My tiefling got a hold of a Hat of Disguise, which he'll never let go again. Now he always looks like various different humans, depending on the roleplaying needs. Only one person of the current party even knows that he is really a tiefling.
As a political schemer tieffling warlock in a game where we began at a fairly high level (7th), I choose powers enabling me to use change self and alter self at will... My character is litterally walking on a permanent illusion spell of being an elf, hiding his false human form from the alter self spell hiding his true tieffling nature. That's actually immensely funny to play with!
anlumo1 I've been working on a tiefling caster and, as the party's only caster, have been forced to take a lot of utility spells. I haven't even played him yet, and I KNOW I'm going to regret not having taken disguise self.
My tiefling has a similar item but it's a necklace in battle my dm let's me take it off and roll intimidation. Recently had a few bandits piss themselves when I went from a strong looking human to a huge horned monster with black and red marbled skin. My party promptly skewed them and then I went back to my average looking human :P
Between the ones you mentioned, I believe there is also a fourth type of Tiefling; The oblivious hermit. When a Tiefling's parents conceived the child, they were either exiled from their town, abandoned in the woods to prevent that or moved to live with an estranged, seclusive relative to protect them from the common people. Regardless of the reason, these are the Tieflings that have been raised far removed from the slings and arrows of the common-people, a fish out of water in for a rude awakening as the campaign has them step into the many settlements in the setting. That was sort of the angle I took with a Tiefling Bard I'm currently playing; Rhan Crowley. His Tiefling heritage comes from his mother's side, an eternal mark of a centuries old alliance with a demon. It tends to happen only once a generation or 2, yet Rhan was still unfortunate enough to end up like that. Being farmers out in the countryside, they didn't have to deal with people as much as in town, yet still Rhan noticed how his parents never really wanted him around when people were concerned and his mother in particular would sometimes give him this particular look of disappointment. Where he would usually spend alot of his time was with his estranged Aunt, another Tiefling in the family. Living far in the woods, they were completely free from the stigmas of the Tiefling and was actually taught of the demon that they originally formed a pact with as a positive thing, this nature-fiend that embraced indulgence and hedonism. So Rhan would have been raised in a very weird in-between on his fiendish origin. Having experienced the neglect and aversion to him of the commonfolk, yet also taught of how his heritage brings pride. Just overall confused on how he's supposed to feel about being a Tiefling. The race used as almost like an allegory to puberty or otherwise somebody finding one's self.
I have a character who is also a weird hermit tiefling who doesn't know much about his devilish heritage, he was actually raised around satyrs and resembles one and thought he was one until someone told him. If anyone asks he always says he's a satyr because it's less of a stigma than a tiefling
My Tiefling is also a Drunken Master, so he pretends to be drunk to make people avoid him and or underestimate him. People who are cruel to him because of his race quickly fall victim to a drunken "mishap."
I like the idea of a different sort of rebellious tiefling. He doesn't accept the evil label, but he isn't particularly in your face about it. I imagine a character that will laugh off any sort of insult to him (though who might be a bit more offended for another's sake) and who grins quite a bit as a sort of "well, you may be able to keep me out of your city, but I'll eventually have the final victory, even if I don't quite know how yet." I think it would be fun to play an optimistic, sarcastic tiefling, instead of the traditionally evil or trying-very-hard-to-be-good variety.
I created a tiefling bard that was good out of spite because his parents hated him and locked him up out of shame and only told him that he was evil. I decided he should use a violin because drums and lutes are a little overused. I accidentally created the devil that went down to Georgia but just out of spite for his daddy devil telling him that he would be bad at playing the violin
I have a paladin tiefling. This is a good video that labels him as the defiant tiefling. He will help others regardless of if they hate him or not, but he will not apologize for his heritage because he figures he had nothing to do with that.
My son and I made twin tieflings raised in a monastery not knowing much of their background. He is a monk and my character is a cleric. Its only our second game so we are excited
Ahh the tiefling. My dm makes tieflings a common race. Meanwhile, wood elves get shot on sight by high elves. Well it's his world so I'm not gonna complain
My idea on playing a tiefling is that is a child from a Witch that I previously roleplayed, who made a pact with a demon. The thing on this character is the opposite as you said, he is a piece of sunshine. He was discrimined in the past for his ovbious horns, but he doesn't blame anybody and just go with it. In a carnival of the city near his house he put on a mask that disguised his horns and met some streetpreformers, which where really nice with him. Due to the admirationfor music and the preformances, his mother gave him a accordion as a present. He learn to play it and now is traveling the world masked an calling himself Mephistopheles. The funny thing is that I, as a player, I'm actually learning to play the accordion to have an actual bard on the desk and not just "rolling dice to see if I can charm the audience". I'm really enjoing it.
If I get a chance, sometime I’d like to play a Tiefling Bard who’s very sly and cheeky in a devilish and debaucherous way. I’d also like them to actually be a good guy and hopeless romantic. Sounds fun to me.
Jimothy the Green I'm playing a similar character that is a tiefling bard. She's a college of whispers built to gather information on people with her detect thought, zone of truth, friend, and suggestion. She's very fun to play. Her party members are a little disturbed by her.
i love tieflings one of mine started a tiefling cival rights moment he had spent most his life protected and tought the ways of one of the smaller secs of the church in the world apon adventuring into the world he was horrified to find how his kind are treated because of his position amongst the church and being one of the hero that stopped a attack apon the city it put him in a position were he could work on change sadly we never got to finish that campaign
One of my favorite Tiefling characters that I played was Kalymnos, the Lawful Good Paladin of Amaunator. I think he definitely fits into the "defiant" zone by decided to let his actions speak for him by being the shiniest knight in shining armor boyscout that couldn't be seen as anything but a good guy. He was a fun one to play as. I think it worked too considering that characters thought of him as a Paladin first and a Tiefling second.
I would be very interested in your take on 5e Aasimar. They are in the Volo's Guide to Monsters, and it is very interesting that they have the Angelic Guide feature. A deva visits them in their dreams to give them guidance, but not through spoken word. It is through visions, prophecies, and feelings. Also, angels may be wise, but they are not infallible. By looking at the world from a distance, they don't really understand the compromises and hard choices of mortal life. It seems like a very rich source of story.
Very interesting - a lot of the character aspect you mention sounds very transferable to monstrous races. I'm playing a Lizardfolk character in a campaign at the moment, and I'm pulling from those spaces a fair bit in characterizing him. He's in a really bad place at the moment, so he's largely in the defeated mold, but he's also got aspects of the other two. Sometimes his monstrous nature comes out to play (one combat we finished off by him biting the head clean off the last kobold, for example), but he's also got an element of defiance as well. (Unfortunately, it takes the form of that counter-racism that's unfortunately all to common irl - he's used to the warm bloods looking down on him, so he assumes they all will.)
rashkavar I've got a very similar thing going on with my current (and first) character, who is a shifter. She started out very racist herself aswell, since it was pretty much expected that that would be the reaction towards her, since shifters have bewn heavily persecuted over the ages. Her arc is about overcoming her prejudices and learning to seperate a group of people into individuals, not as a dangerous mass that has to be feared, and thus promoting acceptance for her kind. It may be a long way until she can stop hating elves, because they were the ones that killed her tribe for their beast blood. But we will see how it plays out.
I play a tiefling warlock on Fridays and I love incorporating his tail in roleplay. He used it to try and slap a sexist jerk, he has to sit in certain ways so as not to sit on it, and he used it to guide our goliath when we had to sneak through the woods in the dark.
I once made a Tiefling Trickery Cleric, Relvyn, who was the singlemost chaotic and unpredictable person in existence, he was like a force of nature, the personification of chaos. My DM's words, not mine. However, he wasn't evil, or even neutral, he was a genuinely good person who would go out of his way to help people, even strangers, he just had a very singular way of doing so. His relationship to his god was pretty special as well, they were basically buddies, talked all the fucking time and made pranks to everyone, specially the party. It was one of, if not the most fun I've ever had in a campaign.
My newest dnd character is a Tiefling Cleric. An odd combination, maybe. But she is a defiant Tiefling. She's determined to prove people wrong and show them that not all Tieflings are evil. In fact, they can be good and kind too. She attempts to prove that by being a healer. I really enjoy playing her.
