Tiefling as a core race?

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Meh. The point is, both are dumb to have in the core.
What was wrong with the old races?

Well, its fairly obvious many just weren't played much compared to others.

Besides, its not like its hard to say "Nope, not in my game" to anything at all, Core or not.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It seems very sensible to me. Tieflings appear in most of the standard settings, these days, particularly in the Forgotten Realms, which seems to have become host of most of Planescape's exiled races (Tieflings, Aasimar, Genasi etc.), and they're basically an appealling concept.

Claim that they're "from anime", or "from computer games" is utterly moronic. People have been having part-demon characters in their games since 1E. Jeez, people used to talk about "cambion characters" all the bloody time (usually in stories of munchkindom, admittedly).

Not only that, but they're drawn from myth and history much more than BLOODY HALFLINGS, for god's sake. If halflings were hobbits wtsnfo I'd cut them a break, but as of 3E they seem to be pointless short people who don't have the stones to be either hobbits or kender, or even say, "trolls" a la Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn.

Now, I have to admit the whole "giant horns and a three-foot lizard tail!" deal is a bit of a shocker, but presumably that's just the iconic Tieflings, and actual Tieflings will be more varied. I sure as hell hope so. Of course, if they're not, people will just house-rule it, and by 2010, there will be a Tiefling sourcebook with alternate heritages and what other feats/class specials they grant, no doubt.

Then again, I love half-races, I always have. It's an appealling concept to me, and it's in blimmin' Lord of the bloody Rings, so I don't know where people are getting off implying it's newfangled or something. It's old-skool.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Apparently Changelings made too their way into core, unles they are pulling our collective leg.

That would be pretty awesome. I still wouldn't add them to my Ptolus games, but still, pretty damned awesome. A changeling illusionist or transmuter (if those specialties still exist) would be a ton of fun.

 

[Doug McCrae]

What was wrong with the old races?

Getting a bit boring after 30+ years. Plus, was there ever a point to gnomes?

 

[Mallus]

Plus, was there ever a point to gnomes?

I mentioned it earlier. They make lovely cheap, tasteless garden decorations.

 

[TerraDave]

EGG + Fiendish blood: cambion

Merlin: " "

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

There are many components to a character. Modeling one accurately requires many degrees of freedom. Tieflings may have their uses.

Of course they have their uses. Unfortunately, they carry world assumptions outside the norm for many games, so their portability is less, IMO. They also would flat-out interfere with setting assumptions of my nascent homebrew. This makes the PC tiefling persona non grata for me.

I concede that I'm not necessarily a typical member of the audience, and if I can manage to get a gaming group back together (which will require hiding the cover of the new PHB from most of them ), I'll probably be buying the books. I'm not going to make the silly Tiefling a sticking point of any magnitude.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I gotta say, I'm pretty put-off by the idea of Tieflings as a PC race. And am I the only one that sees a similarity (perhaps not coincidental) between the new Tiefling pics and the Dranei?

(reposted from the cover-design thread)

Draenei and tieflings are VERY far apart, unless these tieflings are very, very different than they've been historically.

And unless there are a lot more WoW players running around saying "I'll play anything with a tail" -- and I haven't run into any on my RP WoW server, where you find the people with such interests typically -- I can't imagine it was part of some sort of sinister market-to-the-WoW-player plan.

 

[TerraDave]

Do we even know what Tieflings are in 4th edition?

Goat people

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I mentioned it earlier. They make lovely cheap, tasteless garden decorations.

You and Doug better watch your backs.

OK, the backs of your calves. But still, watch out!