Editing Tiefling (section)

==Dungeons & Dragons==
===2nd Edition===
Tieflings are mortals whose lineage is tainted by the blood or essence of a fiend - demon, devil, daemon, whatever - at some remote point in their ancestry. Not an ''actual'' fiend's kid, mind, (those are either [[Alu-Fiend]]s or [[Cambion]]s, depending on the gender), but one of their descendants. Basically, if a humanoid half-fiend has a kid, it'll probably be a tiefling, and after that the fiendish blood can also skip a few generations. Sometimes, it naturally occurs due to fiendish pacts, either in the pact-ee or their descendants.

In general, tieflings are presumed to be either unable to figure out what sort of fiend was their ancestor, or just inherently prone to fiendish mutation. As a result, their physical displays of fiendhood and their ability modifiers have often had sizeable - we're talking D100 tables, here - random tables to roll on, depending on edition and sourcebook.

Naturally, this lineage begged for grid-filling in the form of the [[aasimar]] (celestials) and [[genasi]] (elementals), though 3.5 would go another step by adding in "[[planetouched]]" races to reflect the outsiders of the Morally Neutral planes too.

Though officially all tieflings can spring from all manner of humanoid races, most writeups tend to either focus on the human tieflings or make it so that the twisting influence of their fiendish blood defines them "more" than their parents being non-fiends. That said, 3.5 [[Forgotten Realms]] did do up the [[Tanarukk]] ([[orc]]-descended tieflings), the Mur-zhagul ([[troll]]-demon tieflings), and the [[Fey'ri]] ([[elf]]/[[succubus]] tieflings).