3.5 had a ton of templates and races that filled the tiefling sort of space, including the tiefling itself. I was partial to Hellbred, repentant evil people who died at the moment of redemption and are given a second chance to right their wrongs, but my most successful character was definitely Teresa, who existed in a world where Tieflings have distant fiend ancestry. The elemental evil in her blood made evil deeds feel natural and even rewarding. So rewarding that doing evil was like taking a dose of an addictive drug.
This was super useful I’ll soon be playing a Tiefling in Waterdeep and this has given me some ideas. I like the idea of straddling the line between being actively antagonistic and fairly noble. I didn’t have a backstory in mind but listening to this has inspired a couple of ideas that may work. Thanks alot.
I love the parallel you draw between the Tieflings and the Pride. I am working on my character's background as a Tiefling Sorcerer hero aspirant, and the depth provided by such an perspective is tremendous. Thank you for this video!
I'm a complete newbie to D&D and am playing it for the first time in 3 days. My character is a Tiefling Warlock and this is by far the BEST information I've found on the race. Thank you!
1:10 Almost all tieflings are descended from infernal (devil) cambions. While abyssal (demon) tieflings exist, they are exceedingly rare as demons are more likely to eat you than copulate with you
Found a fairly local game shop that teaches D&D and joined up for this month's teaching campaign. The GM made some premade character sheets and since I was one of the ones who showed up early I got first pick and went with the class I have the most interest in which is Rogue...I'm a Tiefling. I guess I fall into the defiant type cause I know like..zip about D&D race lore and I went for the joking member of the crew who's more about being upbeat in dire situations.
My home game crew is right in the middle of playing the Pathfinder AP Giantslayer and I started the campaign with all of their characters being tieflings that were standing on a gallows with ropes around their necks, the targets of the local human village and their superstitions. It worked out quite well, when they escaped, since they now have a reason for adventuring together ("Everyone is against us, so we demonspawn need to stick together in this harsh and unfair world") and the fact that they all have darkvision makes my job as GMing a little easier (no more keeping track of who can see in the dark and who can't). True, the party is a little more powerful than your usual mix of races, but that's easy to tweak from the GM side of the table. I would definitely suggest trying this kind of gimmick in a home game, it provides lots of chances for role-playing, both inside as well as outside the party.
I'm playing a happy-go-lucky tiefling bard in my game! She's pink and is supposed to be kind of annoying, but in an endearing way? I can't really pull it off, but playing tieflings is really fun.
Playing my first tiefling for an mini campaign at the moment. A Paladin whose mentor swears to him that he senses not just good, but celestial good inside inside this tiefling. I've always liked the cursed offspring aspect of tieflings and as such made the story, and it's up to the DM whether or not it's true, that a group aasimar were condemned for mingling with mortals and as such cursed by a tricky night hag to only conceive tiefling children. This mentor of my tiefling paladin believes the curse may be lifted by my character abandoning his lazy and apathetic worldview and instead shine as example of righteousness and good. There are plenty of stories about fallen angels becoming devils (in fact, I even use the stats of Zariel Tieflings and used the name Caim spelled backwards). It's not going to be a long campaign, but I'll have some fun with a tiefling reluctantly trying to make his way down the reverse path.
I've only recently found your channel(s) and I must say I'm enjoying immensely. I've been playing and GMing for 30 years and while I'm immodest enough to say I can create decent adventures, I have always sucked at trying to link them together into any sort of campaign worthy of the name. I'm about to start running a new campaign and your videos have been helping quite a lot. Thank you for all your past work and please, keep doing whatever voodoo you do to continue making more great content :)
One of my favourite long-term characters was a Tiefling Wizard, in a 3/3.5 campaign. He was of a paranoid/persecuted mindset, always trying to be anticipatingly-suspicious of others, painfully aware that he would probably be persecuted. (Skin was bit leathery, some joint-spines, hair was a bit quilly, and smelled lightly of smoke all the time.) One of his main goals was to avoid what, to his understanding, would have been his unfairly unavoidable fate of ending up, after death, in one of the nastier planes, no matter his deeds. So: pursuit of Phenomenal Magical Power. Grudging fellowship with his group, whom he grew to trust, after a fashion, eventually, though contingency plans were in place 'just in case'. Every being was a study-target for means to defeat them. Made sure to have the widest possible variety of spells accumulated for as many situations as possible, and tried to be as forewarned and planned-out as could be. His later arc found him looking towards immortality as an option. (Not yet Pathfinder for those lovely Wizardy discoveries, so it had to be somewhat old-school.) Lichdom came up in the research, but it was not valid for an Outsider (even Native) in its description, so...other options? Came up with the idea to create a construct-body to transfer into ('Warforged' analogue), and did the research, gained the feats to create, prepared the spells, and spent the resources. Spent some in-game time having the character mull over all the repercussions and results that he could conceive, talking (if tersely) with his group regarding the change, and when his decision had been made, arranged a bit of final hurrah to the body, trying to relish the last bits that would be no longer granted in the new form - like sleep, breathing, eating... Of course, since spells were still a thing, a Polymorph or such could temporarily simulate an organic body again, but...character! Thereafter, he only needed to fret about occasional maintenance, and catching the attention of some of the Inevitables - those horridly Lawful entities that dealt with gross abuse of cosmic laws, like cheating/avoiding natural death. And being the clever and magically-juicy Wizard he was, he felt properly armed to deal with those... A fun story to work through, and enjoyable years of play, for sure.
One rather interesting NPC character I've been using recently is a Mercane (yes from the bestiary) cleric. He's a healer role character who's a merchant who deals in magic items. He often goes looking for artifacts in various places and hires people to look after him if he feels it's necessary as he's not so much a coward but knows his limits when it comes to danger. He initially hired my players to look for a book in a dungeon but has decided to stay with them (in reality my group needed a healer). Was only meant to use him once but he worked so well the character stayed.
I would love an episode covering the rate and consistency of giving your players access to magical items/weapons. As a DM I found it difficult to balance a game once my players had magical items/weapons, but at the same time I want to make it possible for them to have powerful things if they roll well. The balance is something I think needs to be explored, would definitely love some outside opinions/examples I also would like some ideas regarding a specific problem I have with a player of mine. He is a nice enough person, and very fun to have around, but he is also the only person who seems to understand the idea of LOOT. I've tried repeatedly to get my players to check bodies for loot, as well as secret compartments, treasure chests, or other areas, but the average D&D player doesn't seem to remember the concept. However, this player is always on top of it, and I find it difficult to justify stopping him without making it seem like I'm being unfair. This player also doesn't want to share his items, nor does he barter fairly with other players when they want what he has. Again, he doesn't have to be fair to them, I get that, but he is the only one who actively tries to grab loot whenever possible. As a DM I know I can reach down and just smite his character whenever, but I refuse to bend the rules too much just because one person is actually playing better than the rest. Any ideas/suggestions?
My first character (and my favorite) that I created was a tiefling sorcerer! I love him quite a lot! Would you mind going over the Aasimar race? Thank you!
Roleplaying Tieflings gets extra fun when you imagine how they were as children. Like say maybe a toddler would go around randomly headbutting things with their horns like goats. Or rubbing their growing horns against a tree or something. Mine would scurry along the ceiling of his parents house like a squirrel. Tiefling Terrible Twos man. I'm telling ya.
