Hellspawn

Hellspawn
Height	3'2" - 7'6"
Weight	50 - 300 lbs
Size	Small or Medium
Base Speed	20 ft
Appearance	Hellspawn vary dramatically in appearance, but usually resemble two feral animals blended together atop a humanoid frame.

When Dracula meddled in the machinations of the interplanar cosmos, he inadvertently created a massive new demiplane referred to simply as “Hell.” It has significant overlap with the more well-documented plane of Inferno, but the borders between Hell and Ancerra are also much more permeable. Hellspawn are created when fiendish spirits are drawn out of Hell and imbued into a corpse. This causes the corpse to take on various fiendish characteristics, such as bug eyes, devilish horns, or tentacles. Most hellspawn are mindless monsters, possessing the instincts of a feral animal but lacking any true spirit and completely devoid of Essence. The occasional exception possesses Essence, and as such develops sapience.

Origins

The most common origin of a sentient hellspawn is being summoned by a skilled Hellcrafter. If this is your origin, consider your relationship with your summoner. Are you friendly towards one another, begrudgingly work together as allies of circumstance, or are you outright hostile to one another? If you were not summoned by a Hellcrafter directly, consider other methods of how you reached the mortal world. Perhaps a portal to Ancerra opened when Dracula or another powerful caster was meddling with interplanar magic, causing a fiendish spirit to latch onto a corpse during the process. Perhaps the massacre of a village led to such overwhelming negative energy that a portal to Hell briefly opened, and you happened to inhabit the corpse of one of the recently deceased.

Consider how long you have been in the world, and how long you have possessed sentience. You might have a naive understanding of the world, or you might have a sophisticated outlook on life. Hellspawn almost never remember anything about the former corpse that now serves as the basis for their body.

A Hostile World

Hellspawn struggle to find a place in the mortal world. Their outward appearance is usually hideous by most humanoid standards and is clearly fiendish in nature. This leads most other humanoids to be mistrustful of hellspawn at best, and violently aggressive towards them at worst. Many hellspawn have physical characteristics approximately akin to those of fiendbloods, and so larger population centers that have learned to accommodate fiendbloods will extend the same grace to hellspawn.

Hellspawn Traits

Height: 3’2” - 7’6”

Weight: 50-300 lbs

Size: Small or Medium (your choice)

Base Speed: 20 ft

Appearance: Hellspawn vary dramatically in appearance, but usually resemble two feral animals blended together atop a humanoid frame. They typically have two arms and two legs. Many have wings or a tail as well. A hellspawn might have bat wings and a minotaur head, for example, or leopardlike fur and claws paired with a dragonfly’s insectile face.

Hellspawn Starting Features

At level 1, you gain the following features as a hellspawn.

Feature	Description
Fearful Visage	When you take your first turn after rolling Initiative, you may make a special attack against a creature. Fearful Visage: (1 AP) Ranged 60 ft Natural Weapon. +X vs WILL. Hit: The creature is Frightened of you until the end of your next turn. X = triple the number of Hideous traits you have (min 0).
Unique Features	To further define your hellspawn, choose two options from the All Hellspawn Features list at level 1.

All Hellspawn Features

In addition to the two unique features you selected at level 1, you gain one more feature at 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th, and 29th levels. Choose from the following features.

Hideous Trait. For each time you have this trait, you suffer -2 to all skill checks with the influence and performance tags except for Intimidating. You may only have a maximum of four features that give this trait.

Fearful Visage Features

Feature	PreReqs	Description
Bloody Visage	Fearful Visage	Gain the Bloody Visage ability. Bloody Visage (1/Recoup). When you start your turn and are Bloodied, you may make another Fearful Visage attack.
Corrupt Essence	Bloody Visage	When Bloodied, you may spend 1 AP to regain +1 use of your Bloody Visage ability. In exchange, you take 1d8 sharp damage that cannot be reduced in any way.
Fearful Visage II	Fearful Visage	When you make your Fearful Visage attack, you may choose to target all hostile creatures within 20 ft of you instead of targeting one creature.
Fearful Visage III	Fearful Visage II	When you make your Fearful Visage attack, you may choose to target all hostile creatures within 40 ft of you instead of targeting one creature.
Lingering Visage	Fearful Visage	When you target a single creature with Fearful Visage and hit, they are Frightened of you for 1 minute. When you target a single creature with Fearful Visage and miss, they are Frightened of you until the end of your next turn.
Lingering Visage II	Lingering Visage	When you hit any creature with Fearful Visage, they are Frightened of you for 1 minute. When you target any creature with Fearful Visage and miss, they are Frightened of you until the end of your next turn.
Psychic Dissonance	Fearful Visage	When you hit with a Fearful Visage attack, the creature takes +1d6 psychic damage.

