In the Vor Kragal article up at wizards.com there are a number of tieflings illustrated that don't look anything like the standard Player's Handbook tiefling. Viva variety!
Non-standard tieflings in the new Dragon article
Fri, 2008-06-27 18:42
#1
Non-standard tieflings in the new Dragon article
Sat, 2008-06-28 03:13
#3
Non-standard tieflings in the new Dragon article
They are all standard tieflings, only with some strange pacts. The first is undead, the second is a bloated vampire lord, and the other two are simply tieflings with elemental auras. :roll:
Sat, 2008-06-28 07:52
#4
Non-standard tieflings in the new Dragon article
Not to toot my own horn or anything, but in my PS games, tiefers have always been each unique, with interchangable powers equal in strenth to the standard ones for a "basic" tiefling. Still, it's nice to see someone else running with the idea, and in a official game product to boot!
Sat, 2008-06-28 15:09
#5
Non-standard tieflings in the new Dragon article
They are all standard tieflings, only with some strange pacts. The first is undead, the second is a bloated vampire lord, and the other two are simply tieflings with elemental auras.
That seems pretty nonstandard to me. I just thought it was refreshing that they didn't look as samey as most 4e tieflings.
But these are some good sources for variant tiefling ideas:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/9974/tiefy.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/9974/plantouc.htm
http://geocities.com/ripvanwormer/bookoftieflings.html
The Book of Fiends from Green Ronin introduced minor baatezu and tanar'ri castes (the herlekin and schir) with goat-like legs specifically to address the issue of goat-like tieflings, which justifies them in my mind (more than assuming they're all related to nalfeshnee and Orcus). Horse-tieflings remain an enigma (but Factol Rhys is an enigma anyway).
Sat, 2008-06-28 15:46
#6
Non-standard tieflings in the new Dragon article
That seems pretty nonstandard to me. I just thought it was refreshing that they didn't look as samey as most 4e tieflings.
Well, I thought, that they're still too similar, they all have horns and a tail, the diversity is the same as with humans (lich, fat vampire and elemental auras can be made with nearly every race). 
But these are some good sources for variant tiefling ideas:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/9974/tiefy.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/9974/plantouc.htm
http://geocities.com/ripvanwormer/bookoftieflings.html
Thanks a lot, these are great if I ever lack ideas how to make a new tiefling unique! 
Sat, 2008-06-28 19:50
#7
Non-standard tieflings in the new Dragon article
I never really worried myself with where a tiefling's fiendish abilities and appearance traits came from (to this day, no one's told me which fiend has whispering wind as a spell-like ability); I just chalked it up to humanoid genetics and raw evil mixing to yield an unpredictable result.
Wed, 2008-07-02 09:24
#8
Non-standard tieflings in the new Dragon article
Admittedly, most of my teiflings previously had been pretty standard. I always described them as having a faint scent of brimstone, but I think that is even mentioned in the MM. Nowadays though, I decribe each tiefling in a unique way, and most of them are ugly, as opposed to the typical sexy devilish woman. I was mainly inspired by the way tieflings are decribed in the text in Planescape: Torment. The first one you meet in that game sounds freaky.
Mon, 2008-07-07 22:24
#9
Those tieflings are supposed
Those tieflings are supposed to be the most powerful in their houses. The first one isn't an undead, she's just a necromancer. So, we can probably assume that they once looked more like the "samey" tieflings, but were changed through the use of their houses' powers. I still think they're cool.
Sat, 2008-07-12 18:14
#10
The article on Vor Kragal is
The article on Vor Kragal is easily the cooliest Dragon article for 4e yet, imo.
now that is pretty cool, kind of embarrassed I hadn't thought of that myself already. It always sort of irked me the way tieflings were basically just misanthropes with largely human features apart from some horns or a tail. And it always struck me as odd that there was a proliferation of tiefers with goat or horse or other animal legs but a notable lack of fiends with those features. Horns? Check. Tail? Check. Goat legs? Not so much.
Come to think of it, Cambions and Alu-fiends were similarly unimaginative - I often gave my tieflings very exotic features but have always done the half-demons more or less by the book (2nd Ed books anyway).
Amazing how such a seemingly small thing as a gif on a forum can spur the imagination on to wilder things