D&D 5E Tiefling NPCs

[Riley37]

My current table's PC team includes a tiefling warlock. A race which others tend to mistrust, and a class which dances to the beat of its own drummer; SOME of them have fiendish patrons, see heated debates elsewhere on this forum. (This one does not have a fiendish patron, nor an Evil patron, and he's actually a member in good standing of the Harpers.)

Therefore, I am taking an interest in the presence of other tieflings in Faerun. Some thoughts so far:

In 5E, a tiefling who reaches level 5 can cast Darkness once per day. I'm making up the tradition that there's a word in Infernal, which translates as "darkness master", which refers to a tielfling who has gained that ability. Also, that tieflings with that ability tend to view each other as the elite of their kind. Also, that the "dating pool" of tieflings is rather small in Phlan. Therefore, some well-to-do tielflings might invite him over, for dinner, to size him up as a potential husband of their daughter, and grandfather of their grandchildren.

I was pondering what professions tielflings might tend to pursue. I imagine them as having a much higher percentage of "adventurers" than humans do. A few professions in which tieflings might have an advantage:
- Blacksmith. When you work closely with very hot fire, fire resistance is a big plus.
- Stoker of a smelting blast furnace or a steam bath house, for similar reasons.
- There's another profession which tends to work at night, in which an exotic body type and a high CHA are an advantageous combination, which might also work at a bath house, but I can't quite say more specifically.
- Night patrol; there's trust issues, but they have darkvision and they can take greater risks when dealing with burning buildings, which is a big deal in middle-age-tech cities.

What other professions come to mind?

 

[Thyrwyn]

-Craftsmen of any sort - but especially metalsmiths, glaziers, and glassblowers.
-Miners - see darkvision, though every race seems to have darkvision, so not sure this really sets them apart.
-Any theater, story-teller, caller, or herald type occupation. Thaumaturgy. They make awesome Circus Ringmasters. I mean, seriously.
-Fence or Moneylender. They're smart, charismatic, and really, who's going to risk pissing them off.
-The face of a group of enforcers. The one that does the talking, not necessarily the knee-capping.

 

[Hriston]

Lawyers!

 

[JackOfAllTirades]

One important thing to remember: in some settings (I'm not sure about Faerun) Tieflings are interfertile with normal humans, and their offspring are always Tieflings. So it would make just as much (if not more) sense for Tieflings to look for human partners from a numerical standpoint. There are more partners for them, and they stand to create more Teiflings that way.

A union between two Tieflings has to have more than two Tiefling offspring to achieve positive population growth. But if two Tieflings marry two humans, the odds of this happening are doubled. (In this scenario we're ignoring Tieflings born out of wedlock, which might be quite a few....)

 

[iserith]

In my Western-spin on Lost Mines of Phandelver (which I renamed to Last Dance of Fandango), I made the Lord's Alliance into Hell's Cargo, a banking and staging company. It was an outfit run and staffed entirely by tieflings. Sildar "Snowball" Hellwinter was their agent in Fandango and he was searching for Hex Arcana, another tiefling.

 

[Mephista]

What other professions come to mind?

There are a lot of things. Tieflings are like minority groups in the real world. There are groups who look down on them, judge them just based on appearance. Its a burden on every tiefling's informs their lives. Look at the quote for the race - "Some break under
it, some make it the millstone around their neck, some revel in it.”

You have tieflings who spend their lives trying to make up for that judgement (paladins, guards, clerics / healers), who bear that metaphorical millstone as if they were making up for the sins of the entire race.

Some who embrace what others say, as well as a life of crime (pretty much any con artist, thief, thug, etc). If I'm going to be called a sneak, a thief, a curse for just being me, why shouldn't I be one and get something out of all the mistreatment? Thaumaturgy means that they can be very intimidating or hard to read (deception) when they want/need to be. Darkness can help with being sneaky as well.

Some break under the strain, and become beaten down, working menial jobs just surviving and eking out a bare living. Or angry at their lot in life, and railing against the judgement that keeps them locked down in lower class. A lot of mining would probably be appropriate, as would sanitation work, or any other "dirty job." I imagine that this situation is the most common for tieflings in most cities. As well, I imagine it would be the most common arena for warlocks to arise - many would see it as the only way to get power in a world that doesn't want them to have any.

