Tiefling
Basic Information
Biological Traits
Tieflings are derived from human bloodlines, and in the broadest possible sense, they still look human. However, their infernal heritage has left a clear imprint on their appearance. Tieflings have large horns that take any of a variety of shapes: some have curling horns like a ram, others have straight and tall horns like a gazelle’s, and some spiral upward like an antelopes’ horns. They have thick tails, four to five feet long, which lash or coil around their legs when they get upset or nervous. Their canine teeth are sharply pointed, and their eyes are solid colors—black, red, white, silver, or gold—with no visible sclera or pupil. Their skin tones cover the full range of human coloration but also include various shades of red. Their hair, cascading down from behind their horns, is usually dark, from black or brown to dark red, blue, or purple. Other, more unusual characteristics include a sulfurous odor, cloven feet, or a general aura of discomfort they left on others.
Some tieflings are not descended from mere fiends at all, but from powerful gods. These tieflings often have their own physical characteristics that set them apart. Tieflings sired by Beshaba, for instance, often have antlers instead of horns and pale, white hair. Those sired by Mask, on the other hand, are known for their tendency to cast no reflection.
Basic Traits
Ability Score Increase: Charisma score increases by 2.
Speed: Base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision: See in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light.
Hellish Resistance: Have resistance to fire damage.
Language: Can speak, read, and write Common and Infernal.
Various Bloodline Traits
Bloodline of Asmodeus
The tieflings connected to Nessus command the power of fire and darkness, guided by a keener than normal intellect, as befits those linked to Asmodeus himself.
Ability Score Increase: Intelligence score increases by 1.
Infernal Legacy: Learn the Thaumaturgy cantrip. At 3rd level, you can cast the Hellish Rebuke spell once as a 2nd-level spell. At 5th level, you can also cast the Darkness spell once. Must finish a long rest to cast these spells again with this trait. Charisma is the spellcasting ability for these spells.
Source: Player's Handbook
Bloodline of Baalzebul
The crumbling realm of Maladomini is ruled by Baalzebul, who excels at corrupting those whose minor sins can be transformed into acts of damnation. Tieflings linked to this archdevil can corrupt others both physically and psychically.
Ability Score Increase: Intelligence score increases by 1.
Legacy of Maladomini: Learn the Thaumaturgy cantrip. At 3rd level, you can cast the Ray of Sickness spell once as a 2nd-level spell. At 5th level, you can also cast the Crown of Madness spell once. Must finish a long rest to cast these spells again with this trait. Charisma is the spellcasting ability for these spells.
Source: Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes
Bloodline of Dispater
The great city of Dis occupies most of Hell's second layer. It is a place where secrets are uncovered and shared with the highest bidder, making tieflings tied to Dispater excellent spies and infiltrators.
Ability Score Increase: Dexterity score increases by 1.
Legacy of Dis: Learn the Thaumaturgy cantrip. At 3rd level, you can cast the Disguise Self spell once as a 2nd-level spell. At 5th level, you can also cast the Detect Thoughts spell once. Must finish a long rest to cast these spells again with this trait. Charisma is the spellcasting ability for these spells.
Source: Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes
Bloodline of Fierna
A master manipulator, Fierna grants tieflings tied to her forceful personalities.
Ability Score Increase: Wisdom score increases by 1.
Legacy of Phlegethos: Learn the Friends cantrip. At 3rd level, you can cast the Charm Person spell once as a 2nd-level spell. At 5th level, you can also cast the Suggestion spell once. Must finish a long rest to cast these spells again with this trait. Charisma is the spellcasting ability for these spells.
Source: Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes
Bloodline of Glasya
Glasya, Hell's criminal mastermind, grants her tiefiings magic that is useful for committing heists.
Ability Score Increase: Dexterity score increases by 1.
Legacy of Malbolge: Learn the Minor Illusion cantrip. At 3rd level, you can cast the Disguise Self spell once as a 2nd-level spell. At 5th level, you can also cast the Invisibility spell once. Must finish a long rest to cast these spells again with this trait. Charisma is the spellcasting ability for these spells.
Source: Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes
Bloodline of Levistus
Frozen Stygia is ruled by Levistus, an archdevil known for offering bargains to those who face an inescapable doom.
Ability Score Increase: Constitution score increases by 1.
