Tieflings in 4e

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Lord Zack's picture
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Tieflings in 4e

Quote:
Tiefling Heirs of a shattered empire who live in the shadows and do not fear the dark.

Racial Traits

Average Height: 5'6" - 6'2"
Average Height:140-230 lbs

Ability Scores: +2 Intelligence, +2 Charisma
Size: Medium
Speed: 6 squares
Vision: Low Light

Languages: Common, choice of one other
Skill Bonuses: +2 Bluff, +2 Stealth
Bloodhunt: You gain a +1 racial bonus to attack rolls against bloodied foes.
Fire Resistance: You have Fire resistance 5 + one-half your level.
Infernal Wrath: You can use Infernal Wrath as an encounter power.

Infernal Wrath
Tiefling Racial Power
You call upon your furious nature to improve your odd of harming your foe.
Encounter
Minor Action Personal
Effect: You can channel your fury to gain a +1 power bonus to your next attack roll against an enemy that hit you sine your last turn. If the attack hits and deals damage, add your Charisma modifier as extra damage.

Heirs to an ancient, infernal bloodline, Tieflings have no realms of their own but instead live within human kingdoms and cities. They are descended from human nobles who bargained with dark powers, and long ago their empire subjugated half the world. But the empire was cast down into ruin, and Tieflings were left to make their own way in a world that often fears and resents them.

Play a Tiefling if you want...

* to be a hero who has a dark side to overcome.
* to be good at tricking, intimidating, or persuading others to do your will.
* to be a member of a race that favors the Warlock, Warlord, or Rogue classes.

Here's the tiefling racial writeup. What do you think? Could these stats be used for old fluff tieflings? I think so with racial feats for tieflings of different ancestries and maybe allowing powers other than Bloodhunt to be chosen. However, even if some one decided to do so, the Tiefling stats in the monster manual will be for new fluff Tieflings. We'll probably have to make some new ones. Also, what about planetouched with a non human ancestry?

ripvanwormer's picture
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Tieflings in 4e

'Lord Zack' wrote:
Here's the tiefling racial writeup. What do you think? Could these stats be used for old fluff tieflings? I think so with racial feats for tieflings of different ancestries and maybe allowing powers other than Bloodhunt to be chosen.

I agree. They should be fine for baatezu-blooded tieflings, at least those descended from lower-caste devils. It'd be nice to see some more variety to represent the full range of fiends and races in Planescape, however.

Hymneth's picture
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Tieflings in 4e

Hmmm. It seems like a pretty decent adaptation of the standard Tiefer. I like that they no longer have darkvision. Handy, but so annoying for the DM when you have a party of 5 that can see in the dark and one poor human that can't.

I'd say that by changing the bloodhunt and infernal wrath powers (and maybe the resistance for your rare cold or other energy based ancestor) you could make a pretty wide range of Tieflings

Swiftbow's picture
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Tieflings in 4e

Seems a bit odd that they have bonus Charisma now... I guess people like them better?

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Kalidor's picture
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Tieflings in 4e

They (tieflings) originally had a +1 bonus to Intelligence and Charisma, and a -1 penalty to Strength and Wisdom. I never really liked this breakdown because it failed to properly give attributes based on the original fiend ancestor. A tiefling whose ancestor was a succubus should have adjustments far different from one descended from a pit fiend.

The Planescape accessory, The Planewalker's Handbook, made some attempt to address this (p. 80). While it would work fine for random tieflings or to spur ideas, I felt that it left me wanting more when trying to develop custom characters. I would like to have seen a list of abilities common to tieflings based on ancestry. One descended from a succubus could easily have a higher Charisma score on average (justifying the modification), while one descended from a pit fiend could justify a higher Strength score, for example. There are so many possible variations that it would not be practical to have seen all of these in print.

The same holds true for having races other than humans breed with the fiends. WotC has touched on this in several Forgotten Realms books, but financial considerations really keep them from exploring this extensively- the biological and sociological differences between a tiefling and fey'ri will probably appeal only to a niche market.

Hopefully, the observations concerning the Bloodhunt ability are accurate and we can customize tieflings via racial feats. However, that leaves us with Lord Zack's question about planetouched that are not of human ancestry.

Sorry about the tangent. I just wanted to note that a charisma bonus for a tiefling is not unusual.

Swiftbow's picture
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Tieflings in 4e

Huh, you think I would have remembered those stat adjustments. I just read it a week or two ago.

I guess I'm playing too much NWN2, lol.

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Shemeska the Marauder's picture
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Tieflings in 4e

The default fluff and assumptions about the 4e tiefling really makes them an entirely different creature than the 1e/2e/3e tieflings. The mixed/questionable blood aspect of Planescape's fiend-descended tiefers is gone, replaced with a single origin, and they now lack the variable expression of that descent they used to have.

4e's artwork for tiefers is absolutely horrible. Giant water buffalo horns and giant tails as a default, increasing as they level.

Calmar's picture
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Tieflings in 4e

Well, I guess you refer to the painting by Wayne Reynolds. Characters in his art allways seem to have rather exaggerrated proportions. Guess its rather a matter of artistic interpretation than 4th edition.

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