Humans are corruptible!

[Commonblade]

Ok, I just had an idea.
From the kunadam post...

On Humans

Their negative personality flaw is corruptible (I don’t think it is mechanic, just fluff or the basis of some racial feat).

Then I remembered this piece on Tieflings...

Tiefling on the other hand can breed with humans. The result is always a thiefling.

Got me thinking, maybe Half-Orcs and Half-Elves are "Corrupted" Humans. Maybe through some sort of package or Racial Feat taken at first level these races open up. I have nothing to back this up other than a gut feeling. Anyway thought I would share.

 

[GrinningBuddha]

I don't think that's where they are going with that...

 

[Ahglock]

Yeah it just seems to me there saying humans can be the whole spectrum of bad and good. Other races stick closer to type.

 

[KingCrab]

Was it supposed to say "the result is always a thiefling" instead of tiefling? Don't they have enough races already?

 

[neceros]

The originator of that thread is Hungarian, and I believe he meant Tiefling.

 

[Irda Ranger]

Tiefling on the other hand can breed with humans. The result is always a thiefling.

That, by the way, is an example of someone at WotC thinking with their kidneys. Or I should say, not thinking at all about what they wrote. If there was any interbreeding at all (it doesn't even have to be that much), the tiefling population would quickly swallow the entire human population and humans would disappear entirely.

Some quick and dirty math ...
- even if you start with tieflings only being 0.01% of the population
- and even if only one marriage and twenty was human-tiefling (all others are intra-racial)
- and even if those h-t marriages breed strictly at replacement rates (2.1 children), and not at any rate higher than the rest of the population ...

The world is 100% tieflings in 144 generations. No humans left. If the tiefling population is any greater than 1 in a 1000 to start, or if intermarriage were even a little more common, than it happens a lot faster.

You can argue that 144 generations is a long time (~3,000 years in human generations), and it is, but that's no excuse. The point remains that if tielfling-human marriage always results in tieflings, it's game over for the human species, eventually.

I know most of you people don't care about this stuff, but it grates on my emulationist nerves. I really wish WotC had a "common sense" checker to keep an eye out for stuff like this before it went out the door. This doesn't even have a "it makes the game more fun" excuse, leaving it just a pure chunk of undiluted stupid.

 

[ferratus]

It is a strange line "humans are corruptible" though, if indeed it exists in the Classes and Races book and has a fluff or mechanical effect. It seems to be a reference to the doctrine that human beings by their own will cannot lead a life without sin. I wonder as well, if the other demihuman races (like in Lord of the Rings) do not have that flaw.

This coupled with the devils and demons as being specifically cast as being corruptions of angels and elementals fits the idea that evil itself has no substance, but merely is a corruption of the created good. It seems there is a lot more scholastic philosophy in 4e D&D than in editions previous.

D&D has never been this sophisticated in its philosophy before. I wonder if we'll actually see some D&D temples that aren't based on New England churches. I mean do goddesses of magic, sex, or bloodlust really need congregations and pews? Whenever I see a row of pews in a D&D temple, it drives me nuts. Ancient western polytheism is about offering sacrifices to court benevolence dagnabbit.

 

[Ahglock]

That, by the way, is an example of someone at WotC thinking with their kidneys. Or I should say, not thinking at all about what they wrote. If there was any interbreeding at all (it doesn't even have to be that much), the tiefling population would quickly swallow the entire human population and humans would disappear entirely.

Some quick and dirty math ...
- even if you start with tieflings only being 0.01% of the population
- and even if only one marriage and twenty was human-tiefling (all others are intra-racial)
- and even if those h-t marriages breed strictly at replacement rates (2.1 children), and not at any rate higher than the rest of the population ...

The world is 100% tieflings in 144 generations. No humans left. If the tiefling population is any greater than 1 in a 1000 to start, or if intermarriage were even a little more common, than it happens a lot faster.

You can argue that 144 generations is a long time (~3,000 years in human generations), and it is, but that's no excuse. The point remains that if tielfling-human marriage always results in tieflings, it's game over for the human species, eventually.

I know most of you people don't care about this stuff, but it grates on my emulationist nerves. I really wish WotC had a "common sense" checker to keep an eye out for stuff like this before it went out the door. This doesn't even have a "it makes the game more fun" excuse, leaving it just a pure chunk of undiluted stupid.

Well the default assumption could be that unions of tieflings and humans are absurdly rare. Also even if it always breeds tiefling it doesn't mean they breed easy. What if human/tiefling unions were more in the 1 in 1000 variety instead of 1 in 20 or maybe its 1 in 100 but the still born rate is around 95%.

 

[WhatGravitas]

You can argue that 144 generations is a long time (~3,000 years in human generations), and it is, but that's no excuse. The point remains that if tielfling-human marriage always results in tieflings, it's game over for the human species, eventually.

Sounds like a fiendishly devilish long-term plan to get rid of these pesky humans.

Cheers, LT.

 

[neceros]

Sounds like a fiendishly devilish long-term plan to get rid of these pesky humans.

Cheers, LT.

I approve this message.