====The Legendary Tiefling Tables====
The 2e tiefling first appeared in the "Player's Companion" component to the Planescape Campaign Setting boxed set. There, it was handled fairly simply; +1s to Int and Cha, -1s to Str and Wis, Infravision 60 feet, halving damage from Cold, +2 bonus to saving throws versus Fire, Electricity and Poison, and the ability to cast Darkness (15ft radius) once per day. Then "The Planeswalker's Handbook" introduced the legendary Tiefling customization tables, where you sacrifice the spell-like ability, cold resistance and saving throws bonus to make 5 rolls on a D100 Tiefling Abilities table and 1d4 rolls on a D100 Tiefling Appearance table. Gaze in awe at the potential combinations of traits your munchkin special snowflake could have possessed!
[[File:Tiefling table.gif|300px|thumb|right|Now in image form.]]
=====Tiefling Abilities=====
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* 01-03: Blur 1/day
* 04-06: Charm Person 1/day
* 07-09: Chill Touch 1/day
* 10-12: Comprehend Languages 1/day
* 13-15: Darkness (15ft radius) 1/day
* 16-18: Detect Good/Evil 2/day
* 19-21: Detect Magic 3/day
* 22-24: ESP 1/day
* 25-27: Invisibility 2/week
* 28-30: Know Alignment 1/day
* 31-33: Mirror Image 1/day
* 34-36: Misdirection 1/day
* 37-39: Pyrotechnics 3/week
* 40-42: Suggestion 1/week
* 43-45: Summon Swarm 1/week
* 46-48: Vampiric Touch 1/week
* 49-51: Whispering Wind 1/day
* 52-55: Half damage from Fire
* 56-59: Half damage from Cold
* 60-63: Half damage from Electricity
* 64-67: Half damage from Acid
* 68-75: Infravision to 120 feet
* 76-79: +2 Saving Throw vs. Fire
* 80-83: +2 Saving Throw vs. Electricity
* 84-87: +2 Saving Throw vs. Poison
* 88-91: +2 Saving Throw vs. Cold
* 92-95: +2 Saving Throw vs. Acid
* 96: +2 Saving Throw vs. Petrification, Polymorph & Paralysis
* 97: +2 Saving Throw vs. Rod/Staff/Wand
* 98: +2 Saving Throw vs. Spell
* 99: Roll twice, rerolling results above 95
* 00: Roll three times, rerolling results above 95
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=====Tiefling Appearance=====
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* 01-04: Small horns on forehead
* 05-06: Small horns on temples
* 07: Single horn on forehead
* 08-09: Long, thin face
* 10: Fangs
* 11: All teeth are pointed
* 12: Forked tongue
* 13–14: Pointed ears
* 15: Fanlike ears
* 16: Extremely long nose
* 17: Very small (almost unnoticeable) nose
* 18: Extremely long eyelashes
* 19-21: Red eyes
* 22-23: Black eyes (no whites)
* 24: Feline eyes
* 25-26: Extremely deep-set eyes
* 27-28: Green hair
* 29-30: Blue hair
* 31: Multicolored hair
* 32-33: Six fingers (including thumb)
* 34-35: Three fingers (including thumb)
* 36-37: Black fingernails
* 38-39: Red fingernails
* 40-41: Fingers one inch longer than normal
* 42: Arms six inches longer than normal
* 43: Legs six inches longer than normal
* 44-46: Horselike legs
* 47-49: Goatlike legs
* 50-52: Goatlike hooves
* 53-55: Long, thin tail
* 56-57: Horselike tail
* 58-59: Lizardlike tail
* 60-62: Spiny ridge on back
* 63-65: Spiny ridges all over body
* 66-68: Hairless body
* 69-71: Body covered in short fur or long hair
* 72-73: Body covered in striped markings
* 74-75: Extremely greasy skin
* 76-80: Scaly skin
* 81-83: Leathery skin
* 84: Small feathers rather than hair on 10-100% of body
* 85: Green-tinted skin
* 86: Blue–tinted skin
* 87: Red-tinted skin
* 88-89: Special side effect – roll on the Tiefling Special Side Effects table
* 90-94: Roll twice, rerolling rolls above 89
* 95-00: Roll three times, rerolling rolls above 89
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=====Tiefling Special Side Effects=====
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the Tiefling side effects table.
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* 01-10: Ashy odor surrounds body
* 11-15: Sulfurous odor surrounds body
* 16-20: Rotting odor surrounds body
* 21-25: Skin exudes ashy grit
* 26-30: Body casts no shadow
* 31-33: Body has no reflection in mirror
* 34-40: Susceptible to spells such as Spirit Wrack and Cacofiend
* 41-45: Tanar’ri react toward tiefling as though the tiefling were a baatezu
* 46-50: Baatezu react toward tiefling as though the tiefling were a tanar’ri
* 51-60: Presence causes unease in animals
* 61-65: Presence causes unease in NPCs, reactions at -4
* 66-70: Prolonged touch withers normal plants
* 71-75: Fingers treated as claws (1d4/1d3 damage)
* 76-80: Touch inflicts 1 point of Fire damage due to high body heat
* 81-85: Touch inflicts 1 point of Cold damage due to cold body temperature
* 86-90: Odd skin composition results in base AC of 1d6+3
* 91: Cannot reproduce
* 92: Holy water inflicts 1d6 damage
* 93: Exposure to direct sunlight inflicts 1 point of damage per round
* 94: Cannot enter “holy” areas
* 95: Harmed only by magical or silver weapons
* 96-00: Intuitively speaks the language of one fiendish race
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===3rd edition===
The [[Planescape]] setting may have fallen into the background when 3rd edition rolled around (appearing only in part of one obscure module), but tieflings themselves survived. They got an NPC writeup in the very first ''Monster Manual'', followed by a full PC treatment in the [[Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting]], which was repeated with small modifications in the ''[[Planar Handbook]]'' and ''[[Races of Destiny]]''.

