Do you want Tieflings in the phb?

[Felon]

OK, let's clear some stuff up...

The Tieflings as a core race with nary a mention of Aasimar is like the icing on the cake, here.

As far as I can tell, we've heard nary a mention of tieflings being a core race either. The PHB cover illo shows a character with horns, and folks have already leapt to conclusions based on that.

At least that seems to be the case. I asked for some sources a page back and was given none.

Well it looks like eladrins (formerly aasimar) are in as a PC race.

What's your source for that?

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Sure.

ANY non-Tolkienesque race in the PHB is a plus in my book, even gnomes (ESPECIALLY gnomes if they were more explicitly Dragonlance- or Warcraft-style mechanic-gnomes). Unusual ones like tieflings are doubly valuable. They all demonstrate that the game is, or at least can be, bigger than any one vision of fantasy.

If I were doing a PHB I'd include at a minimum the 'standard four' (human, dwarf, elf and halfling) plus mechanic-oriented gnomes, some type of demon-blooded, some type of angel/spirit-blooded, a cute critter/mascot race, at least one anthropomorphic animal race, warforged and orcs.

Now, with that said, tieflings themselves do exactly squat for me. The IDEA of demon-blooded humanoids is cool and has powerful literary and popular grounding, but the actual Planescape-tied implementation to date leaves me anything but enthused.

 

[Baby Samurai]

What's your source for that?

Scroll down to the 12th post and read the line just below the picture:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=204241

 

[Mercule]

Nope. Don't like tieflings. Leave 'em for another book if ya have to.

There is deep irony in the source and message, here. Isn't Grazzt just about the most um... fertile of the demon princes?

No. "Planetouched" of any variety should be extreme fringe characters, not one of the basic choices right out of the box. Put 'em in the Monster Manual.

This pretty well sums it up for me. I'd gladly play or allow a tiefling character. The PHB races should represent the most common races, though, not fringers, no matter how "cool".

The best thing about having tieflings in the PHB is that they aren't drow, which don't even have the benefit of being cool or interesting. Drow -- the only race more annoying than tinker gnomes.

 

[TheArcane]

I voted no... It just doesn't fit well for me. We have humans... dwarves... elves... and fiendish horned humanoids with tails and cloven feet, at least that's how tieflings are currently portrayed on the PHB cover. Variety is good and all, but this is a bit too much and should be in some supplement, not core. The essence of D&D, be it deeply rooted in Tolkienisms as it is, should not IMHO be thrown away just for the sake of popularity and coolness. I'm sure the inclusion of the tiefling as a core race has absolutely no effect on the mechanics of the rest of the game, except maybe filling a "favored class" slot, if it still exists.

 

[Tewligan]

I'll let you know when I see what they've done with them.

Piratecat, your attitude of waiting to see what 4e is like before passing judgement on it is really inappropriate in the 4e discussions taking place here. If some 4e snark doesn't start really soon, you'll be reported to the mods.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

As a race, no. As a bloodlines style evolving template that could be added to any base race, yes.

My main issue with planetouched is the strong implication in the art and descriptions that only humans have any planar mingling. Give me an even shot at a "Tiefling halfling" and an "assimar dwarf" and I'm all for it. A single race called tiefling? No thank you.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Just last week I got to explain to my wife and 11 and 13-year old nephews sometimes the snarling psychotic baboon-men in the Monster Manual. . . well . . . uh . . . you see, sometimes they fall in love with regular people. And have babies and stuff.

At least with the Tieflings, I can point to the succubus picture and we can assume it was consensual

Wow. I can see how hard it would have been to say "that picture is of a big mean warrior in the middle of a fight, and there is a whole race that does look kinda funny but are still people and in this story people of all kinds make babies with each other...."

The assumption that all half orcs come from rape (of a human woman of course, because a human man would never touch an orc woman during a (retaliatory and deserved, obviously) village raid) has always struck me as more of an advertisement of the speaker's imaginative shortcomings than the "telling it like it is" it's so often advertised as.

But of course, mental domination power aside, sex with succubi must be consensual, because they're HOT.

 

[AllisterH]

re: Tolkein roots

Wait, people are arguing that the PHB shouldn't leave its Tolkein roots and are complaining about the Tiefling?

What are the Maia then? What about Merlin? In many mythologies, Merlin was a cambion in D&D terms. As an aside, why the seemingly kneejerk reaction if D&D even thinks about incorporating "new" fantasy concepts. When D&D was created, LotR was the defining fantasy gateway for people but nowadays, for good or for worse, things like Warhammer and Warcraft are people's first introudction to fantasy. Why not use elements from said mythologies especially given how many of them shamelessly used D&D/Tolkein elements.

re: Tiefling appearance.
In the planewalker's handbook, there was a table that listed both physical appearance traits and possible powers. Thus, it was possible for a tiefling to have cloven feet AND wings AND a tail or just have 4 digits on their hands/feet and yet both were considered tieflings.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I know; I just like the name Cambion better than Tiefling, and as the name Cambion isn't currently being used…

"....I thought I'd confuse the heck out of people."?