D&D 5E Tiefling preview!

Sword of Spirit asked this of Mearls over twitter. "When planetouched come out sometime in the future, will we have the planescape/planetouched style tieflings?"

Mearls response was "too early to say, but would not surprise me"
 

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Sword of Spirit asked this of Mearls over twitter. "When planetouched come out sometime in the future, will we have the planescape/planetouched style tieflings?"

Mearls response was "too early to say, but would not surprise me"

That basically means "don't hold your breath, kid."

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Though I overall love 4E and enjoy the devil-taint tieflings in concept and execution (more or less), I shall forever be a bit irked that they took the name tiefling from the Planescape originals and then basically dropped them from the game. That all said, it is what it is, unless we get a Planescape fanatic in a position dramatic of editorial power.
 

I had an idea for a subrace of Tiefling. The Vyrlokas. Yep, if you look at the Vyrlokas back story, its very simular to the Tiefling, a group of power made nobles/or mystics makes a deal with a powerful enitity to be infused with thier essence.

In the 4e Tieflings case it was Asmodeaus and power of hell, in the Vyrlokas case it was the Red Witch, and the power of Vampires. The Vyrlokas intergrated into other societies easier and at a higher level, but at a practical level thier vampiric instead of Infernal Tieflings. i actually liked the Vyrlokas better in 4e.

An analogy would be PS Tieflings would be like Dampires, mortals with Vampire or Infernal Parentage.

The 4e Tiefling would be like the Vyrlokas, infused by a powerful essence, and mutated by it, possibke for simukar purposes.
 

My thought on the Art

Not a fan. Looks more like the 3.5 Spellscale race to me.

I like these takes more
I'm confused. Are you saying you like the style of art more in these? Because that image of the tiefling flirting with a guard to steal his keys with her tail is a 4E-style tiefling, just like the one in the 5E PHB is. It appeared in the tiefling splatbook.

Actually 4e Tieflings breed true with just about anything. RA Salvatore has a character whose mother is annelf and whose father is a Tiefling. This means it would he insanely easy to breed a hoard of Tieflings, just give them a harem of goblein women.
Since tieflings are basically planetouched humans, Dahlia's son is basically just a planetouched half-elf.
 

From the point of view of someone that really doesn't like the tiefling being in the PHB, this preview just exemplifies why I don't like it. No one that looked like that art would ever be tolerated in any part of a civilized world.
 
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From the point of view of someone that really doesn't like the tiefling being in the PHB, this preview just exemplifies why I don't like it. No one that looked like that art would ever be tolerated in any part of a civilized world.

You forgot to add... "in my opinion" to the end of that statement. ;)
 

You forgot to add... "in my opinion" to the end of that statement. ;)

Of course it's my opinion, it's in my post. What they should have done is put the tiefling, dragonborn, and drow in the DMG. Though if I had my way, they would put the half-elf and half-orc in the DMG as well under rules for creating crossbreeds.
 

You forgot to add... "in my opinion" to the end of that statement. ;)
He does have a point. Tieflings look different. They look scary, and people would likely be scared of them. Tieflings would likely be shunned, cast out of society, and such.

This happens all the time in the real world, with pretty much the same sentiment: "Blacks don't belong in civilized society." "Can't trust a one of those Muslims, I tell you."

Generally, though, time will bring about the necessary changes in perception to bridge the divide. Kids who grow up seeing that people who look different really aren't that different will remember that later on, and they'll pass it to their children, and so on.

So, tieflings likely wouldn't be welcome in small communities. But, in larger, metropolitan communities like larger cities, and after a few generations, tieflings would likely be viewed as really no different than anyone else. Some may have a propensity for evil, sure. But so do humans, elves, dwarves and anyone else.

That amount of time hasn't passed in the Forgotten Realms. It could have passed in your world, though. Tieflings may just be viewed as normal folk who had the misfortune of being related to some truly vile people. Or it could be that the sins of the father do carry to the son, even over hundreds of generations.

In my world, I have both types of places. But then, my isolated communities tend to hate anyone that's not like them. Small villages of humans dislike the elves that live in the nearby forest. Dwarves that don't interact with others races mistrust anyone that isn't also a dwarf, and so on.

it's all in how you want your world to be. Variant's view is quite valid for his world, and (not to single you out, but I've seen it too often on forums lately) I should add that "in my opinion" should be an understood part of anyone's post, unless said statement is accompanied by hard, verifiable evidence.
 

Hogwash. Variant made a definitive statement that made it sound like everyone should agree with it as if it is fact. I just made sure to tease out that it was an opinion. Yes, a post by a person should always be considered their single opinion... but people tend to forget that and start stupid long threads of back and forth blah, blah, blah. I was just heading all that off at the pass. Consider it a public service. :D

Of course each campaign is going to do this differently. In my campaign everyone will be forced to play an LG Tiefling Paladin with a meddling LG deity that will revoke their powers if they stray from the straight and narrow. So much as look at a kobold the wrong way... No soup for you! ;)
 

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