Whilst tieflings in 3e retained their Intelligence bonus (now boosted to +2), their ability to see up to 60 feet in the dark, and their ability to cast Darkness once per day, they had changed a lot. Medium sized Native Outsiders, their former resistance to elemental damages had been downgraded to Energy Resistance (Cold, Electricity, and Fire) 5, and went from having penalties in Strength and Wisdom to suffering a -2 penalty to Charisma. They also gained a +2 racial bonus to Bluff and Hide checks, a +2 Dexterity increase, a [[Favored Class]] of [[Rogue]], and a [[Level Adjustment]] of +1. Like most exotic races, nothing they had was really worth that level adjustment, especially compared to the bonus feat Humans got.

''Player's Guide to Faerûn'' introduced the "Lesser Planetouched" variant rule, wherein ALL planetouched, be they Aasimars, Tieflings, Genasi, or whatever, and regardless of whether they were players or NPCs, counted as "Humanoid (Planetouched)" rather than as "Outsider (Native)", thus cutting them off from Darkvision, martial weapon proficiencies, the ability to take outsider forms with polymorph spells, immunity to "person" spells, and nothing else of importance, in exchange for dropping the level adjustment. This was widely misinterpreted as a subrace that individual players could take during character-creation.

Strangely, ''[[Races of Destiny]]'' includes an error in its copy of the tiefling statblock, saying it lacks its trinity of Energy Resistances. As every other version of the statblock says they ''can'' resist Cold, Electricity and Fire, it's obviously an editing error that slipped through somewhere along the line.

Flavor-wise, tieflings remained the mongrel offspring of mortals and denizens of the [[Lower Planes]]. But change was coming...

===4th Edition===
[[File:Tiefling Bard.png|300px|thumb|right|What tieflings look like in 4e. Not everybody liked this change.]]
When 4th edition rolled around, [[Wizards of the Coast]] had a little discussion about races. The first thing they agreed upon was that [[gnome]]s were, frankly, kind of lame, and that whilst the [[half-orc]] had a certain appeal to edgelords, it generally wasn't very popular. Both of these races needed a lot more time to rework them if they were to actually be ''good'', rather than simply being included because "muh sacred cows!" So, for one replacement, they created the [[Dragonborn]]. For the other, they decided to give promotions to one of the most favored and loved "edgy" races of all D&D; the tiefling.

But, updating it to a corebook posed a certain challenge. Namely, in a non-[[Sigil]] setting, would there ''really'' be enough demon-fuckers running around to make tieflings especially common? The [[succubus]] and [[marilith]] are hot, but they're not ''that'' easy to bang!

WoTC's decision, then, was to recreate the tiefling origin a little. In the [[Nentir Vale]] history, tieflings are the descendants of [[Bael Turath]], an empire of humans who forged diabolic pacts with [[Asmodeus]] and his [[Arch-Devil]] underlings for the power to defeat Arkhosia, empire of the Dragonborn. This empire-wide pledge, combined with several generations of widespread [[warlock]] pacts and diabolic interbreeding (this ''was'' the edition where they made succubi into devils), resulted in the entire population being replaced by tieflings, although this wasn't enough to prevent them fighting to mutual destruction with Arkhosia, scattering the tieflings across the world.

Now, all in all, this wasn't a bad deal for them, but a rather large amount of [[skub]] erupted as a result of one key decision: their appearance. See, traditionally, tieflings were supposed to be super-variable in terms of their appearance. In practice, few people bothered going outside of the "horns, tail, hooves; use one or more as desired" paradigm for their artwork, especially in AD&D. So, WoTC decided to just go with it and give them a unified "diabolic" look, with curling horns, a long reptilian tail, crimson skin and glowing eyes. The players pissed off at this only got more pissed when the [[Forgotten Realms]]' large tiefling population was retconned into the same sort of appearance as a result of Asmodeus dicking around.

It didn't help matters at all that the "4e is [[World of Warcraft|WoW]]!" crowd seized upon this and a single cartoon featuring a female tiefling with a Russian accent to rant about how tieflings were now trying to rip off the [[draenei]].

