Do you want Tieflings in the phb?

[Kae'Yoss]

Yugoloth isn't exactly a Cthulhu Mythos name

Agreed. Yugoloth is far too proncounceable.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I can't count the stories I've read about D&D characters mining for gold or silver

There's plenty. Not all of them heroes, I give you that, but NPCs are characters, too.

Plus, if you never saw anyone mining, what are your dwarves doing to work up a thirst?

 

[delericho]

That's a big part of my problem with half-orcs, actually: Even in campaigns where orcs are normal, biological creatures, they generally look pretty different from humans. Really different. So, reasonably, human women would look about as appealing to them as vice versa.

In general, I've seen something of a continuum, from the very human-looking Orcs to the not-at-all human-looking Orcs, and everything in between. So, it strikes me as not impossible. Also, IRL a lot of people are attracted to larger, stronger 'protector' types, and in a more egalitarian fantasy universe that may be more pronounced. Similarly, a lot of people find the idea of 'rescuing the damsel in distress' similarly attractive. So, I think that works somewhat.

In addition, in campaigns where the two races live in reasonably close proximity, it is entirely possible that humans will become integrated into an Orc tribe as some sort of slave class, or conversely that Orcs will live as an underclass in Human cities. It's not unreasonable to think that a significant number of Half-orc children will thus be born.

And then, of course, there's all the rape that goes with various tribes invading one another all the time. I have no great problem with accepting crimes of that sort occur on both sides.

I go with much the same explanation for Half-elves, too, although my campaign also includes some of the stuff from one of the early 3e Dragon magazines, which said that young elves would often go on 'exploratory' tours into the human world where they would experiment. So, I assume lots of half-elves result from those.

 

[Simia Saturnalia]

But, wait, why would things like that even be interested in womenfolk? Except as food, of course.

That's a big part of my problem with half-orcs, actually: Even in campaigns where orcs are normal, biological creatures, they generally look pretty different from humans. Really different. So, reasonably, human women would look about as appealing to them as vice versa.

Because they're intentionally a mockery of men, fashioned by their unfathomed master to bring death, ruin, and misery to the children of those who bound him to the bones of the world. The act of love, of bringing more life to the world, becomes a savagery destined to birth a violent and shameful reminder should the would-be mother somehow survive the raid in general. Half-orcs that are actually -born- are rare, and those that survive to adulthood rarer still.

They don't really know why they do what they do; theology and philosophy are largely beyond them. They raid, enslave, murder, rape, pillage, and destroy because it brings them a wordless exultation closest in sensation to a paladin's righteous certainty, though it is enough for them that they are orcs, and that is what orcs do.

But I should really curb my threadjack. You folks talk about tieflings in the core.

 

[Doug McCrae]

But, wait, why would things like that even be interested in womenfolk?

Everyone knows Earth women are the most beautiful in the universe. That's why the BEMs are always coming here.

Well, apart from elves. It even says in the PHB that they have no body hair. I kid you not. Page 15.

 

[Simia Saturnalia]

edit : And why the false dicotomy between "rape" and "falling in love"? You think human mercaneries turn down the orcish camp followers when they stop to trade? You think an orc's gold is any worse than a stinky dwarf's who hasn't changed his armor since he got back from campaign to a whore in a port city? I'm not skipping the "gritty" explainations for halfbreeds, I'm just aknowledging all of them.

I REALLY think you meant excluded middle, chief.

And to that I say - if they have any other options, likely yes. The dwarf is a lot less likely to think of kidney punches as foreplay.

 

[Jhaelen]

Do you want Tieflings in the phb?

I voted yes, even though I don't particularly care for tieflings. But:
I definitely appreciate that there is some new race in the PHB!

 

[grimslade]

Tiefling in the PHB? Cool. Let's get all the bloodline races in there. Genasi, Aasimars, Fey-touched, Dragon-blooded and Far Realm Spawn. Or even better make gnomes into the Fey-touched race and give em a little more flavor than the current Hippy dwarves.

 

[Malhost Zormaeril]

No, no, I can't stand those silly comic book names (baatezu, tanar’ri, and especially yugoloth) made up to appease the D&D is satanic crowd in the early 90's.

I also want my Typed demons back, where the Balor is simply the name of one Type VI demon!

You're certainly entitled not to stand them, but I got into the hobby in 2nd Edition (92, if memory serves), and even now, after seven years of 3e, I still can't tell which are the Demons and which are the Devils... so I still use the terms from 2nd Edition.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Frack, no.

Demonic-based races have no business in the initial core book of a heroic game system. Save them for a later supplement, Planar Handbook, or whatever. And if you think they should be there to provide anti-hero fodder, I have one response: good drow. Doesn't sound so hot now, does it?

I'd much rather they kept the gnome than added the tiefling ... and I hate gnomes.