Please tell me if this race is horribly unbalanced.

[Lucky Salamander]

I wanted to create a race that can summon demons from level 1, starting with Dretch and Quasits then getting to more and more powerful demons. I hope it is not horrible unbalanced. Please help me balance it.

Hulu

Hulu Racial Traits
+2 Charisma, +2 Dexterity, –2 Strength: The Hulu are persuasive and quick, but fairly weak for their size.

Almost Human: The Hulu are humanoids with the human subtype.

Medium: The Hulu are Medium creatures and receive no bonuses or penalties due to their size.

Normal Speed: The Hulu have a base speed of 30 feet.

Acid Vulnerability: The flesh of the Hulu burn and melt more than most when faced with acid. They have acid vulnerability. (-4 Rp)

Aura of Evil: The Hulu have a particularly powerful aura of evil, regardless of their alignment. (0 Rp)

Calling: Hulu have a natural power over demons, and are especially skilled at calling them. Once per day, a demonic can call a demon as Planar Binding, save for that you may call as many hit dice of demons as double your character level. (4 Rp)

Darkvision: Hulu see in the dark for up to 60 feet. (2 Rp)

Skilled: Hulu gain a +2 racial bonus on Knowledge (planes) and Spellcraft checks, and always treat those skills as class skills. (4 Rp)

Demonic Magic: The Hulu add +1 to the DC of the saving throws of any Conjuration (calling) spells they cast. Hulu can cast Magic Circle against Evil once per day as a Spell-like ability. (4 Rp)

Languages: The Hulu begin play speaking Common, Ignan and Abyssal. Hulu with high intelligence scores can choose from the following: Aklo, Aquan, Auran, Draconic, Dwarven, Goblin, Infernal, Orc, Terran and Undercommon.

[Bwang]

Tried a nature focused Fey race of npcs (summon nature's ally) that were too wonky for a PC race. Calling seems balanced, kind of. at level 1, but it will grow. It is way too powerful and I see easy abuse potential.

[Mortigneous]

Just keep in mind it can call a Balor at level 10. Whether that is good or bad... Well...

[Mike J]

It is horribly unbalanced. You can fix it by lowering the HD allowed by the calling ability to be more in line with the planar binding spells and/or summon monster spells. Also look to other 4 Rp abilities that involve spells. Do any allowing casting 5th+ level spells?

I'd change calling to be HD = character level, and even that might be too much. Maybe make it a 6 Rp ability.

[Secret Wizard]

Here's a tip: if you list the RP cost of any ability of your race, it's unbalanced from the get-go because you are not paying attention to what makes a race balanced or not.

RP is a shitty ass system.

For example, your race is super-optimized for one type of playstyle and has a super powerful spell all game long.

[Ring_of_Gyges]

Cutting it down to HD = character level seems necessary. Even if you can't control it, summoning a Balor at 10th level is madness (imagine "Kill everyone in this city, me included" as a 10th level suicide attack).

You may also want to reconsider the name. I use Hulu (the video streaming service) daily, if your players do as well there will be jokes...

[Timebomb]

Making them actually racially humans seems strange, I would think that Humanoid (Hulu) would be more fitting.
Rewording the Aura of Evil as "The Hulu have a particularly powerful aura of evil, regardless of their alignment. Hulu exude evil as a evil outsider of their Hit Dice." because "particularly powerful aura of evil" is ambiguous.

I agree with the others, at level 1 the Calling and Demonic Magic make this race powerful, anything past level 1 make it potentially insane. Generally Racial stuff doesn't improve significantly over time, I think this concept fits better as a Summoner archetype or cap the Calling ability at 2 HD and then make it a racial feat chain like the Kitsune's magical tail progression

At level 3 Calling is as good as a 5th level spell, equal to a 6th level spell at 6, and better than an 8th level spell at 9, nothing else in the game is that good.

Also, and this is my opinion, any good DM is obligated to provide ample and frequent reminders when prompted why people don't deal with demons often or at all; they're evil and it's their job to make everyone besides themselves lose (PC included). Same with Lichdom, Vampires, genies, and every other "easy way out"

[Pizza Lord]

Not to jump on the bandwagon too much, but I do think the others are right. If you want the race to be good at calling up/summoning demons, then give them a caster level bonus if they summon a demon (that pretty much means a round or two for a summon), or give them a bonus when dealing with demons, such as +4 on their charisma checks when using planar ally or planar binding on demons. Maybe even that demons of less than half their caster level (or HD) accept service for half payment.