Some try to shut all that out, and do their best to find comfort in reading. They're naturally smart (+1 INT and a history of being wizards for a reason!), so they gravitate to libraries.

 

[Mephista]

One important thing to remember: in some settings (I'm not sure about Faerun) Tieflings are interfertile with normal humans, and their offspring are always Tieflings. So it would make just as much (if not more) sense for Tieflings to look for human partners from a numerical standpoint. There are more partners for them, and they stand to create more Teiflings that way.

Ah... I don't think you're using infertile right. Infertile means zero babies of any race. You are correct that the default 5e tieflings in Forgotten Realms will always give birth to another tiefling, no matter who the other parent is.

That said, I don't think the vast majority of tieflings are organized in most campaigns to have breeding programs. They still fall in love like every other sentient being in the Prime Material.

 

[JackOfAllTirades]

Ah... I don't think you're using infertile right. Infertile means zero babies of any race. You are correct that the default 5e tieflings in Forgotten Realms will always give birth to another tiefling, no matter who the other parent is.

That said, I don't think the vast majority of tieflings are organized in most campaigns to have breeding programs. They still fall in love like every other sentient being in the Prime Material.

But I didn't say "infertile", I said interfertile, which means exactly the opposite: they can have children together.

And I'm not the one talking about an organized breeding program, that was the OP's idea. What I'm saying is that an organized effort to have Tieflings meet up is self-defeating, numerically. You'll get more Tieflings if you don't do that.

 

[Riley37]

Some people just care about who they find attractive.

Some people want children. Some people want grandchildren.

Some people are guided by family or tribal traditions, as well as their personal values.

Not so?

 

[I'm A Banana]

Entertainers.

Mistrusted, considered thieves and scoundrels, uncomfortable around others.

They're actors. Musicians. Artists. They're thieves and connivers. They are that girl your mother warned you about, that boy with the rakish charm, the intense eyes, and the aura of danger.

Dating pool? It's hard to date a tiefling. Easy to sleep with one, usually, but hard to have a relationship with one, and nearly impossible to marry one. Something about a fear of oaths and contracts, you see. Always committed to a higher master, one might say. Most tieflings are romantically entangled more with humans than with other tieflings (if only because other tieflings are rare), and even if they FOUND another tiefling, they'd be as mistrusting as any human, most of the time. They know how hard it is to struggle against their natures, firsthand.

A good-looking new tiefling enters town and the native population gets suspicious. Angry. Especially if he's in good standing somewhere. What, he thinks he's better than us? Like his horns don't curl, like his eyes don't flash with fire? Like he's somehow escaped the thing that haunts each tiefling, marks them like a stain? Who does he think he is? Oh, maybe we'd all be better off if we all went and swore loyalty to his patron, is that it? It is the fury of jealousy mixed with suspicion, of course, but for that it is all the more vicious.

Of course, he's still a good-looking young tiefling. And the young tiefling ladies already have a "reputation." And if he's in good standing, maybe he's got prospects. Maybe the ladies chase him, quietly compete amongst themselves for a dalliance with this stranger. Maybe he's good looking that even a few human ladies of the more rakish sort would risk a dalliance with him....though of course, no one could ever find out...it'd simply ruin them, socially....

So if he wants to get in good with the local tiefling population, he's going to have to show that he's one of them, that he's a magnificent bastard, an admirable cad who knows and respects those he shares this accursed blood with. Humiliate a lord, steal from a manor house, bed the mayor's daughter, be everything that the other races hate and despise - and share that story, that experience, that haul, with the tieflings. Buy them a round of drinks at the shadiest bar in town...but only after you've proven that you're not some hoity-toity nob.

That's how I'd play it. But for me, tieflings will always be Sigilian, which means they'll always be socially low, which means, in part, the only men good enough for their daughters are the ones who are good to their fellow-sufferers, and bad enough to make the well-to-do crap their tights. At least, that's for the ones that get some influence in their daughters' choice of partners - their daughters are tieflings, too, and they're as impossible to control as their wild sons.