Is this hagspawn homebrew race balanced?

Question

I recently got the idea of hagspawn race. Hags generally reproduce by eating children and getting pregnant with a child. If that child is a girl, then when she reaches 13 years of age, she becomes a hag like her mother. This race is not supposed to be a half-hag, but a child conceived by the aforementioned method.

I made them with the idea of a ''creepy child'' race, so playing a female hagspawn requires being younger than 13. (Maybe I should make up ways to stave off the transformation?) I also liked the irony of having PC hagspawn be mostly males in contrast to hags being all female.

• Base race:
  • Ability Score Increase: Your Charisma score increases by 2.
  • Age: Hagspawn mature at the same rate as humans. Females become full-blooded hag by the age of 13, while males remain hagspawn for their entire lives. Males live for around 400 years, while females live as long as their mother hag (Green- 1000; Night- unknown,longer than dragons; Annis-500 years; Bheur-???)
  • Illusory Appearance: You can cast the Disguise Self spell once using this trait. You regain the ability to do so when you finish a short or long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this spell.
  • Claws: Your claws are natural melee weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. You can use either Dexterity or Strength for the attack roll of this attack. If you hit with them, you deal slashing damage equal to ld4 + your Strength or Dexterity modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
  • Mother's Knack: You gain proficiency in one of the following: Deception, Persuasion, Intimidation or Arcana.
  • Languages: You can read, speak, and write Common and Sylvan. Sylvan uses the Elven script, but Sylvan itself is thought to be far older than Elvish.
• Green: Your mother was a scheming, swamp dwelling green hag. Distinguishing traits of these hagspawn include: mismatched eyes and red or green hair.They are genarally scrawnier than other hagspawn, though no less dangerous.
  • Ability Score Increase: Your Dexterity score increases by 1.
  • Green Hag Magic: You know the Minor Illusion and Vicious Mockery cantrips. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
  • Tongue of The Forest: Through sound and gestures, you may communicate simple ideas with Medium or smaller beasts.

This is it for now. I appreciate all criticism. I would like some advice on how to create subraces based on other hag types. Is this hagspawn homebrew race balanced against officially released races?

Answer 1

The race is relatively balanced

If we take an officially released race with a similar "shape", we can compare traits. I'll be comparing to the Firbolg from Volo's Guide to Monsters:

Ability Score Increases

This is a wash; after the subclass, the Green Hagspawn race has +2, and +1 like the Firbolg.

Illusory Appearance + Green Hag Magic vs Firbolg Magic

If you take all the spells that a Green Hagspawn would get, you can compare it to the ones that the Firbolg gets.

• Both get disguise self once before a short rest.
• The firbolg gets detect magic once per short rest, while the Green Hagspawn gets two cantrips.

Normally this would be roughly equivalent if the cantrips had only middling combat application, but since the Green Hagspawn gets vicious mockery (a typically bard exclusive, highly combat-applicable, spell), I will give a slight advantage to the Green Hag.

Claws vs Hidden Step

Claws is a fairly minor trait, but giving it access to the Dexterity option makes it quite a bit stronger. No officially released races have this option for their natural weapons. That being said, Hidden Step is also strong, and refreshes on a short rest.

Overall I would call this a slight advantage to the Firbolg, and a moderate advantage if the natural weapon is keyed to Strength like it probably should be.

Mother's Knack vs Powerful Build

Powerful Build is an extremely minor feature. Gaining a proficiency in some fairly useful skills if quite a bit better than just being able to carry more.

I will call this a moderate advantage to the Green Hagspawn.

Tongue of the Forest vs Speech of Beast and Leaf

While both of these are very situational traits, the Firbolg one is clearly better allowing communication with any beast, and plants. In addition, Firbolg's get advantage on Charisma checks when using the trait.

All that being said, the highly situational nature of these traits leads me to place it at only a slight advantage.

Note: The way I read it, the Green Hagspawn can only communicate to the beasts, not understand them in return. If the Green Hagspawn can understand them in return, I'd call this a wash.

Conclusion

Overall, we get a slight and moderate advantage for the Green Hagspawn, and two slight advantages for the Firbolg. This places the race squarely within the range of officially released races.

However, I strongly recommend limiting the claws to Strength-only since that is the way that officially released races have their natural weapons keyed. This would have the added benefit of making my analysis a complete draw.