Obviously this places most of the race into a need for classes with summoning spells (cleric, wizard, summoner) rather than martial, so if you want to have them with a summon monster ability, you can probably do that as a 1/day spell, but it should be limited to their HD and its power should follow the summon monster level of power.

[Cyrad]

You need to remember that as a golden rule with race design, a player race must have abilities appropriate for a 1st level character. Letting them summon demons and cast 3rd level spells is not appropriate for a 1st level character.

[Lucky Salamander]

Alright here is revised

Hulu

Hulu Racial Traits
+2 Charisma, +2 Dexterity, –2 Strength: The Hulu are persuasive and quick, but fairly weak for their size.

Hulu: The Hulu are humanoids with the hulu subtype.

Medium: The Hulu are Medium creatures and receive no bonuses or penalties due to their size.

Normal Speed: The Hulu have a base speed of 30 feet.

Acid Vulnerability: The flesh of the Hulu burn and melt more than most when faced with acid. They have acid vulnerability.

Aura of Evil: The Hulu have a particularly powerful aura of evil, regardless of their alignment. Hulu exude evil as a evil outsider of their Hit Dice.

Calling: Hulu have a natural power over demons, and are especially skilled at calling them. Whenever one of the Hulu call a creature with the demon subtype using Summon Monster and similar spells, they summon one extra demon of the same kind.

Darkvision: Hulu see in the dark for up to 60 feet.

Skilled: Hulu gain a +2 racial bonus on Knowledge (planes) and Spellcraft checks, and always treat those skills as class skills.

Whispering Magic: The Hulu add +1 to the DC of the saving throws of any Conjuration (calling) spells they cast. The Hulu can cast the following spells each once per day. Silence, Ghost Sound, Command.

Languages: The Hulu begin play speaking Common, Ignan and Abyssal. Hulu with high intelligence scores can choose from the following: Aklo, Aquan, Auran, Draconic, Dwarven, Goblin, Infernal, Orc, Terran and Undercommon.

Alternate Racial Traits

Soldier of the Pit: The Hulu who lack talent with calling demons often take up their arms with their weapons. Hulu with this racial trait are always proficient with the Trident and Spiked Chain,and negate the strength penalty of the Hulu. This Replaces Whispering Magic and Calling.

Earthborn: The hulu with this alternate trait are less tied to the abyss then others of their kind, and more tied to the earth instead. Hulu with this alternate trait gain a +1 natural armor bonus to their AC and automatically speak Terran. This replaces Aura of Evil, Whispering Magic, the Abyssal and Ignan languages and Acid Vulnerability.

[Cyrad]

Much better, but I see a few issues.

1) It's technically impossible for a most hulu to summon demons since the summon monster spell has an alignment restriction.

2) There needs to be more information about whispering magic's spell-like abilities. Spell-like abilities from races generally require the character to meet the minimum casting requirements for those spells. This is why you usually see a line like "Elves with a Charisma of 11 or higher may cast the following spell-like abilities." The necessary ability score for calculating DCs is also important.

[swoosh]

Cyrad wrote:

Much better, but I see a few issues.

1) It's technically impossible for a most hulu to summon demons since the summon monster spell has an alignment restriction.

Only relevant for clerics though. And druids if they can somehow learn summon monster.

[Cyrad]

swoosh wrote:

Cyrad wrote:

Much better, but I see a few issues.

1) It's technically impossible for a most hulu to summon demons since the summon monster spell has an alignment restriction.

Only relevant for clerics though. And druids if they can somehow learn summon monster.

The spell description for summon monster specifically says the creature's subtype and alignment depends on YOUR own alignment. If you're good, you can't summon demons.

[EltonJ]

List your Race Point costs as well.

[Theliah Strongarm]

I still find this OP.
Which I find awesome.
But, I'm a player, not a GM, so I like anything that's OP that'd give me an advantage. If I was a GM, I'd so no to this race.

[swoosh]

Cyrad wrote:

swoosh wrote:

Cyrad wrote:

Much better, but I see a few issues.

1) It's technically impossible for a most hulu to summon demons since the summon monster spell has an alignment restriction.

Only relevant for clerics though. And druids if they can somehow learn summon monster.

The spell description for summon monster specifically says the creature's subtype and alignment depends on YOUR own alignment. If you're good, you can't summon demons.

For the purposes of templates. i.e. If you're good and you summon a pony with SMI, it's a celestial pony. If you're evil, a fiendish pony and if you're neutral you get to pick.

The only other mention of alignment is that alignment subtypes get added to the spell descriptor. Which again, only matters for classes that have a prohibition against casting alignment spells.

Nothing stops a good wizard from summoning a hellhound though.