Never mind that the [[draenei]] had basically been ripping off the [[diabolus|diaboli]] from [[Mystara]]. No, the "4e is WoW!" crowd couldn't be swayed by logic like that.

As for why this was such a big deal when everybody basically ignored the unofficial template of the artwork before and could still use the purely visual aspects of the 2e generator at their table, well, [[skub|/tg/ likes to argue about shit]]. That's the only reason.

Tieflings in 4th edition are a mystic race, with +2 to Charisma and Intelligence, +2 to Bluff & Stealth checks, Medium size, 6 squares of movement, low-light vision, the racial traits Bloodhunt (+1 to attack rolls vs. bloodied foes) and Fire Resistance (reduce fire damage taken by 5+1/2 character level), and the racial power of Infernal Wrath. This encounter attack allowed you to add damage equal to your Charisma modifier if you use it whilst attacking some asshole who hit you in the previous turn. You also get a +1 bonus when using this attack, to reduce the chance of wasting it.

The lessons WoTC had learned meant that when the PHB3 came out, they modded this basic formula; now a tiefling could trade the +2 Intelligence for +2 Constitution, and Infernal Wrath was altered so that, instead, you could burn a reaction once per encounter to scorch the asshole who just hit you for D6 per tier + Cha or Int mod fire damage.

4th edition also added the idea of "tiefling bloodlines", tieflings who could trace their powers by blood or pact to a specific arch-devil. This came in the form of a feat, plus some extra boosting feats, and a racial [[Paragon Path]] to amplify its powers.

[[Dragon Magazine]] #381 featured the Blood-Crowned Courtiers, tieflings who bore direct blood-ties to devils and so had the ability to call upon more conventional diabolic powers. Most notably, they traded Infernal Wrath for Diabolic Transformation, letting them turn into a rampaging fiend once a day for a whole encounter. In this hulked-out state, they had better fire resistance, could regenerate, doubled their Bloodhunt bonus, got +2 to damage rolls, and could target a single foe with the Black Wrath of Hell. This fancy-named title basically let you boost the damage of a successful hit (it triggers on a free action on a hit) for +1d10 per tier damage, and afflict the victim (if they survived) with a save-ends penalty to attack rolls equal to the '''higher''' of your Int modifier or your Cha modifier. These guys didn't fit the formula of the later Bloodlines articles, but were definitely the most flavorful.

[[Dragon Magazine]] #383 featured the Broken Mirror tieflings, who traced their power to Levistus and had the power to bestow ill-fortune, via their Mantle of Misfortune racial power. In crunch terms, this amounted to the ability to create a turn-long, 5-square aura as a minor action, where any enemies in the aura suffered a -2 penalty to attack rolls and you could slide them 1 square if they missed. Given 4e placed a lot of emphasis on interesting environments, there's a certain comedic potential in this. At least, if you're the kind of person who can laugh at an [[ogre]] slipping on the remnants of one of its past victims and falling headfirst into its own pit full of spikes.

[[Dragon Magazine]] #387 featured the Blightseer tieflings, who traced their power to Baalzebul and had the power to cause decay in whatever they chose to look at. This manifested as the Gaze of Ruin racial feat-power, which was a 1/encounter 10 square minor action ranged attack that could impose either Vulnerability (All) on a target, a penalty to damage rolls with its weapon, or a -2 penalty to AC, depending on what you chose to stare at.

Needless to say, although the [[Warlock]] came out in late 3.5, it is 4th edition that has really pushed the tiefling/[[warlock]] racial to class matchup. However, that array of stat bonuses also makes 4e tieflings surprisingly good [[Paladin]]s and [[Warlord]]s, to say nothing of [[Sorcerer]]s, [[Bard]]s, [[Wizard]]s, [[Ardent]]s and [[Battlemind]]s. Although not statistically a good matchup, the tiefling rogue is still a time-honored archetype, and there's even a tiefling-exclusive rogue paragon path called the Hellstalker, which gains the ability to blind others and turn itself invisible.

