D&D General Do you think we might start to see more varied Tiefling art to match the PHB descriptions?

[A2Z]

As a big Planescape fan I haven't been very satisfied with Tielfing art since 4E made them a default species option. Plus the Diterlizzi art can't be beat. I am however happy with the Tiefling options in the 2024 PHB, and the descriptions of the fiendish legacies are relatively clear that Tieflings don't all the look the same. The accompanying art though... makes it seem like they all just look like little devils still. Not great, and a real missed opportunity in my mind, but maybe we'll start to see some more variation at some point? Maybe someone's character in an actual play will catch on like Jester did. Maybe? I'm hoping anyway

 

[DragonLancer]

Unfortunately it's the default imagery. We definately need more variety. If we can do it in our games, then the art should follow suit.

My favourite Tiefling PC was a Fighter, who in appearance was a big mass of humanoid tentacles in a hessian sack.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

I've been playing D&D for two decades and just been a fan of general post D&D fantasy milieu for another decade, and while I can tell you the difference in how demons and devils (and yugoloths) BEHAVE, I cannot, for the life of me, give a cogent aesthetic difference between fiends. I know what a devil is; horns, red skin, cloven hooves, maybe a tail and bat wings. So if we say "ok, that's a devil, tieflings descended from devils look like that"... I can't really say "in contrast, DEMONS look like XYZ, therefore tieflings descended from them look like XYZ."

We won't be getting more visually distinct tieflings until we get more visually distinct fiends. We can't even say "demons are more bestial than devils" or "demons use more elemental magic than devils" when we have creatures like the bone devil and ice devil.

 

[Stormonu]

I don't think we will, since 4E they've been trying to build brand identity for the visual look of creatures, so variety of appearance runs counter to that.

 

[plecostomus]

I like the new descriptions too, and I wish the art had been up to the challenge.

I think the funniest description is that it's common for the Infernal tieflings to stink of sulfur or smoke. Talk about something you could never, ever bring up to a player who just picked Infernal because oh yeah I'm like a sexy devil.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I like the new descriptions too, and I wish the art had been up to the challenge.

I think the funniest description is that it's common for the Infernal tieflings to stink of sulfur or smoke. Talk about something you could never, ever bring up to a player who just picked Infernal because oh yeah I'm like a sexy devil.

I dunno, considering how we used to allow smoking everywhere once, and a popular image* of the dame fatale is the one with those long cigarette-thingies, maybe smelling like smoke isn't that much of a turn-off.

*) Admittedly, it is an image, we still don't have smellovision TV or cinema (or at last it's not common.)

 

[bloodtide]

I doubt it. The "sexy devil" and "sexy demon" are somewhat stuck. The cool WoW look, or worse the free form RP look.

I have always used the 2E Tiefling tables from 2E Planescape, with added Fiends.

Most of the time I like tieflings to "look a bit" like their fiend bllodline. You can tell a vrock bloodline tiefling from a gelugon bloodline.

 

[Chaltab]

I had an Abyssal tiefling NPC in one of my campaigns long before the 2024 books. She was Chasme descended so she had antenna and cricket-like legs.

...unfortunately the PCs killed her.

 

[Distracted DM]

I had an Abyssal tiefling NPC in one of my campaigns long before the 2024 books. She was Chasme descended so she had antenna and cricket-like legs.

...unfortunately the PCs killed her.

Oh hey, I had something similar with an ice devil/gelugon-descended NPC! ... And the PCs killed her.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

So far the only the only place in 5e art where there's been different looking Tieflings has been in art related to Planescape, with one of them being from Diterlizzi and the other one of Factol Rhys.