What are Tieflings good at?

[DracoSuave]

They're good at hugging, and ventriloquism. That's not in the PHB, but it's the honest truth.

And though it's been mentioned, they make AWESOME Warlords, primarily because you don't feel bad about taking a power that goes against your presence choice, since your tertiary stat (Cha instead of Int or vice-versa) will be at least decent. Many a Tactical Warlord has powers that base off his Cha, just because they're the best choice for the party.

But this might be because I just made a high-level Tiefling Tactical Warlord, and I love him to all sorts of death.

Yeah, the Tiefling Tac-Lord in our group has been hugging himself some Inspiry stuff as well.

Now that MP is out, I even offered him the opportunity to switch to Resourceful, which is actually better than it looks.

 

[Beckett]

I find it amusing that they're a better fey warlock than infernal warlock.

I've seen Hellfire blood turn infernal into a pretty potent choice. It's also been very handy in my fire-based wizard.

As has been said, tieflings make good warlords, however you want to do it. My tactical warlord is still able to get good bonuses on charisma based powers. The new resourceful warlord from Martial Power seems custom made for tieflings.

 

[outsider]

Swordmage. You attack with Int. You have a tonne of fire based powers(or you could simply use a flaming sword, or take the anarch of shyr paragon path to use it's stance to add fire to all your attacks). You're a defender, so you'll put infernal wrath to good use. Blood hunt is fantastic(as it is for all classes). Fire resistance is nice(as it is for all classes). About the only thing tieflings get that Swordmage doesn't take advantage of is the +2 Cha.

 

[scarik]

WHy Tieflings are good: some of this has been said

Tieflings spend no points for Spell Focus

Hellfire Blood: A Fey or Star pact Warlock can get a Fire or Fear power at every level except 9, 13, & 17 and that can be fixed by multi-classing with Spellscar or Wizard since you can have an 18 Cha and Int to start.
Wizards can have all fire powers as well.
Paladins and Swordmages can use Flaming Weapons.

All of those can get a 20 in their primary stat.

Also, Bloodhunt.

 

[cmbarona]

Wow. These have been some fantastic replies, and I'm glad this is generating some discussion. But now that I've seen how they can be effective, why does it seem they get such a bad rap? Am I just imagining that?

 

[DracoSuave]

Cause a lot of their upside isn't a direct 'THIS IS UPSIDE' type deal like Dragonborn's breath and healing surge, or an elf's rerolling, or a straight bonus to something that you can write on your sheet. They compare the encounter powers, and let's face it, Infernal Wrath isn't as good as Fey Step or Dragon Breath, and that's what gets the focus. But really, the synergy of their abilities plus a quality feat that is Oh Exploitable puts them over the top. No other race can take a feat to get a +1 bonus to hit like a tiefling can, and that alone makes them mighty.

 

[Danceofmasks]

Plus, there's still some of that I R a gnome replacement thing going on.
Not that gnomes weren't the most powerful PHB race in 3.5e, but most people didn't recognise that either.

 

[DEFCON 1]

And tiefling warlords really aren't that good since they don't have a strength bonus, which is the basis of pretty much all of their powers.

But because of the +2 to INT, it allows you to use the two 16's point buy to get 16 STR and 18 INT. And if you use Commander's Strike often, it more than covers the fact you don't have an 18 STR. And honestly... when I played my tiefling taclord, I was using Commander's Strike probably every other round (or every third round at a minimum) because our fighter, paladin and/or rogue was always in a position to do more massive amounts of damage than I could, considering they were adding +4 to all damage due to my 18 INT.

Speaking as someone who DMs a game and is playing in a game (and thus knows the rules much more detailed than pretty much any of the other players), I LOVED being a taclord. I was always analyzing the battlegrid... figuring out where to move, how to set up positioning with Wolf Pack Tactics, and how to get our fighter, pally, and rogue into better positions to allow them to attack extra times via Commander's Strike. I cannot stress enough that if you know the rules backwards and forwards, playing a taclord is SO much fun.

Unfortunately my taclord bit it via a TPK. But at least my new character will be a wizard... which will allow me to do the same sort of tacticaly thinking and analysis at range. And to address the original point of this thread... this wizard will also be a tiefling, because I'm getting him up to a 20 INT, will have the Hellfire Blood and Astral Fire feats, and will be raining fire down on everyone's heads with a +8 to hit at our starting 4th level for fire attacks... something you cannot really achieve easily otherwise with other races.

 

[jabberwocky]

And to address the original point of this thread... this wizard will also be a tiefling, because I'm getting him up to a 20 INT, will have the Hellfire Blood and Astral Fire feats, and will be raining fire down on everyone's heads with a +8 to hit at our starting 4th level for fire attacks... something you cannot really achieve easily otherwise with other races.

Nitpick : Hellfire blood and astral fire won't stack - they're both feat bonuses. But I agree, tiefling fire wizards are awesome.

 

[garyh]

Nitpick : Hellfire blood and astral fire won't stack - they're both feat bonuses. But I agree, tiefling fire wizards are awesome.

Double nitpick - Astral Fire gives +1/2/3 to damage at each tier, and Hellfire Blood gives +1 to damage AND to hit, no tier escalation. So once you hit Paragon, take both, and you get +1 to hit and +2 to damage. Sure, some overlap, but taking both is still a good idea at paragon and epic tiers.