I'm the the lull of my college D&D group where I have my wonderful Tiefling Druid... who is also kind of a bard since he mainly uses an enchanted ukulele to cast some specially learned spells or just bean 'em over the head... He actually ran away from his parents, who were very much the sort who embraced what society believed about them, and he ended up with some traveling Dwarven Bards who ended up adopting him and taking him back to Neverwinter.... He did experience some segragation there, for certain, mostly staying in the house and playing with his fathers, but he got sent off to the Druid's Grove when it was shown he had the potential. It was a little rocky there, at first, but since all the druids in training live together 24/7 and Rythen took a liking to him, most people got to know the very caring man he is. Then... Well, then the Iron Circle came and started their meddling on the area. He was a fully fledged Druid, so he went out to help.... and mostly heal the party. he ended up helping to start, and then end the revolutionary war, though at the cost of his bear companion's life... His dads came to take him and his party members to Neverwinter for some down time after that, he grieved a lot but was feeling much more at peace about it and was ready to forge a new relationship with a beast. Winter was lasting too long, so they went to investigate and see if this Winterking legend thing was true... The party blew a huge hole in the wall within 3 minutes of arriving and my boy was stressed to hell the whole time. And he got a crush on the fellow Tiefling blacksmith who had thawed out a few weeks ago.... That final fight was VERY hard on him, there was much apologizing and just needing to relax when our Aarokocra managed to figure things out with the Winter King. He ended up getting a miniature drake and a stone of far speech at the end of things.... I brought it up with my GM before we parted ways for the summer that not many people seemed to mind my character being a Tiefling throughout this. He said that, for one, a war was starting and the Rebellion was a relatively small groups that would take whomever they could get. Neverwinter was his home town, so people knew he existed, his fathers speaking highly of him to those in the Dwarven District whenever they stopped in from traveling to restock, plus there was the even stranger Aarokocra in the party diverting attention away from him. And the Winter King.... Well, he employs a Tiefling and does seem to trust him a great deal, so why would he bat an eye at this? He did say, however, that he would be keeping it more in mind as the campaign picks up in the fall, so let's see what happens!
Never made(or played) D&D but a tiefling training under his ancestor/s to become a warlock with tiefling parents, in a nomadic mostly isolated cabal of fellow tiefling with just a few other races who were desperate enough to seek refuge amongs them..That scenario seem very tempting to me
I still very much want to play the lawful evil devilish tiefling. He would be a fiend pact warlock, and his motives for sticking with the party through the whole campaign is to use them to kill and overthrow his patron eventually, allowing him to inherit their station and become the Devil he's always wanted to be. Best part is, I'd want to embrace the devil side of it to the point that knowing his true name allows power over him, so he just goes by "Deal" (no worries, his family and childhood friends are all dead... he made sure of it.)
I've decided to make a tiefling bard. And as for his tail, he's been raised in the forest with other tiefling orphans and therefore, his tail was used to hang from trees ( as he's learned to love heights or being upside down ) 😌
Best tiefling I ever made was a crusader in an anti-tiefling force, it was like a bad cop drama...in a good way, mind you. No one knew he was a tiefling for such a long time.
Currently working on a Tiefling Warlock character who pretends to be a different race, mainly elf or human. He does this because of the evil nature of his family, not because of how society woyld treat him, he tries to be as little like the members of his family as he despises their actions and lifestyle. He has cut off his own tail and horns, and has sown light brown leather onto his face and neck to look more human-like. At first he refuses to speak ( especially in infernal) unless he's alone, because his voice reminds him of his father and brothers, and he will go out of his way to avoid his purple skin to be seen. But, through out the campaign his horns might grow back over time if he grows comfortable enough with the party and is okay with being a tiefling. However, I've played a different Tiefling character who absolutely embraced his race, his tail, horns and wings. He had great moments in our campaign and I loved playing him 😁
Another great video - I don't play much pathfinder/dnd (running my first pathfinder soon!) having mainly run BRP homebrew and Cthulhu but always enjoy the insights and there is always something to take from these videos. Many thanks for your work as always.
i understand completely your point, tieflings are so complex and getting into deep socioeconomic politics in an rpg is surprisingly engaging! i do also have an understanding for groups who choose to throw these established roles out the window. sometimes you just want to sweep everything off the table and put all the components back in a totally new way! as well, it may be a stereotype, but i've found many players that experience discrimination in their lives aren't always eager to jump into a fantasy world where their characters face the exact same sentiment. escapism is escapism, and for some these worlds of rigid boundaries, terrible consequences, and oppression are totally absorbing, and from an analytical standpoint they are! but sometimes you've just got to chill with a party of a drow, a dragonborn, a kenku, and a teifling in a pub ran by a half-orc and all be good friends and allies :) (as a disclaimer, i did have my party of exotic races get swarmed by the human/halfling inhabitants of a small frontier town, but not in a malicious manner! just enough to be very, very annoying)
I adore Tieflings especially when the lineage options were released, making the race so much more flexible! Fierna lineage tieflings with a wisdom boost for Cleric/druid/ranger/monk builds, or simply to have that array of once a day persuasion spells like charm and friends, Zariel lineage for the free smites and strength buff, I've recently been on a kick of just making quite a few and I adore the potential the race has and bringing others (be they pc or npc) to look at them in a different light over the course of a story.
I totally agree, I started making a teifling ranger before I knew of the Fierna lineage and was struggling to make up a backstory but now that I know of the lineage I've realized it's perfect for my teifling.
I was literally sitting here.. about 5 Hours ago watching Critical Role and thinking "I wonder if Guy has a video about Tiefling" .. and now you do! :D
I let one of my players play as a first generation Stygian tiefling. Since he gained his fiendish physical traits from Levistus, that just meant sharp canines and solid black eyes (easily hidden from townsfolk and uninformed PCs). However, when they did notice that he wasn't just a normal human they immediately became extremely suspicious and started speculating that he was some kind of vampire or something.
Once again, you've managed to pick something eerily relevant to my current campaign, as the character I'm playing is a tiefling. Get out of my head! :P
Also, "Imagine living in a world where you're shunned, considered a degenerate, dangerous"(paraphrasing). That's this world, as a gamer. We're blamed for damn near everything most of the time. :P
I was wondering if you could make a video on Goliath's, Triton's or even the tabaxi, because I know you make such amazing videos on all the races and open the door to new ideas that most of us have never considered, if you do make a video on these three it would be greatly appreciated. Also loved this video too, it makes it easier to help players decide their attitude in game.
My first dnd character(i played previously path finder once) i made it the other day, we didnt even start playing yet... But its a tomboyish tiefling bard who plays music for a living (at leats until the quest starts or as a way to get gold im between adventures) Deception, intimidation with the help of thaumaturgy will probably make my character a lovely friendly tiefling, right?
Just made a tiefling for 3.5 version, can't wait to try it out with friends, the usual dm of our party said it's fine even with this edition with some limitations (instead of +1 int and +2 charisma, i got +2 char and -2 wis) but so far we don't have a campaign to put him in, so now i'm looking videos about them, hyping myself up.
So I've never played yet but I'm brainstorming a character and I arrived at the tiefling for the race, and for class hex blade warlock. After watching this I guess he's the defiant type? I think that cuz I imagine him with a charming persona but it's technically a defense mechanism against how society sees him. And depending on if the rest of the players would be ok with it in a given campaign he'd make inuendos whenever possible. Basically I based his personality off of Belial from Granblue Fantasy, if whoever reads this knows who that is. Main difference tho is my character isn't evil like Belial is.
The variant tiefling heritages in Pathfinder gives more possibilities on how their nature might impact the character’s personality - a rakshasa-spawn tiefling, for instance, could have personality traits from rakshasa. Maybe those fiends’ tendency towards hedonism comes up as the character being a bit of a party-goer or, for a darker take, that might manifest as an addictive personality where they could easily get addicted to drink, drugs, etc. The rakshasa’s domineering aspect could become a drive to be in charge of the group, to be a leader. And maybe he actually has the skills to pull that off. Rakshasa are also manipulative schemers, so maybe the tiefling character descended from them has the skills to be a great con-man or spy. Combine that with the last one and you could end up with a tiefling version of Leverage’s Nathan Ford, the mastermind behind a team of thieves and grifters who seek to take the wealthy arseholes of the world down a peg or two.
In my setting, the Blood War seeped over to the material plane for some time, and Devils fought with the humans against the Demons to preserve order. As such, Tieflings who display Devilish heritage are generally accepted and expected to do great things, while Demonic Tieflings are shunned and persecuted. I think more settings should experiment with what kind of Fiend Tieflings get their heritage from and what it means.
I love Tieflings, 6 years playing a campaign with my Archer (fighter)/ Saint of Elhona. Epic since the first lvl1 session to the last level 25 session.