In fact, 4e even made some nods to the fact that Tieflings make great Warlocks and Paladins; Dragon #381 mentions the existence of the Crimson Legion, an organization of hybrid & multiclassed Paladin/Warlocks that used to serve [[Asmodeus]] during the days of [[Bael Turath]] - now they view him as a turncoat, so they swear pacts to devils who want to oust Asmodeus and also to the gods, serving as the "go-betweens" for these allies of convenience as they seek to topple the God of Sin from his throne in the burning depths of [[Baator]].

===5th Edition===
Despite all the [[skub]] surrounding 4th edition, the tiefling as a corebook race turned out to be a popular concept, and so naturally they made the trip into the 5th edition PHB. Although still preserving the "general look" from 4e, the 5e tiefling is more explicitly variable in appearance, and even got a short list of alternate physical mutations in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide - small horns, fangs/sharp teeth, forked tongue, catlike eyes, six fingers on each hand, goat-like legs, cloven hooves, a forked tail, leathery or scaly skin, black/red/dark blue skin color, cast no shadow, cast no reflection, and exude a smell of brimstone.

One of the differences to 4th edition is that tieflings are explicitly expected to be rarer, which is why they've returned to a more nebulous fluff closer to the AD&D original than 4e's "scions of a fallen empire".

In their original writeup, tieflings had +2 Cha, +1 Int, Medium size, 30ft base speed, Darkvision, Hellish Resistance (resistant to Fire), and Infernal Legacy (spell-like abilities; Thaumaturgy at-will, Hellish Rebuke as a 2nd level spell 1/day at 3rd level, Darkness 1/day at 5th level). However, this slowly changed.

The aforementioned SCAG gave them 4 alternative racial traits. The Feral trait changes their ability score modifier to +2 Dex/+1 Int, whilst Devil's Tongue and Winged  replace the Infernal Legacy trait and Hellfire mods it. Devil's Tongue changes the tiefling's spell-like abilities to Vicious Mockery, Charm Person, and Enthrall. Hellfire changes the tiefling's spell-like abilities by replacing Hellish Rebuke with Burning Hands. And Winged, obviously enough, strips the tiefling of its spell-like abilities in exchange for the ability to fly 30 feet per round.

Then came an [[Unearthed Arcana]] article called "That Old Black Magic". As part of its discussion of demonic powers, it rewrote the tiefling into a race/subrace system. The original tiefling became the Infernal subrace, and in alternative, there was the Abyssal tiefling.

Then the [[Unearthed Arcana]] for October 2017, "Fiendish Options", which presented an new way of further specializing Infernal-type tieflings by connecting them to a specific [[Archdevil]]. These were subsequently reprinted ''exactly'' as-were in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes.

'''Tiefling Racial Core:'''
::Ability Score Increase: +2 Charisma
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Vision: Darkvision
::Subraces: Choose between the Infernal Tiefling and Abyssal Tiefling subraces.
::Language: Common

'''Infernal Tiefling:'''
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Intelligence
::Hellish Resistance: You have [[Damage Reduction|Fire Resistance]], halving all damage you take from fire.
::Infernal Legacy: Can cast Thaumaturgy cantrip at will, Hellish Rebuke as a 2nd level spell 1/day at 3rd level, and Darkness 1/day, all using Charisma.
::Bonus Language: Infernal

'''Abyssal Tiefling:'''
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Constitution
::Abyssal Fortitude: Your hit point maximum increases by half your level, rounding up.
::Abyssal Arcana: You have access to an array of randomized spells; you can cast a cantrip at 1st level, a 1st level spell at 3rd level, and a 2nd level spell at 5th level. All non-cantrip spells can be cast once per long rest, and are cast with a 2nd level spell slot. Each time you take a long rest, you must roll a D6 and compare it to the Abyssal Arcana Spells table to determine what spell you will be able to cast after completing your long rest. This must be done even if you haven't cast your spells, and you cannot keep the same spell-like ability; if your result would give you the same spell as the one you are replacing, roll again until the result is different. Make a separate roll for each available spell-like ability; a 3d6 result of 5, 3, 4 would give you Spare the Dying, Magic Missile and Levitate as your spell-like abilities until you next take a long rest.

