer? Does he have a history of just showing up and doing the most damage. Or does he also have interesting characters? This could just be his way of trying to sneak in to a synthesist even though you disallowed it. I would maybe give it a trial run and see how it goes, the problem with these things is that sometimes it might not be a problem until later on.
If his all about character flavor for him you could explain to him, that just because it isn't reflected in the characters stats doesn't mean he cant be a 'hellspawn'.
You should be careful in that case, eidolons have a knack for chewing balance up and spitting it out. What you don't want is a sythesist with eight natural attacks and pounce on every turn.
Hellspawn itself isn't a real issue, but you might want some input on Synthesist instead, as there's been cases where they are hilariously strong, especially if you allow him fast healing or being healed, that used to be their weakness, unlike a fighter who wades into the battle, he has a limited hp.
I have a strong feeling (I have a player similar to this in my group) that he is just trying to squeeze into having a character who turns into a power house with fast healing. I could be wrong but without more info its hard to tell.
Make him a Tiefling Synthesist, take away all his spells except the "Rejuvenate Eidolon" line of spells.
Perhaps give him something to compensate, sort of like a homebrew archetype.
If he breaks your game, kill him in his sleep when his Eidolon is a whole minute of summoning away.
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I'll try to explain more.
He's pretty good at roleplaying, has nice ideas and is a "smart" player. The problem is that commonly his characters are... douchebags. Not sure if consciously or not. Full of themselves, his characters MUST be the best at what they do, and sometimes even what they don't do (remember once his swashbuckler paladin explaining to the party monk about ki stuff). Also must have the biggest and allmightiest backstory from the party (Carrion Crown AP, his summoner has kidnapped by a night hag and proceeded to amass an outsider army and defeat her in her Dream Kingdom, before waking and fleeing from her... all this before level 1).
Also he really know how to build a character. Look to all possibilities, feats, abilities... do a pretty much good overall work. But also is know to "cheat"... suspicious rolls here and there, attack and saving throws bonus sometimes too high, shown up with some items that "were purchased last time we visited Absalom". Mainly to maintain his characters superiority.
We already tried to talk to him. While this tone him down a little, some sessions later his back. We still play with him because his a good roleplayer after all, is one of the few of us that could DM, and is a good friend outside this.
Well, if it was for him to play the synthesist I could understand (and do not allow), but gimping the character wittingly... this make my spider-sense to tingle. I just want to know why...
Sounds almost exactly like the situation I'm in, player is almost exactly the same and is a close friend. Your spidy senses are right to be tingling, thats probably your gut instinct telling you theres something wrong with it. He's of course just wanting again the be the most powerful character. If he is known for optimizing and powerful builds do not let him near the summoner whatsoever. Its tough but probably the only way to deal with it.
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I'm assuming he doesn't want the spells so he can ignore things like Arcane Spell Failure, perhaps use a full plate for a way higher AC bonus for one. Many spells on summoner list aren't for damage, so they might be not worth it in the long run for a damage oriented munchkin.
If he goes synthesist, remember that he uses the Eidolons base stats for melee, not his own! Remember to read up on the eidolon section so you know exactly what works against it and doesn't, it counts as a summoned creature, but it doesn't have same weaknesses as one.
Don't allow the Fast Healing, otherwise he'll have a large hp pool, the eidolon has a d10 hd, which can quickly become much. You could ask him for a base sheet, what evolutions and feats he wants so you can "consider" his request and post it here. Many people here can help you decide if he's gonna be too strong or not.