I have this idea for a Teifling Paladin, named Grey, and she is lawful, not quite lawful stupid, but close, the teifling flavor in setting is basically tieflings are of a dual nature their human half and their demon half, it takes a human half of incredably strong will to control the demon side and not just be corrupted and evil. She is very strong willed, not so much out of strength of character, but she has a conviction, basically to hold to the tenants of her oath, no mater what it says. She's also ashamed of her being a teifling, she has shaved off her horns, and keeps them clipped as close to her head as she can, she has tried a few times to cut off her tail, but basically if she were to successfully do that, it could easily kill her through a combination of blood loss and balance loss (very difficult to walk without tail) She is always seen in full armor, and a helmet with a decorative mask, there are quite a few who do not know she is a she, or a teifling, and she likes it that way
Currently playing a Pathfinder campaign as a Teifling Magus sent from a distant Academy to assist this party with fighting off a potential demon invasion. He is most certainly the one defying his demonic nature and is and has ended up being a timid bookworm type. My DM is even giving me some fun rollplay opportunity with a power enemy dropping a sword possessed with demonic energy trying to call out for me to wield it.
My tiefling is wizard that is a gentleman, he tries to do good where ever he is but I would say he sits between the defeated and defiant. Mostly trying to be nice to people but rejecting the notion that he is evil, a bit naive about the world because of his upbringing with a group of traveling wizards taught him that people can be indifferent about his lineage.
My Tiefling is a rebellious one. I haven't thought about him doing a protest march. He does play the race card at every opportunity. _"The gnoll is going to swing his weapon at you."_ He's only doing this because I'm a tiefling. _"You just ran up and hit him with a flurry of blows!"_ He's just trying to justify his racism. And yes, he does use his tail for some unarmed attacks.
My tiefling is very brazen and defiant, but also makes money doing dishonest work. (Fortune telling and palm reading etc) But she has a very soft heart for children. Because she doesn’t want the next generation to think tieflings are evil or persecute tieflings like she was. She essentially is very “hell yeah i’m a tiefling eat my foot” at the older and more discriminatory persons, but is gentle and motherly to the open minded
Something that I think Guy could actually pull off depicting (after I’ve watched this video) is a discription of how one might go about playong the WH40k Dark Eldar character... you know the one that literally has to kill or torture someone every session to keep her sanity (according to the rulebook).... that’d be quite a challange! )
Taking a look at my unholy list of characters to use, a tiefling who hides his demonic appearance, and his goal is to befriend everyone then reveal his true appearance
I played a deceitful tiefling who would say stuff like “not all tieflings”, he would be generous with his gold and have conversations with racists to get their perspective on what he was. Then he’d turn it all on it’s head, he’d do things to get favour then once he was in a position of good standing he’d exploit it. He’d look for information on the guards he bribed to get into the city and use it against them, he’d steal and fight and kill. Then when reports of a tiefling committing crimes spread and people started blaming him - back on its head again “one report of a bad tiefling and you’re all looking at me?”. Managed to frame so many innocents. Back when we cared about alignment I started playing him as chaotic neutral, then he just became lawful/neutral evil
I have this one teifling girl who had her tail cut off at the beginning of her adventure due to it getting caught and the only way to escape was to cut it off. Afterwards. She retrieved the tail and turned it into a whip which she uses as her main weapon lol
My teifling character (Ivacarius) is good at heart, but has been forced to do some morally ambiguous things just to get by. He accidentally started a gang war and was driven out of his home, so he sought out to turn a new leaf and become an adventurer.
My first character was a Tiefling. Rather than embrace or reject his heritage, it was just sorta there. He wanted to be defined by his actions rather than his heritage, and his endgame was to try to keep his heritage from happening again
I've recently had an idea for a sort of devilish tiefling, but rather than being inherently bad, they are just a hardcore deviant. Like, descended from a succubus but not a succubus type stuff.
I play a tiefling paladin who helps everyone no matter what they say about me because I have a natural will to help others and I also want to show tieflings in a good light
I'm currently playing a Tiefling who is constantly trying to prove himself as a valued member of society, and as a leader, so I suppose he'd fall under the "Defiant" category. This character is also the son of two Tiefling parents, so there's the potential for two separate infernal heritages.
The fourth type is..Dont give a hoot what you think...character. My tiefling is based off Outlaw Josie Wales, a female version that Clint Eastwood acted. She owns her race and gives no apologies for existing.
I decided to make a Tiefling Ranger who's going to multiclass into a fighter, once I get around to using him. What I came up with for him is the ultimate cynical, realist, neutral being. He accepts what he is, but wont apologize for what he is or what others do. He doesn't believe the actions of 1 or a group should paint him in a negative light in other peoples eyes. He has a very "Don't fuck with me and I wont fuck with you" way of seeing things but will defend himself to the extreme if need be. Basically what most of my characters are really lol >XD But this time added to a Tiefling.
I'm currently playing a Tiefling in a homebrew campaign where they were once actually enslaved by the Big Bad God of the world, and most people still think they are. He's been mostly the Defeated type, especially since besides being a Tiefling he's also (by a stroke of bad luck with rural villagers) been adopted and raised by a necromancer who taught him the fine art of magic that is condemned wholesale in the region that he lives in. He's recently had a turning point (the beginning of one anyway) where the group he's travelling with has actually offered to stand up for him against anyone who so much as expresses negative views towards Tieflings. Has anybody else had experience playing a Teifling where they start out as one of the three Ds (hehe) and through the course of their story transitioned to another one? Or even mixed and matched with some level of effectiveness?
I'm playing a tiefling that was raised by her loving human parents as a normal person so when she started adventuring with her new party she thought of herself as a normal person. And when people would point and call out "look a tiefling" she would turn and go "where?" Not thinking of herself as one.
Ah the Tiefling. Once you make one character of them, your next 5 characters are cursed to also be Tieflings. I made two recently, Olaf the Monster Hunter Seafarer, and La-Veed, the Jovial Cleric of Tymora raised by Halflings. Nothing is cooler than constantly threatening people with Hellish Rebuke
I just recently played a teifling and this is my opinion of them based on my limited experience. I love the teiflings that try to go against their heritage, like the defiant ones, the ones who go out of their way to help others. I personally find it boring the ones who just blame their heritage for their actions.
One of my players is a tiefling who is somewhat devilish, but he is also kind of unaware of the stereotypes. He was a criminal and he does bad things .
I've always found the Tiefling to be somewhat romantic. Almost every Tiefling is inherently stuck on the fence, which means most have to actively decide what they will be. There's so much depth of character just begging to be used!
"Also sci-fi races" Ohmygod could you do huts? They were op af in saga edition, so there was always that one guy who wanted to play a slow, gross, hermaphrodite slug that was super strong and immune to blaster fire. Lol
Im planing on playing a tiefling that was exsepting but really angry about trying to ignore it and got exsplosive when someone tells them about it and become embarrassed and try to keep up there air of control and stubenness
Embrace the tail, Use the tail, *LOVE* the tail
Yes, it is an important de-tail!
That Part!
FUCK the Tail
I'd love some tail but not until after marriage because I love Jesus, fellas!
What was he talking about when he said there are feats that can give you a prehensile tail? I'm kinda new to dnd, and haven't even used feats yet.
My tiefling got a hold of a Hat of Disguise, which he'll never let go again. Now he always looks like various different humans, depending on the roleplaying needs. Only one person of the current party even knows that he is really a tiefling.
As a political schemer tieffling warlock in a game where we began at a fairly high level (7th), I choose powers enabling me to use change self and alter self at will... My character is litterally walking on a permanent illusion spell of being an elf, hiding his false human form from the alter self spell hiding his true tieffling nature. That's actually immensely funny to play with!
anlumo1 I've been working on a tiefling caster and, as the party's only caster, have been forced to take a lot of utility spells. I haven't even played him yet, and I KNOW I'm going to regret not having taken disguise self.
My tiefling has a similar item but it's a necklace in battle my dm let's me take it off and roll intimidation. Recently had a few bandits piss themselves when I went from a strong looking human to a huge horned monster with black and red marbled skin. My party promptly skewed them and then I went back to my average looking human :P
That's probably alot better then disguise kit and self mutation.
Between the ones you mentioned, I believe there is also a fourth type of Tiefling; The oblivious hermit. When a Tiefling's parents conceived the child, they were either exiled from their town, abandoned in the woods to prevent that or moved to live with an estranged, seclusive relative to protect them from the common people. Regardless of the reason, these are the Tieflings that have been raised far removed from the slings and arrows of the common-people, a fish out of water in for a rude awakening as the campaign has them step into the many settlements in the setting.