Legacy of Stygia: Learn the Ray of Frost cantrip. At 3rd level, you can cast the Armor of Agathys spell once as a 2nd-level spell. At 5th level, you can also cast the Darkness spell once. Must finish a long rest to cast these spells again with this trait. Charisma is the spellcasting ability for these spells.
Source: Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes
Bloodline of Mammon
The great miser Mammon loves coins above all else. Tieflings tied to him excel at gathering and safeguarding wealth.
Ability Score Increase: Intelligence score increases by 1.
Legacy of Minauros: Learn the Mage Hand cantrip. At 3rd level, you can cast the Tenser's Floating Disk spell once as a 2nd-level spell. At 5th level, you can also cast the Arcane Lock spell once. Must finish a long rest to cast these spells again with this trait. Charisma is the spellcasting ability for these spells.
Source: Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes
Bloodline of Mephistopheles
In the frozen realm of Cania, Mephistopheles offers arcane power to those who entreat with him. Tieflings linked to him master some arcane magic.
Ability Score Increase: Intelligence score increases by 1.
Legacy of Cania: Learn the Mage Hand cantrip. At 3rd level, you can cast the Burning Hands spell once as a 2nd-level spell. At 5th level, you can also cast the Flame Blade spell once. Must finish a long rest to cast these spells again with this trait. Charisma is the spellcasting ability for these spells.
Source: Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes
Bloodline of Zariel
Tieflings with a blood tie to Zariel are stronger than the typical tiefling and receive magical abilities that aid them in battle.
Ability Score Increase: Strength score increases by 1.
Legacy of Cania: Learn the Thaumaturgy cantrip. At 3rd level, you can cast the Searing Smite spell once as a 2nd-level spell. At 5th level, you can also cast the Branding Smite spell once. Must finish a long rest to cast these spells again with this trait. Charisma is the spellcasting ability for these spells.
Source: Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes
Feral Tiefling
Appearance: Your tiefling might not look like other tieflings. Rather than having the physical characteristics described in the Player's Handbook, choose some of the following features: small horns; fangs or sharp teeth; a forked tongue; catlike eyes; six fingers on each hand; goat-like legs; cloven hoofs; a forked tail; leathery or scaly skin; red or dark blue skin; cast no shadow or reflection; exude a smell of brimstone.Feral: Intelligence score increases by 1, and Dexterity score increases by 2. This trait replaces the Ability Score Increase trait.
Devil's Tongue: Learn the Vicious Mockery cantrip. At 3rd level, you can cast the Charm Person spell once as a 2nd-level spell. At 5th level, you can also cast the Enthrall spell once. Must finish a long rest to cast these spells again with this trait. Charisma is the spellcasting ability for these spells. This trait replaces the Infernal Legacy trait.
Hellfire: At 3rd level, you can cast the Burning Hands spell once as a 2nd-level spell. This trait replaces the Hellish Rebuke spell of the Infernal Legacy trait.
Winged: Bat-like wings sprouting from your shoulders. You have a flying speed of 30 feet while you aren’t wearing heavy armor. This trait replaces the Infernal Legacy trait.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Tieflings subsist in small minorities found mostly in human cities or towns, often in the roughest quarters of those places, where they grow up to be swindlers, thieves, or crime lords. Sometimes they live among other minority populations in enclaves where they are treated with more respect. Lacking a homeland, tieflings know that they have to make their own way in the world and that they have to be strong to survive.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Being the result of fiendish interference with humans, tieflings have no true homeland and are found throughout Toril. The race is particularly common, however, in Mulhorand and Unther before both nations are devastated by the Spellplague, though the latter's population is said to have been vastly exaggerated. Tieflings also once have a large presence in Thay, where many are slaves. Tieflings who are discovered in the land often become pawns in the struggles between Thay's zulkirs, whom they serve as assassins, thieves, and spies. The takeover by Szass Tam, however, drive many out of the region.
In the 15th century, tieflings are most commonly found in Narfell, where the race is believed to have first appeared in ancient times, and High Imaskar, though many are also welcome in Tymanther, thanks to the native dragonborns' policy of racial tolerance. Other tieflings ally themselves with the genasi servants of Memnon in Calimshan, where they are a valued addition to the efreeti's war against his rival Calim. Many tieflings are also found along the Sword Coast, particularly in the cosmopolitan Baldur's Gate, as well as parts of the Dragon Coast. In Aglarond, the race is only begrudgingly tolerated as enemies of Thay.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Tiefling names fall into three broad categories. Tieflings born into another culture typically have names reflective of that culture. Some have names derived from the Infernal language, passed down through generations, that reflect their fiendish heritage. And some younger tieflings, striving to find a place in the world, adopt a name that signifies a virtue or other concept and then try to embody that concept. For some, the chosen name is a noble quest. For others, it’s a grim destiny.
