D&D (2024) If there are no half-elves or half-orcs will there be Tieflings (half fiends)?

[ECMO3]

I was thinking about the decision to get rid of half-orcs and half-elves and was wondering if that will apply to Tieflings as well. Tieflings are crossbreeds between humans and fiends. Will these get the "pick a parent" treatment and if so will we have demon or devil PCs or will Tieflings be the one exception to mixed-species players?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Tieflings are typically not half-fiends. The fiendish blood is further back in the family tree. We've heard no hints that anything is happening to tieflings.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

. . . Have you not read the OneD&D Playtest documents? Tieflings are in the same OneD&D UA that it says Half-Elves and Half-Orcs won't get full racial statistics. Tieflings get to pick an ancestry (Demonic, Infernal, or Chthonic), but are still a part of OneD&D.

Also, there's a pretty sizeable difference between playing a character with parents of two different player races, and playing a character who is descended from a demon or devil.

 

[MGibster]

I think it's been a while since Tieflings were described as half-fiends. Or were they ever? They're described as beings that have a little fiend in their family tree as far as I can recall. And, no, since they're one of the most popular races species out there, there's no way WotC will kick them to the curb.

 

[Nadan]

Half fiend is cambion, they are still fiend type creature that aren't playable species in 5e. Tieflings are more like distant descendant to their fiend ancestor. Not to mention there might other ways to make tieflings like a pact with fiend or just live with a nearby portal to lower planes.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I think it's been a while since Tieflings were described as half-fiends. Or were they ever?

I'm pretty sure that Tieflings have never mainly been half-fiends. That's what Cambions are. IIRC, there's a table in the backstory generator from XGtE that gives the option of a Tiefling having a devil as a parent, but the majority of time Tieflings have humans or other Tieflings as their parents.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Tieflings are typically not half-fiends.

Beat me to it.

 

[Charlaquin]

Tieflings are typically not half-fiends. The fiendish blood is further back in the family tree. We've heard no hints that anything is happening to tieflings.

They aren’t even necessarily fiend-blooded at all; they are the descendants of people who engaged in particularly dark dealings with fiends and were cursed with fiendish visages for it. Those dealings certainly could have involved… err… carnal relations. But it’s left ambiguous in the text, presumably so that players who are uncomfortable with that notion can imagine their own characters’ ancestors had some other sort of arrangement.

 

[Hussar]

Never minding that we will still have half orcs and half elves in the Revision. You simply choose the abilities based on one or the other parent. Which means that half-elves will not change much at all - I think they gain a couple of skills and that's about it. Half-orcs might not make it - but, then again, we're supposed to get full orcs, so, it's not like we're losing anything.

I guess we might ask about Genasi as well.

 

[Horwath]

half-orc, half-elf, goliath, etc. should be a 1st level feat choice for humans
aasimar, tiefling, shifter, warforged, should be a 1st level feat choice for all humanoids.

a 4th level feat with +1 ASI could give more/better "racial" traits for those ancestries/races.