That was sort of the angle I took with a Tiefling Bard I'm currently playing; Rhan Crowley. His Tiefling heritage comes from his mother's side, an eternal mark of a centuries old alliance with a demon. It tends to happen only once a generation or 2, yet Rhan was still unfortunate enough to end up like that. Being farmers out in the countryside, they didn't have to deal with people as much as in town, yet still Rhan noticed how his parents never really wanted him around when people were concerned and his mother in particular would sometimes give him this particular look of disappointment. Where he would usually spend alot of his time was with his estranged Aunt, another Tiefling in the family. Living far in the woods, they were completely free from the stigmas of the Tiefling and was actually taught of the demon that they originally formed a pact with as a positive thing, this nature-fiend that embraced indulgence and hedonism.
So Rhan would have been raised in a very weird in-between on his fiendish origin. Having experienced the neglect and aversion to him of the commonfolk, yet also taught of how his heritage brings pride. Just overall confused on how he's supposed to feel about being a Tiefling. The race used as almost like an allegory to puberty or otherwise somebody finding one's self.
I have a character who is also a weird hermit tiefling who doesn't know much about his devilish heritage, he was actually raised around satyrs and resembles one and thought he was one until someone told him. If anyone asks he always says he's a satyr because it's less of a stigma than a tiefling
My Tiefling is also a Drunken Master, so he pretends to be drunk to make people avoid him and or underestimate him. People who are cruel to him because of his race quickly fall victim to a drunken "mishap."
I like the idea of a different sort of rebellious tiefling. He doesn't accept the evil label, but he isn't particularly in your face about it. I imagine a character that will laugh off any sort of insult to him (though who might be a bit more offended for another's sake) and who grins quite a bit as a sort of "well, you may be able to keep me out of your city, but I'll eventually have the final victory, even if I don't quite know how yet." I think it would be fun to play an optimistic, sarcastic tiefling, instead of the traditionally evil or trying-very-hard-to-be-good variety.
reminds me of Molly from Critical Role!!!
So nightcrawler from the x-men?
I created a tiefling bard that was good out of spite because his parents hated him and locked him up out of shame and only told him that he was evil. I decided he should use a violin because drums and lutes are a little overused.
I accidentally created the devil that went down to Georgia but just out of spite for his daddy devil telling him that he would be bad at playing the violin
Violin tiefling bards with parental issues cheeeeck!
I have a paladin tiefling. This is a good video that labels him as the defiant tiefling. He will help others regardless of if they hate him or not, but he will not apologize for his heritage because he figures he had nothing to do with that.
My son and I made twin tieflings raised in a monastery not knowing much of their background. He is a monk and my character is a cleric. Its only our second game so we are excited
@@davidwood1786 I honestly need to know, how’s that been going? That sounds like a lot of fun.
Ahh the tiefling.
My dm makes tieflings a common race.
Meanwhile, wood elves get shot on sight by high elves.
Well it's his world so I'm not gonna complain
What changed in his world? Is dwvil worship normalized or was some important historical figure a teifling or something?
My idea on playing a tiefling is that is a child from a Witch that I previously roleplayed, who made a pact with a demon. The thing on this character is the opposite as you said, he is a piece of sunshine. He was discrimined in the past for his ovbious horns, but he doesn't blame anybody and just go with it. In a carnival of the city near his house he put on a mask that disguised his horns and met some streetpreformers, which where really nice with him. Due to the admirationfor music and the preformances, his mother gave him a accordion as a present. He learn to play it and now is traveling the world masked an calling himself Mephistopheles. The funny thing is that I, as a player, I'm actually learning to play the accordion to have an actual bard on the desk and not just "rolling dice to see if I can charm the audience". I'm really enjoing it.
I love tieflings. My favorite race
If I get a chance, sometime I’d like to play a Tiefling Bard who’s very sly and cheeky in a devilish and debaucherous way. I’d also like them to actually be a good guy and hopeless romantic. Sounds fun to me.
Jimothy the Green
I'm playing a similar character that is a tiefling bard. She's a college of whispers built to gather information on people with her detect thought, zone of truth, friend, and suggestion. She's very fun to play. Her party members are a little disturbed by her.
That's exactly my char 😂
@Emperor Blobby Get this, I have a tiefling bard in the party that actively steers the party away from brothels and the like.
i love tieflings
one of mine started a tiefling cival rights moment he had spent most his life protected and tought the ways of one of the smaller secs of the church in the world apon adventuring into the world he was horrified to find how his kind are treated because of his position amongst the church and being one of the hero that stopped a attack apon the city it put him in a position were he could work on change
sadly we never got to finish that campaign
One of my favorite Tiefling characters that I played was Kalymnos, the Lawful Good Paladin of Amaunator. I think he definitely fits into the "defiant" zone by decided to let his actions speak for him by being the shiniest knight in shining armor boyscout that couldn't be seen as anything but a good guy. He was a fun one to play as. I think it worked too considering that characters thought of him as a Paladin first and a Tiefling second.
I would be very interested in your take on 5e Aasimar. They are in the Volo's Guide to Monsters, and it is very interesting that they have the Angelic Guide feature. A deva visits them in their dreams to give them guidance, but not through spoken word. It is through visions, prophecies, and feelings. Also, angels may be wise, but they are not infallible. By looking at the world from a distance, they don't really understand the compromises and hard choices of mortal life. It seems like a very rich source of story.
Maybe it's just that I'm a bit bent... BUT I keep thinking of "Supernatural" and Dean's description of Angels... "Dicks with wings"... ;o)
Very interesting - a lot of the character aspect you mention sounds very transferable to monstrous races.
I'm playing a Lizardfolk character in a campaign at the moment, and I'm pulling from those spaces a fair bit in characterizing him. He's in a really bad place at the moment, so he's largely in the defeated mold, but he's also got aspects of the other two. Sometimes his monstrous nature comes out to play (one combat we finished off by him biting the head clean off the last kobold, for example), but he's also got an element of defiance as well. (Unfortunately, it takes the form of that counter-racism that's unfortunately all to common irl - he's used to the warm bloods looking down on him, so he assumes they all will.)
rashkavar I've got a very similar thing going on with my current (and first) character, who is a shifter. She started out very racist herself aswell, since it was pretty much expected that that would be the reaction towards her, since shifters have bewn heavily persecuted over the ages. Her arc is about overcoming her prejudices and learning to seperate a group of people into individuals, not as a dangerous mass that has to be feared, and thus promoting acceptance for her kind. It may be a long way until she can stop hating elves, because they were the ones that killed her tribe for their beast blood. But we will see how it plays out.
WoTC: Nooo Tieflings are evil by nature and shunned from society
Players: Haha horni gey boi.
The three tiefling concepts:
- The Soyboy
- The Rebel
- The Jackass
You forgot.
- The Suducer
- The Introvert
This really helped clarify my characters backstory.
I play a tiefling warlock on Fridays and I love incorporating his tail in roleplay. He used it to try and slap a sexist jerk, he has to sit in certain ways so as not to sit on it, and he used it to guide our goliath when we had to sneak through the woods in the dark.
I once made a Tiefling Trickery Cleric, Relvyn, who was the singlemost chaotic and unpredictable person in existence, he was like a force of nature, the personification of chaos. My DM's words, not mine.
However, he wasn't evil, or even neutral, he was a genuinely good person who would go out of his way to help people, even strangers, he just had a very singular way of doing so.
His relationship to his god was pretty special as well, they were basically buddies, talked all the fucking time and made pranks to everyone, specially the party.
It was one of, if not the most fun I've ever had in a campaign.
My newest dnd character is a Tiefling Cleric. An odd combination, maybe. But she is a defiant Tiefling. She's determined to prove people wrong and show them that not all Tieflings are evil. In fact, they can be good and kind too. She attempts to prove that by being a healer. I really enjoy playing her.
Tieflings have become my favorite race to play. So much fun to design.
Consider a fourth type: The Denier, who attempts to deny and/or hide their heritage.
3.5 had a ton of templates and races that filled the tiefling sort of space, including the tiefling itself. I was partial to Hellbred, repentant evil people who died at the moment of redemption and are given a second chance to right their wrongs, but my most successful character was definitely Teresa, who existed in a world where Tieflings have distant fiend ancestry. The elemental evil in her blood made evil deeds feel natural and even rewarding. So rewarding that doing evil was like taking a dose of an addictive drug.
