Quote:
Originally Posted by David Johnston2
I'd like to take away a lot. Why would an overflow of sexual energy have wings and claws? Take away the "They're a demon" and those attributes have no point.
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Thanks largely to Morrigan Aensland, wings have become pretty much a defining characteristic of succubi (generally batlike, but feathered or dragon-like aren’t uncommon). A second smaller set of wings on the head, shapeshifting, and energy draining via kissing or other intimate contact are also common, but not nearly as universal as the main wings. A succubus without wings generally doesn’t seem like a succubus (and is not uncommonly gets called something else, like a lilim). I’d assume the claws could be gotten rid of, however.
For me, when designing a new race, I typically think of any stat adjustments - those to attributes or indeed appearance - as fluff, since the player can adjust those as needed (there’s nothing stopping them from making a “weak” ST 10 orc, “strong” ST 10 halfling, “fragile” HT 10 dwarf, or whatever). What often really defines a race are those abilities humans don’t have, like flight or regeneration or fiery breath or whatever, as well as flaws that can’t be (entirely) bought off, like being greedy or weak to fire or sex-crazed or whatever. To avoid have too much to be viable (or at least viable outside of a specific role), you’ll probably want no more than three (and one or two is probably better) each of defining benefits and defining drawbacks. Note each benefit or drawback may have multiple traits - my feuyaner have “extremely hard to kill” as one of their benefits, and this is made up of a combination of Regeneration, Regrowth, and even a limited form of Unkillable; their other is the ability to gorge and “reprogram” their bodies (basically, slow semi-permanent shapeshifting), which is actually just a large collection of traits they can opt to add (either during character creation or as a later Power-Up). Their drawback of being weak to fire (they’re roughly based on trolls) is in the form of not only a Vulnerability, but also Limitations on their “hard to kill” traits, while their drawback of being disliked is simply covered by a single Social Stigma.
For the succubi OP is describing, the benefits would be “good at seduction/sex” (Attractive, double-jointed, possibly a Talent involving skills found on certain bioroids in BioTech), “winged flight” (needed, cause it’s a succubus; related, while not part of the Morrigan archetype, I’d be tempted to add a tail), and “sex-fueled superpowers” (shapeshifting is an odd man out there, but see later). Note some of these may be mixed together - succubi might always have wings, but need to burn tantric energy (or whatever you opt to call it) to actually fly. They may also be able to use it to make themselves more attractive (blending it with the first category).
For drawbacks, their wings/tail (and common profession) may make them distrusted or otherwise looked down upon, for “discriminated against” (social stigma), and they’re probably “sex-crazed” (at least Lecherousness, possibly even Unnatural Appetite, and Odious Racial Habit could probably be worked in).