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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Sigil" data-source="post: 9734146" data-attributes="member: 2013">To borrow a phrase… No, they weren’t. The 2014 PHB, page 49 states “a pact struck generations ago infused the essence of Asmodeus … into their bloodline. … the result of an ancient sin, for which they and their children and their children’s children will always be held accountable.”In the 2024 PHB, “Tiefling were either born in the outer planes or have ancestors who originated there.” More importantly, they “are linked by blood to a devil, demon, or other fiend.”Call me crazy but “they, and their children, and their children’s children” and “linked by blood” sound a lot like something that can be shortened to the term I used… “descent.”Based on the PHB canon, descent is involved. A warlock casting spells near a pregnant woman and turning her unborn child into a tiefling is your head canon.But we are getting away from what is important here.The important thing is:Does a creature’s morality/alignment label arise out of its choices, or do its choices arise out of its morality/alignment label?I would argue for outer planes denizens, which are literally created from ideals incarnated, the morality/alignment can be considered inborn.In all other cases, the morality/alignment label arises out of the actions/choices of the creature, though the label is useful when PCs meet a mature creature since past decisions (which gave rise to the creature’s alignment label) are a good indicator of future behavior. This does not mean behavior (and thus alignment) cannot later change. A paladin that has been lawful good for 20 years can fall a year later, and a villain that has been evil for 20 years can be redeemed. If you meet either 19 years into their career, though, giving them a LG or CE label as a shorthand for the DM is fine. Alignment, though it has recently fallen out of fashion, is a fine tool, but is not a straitjacket.Also, even more important is taking about the alignment of sacred cows. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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