This was super useful I’ll soon be playing a Tiefling in Waterdeep and this has given me some ideas. I like the idea of straddling the line between being actively antagonistic and fairly noble.
I didn’t have a backstory in mind but listening to this has inspired a couple of ideas that may work. Thanks alot.
I love the parallel you draw between the Tieflings and the Pride. I am working on my character's background as a Tiefling Sorcerer hero aspirant, and the depth provided by such an perspective is tremendous. Thank you for this video!
Thanks to Guy for a excellent presentation on how to play a Tiefling. Gave me some ideas...
I'm a complete newbie to D&D and am playing it for the first time in 3 days. My character is a Tiefling Warlock and this is by far the BEST information I've found on the race. Thank you!
1:10 Almost all tieflings are descended from infernal (devil) cambions. While abyssal (demon) tieflings exist, they are exceedingly rare as demons are more likely to eat you than copulate with you
Found a fairly local game shop that teaches D&D and joined up for this month's teaching campaign. The GM made some premade character sheets and since I was one of the ones who showed up early I got first pick and went with the class I have the most interest in which is Rogue...I'm a Tiefling. I guess I fall into the defiant type cause I know like..zip about D&D race lore and I went for the joking member of the crew who's more about being upbeat in dire situations.
My home game crew is right in the middle of playing the Pathfinder AP Giantslayer and I started the campaign with all of their characters being tieflings that were standing on a gallows with ropes around their necks, the targets of the local human village and their superstitions. It worked out quite well, when they escaped, since they now have a reason for adventuring together ("Everyone is against us, so we demonspawn need to stick together in this harsh and unfair world") and the fact that they all have darkvision makes my job as GMing a little easier (no more keeping track of who can see in the dark and who can't). True, the party is a little more powerful than your usual mix of races, but that's easy to tweak from the GM side of the table. I would definitely suggest trying this kind of gimmick in a home game, it provides lots of chances for role-playing, both inside as well as outside the party.
I'm playing a happy-go-lucky tiefling bard in my game! She's pink and is supposed to be kind of annoying, but in an endearing way? I can't really pull it off, but playing tieflings is really fun.
how about tackling a obscure race, The Kenku (specifically 5E version if the other versions are different)
Playing my first tiefling for an mini campaign at the moment. A Paladin whose mentor swears to him that he senses not just good, but celestial good inside inside this tiefling. I've always liked the cursed offspring aspect of tieflings and as such made the story, and it's up to the DM whether or not it's true, that a group aasimar were condemned for mingling with mortals and as such cursed by a tricky night hag to only conceive tiefling children. This mentor of my tiefling paladin believes the curse may be lifted by my character abandoning his lazy and apathetic worldview and instead shine as example of righteousness and good.
There are plenty of stories about fallen angels becoming devils (in fact, I even use the stats of Zariel Tieflings and used the name Caim spelled backwards). It's not going to be a long campaign, but I'll have some fun with a tiefling reluctantly trying to make his way down the reverse path.
I've only recently found your channel(s) and I must say I'm enjoying immensely. I've been playing and GMing for 30 years and while I'm immodest enough to say I can create decent adventures, I have always sucked at trying to link them together into any sort of campaign worthy of the name. I'm about to start running a new campaign and your videos have been helping quite a lot.
Thank you for all your past work and please, keep doing whatever voodoo you do to continue making more great content :)
One of my favourite long-term characters was a Tiefling Wizard, in a 3/3.5 campaign. He was of a paranoid/persecuted mindset, always trying to be anticipatingly-suspicious of others, painfully aware that he would probably be persecuted. (Skin was bit leathery, some joint-spines, hair was a bit quilly, and smelled lightly of smoke all the time.)
One of his main goals was to avoid what, to his understanding, would have been his unfairly unavoidable fate of ending up, after death, in one of the nastier planes, no matter his deeds. So: pursuit of Phenomenal Magical Power. Grudging fellowship with his group, whom he grew to trust, after a fashion, eventually, though contingency plans were in place 'just in case'. Every being was a study-target for means to defeat them. Made sure to have the widest possible variety of spells accumulated for as many situations as possible, and tried to be as forewarned and planned-out as could be.
His later arc found him looking towards immortality as an option. (Not yet Pathfinder for those lovely Wizardy discoveries, so it had to be somewhat old-school.) Lichdom came up in the research, but it was not valid for an Outsider (even Native) in its description, so...other options? Came up with the idea to create a construct-body to transfer into ('Warforged' analogue), and did the research, gained the feats to create, prepared the spells, and spent the resources. Spent some in-game time having the character mull over all the repercussions and results that he could conceive, talking (if tersely) with his group regarding the change, and when his decision had been made, arranged a bit of final hurrah to the body, trying to relish the last bits that would be no longer granted in the new form - like sleep, breathing, eating... Of course, since spells were still a thing, a Polymorph or such could temporarily simulate an organic body again, but...character!
Thereafter, he only needed to fret about occasional maintenance, and catching the attention of some of the Inevitables - those horridly Lawful entities that dealt with gross abuse of cosmic laws, like cheating/avoiding natural death. And being the clever and magically-juicy Wizard he was, he felt properly armed to deal with those...
A fun story to work through, and enjoyable years of play, for sure.
One rather interesting NPC character I've been using recently is a Mercane (yes from the bestiary) cleric. He's a healer role character who's a merchant who deals in magic items. He often goes looking for artifacts in various places and hires people to look after him if he feels it's necessary as he's not so much a coward but knows his limits when it comes to danger. He initially hired my players to look for a book in a dungeon but has decided to stay with them (in reality my group needed a healer). Was only meant to use him once but he worked so well the character stayed.
I would love an episode covering the rate and consistency of giving your players access to magical items/weapons. As a DM I found it difficult to balance a game once my players had magical items/weapons, but at the same time I want to make it possible for them to have powerful things if they roll well. The balance is something I think needs to be explored, would definitely love some outside opinions/examples
I also would like some ideas regarding a specific problem I have with a player of mine. He is a nice enough person, and very fun to have around, but he is also the only person who seems to understand the idea of LOOT. I've tried repeatedly to get my players to check bodies for loot, as well as secret compartments, treasure chests, or other areas, but the average D&D player doesn't seem to remember the concept. However, this player is always on top of it, and I find it difficult to justify stopping him without making it seem like I'm being unfair. This player also doesn't want to share his items, nor does he barter fairly with other players when they want what he has. Again, he doesn't have to be fair to them, I get that, but he is the only one who actively tries to grab loot whenever possible. As a DM I know I can reach down and just smite his character whenever, but I refuse to bend the rules too much just because one person is actually playing better than the rest. Any ideas/suggestions?
My first character (and my favorite) that I created was a tiefling sorcerer! I love him quite a lot!
Would you mind going over the Aasimar race? Thank you!
This actually helped me with a Tiefling I've been trying to think of a backstory/history for her. Glad I found this video.
Roleplaying Tieflings gets extra fun when you imagine how they were as children. Like say maybe a toddler would go around randomly headbutting things with their horns like goats. Or rubbing their growing horns against a tree or something. Mine would scurry along the ceiling of his parents house like a squirrel. Tiefling Terrible Twos man. I'm telling ya.
Critical Role's Jester is the most precious tiefling in existence. Can we all agree that.
I'm the the lull of my college D&D group where I have my wonderful Tiefling Druid... who is also kind of a bard since he mainly uses an enchanted ukulele to cast some specially learned spells or just bean 'em over the head... He actually ran away from his parents, who were very much the sort who embraced what society believed about them, and he ended up with some traveling Dwarven Bards who ended up adopting him and taking him back to Neverwinter.... He did experience some segragation there, for certain, mostly staying in the house and playing with his fathers, but he got sent off to the Druid's Grove when it was shown he had the potential. It was a little rocky there, at first, but since all the druids in training live together 24/7 and Rythen took a liking to him, most people got to know the very caring man he is.