Male Infernal Names: Akmenos, Amnon, Barakas, Damakos, Ekemon, Iados, Kairon, Leucis, Melech, Mordai, Morthos, Pelaios, Skamos, Therai
Female Infernal Names: Akta, Anakis, Bryseis, Criella, Damaia, Ea, Kallista, Lerissa, Makaria, Nemeia, Orianna, Phelaia, Rieta
“Virtue” Names: Art, Carrion, Chant, Creed, Despair, Excellence, Fear, Glory, Hope, Ideal, Music, Nowhere, Open, Poetry, Quest, Random, Reverence, Sorrow, Temerity, Torment, Weary
Major Language Groups and Dialects
Infernal is the language of the baatezu, a subtype of devils, and of the Nine Hells. It is described as harsh and alien in nature, since it is developed among beings with thought patterns very unlike those of humanity. Infernal alphabets are used to transcribe the Thayan dialect of the Mulhorandi language.
Culture and Cultural Heritage
Most tieflings are aware from an early age that they are different from others around them, and are given to strange urges and desires because of their unusual ancestry. Few tieflings are raised with the love a normal human child might expect to receive and this shapes most of the race into bitter individuals who expect eventual rejection from all whom they meet. While some would follow this path towards evil, others reject it wholeheartedly and seek to make a good impact on the world around them, sometimes becoming the most heroic characters of all. Few can maintain this discipline, however, and most tieflings fell somewhere between both extremes.
Like other races that are the result of the interception of two or more others, tieflings have no true culture they can call their own. However, there are many archetypal features of tieflings that are not necessarily innate. This includes their attitude regarding their heritage, and while some tieflings embraced it, others were repulsed by it, forging the two most common stereotypes of tieflings.
The former tieflings, who are proud of their fiendish past, are often fascinated by the dark and sinister events that touch the world, but are not necessarily evil or inclined to perpetuate them. Some tieflings of this type choose to use their knowledge of evil and their own fiendish abilities to thwart these dark plots and schemes. Others seek to learn more and to emulate these evil deeds.
Other tieflings are ashamed or even frightened of their heritage and wish only to escape the shadow that lurk over them. Some do this by constantly doing good, as though to make up for the evil that begets them. Others instead hide and try to go unnoticed as they passed through the world, preferring to be ignored and forgotten than noticed and made a target because of their past.
Regardless of their motivations, tieflings often distrust one another, sometimes even casting the same preconceptions on one another that others do on them. In spite of this, many secretly desire to have another tiefling nearby, if only to experience some small kind of kinship. Some of these tieflings gather as partners-in-crime, while others are sought out by good tieflings who hope to redeem others of their race.
History
In 1358 DR, a warlock coven known as the Toril thirteen performed a ritual that cursed most tiefling lineages—those of demons, devils, hags, and rakshasas, among others—with the "blood of Asmodeus", changing their original lineage with that of the archdevil himself. This was done to make Asmodeus a "racial god", ensuring him enough followers to attain godly powers. After the Spellplague of 1385 DR, when Asmodeus became a god, the magic of the ritual took effect across all of Toril and afterward most tieflings living in the 15th century DR were of the Asmodean lineage, all having a similar devilish appearance. Prior to Asmodeus's ascension to godhood, the infernal blood could be diluted through intermarriage, but afterward, the union of a tiefling with another race always produced a tiefling child. In the late years of the 15th century, tieflings of other bloodlines began to be born again, but the Asmodean lineage was still the most numerous by a wide margin at the time.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
Tieflings, in general, do not get along well with the other races of the world and are slow to trust others of any race, even their own. This animosity that tieflings have for others is taken to its extreme in the case of aasimar, whom tieflings instinctively fear or loath. Of all the common races, tieflings feel the most kinship with half-orcs, who are similarly a target of revulsion and hate.
Why go on an adventure?
- Do you want to escape from your childhood home?
- Maybe following the path of your ancestor to seek the truth of your blood?
- How about proving everyone wrong and making this world a better place when you leave it?
- Or you are striving to fulfill the virtue name you are given or chosen?
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