D&D General In 2025 FR D&D should PCs any longer be wary of the 'evil' humanoids?

[Necropolitan]

Bael Turath made tieflings interesting

Every single Tiefling being recognizable on sight to those who know their history as having been descended from a member of a specific fallen empire was a fascinating concept and it's too bad more wasn't done with it.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

No. If you find an orc-genociding weapon and use it while knowing that orcs are people like you and me, you're evil. Unless there is evil, and orcs are established as smallpox, in which case of course you can do that, as humanity did with smallpox, without qualm.

Here's the thing. Having a world where people are treated like smallpox is messed up. You can come up with any fantasy justification for it, but if it is rational and good to round up orcs in concentration camps and send them to gas chambers, that is not a world I want to be playing in.

 

[Scribe]

Bael Turath made tieflings interesting

Wasnt that the retcon that tied the whole thing to one society and Asmodeous and forced a singular look? Instead of having near infinite variety and depth?

 

[Necropolitan]

Wasnt that the retcon that tied the whole thing to one society and Asmodeous and forced a singular look? Instead of having near infinite variety and depth?

I wouldn't have wanted it for every setting, but it made Nentir Vale stand out to me and I liked what they did with it there.

 

[Scribe]

I wouldn't have wanted it for every setting, but it made Nentir Vale stand out to me and I liked what they did with it there.

If it was a stand alone change in a singular setting, sure fine.

Bleeding into the wider 'standard D&D' view on the ancestry? Well that actually proves my point in another thread.

Yes, the old ways/content/canon still existed, but engage with the modern player on what a Tiefling is? "Oh yeah its this, says right here." and the old way is forgotten.

Thankfully, SCAG saved us.

 

[Necropolitan]

If it was a stand alone change in a singular setting, sure fine.

Bleeding into the wider 'standard D&D' view on the ancestry? Well that actually proves my point in another thread.

Yes, the old ways/content/canon still existed, but engage with the modern player on what a Tiefling is? "Oh yeah its this, says right here." and the old way is forgotten.

Thankfully, SCAG saved us.

I agree.

I was fine with Nentir Vale Tieflings all looking the same because of their history, but am disappointed at how the only major variation between Tieflings now seems to be color and horns in all settings now.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Wasnt that the retcon that tied the whole thing to one society and Asmodeous and forced a singular look? Instead of having near infinite variety and depth?

Yeah, that's the opposite of "more interesting" to me, and IMO was clearly done for marketing reasons primarily. I much preferred the original conception of tieflings from Planescape back in 2e, and I've always thought of the heritage that way.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I wouldn't have wanted it for every setting, but it made Nentir Vale stand out to me and I liked what they did with it there.

As a specific setting, it works fine. As the assumed default for D&D, not so much IMO.

 

[The Firebird]

I cannot know for sure how others think about this. Maybe it's completely true that this path doesn't exist for you. That it exists only in my mind. All I can say is it does exist in my own mind, and I cannot unsee the implications. I see the path and it disturbs and repulses me in the most profound way you can possibly imagine.

I want to hit this from another angle (and upfront, I agree that games, like stories, do subtly influence how we think about things.)

Ime, games also reveal much more than they sculpt. If you want to get to know someone, seeing how they act in a RPG or what settings they make shows you a great deal. This is especially true for newer players who are more likely to use it as a power fantasy--what is their power fantasy?

It could be having a clear moral code, getting to be the hero, getting to be a scoundrel, breaking societal rules, breaking biological rules, acting charismatic and charming.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Here's the thing. Having a world where people are treated like smallpox is messed up. You can come up with any fantasy justification for it, but if it is rational and good to round up orcs in concentration camps and send them to gas chambers, that is not a world I want to be playing in.

That's why you don't want to make them people in the first place, ideally not sexy TILF, and absolutely not PCs.

What will you do with mindflayer as a species now?

They are evil, but not all of them (BG3 as a "nice one"), they are able of independant thinking, they have several aspects of a society... but their reproductive cycle involve hatching inside intelligent species and they love to eat human brains.

Until recently, they could be "essential evil", even being mind controlled by a brain overlord, and now they are becoming furiously like people.