Then... Well, then the Iron Circle came and started their meddling on the area. He was a fully fledged Druid, so he went out to help.... and mostly heal the party. he ended up helping to start, and then end the revolutionary war, though at the cost of his bear companion's life... His dads came to take him and his party members to Neverwinter for some down time after that, he grieved a lot but was feeling much more at peace about it and was ready to forge a new relationship with a beast. Winter was lasting too long, so they went to investigate and see if this Winterking legend thing was true... The party blew a huge hole in the wall within 3 minutes of arriving and my boy was stressed to hell the whole time. And he got a crush on the fellow Tiefling blacksmith who had thawed out a few weeks ago.... That final fight was VERY hard on him, there was much apologizing and just needing to relax when our Aarokocra managed to figure things out with the Winter King. He ended up getting a miniature drake and a stone of far speech at the end of things....
I brought it up with my GM before we parted ways for the summer that not many people seemed to mind my character being a Tiefling throughout this. He said that, for one, a war was starting and the Rebellion was a relatively small groups that would take whomever they could get. Neverwinter was his home town, so people knew he existed, his fathers speaking highly of him to those in the Dwarven District whenever they stopped in from traveling to restock, plus there was the even stranger Aarokocra in the party diverting attention away from him. And the Winter King.... Well, he employs a Tiefling and does seem to trust him a great deal, so why would he bat an eye at this? He did say, however, that he would be keeping it more in mind as the campaign picks up in the fall, so let's see what happens!
Never made(or played) D&D but a tiefling training under his ancestor/s to become a warlock with tiefling parents, in a nomadic mostly isolated cabal of fellow tiefling with just a few other races who were desperate enough to seek refuge amongs them..That scenario seem very tempting to me
I still very much want to play the lawful evil devilish tiefling. He would be a fiend pact warlock, and his motives for sticking with the party through the whole campaign is to use them to kill and overthrow his patron eventually, allowing him to inherit their station and become the Devil he's always wanted to be. Best part is, I'd want to embrace the devil side of it to the point that knowing his true name allows power over him, so he just goes by "Deal" (no worries, his family and childhood friends are all dead... he made sure of it.)
I've decided to make a tiefling bard. And as for his tail, he's been raised in the forest with other tiefling orphans and therefore, his tail was used to hang from trees ( as he's learned to love heights or being upside down ) 😌
Best tiefling I ever made was a crusader in an anti-tiefling force, it was like a bad cop drama...in a good way, mind you. No one knew he was a tiefling for such a long time.
Currently working on a Tiefling Warlock character who pretends to be a different race, mainly elf or human. He does this because of the evil nature of his family, not because of how society woyld treat him, he tries to be as little like the members of his family as he despises their actions and lifestyle.
He has cut off his own tail and horns, and has sown light brown leather onto his face and neck to look more human-like.
At first he refuses to speak ( especially in infernal) unless he's alone, because his voice reminds him of his father and brothers, and he will go out of his way to avoid his purple skin to be seen.
But, through out the campaign his horns might grow back over time if he grows comfortable enough with the party and is okay with being a tiefling.
However, I've played a different Tiefling character who absolutely embraced his race, his tail, horns and wings. He had great moments in our campaign and I loved playing him 😁
Another great video - I don't play much pathfinder/dnd (running my first pathfinder soon!) having mainly run BRP homebrew and Cthulhu but always enjoy the insights and there is always something to take from these videos. Many thanks for your work as always.
i understand completely your point, tieflings are so complex and getting into deep socioeconomic politics in an rpg is surprisingly engaging! i do also have an understanding for groups who choose to throw these established roles out the window. sometimes you just want to sweep everything off the table and put all the components back in a totally new way! as well, it may be a stereotype, but i've found many players that experience discrimination in their lives aren't always eager to jump into a fantasy world where their characters face the exact same sentiment. escapism is escapism, and for some these worlds of rigid boundaries, terrible consequences, and oppression are totally absorbing, and from an analytical standpoint they are! but sometimes you've just got to chill with a party of a drow, a dragonborn, a kenku, and a teifling in a pub ran by a half-orc and all be good friends and allies :) (as a disclaimer, i did have my party of exotic races get swarmed by the human/halfling inhabitants of a small frontier town, but not in a malicious manner! just enough to be very, very annoying)
I love the way you deliver you're lines! You're so melodious I can see you had devilish theater training
I adore Tieflings especially when the lineage options were released, making the race so much more flexible! Fierna lineage tieflings with a wisdom boost for Cleric/druid/ranger/monk builds, or simply to have that array of once a day persuasion spells like charm and friends, Zariel lineage for the free smites and strength buff, I've recently been on a kick of just making quite a few and I adore the potential the race has and bringing others (be they pc or npc) to look at them in a different light over the course of a story.
I totally agree, I started making a teifling ranger before I knew of the Fierna lineage and was struggling to make up a backstory but now that I know of the lineage I've realized it's perfect for my teifling.
I was literally sitting here.. about 5 Hours ago watching Critical Role and thinking "I wonder if Guy has a video about Tiefling" .. and now you do! :D
I let one of my players play as a first generation Stygian tiefling. Since he gained his fiendish physical traits from Levistus, that just meant sharp canines and solid black eyes (easily hidden from townsfolk and uninformed PCs). However, when they did notice that he wasn't just a normal human they immediately became extremely suspicious and started speculating that he was some kind of vampire or something.
Once again, you've managed to pick something eerily relevant to my current campaign, as the character I'm playing is a tiefling.
Get out of my head! :P
Also, "Imagine living in a world where you're shunned, considered a degenerate, dangerous"(paraphrasing).
That's this world, as a gamer. We're blamed for damn near everything most of the time. :P
I was wondering if you could make a video on Goliath's, Triton's or even the tabaxi, because I know you make such amazing videos on all the races and open the door to new ideas that most of us have never considered, if you do make a video on these three it would be greatly appreciated. Also loved this video too, it makes it easier to help players decide their attitude in game.
My first dnd character(i played previously path finder once) i made it the other day, we didnt even start playing yet... But its a tomboyish tiefling bard who plays music for a living (at leats until the quest starts or as a way to get gold im between adventures)
Deception, intimidation with the help of thaumaturgy will probably make my character a lovely friendly tiefling, right?
Just made a tiefling for 3.5 version, can't wait to try it out with friends, the usual dm of our party said it's fine even with this edition with some limitations (instead of +1 int and +2 charisma, i got +2 char and -2 wis) but so far we don't have a campaign to put him in, so now i'm looking videos about them, hyping myself up.
I would give Web DM’s tiefling video a watch. They take a good look at the history of tieflings in dnd and how they’ve changed
So I've never played yet but I'm brainstorming a character and I arrived at the tiefling for the race, and for class hex blade warlock.
After watching this I guess he's the defiant type? I think that cuz I imagine him with a charming persona but it's technically a defense mechanism against how society sees him. And depending on if the rest of the players would be ok with it in a given campaign he'd make inuendos whenever possible.
Basically I based his personality off of Belial from Granblue Fantasy, if whoever reads this knows who that is. Main difference tho is my character isn't evil like Belial is.
The variant tiefling heritages in Pathfinder gives more possibilities on how their nature might impact the character’s personality - a rakshasa-spawn tiefling, for instance, could have personality traits from rakshasa. Maybe those fiends’ tendency towards hedonism comes up as the character being a bit of a party-goer or, for a darker take, that might manifest as an addictive personality where they could easily get addicted to drink, drugs, etc. The rakshasa’s domineering aspect could become a drive to be in charge of the group, to be a leader. And maybe he actually has the skills to pull that off. Rakshasa are also manipulative schemers, so maybe the tiefling character descended from them has the skills to be a great con-man or spy. Combine that with the last one and you could end up with a tiefling version of Leverage’s Nathan Ford, the mastermind behind a team of thieves and grifters who seek to take the wealthy arseholes of the world down a peg or two.
In my setting, the Blood War seeped over to the material plane for some time, and Devils fought with the humans against the Demons to preserve order. As such, Tieflings who display Devilish heritage are generally accepted and expected to do great things, while Demonic Tieflings are shunned and persecuted. I think more settings should experiment with what kind of Fiend Tieflings get their heritage from and what it means.
I love Tieflings, 6 years playing a campaign with my Archer (fighter)/ Saint of Elhona. Epic since the first lvl1 session to the last level 25 session.
Could you do a video spotlighting the Warforge? I've had several of my players play as them and I never really know what to give them for info on it.
