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

[Mannahnin]

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

Yeah, I've always liked the more subtle and varied versions which Planescape originally said were most common. When I've run 5E I tend to say that Tieflings are more subtly inhuman than the default image (derived from 4E's cosmology).

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.)

It's not the smell of smoke, though. I imagine sulphur miners got inured to the foul, rotten eggs/cabbage/fart stink of sulphur, but I can't help thinking that anyone who ever paired a sexy devil girl image with the smell of sulphur in a description had either never smelled sulphur or had a REALLY particular and unusual fetish.

To be fair, when you smoke tobacco regularly, you don’t really notice the smell of tobacco smoke. When smoking was allowed everywhere, it seemed pretty olfactoriaely inoffensive to smokers. It was pretty disgusting to non-smokers though, which is a big part of why as smoking became a less ubiquitous practice, there was more and more social pressure to stop allowing it everywhere.

Yeah, we all used to be pretty inured to it in certain contexts, but people would always need to shower and wash thoroughly after getting home from, say, a night at the club or bar, to prevent their bedding from picking up the reek.

 

[Bae'zel]

It's like Beastmen in Warhammer. Originally they were extremely varied (different animal heads, different forms) but they defaulted to goat heads eventually.

It would be cool to have more variety for Tieflings too. Actually, a goat-headed Tiefling would be very interesting...

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Easy ones variants to depict are small bat-like wings or the cloven hoofs that were on a lot of Tieflings in 2e. Or only having tails or only just horns but not both.

More subtle ones would be looking just having 6 fingers as a feature, as they are a lot of Tieflings that are descendants of Graz'zt.

More out there appearances would be things like spines for hair, insectoid features, or extra (but smaller) pairs of arms.

And while the PHB does show an Elven Tiefling as the main Bard, I'm surprised that no one has attempted to depict an Imp/Halfling Tiefling yet, not only can Tieflings be size small but easy to add a small set of horns, tail and wings to a Halfling and they'd be recognizable as being a Tiefling.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

It's like Beastmen in Warhammer. Originally they were extremely varied (different animal heads, different forms) but they defaulted to goat heads eventually.

At least they got to showing different animal types for Rakshasa in the Monster Manual, after so many years of them defaulting to tigers.

 

[Gorck]

Maybe someone's character in an actual play will catch on like Jester did. Maybe? I'm hoping anyway

I like the subtler look that Doric had in DAD:HAT. She looked mostly human except for her horns and tail, which I found easy to overlook in most of her screen time.

 

[CleverNickName]

I like to play around with their varied appearances. I once played a tiefling of Graz'zt (his great-grandmother dabbled a little too closely in the occult, if you know what I mean). He was completely indistinguishable from any other human except that he had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I like the subtler look that Doric had in DAD:HAT. She looked mostly human except for her horns and tail, which I found easy to overlook in most of her screen time.

Doric was pretty much the same as Neeshka from NWN2.

 

[GobHag]

Yeah, I've always liked the more subtle and varied versions which Planescape originally said were most common. When I've run 5E I tend to say that Tieflings are more subtly inhuman than the default image (derived from 4E's cosmology).

Since most tables that have tiefling fans are more likely to have a variety of species , 'subtle inhumanity' just doesn't matter when the guy next door is a green musclebound brute with tusks(he's the tax collector, everyone hates him)

 

[Mannahnin]

Since most tables that have tiefling fans are more likely to have a variety of species , 'subtle inhumanity' just doesn't matter when the guy next door is a green musclebound brute with tusks(he's the tax collector, everyone hates him)

Yes, I tend to go subtler on the appearance of other species in those games too.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

I loved the far realms tiefling I played in Planescape campaign. Non-standard looks ftw, because not everything need to be "easy marketable."

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