''Abyssal Arcana Spells:''
::Result of 1: Dancing Lights for Cantrip, Burning Hands for 1st Level Spell, Alter Self for 2nd Level Spell
::Result of 2: True Strike for Cantrip, Charm Person for 1st Level Spell, Darkness for 2nd Level Spell
::Result of 3: Light for Cantrip, Magic Missile for 1st Level Spell, Invisibility for 2nd Level Spell
::Result of 4: Message for Cantrip, Cure Wounds for 1st Level Spell, Levitate for 2nd Level Spell
::Result of 5: Spare the Dying for Cantrip, Tasha's Hideous Laughter for 1st Level Spell, Mirror Image for 2nd Level Spell
::Result of 6: Prestidigitation for Cantrip, Thunderwave for 1st Level Spell, Spider Climb for 2nd Level Spell

====Archdevil Tieflings====
In contrast to the standard system above, an [[archdevil]] tiefling works like this; you take the standard/Infernal tiefling (who also represents an [[Asmodeus]] tiefling in this system) and replace its +1 Intelligence and the Infernal Legacy trait with an ability score increase and a new set of spell-like abilities determined by the archdevil you are blood-tied to. What this ultimately means is that, unlike the poor Abyssal Tiefling, you still maintain your Fire Resistance trait. All of your spell-like abilities adhere to the mold set by Infernal Legacy; a cantrip you can cast at-will, and two 1/day spells gained at levels 3 and 5, all fueled by Charisma.
::'''Baalzebul''': +1 Intelligence, Legacy of Maladomini (Thaumaturgy, Ray of Sickness, Crown of Madness).
::'''Dispater''': +1 Dexterity, Legacy of Dis (Thaumaturgy, Disguise Self, Invisibility).
::'''Fierna''': +1 Wisdom, Legacy of Phlegethos (Friends, Charm Person, Suggestion).
::'''Glasya''': +1 Dexterity, Legacy of Malbolge (Minor Illusion, Disguise Self, Invisibility).
::'''Levistus''': +1 Constitution, Legacy of Stygia (Ray of Frost, Armor of Agathys, Darkness). Why these tieflings don't swap Fire Resistance for Cold Resistance is anybody's guess.
::'''Mammon''': +1 Intelligence, Legacy of Minauros (Mage Hand, Tenser's Floating Disk 1/short rest, Arcane Lock).
::'''Mephistopheles''': +1 Intelligence, Legacy of Cania (Mage Hand, Magic Missile, Web). Again, these tieflings could trade Fire Resistance for Cold Resistance.
::'''Zariel''': +1 Strength, Legacy of Avernus (Thaumaturgy, Searing Smite, Branding Smite).

The Archdevil Tieflings do raise all sorts of questions. As a descendant of one of the Lords of the Nine, you have some important ancestry. Except some of them seem a bit unlikely. Dispater is way too careful to sire children, and Baalzebul has some very high demands of his consorts (but, being an archduke of hell and all, he's bound to meet plenty of people who find said demands [[/d/|downright enjoyable]]). Levistus is currently inside of the planes' biggest ice cube this side of the [[Elemental Planes|Plane of Ice]], and being a descendant of Glasya doesn't automatically make you part of Asmodeus' bloodline, who is her father. Zariel raises another question: despite being imprisoned for untold years by Bel she does have her share of descendants. So either these bloodlines are extremely old... or being clamjammed because of her imprisonment means that the girl had some catching up to do. In any case, it's all kind of silly.  Of course, it's also possible to be born of a Tiefling bloodline because of your descent from a pacted Warlock of an Archdevil, too, so it's not like it's purely a line of descent that can cause this sort of thing.