D&D 5E Tiefling preview!

[Remathilis]

I seem to remember another uproar when 3e turned halflings into dreadlock-wearing river rats. We got over it.

That was 4e. 3e turned them into caravan driving pseudo-kender.

 

[Markn]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the 3E style Tielfing will see print as well. I wouldn't be surprised to see it show up in the Monster Manual as an alternative take on the PH Tielfing.

Having said that, I like the 4e interpretation of the Tiefling and like the direction.

 

[am181d]

Then you don't need to call whatever these things are tieflings, if that's not what they are.

But of course they are Tieflings. These are the only Tieflings to ever appear in a PHB before.

They're not YOUR Tieflings, but they are PHB Tieflings.

 

[gyor]

I actually like the 5e Tiefling better then the previous Tieflings, including the PS and 4e Tieflongs.

The fluff is closer to the 4e Tiefling, but mechanically its distinctly 5e in Mechanics, but with obvious influences from previous incarnations of Tiefling.

Still all the focus has been on the fluff, but mechanically is the Tiefling mechanically competive especially in comhat, with the other races we've seen?

Really the Tiefling only has two distinctive traits, Hellish Resistance, which grants fire resistance, which is a major boon against enemies which deal fire damage and possibly in hot climates.

The other is Infernal Legacy which grants Thaumaturgy right away, and hellish rebuke and darkness later.

The Tiefling also gets Darkvision, +1 Intelligence and +2 Charisma, and knows Infernal.

The ability bonus is great for caster classes/subclasses, but offer no Strength/Dexterity boost for fighting classes.

At Level 1 the Tiefling is at a disadvantage in combat. Hellish resistance is great against fire dealing enemies, but against everyone else she has no other tricks as Thaumaturgy is not a combat cantrip, it does no damage and its has no combat use.

At higher levels Infernal Legacy gets better, Hellish Rebuke is no doubt a damaging spell, and darkness has its uses too.

So that's the equivalant of 2 second level spells.

Outside of combat the Tiefling is better, Hellish Resistance is useful in hot areas and against fiery traps, Thaumaturgy has a variety of uses out of combat, Darkvision is useful for scouting, and Darkness is useful for stealth and can be used creatively.

Compare that with the Halflings lucky trait or the Elvish weapon training, or Dwarvish weapon training, or High Elf cantrips of say firebolt. All very useful at level one.

So does anyone else think Tieflings are mechanically weak in combat at 1st level?

 

[gyor]

I twitter Mike Mearls to see if the Planetouched were in the DMG or MM and this was his reply below.

"don't believe either, but they are on the list for future"

So they will not be out in the core books, but they will come out eventually.

 

[Dungeoneer]

I actually like the 5e Tiefling better then the previous Tieflings, including the PS and 4e Tieflongs.

The fluff is closer to the 4e Tiefling, but mechanically its distinctly 5e in Mechanics, but with obvious influences from previous incarnations of Tiefling.

???

Allowing for some differences between the editions, I would say the mechanics are very similar to the 4e version. Boosts to INT and CHA, check. Enhanced ability to see in the dark, check. Fire resistance, check. 4e doesn't specify that Tieflings speak Infernal, but they get a bonus language and there's no reason it shouldn't be Infernal, so check.

I don't know what Hellish Rebuke does, but if it causes fire damage to someone then it sounds a lot like Infernal Wrath, the default 4e power for Tieflings.

The only two things that are genuinely new here are Thaumaturgy and Darkness. Both of which I think are awesome additions.

 

[Dausuul]

So does anyone else think Tieflings are mechanically weak in combat at 1st level?

I'll answer that question after I've seen the Paladin class mechanics.

 

[Gradine]

Imagine if I got upset because the PH dwarves weren't Dark Sun dwarves or the PH halflings weren't Eberron halflings.

I dunno, I'm pretty bummed that PH halflings aren't Dark Sun halflings

Overalll. I find myself in the small(ish) camp that finds the 5e Tiefling to be the best presentation of the race so far. I love the 2e PS tieflings as well, but the planar and alignment stuff can be hard to port. 4e was a big departure but one I mostly appreciated after 3e. 3e's Planetouched were bland with an extra side of blaaaah.

And I like the art too.

 

[beej]

*2 coppers*

Having DM'd (and introduced) many players through 4E, I can say that I know a lot of people who are pretty pysched at seeing one of the races that they consider to be core in the 5E rulebook.

And this time around, they didn't have to cut the half-orc and the gnome to put them in the PHB. Inclusivity > Exclusivity in my book.

I've always disliked this depiction of them, however. They look even more devilish than Fierna or Levistus. That's... somewhat weird for me. Heck, even the 4E devils had the vizier devil, which basically just looked like 4E tieflings, but was somehow a full-blooded devil:



The imagery can get confusing.

/2coppers

 

[gyor]

???

Allowing for some differences between the editions, I would say the mechanics are very similar to the 4e version. Boosts to INT and CHA, check. Enhanced ability to see in the dark, check. Fire resistance, check. 4e doesn't specify that Tieflings speak Infernal, but they get a bonus language and there's no reason it shouldn't be Infernal, so check.

I don't know what Hellish Rebuke does, but if it causes fire damage to someone then it sounds a lot like Infernal Wrath, the default 4e power for Tieflings.

The only two things that are genuinely new here are Thaumaturgy and Darkness. Both of which I think are awesome additions.

The 3e Tiefling got darkvision, Intelligence buff, some fire resistance (okay only 5 instead of half, but it still got them), it got a bonus language too I believe, and they could cast Darkness.

Hellish Rebuke is from 4e, it was a warlock Infernal pact spell. But themetically its probably the replacement for infernal wrath.

So it a mix, Darkness from 3e, Hellish Rebuke/Infernal Wrath from 4e and +2 Charisma, and Thaumaturgy is the unique 5e contributiin. The rest is more or less edition neutral. Its a cool mix.