I have this idea for a Teifling Paladin, named Grey, and she is lawful, not quite lawful stupid, but close, the teifling flavor in setting is basically tieflings are of a dual nature their human half and their demon half, it takes a human half of incredably strong will to control the demon side and not just be corrupted and evil.
She is very strong willed, not so much out of strength of character, but she has a conviction, basically to hold to the tenants of her oath, no mater what it says.
She's also ashamed of her being a teifling, she has shaved off her horns, and keeps them clipped as close to her head as she can, she has tried a few times to cut off her tail, but basically if she were to successfully do that, it could easily kill her through a combination of blood loss and balance loss (very difficult to walk without tail) She is always seen in full armor, and a helmet with a decorative mask, there are quite a few who do not know she is a she, or a teifling, and she likes it that way
Really like it. Got a lvl 4 Tief Rogue. I have been DMing for the past few months, but soon it will be my turn to play!
Currently playing a Pathfinder campaign as a Teifling Magus sent from a distant Academy to assist this party with fighting off a potential demon invasion. He is most certainly the one defying his demonic nature and is and has ended up being a timid bookworm type. My DM is even giving me some fun rollplay opportunity with a power enemy dropping a sword possessed with demonic energy trying to call out for me to wield it.
My tiefling is wizard that is a gentleman, he tries to do good where ever he is but I would say he sits between the defeated and defiant. Mostly trying to be nice to people but rejecting the notion that he is evil, a bit naive about the world because of his upbringing with a group of traveling wizards taught him that people can be indifferent about his lineage.
Lv 20 Tiefling Gunslinger Fighter. This is Dante. A half demon that hunts full demons for wanting to kill people and stuff.
Angelus Mortis
Careful, a Devil May Cry from this sort of thing...
@@MrBeekhead out now!
My Tiefling is a rebellious one. I haven't thought about him doing a protest march. He does play the race card at every opportunity. _"The gnoll is going to swing his weapon at you."_ He's only doing this because I'm a tiefling. _"You just ran up and hit him with a flurry of blows!"_ He's just trying to justify his racism.
And yes, he does use his tail for some unarmed attacks.
My tiefling is very brazen and defiant, but also makes money doing dishonest work. (Fortune telling and palm reading etc) But she has a very soft heart for children. Because she doesn’t want the next generation to think tieflings are evil or persecute tieflings like she was.
She essentially is very “hell yeah i’m a tiefling eat my foot” at the older and more discriminatory persons, but is gentle and motherly to the open minded
Something that I think Guy could actually pull off depicting (after I’ve watched this video) is a discription of how one might go about playong the WH40k Dark Eldar character... you know the one that literally has to kill or torture someone every session to keep her sanity (according to the rulebook).... that’d be quite a challange! )
Taking a look at my unholy list of characters to use, a tiefling who hides his demonic appearance, and his goal is to befriend everyone then reveal his true appearance
I played a deceitful tiefling who would say stuff like “not all tieflings”, he would be generous with his gold and have conversations with racists to get their perspective on what he was. Then he’d turn it all on it’s head, he’d do things to get favour then once he was in a position of good standing he’d exploit it. He’d look for information on the guards he bribed to get into the city and use it against them, he’d steal and fight and kill. Then when reports of a tiefling committing crimes spread and people started blaming him - back on its head again “one report of a bad tiefling and you’re all looking at me?”. Managed to frame so many innocents. Back when we cared about alignment I started playing him as chaotic neutral, then he just became lawful/neutral evil
I have this one teifling girl who had her tail cut off at the beginning of her adventure due to it getting caught and the only way to escape was to cut it off. Afterwards. She retrieved the tail and turned it into a whip which she uses as her main weapon lol
My teifling character (Ivacarius) is good at heart, but has been forced to do some morally ambiguous things just to get by. He accidentally started a gang war and was driven out of his home, so he sought out to turn a new leaf and become an adventurer.
My tiefling was raised in a viking atmosphere( barbarian) . So far its working out really well. Fun to play.
My first character was a Tiefling. Rather than embrace or reject his heritage, it was just sorta there. He wanted to be defined by his actions rather than his heritage, and his endgame was to try to keep his heritage from happening again
Excellent vid as always, good sir. Makes me want to play a tiefling again. But better.
I've recently had an idea for a sort of devilish tiefling, but rather than being inherently bad, they are just a hardcore deviant. Like, descended from a succubus but not a succubus type stuff.
I play a tiefling paladin who helps everyone no matter what they say about me because I have a natural will to help others and I also want to show tieflings in a good light
Thanks, that was very helpful!
I'm currently playing a Tiefling who is constantly trying to prove himself as a valued member of society, and as a leader, so I suppose he'd fall under the "Defiant" category.
This character is also the son of two Tiefling parents, so there's the potential for two separate infernal heritages.
The fourth type is..Dont give a hoot what you think...character. My tiefling is based off Outlaw Josie Wales, a female version that Clint Eastwood acted. She owns her race and gives no apologies for existing.
Please do one of these on half-orcs. I am new to dnd and would like to understand my character's race better.
I decided to make a Tiefling Ranger who's going to multiclass into a fighter, once I get around to using him. What I came up with for him is the ultimate cynical, realist, neutral being. He accepts what he is, but wont apologize for what he is or what others do. He doesn't believe the actions of 1 or a group should paint him in a negative light in other peoples eyes. He has a very "Don't fuck with me and I wont fuck with you" way of seeing things but will defend himself to the extreme if need be. Basically what most of my characters are really lol >XD But this time added to a Tiefling.
I'm currently playing a Tiefling in a homebrew campaign where they were once actually enslaved by the Big Bad God of the world, and most people still think they are. He's been mostly the Defeated type, especially since besides being a Tiefling he's also (by a stroke of bad luck with rural villagers) been adopted and raised by a necromancer who taught him the fine art of magic that is condemned wholesale in the region that he lives in. He's recently had a turning point (the beginning of one anyway) where the group he's travelling with has actually offered to stand up for him against anyone who so much as expresses negative views towards Tieflings.
Has anybody else had experience playing a Teifling where they start out as one of the three Ds (hehe) and through the course of their story transitioned to another one? Or even mixed and matched with some level of effectiveness?
I'm playing a tiefling that was raised by her loving human parents as a normal person so when she started adventuring with her new party she thought of herself as a normal person. And when people would point and call out "look a tiefling" she would turn and go "where?" Not thinking of herself as one.
Ah the Tiefling. Once you make one character of them, your next 5 characters are cursed to also be Tieflings. I made two recently, Olaf the Monster Hunter Seafarer, and La-Veed, the Jovial Cleric of Tymora raised by Halflings. Nothing is cooler than constantly threatening people with Hellish Rebuke
I just recently played a teifling and this is my opinion of them based on my limited experience. I love the teiflings that try to go against their heritage, like the defiant ones, the ones who go out of their way to help others. I personally find it boring the ones who just blame their heritage for their actions.
I also kinda love the physical features of them, tail and horns are cool.
I'm currently playing a Tiefling Warlock Hexblade. His name is Kayon Drakarthai and has a psudo dragon familiar 😁
One of my players is a tiefling who is somewhat devilish, but he is also kind of unaware of the stereotypes. He was a criminal and he does bad things .
Btw if you can't pick a name for your tiefling just look up greek names. It really works better than you'd expect, just ask my bard achaikos.
Just started a campaign where I'm playing a tiefling who's devoted his life in servitude as a paladin to Helm.
I'd like to see Harriet Sansom Harris play a tiefling character. She'd just need to channel a bit of Bebe Glazer, and voilá!
I've always found the Tiefling to be somewhat romantic. Almost every Tiefling is inherently stuck on the fence, which means most have to actively decide what they will be. There's so much depth of character just begging to be used!
First. Also TEAFLINGS FINALLY
Tea-flings? Did their ancestors make a pact with a teahouse?
The people in Boston were the original tea-flingers.
"Also sci-fi races"
Ohmygod could you do huts? They were op af in saga edition, so there was always that one guy who wanted to play a slow, gross, hermaphrodite slug that was super strong and immune to blaster fire. Lol
This was very helpful thank you
Im planing on playing a tiefling that was exsepting but really angry about trying to ignore it and got exsplosive when someone tells them about it and become embarrassed and try to keep up there air of control and stubenness