Animal Likeness Features

Feature	PreReqs	Description
Bat's Head	Incompatible: Any other Animal Likeness feature	Gain the Hideous trait and +2 Skill Points that you can spend on any skill with the observation tag. If you would be Blinded but can still hear, treat every other creature as Concealed instead.
Bull's Head	Incompatible: Any other Animal Likeness feature	Gain the Hideous trait, suffer -2 to Perceiving, and gain the Hardy talent from the Defense stack.
Insect's Head	Incompatible: Any other Animal Likeness feature	Gain the Hideous trait. Your panoramic vision makes you far more alert. Gain +1 ANT and +2 Perceiving. If you would be Partially Surprised, you are instead not surprised. If you would be Completely Surprised, you are instead Partially Surprised.
Leopard's Head	Incompatible: Any other Animal Likeness feature	Gain the Hideous trait, +2 Perceiving, and Darkvision 30 ft. You cannot discern color while using your Darkvision. While using Darkvision, you can see up to 30 ft, and then cannot see beyond that point.
Snake's Head	Incompatible: Any other Animal Likeness feature	Gain the Hideous trait and a Fangs attack. Fangs: (2 AP) Reach 5 ft Natural Weapon. +STR or DEX vs AR. Hit: Bleeding 1d4. Crit: They are also Sickened for the duration of the Bleeding condition.
Wolf's Head	Incompatible: Any other Animal Likeness feature	Gain the Hideous trait, +2 Tracking and +2 Skill Points that you can spend on any skill with the observation tag. you also gain an additional +1 TA when you are Flanking.

Animal Adaptation Features

Feature	PreReqs	Description
Leopard's Claws		Gain the Hideous trait and a Claws attack. Claws: (2 AP) Reach 5 ft Natural Weapon. +STR or DEX vs AR. Hit: 1d4+STR or DEX sharp damage.
Long Limbs		Gain the Hideous trait. Also, your melee reach increases by +5 ft, excluding natural weapon attacks originating from a part of your body besides your arms (such as bite or horns attacks).
Insectile Traction		Gain the Hideous trait and a climb speed equal to your walking speed.
Prehensile Tail		You may hold one additional object as though you had a third hand. This cannot be a weapon or shield.
Prehensile Tail II	Prehensile Tail, Character Level 10	You may hold a light, one-handed weapon or a buckler with your prehensile tail.
Prehensile Tail III	Prehensile Tail II, Character Level 20	You may hold a one-handed weapon without the unwieldy tag with your prehensile tail. You may also hold a heater shield or kite shield with your prehensile tail.
Ram's Horns		Gain the Hideous trait and the Ram’s Horns attack. Ram’s Horns: (4 AP) Reach 5 ft Natural Weapon. Move up to ½ your speed (min 5 ft), then make an attack. +STR or DEX vs AR. Hit: 1d8+STR or DEX blunt damage and the target falls Prone if it is no more than two Sizes larger than you.
Savage		All of your natural weapons granted by this lineage increase their damage by one die size (e.g., from 1d6 to 1d8, max 1d12).
Tentacles		Gain the Hideous trait and +4 Skill Points that you can spend on any skill with the athleticism tag. Also, when making a Grappling check, gain +2 TA.
Wings - Buffer Fall		You have sprouted wings; these might look like bat wings, diseased bird wings, or insect wings. Regardless, for every 20 ft you fall vertically, you may spend 1 AP to move 20 ft horizontally. You only take falling damage if you fall more than 40 ft.
Wings - Glide	Buffer Fall	You can now spend 1 AP to move 20 ft horizontally for every 10 ft you fall vertically. You are immune to falling damage.
Wings - Flutter Jump	Buffer Fall	Your vertical jump distance is tripled.