[Wids]

So while I was creating my latest character, I paid particular attention to the part which states that a tiefling inherits characteristics from his or her otherworldly parent. And I found myself wishing for options besides the usual horns and tail because of that, as the stereotypical tiefling appearance may not necessarily conform to the appearances bestowed by certain Infernal or Abyssal parents. And I wondered how we the players might amend that.

Obviously, there might be certain matches in temperament; half-erinyes and half-kytons are likely to be sadistic, half-succubi are likely to be seductive and manipulative, half-barbazu are likely to be some right violent and bloodthirsty bastards. Of course, a tiefling's appearance is going to be predominantly human (or whatever) if the Outsider decided to mingle with the mortal gene pool about four or five generations back. But if the Outsider's directly a parent, I imagine that there would be a drastic effect on the child's appearance. As some examples:


Barbazu Tiefling: Red-tinted skin; coarse skin with many bumps or ridges; sharp teeth; beards which writhe or otherwise move by their own volition (even on women!)

Kyton Tiefling: Blue- or gray-tinted skin; pale yellow eyes (whites and irises alike); numerous scars or scar-like formations on skin. I'm not sure where the chains would fit in here, aside from the tiefling's possible fascination with them.

Gelugon Tiefling: Pale blue or white tone to skin, chitinous or plated appearance to skin, skin is cold to the touch, blank and featureless eyes, fewer yet larger digits on hands and feet, small antennae growing from scalp or forehead. (Don't ask me why an ice devil would want to sire a tiefling in the first place, but I'm sure that they have their minion-gathering plots too.)

Erinyes Tiefling: Feathers on back or shoulders, feathers among hair (or replacing hair), feathery vestigial wings growing from upper back, small claws instead of fingernails and toenails.

Pit Fiend Tiefling: Horns; tails; red-tinted skin; skin is hot to the touch; skin is coarse with many small barbs; sharp teeth with elongated canines; red eyes (either the irises, the whites or both); spines among or in place of hair.

Vrock Tiefling: Long, sinewy limbs and/or neck; small, coarse, black feathers among (or in place of) body hair, skin is riddled with warts and/or pustules, fewer yet longer fingers and toes.

Succubus Tiefling: Fair or pink-tinted skin; leathery wings growing from upper back; blood red hair or red-mixed hair (possibly kept in some large, unruly, gravity-defying style); mesmerizing eyes of some fashion.

Nalfeshnee Tiefling: Deep green tint to skin; fur in place of hair; fur on back, shoulders and/or entire body; tusks in place of lower canines; bony protrusions from chin and/or cheekbones; small feathery wings growing from upper back or shoulders; an appearance which is persistently fat, muscular and bestial.


...or somesuch details.

Thoughts?

(And somebody really should add a Kyton/Chain Devil article to that Wikia. Heck, I have a Wikia account and a Monster Manual or two. Maybe I'll take care of it.)

[DarkRanger]

If the outsider is one of the parents wouldn't that make a half-fiend? Also I'm definitely on board with different visual cues for tieflings besides a standard head and tail. Maybe short bat like wings, horse/satyr like lower legs, claw hands, etc.

[Animayhem]

If the outsider is one of the parents wouldn't that make a half-fiend? Also I'm definitely on board with different visual cues for tieflings besides a standard head and tail. Maybe short bat like wings, horse/satyr like lower legs, claw hands, etc.

I agree if mechanically possible. Would be nice to be able to color the current tail at least even though people rp that it is a different color.

[Hellstrom]

...I found myself wishing for options besides the usual horns and tail because of that, as the stereotypical tiefling appearance may not necessarily conform to the appearances bestowed by certain Infernal or Abyssal parents. And I wondered how we the players might amend that.

Emphasis added by me. My interpretation is that Wids is not asking for changes to the models, etc to support his ideas. Though Wids can correct me if I'm wrong :)

[Animayhem]

...I found myself wishing for options besides the usual horns and tail because of that, as the stereotypical tiefling appearance may not necessarily conform to the appearances bestowed by certain Infernal or Abyssal parents. And I wondered how we the players might amend that.

Emphasis added by me. My interpretation is that Wids is not asking for changes to the models, etc to support his ideas. Though Wids can correct me if I'm wrong :)

Well it could be taken that way or if not a models then I would guess one would have to type details in their descriptions or verbally communicate the visual difference. Though not all players read other character's descriptions

[DarkRanger]

Related train of thought here. Evil outsider+PC race=half-fiend/PC race=tiefling, and Good outsider+PC race=half-celestial/PC race=aasimar, but what about the naturey neutral planars, what does the offspring of a half-satyr or half-nymph become? There's gotta be an official name for that lineage.

[Animayhem]

Related train of thought here. Evil outsider+PC race=half-fiend/PC race=tiefling, and Good outsider+PC race=half-celestial/PC race=aasimar, but what about the naturey neutral planars, what does the offspring of a half-satyr or half-nymph become? There's gotta be an official name for that lineage.

Sylvan I believe or Half-fey

[Wids]

Hi. I'm typing this from my workplace. Don't tell anyone! :P


I suppose that Ranger's right; the direct offspring of a devil or a demon would be a half-fiend (though 4th Edition's heresy may have another name or two for them). So I take it that any descendant two or more generations removed from the naughty Outsider would be a tiefling, if that's the case. Very well.


Alternate skin colors to reflect certain heritages would be dead simple, of course. Wings would be strictly an issue of DM Fiat. Hairstyles might not be such a big deal; there are already quite a few loopy-looking hairstyles available through the dummies in-game. There are those weird yuan-ti body parts if you want a scaly appearance, and clever use of the tattoos might be able to handle fur or excessive body hair, at least to some extent. There should also be different tails available if the typical devil tail isn't quite up to snuff. The Feet tattoos make the feet look something like hooves, and there should be options for goat legs among the hidden clothing options as well (though we might not be able to make those legs part of the character's nude form, alas).

The rest might have to be handled through roleplay (ie. a tiefling descended from Juiblex constantly exuding mucus from his skin and occasionally coughing up globs of the stuff). I myself would steer away from the lame quasi-god-moding roleplay ("You see disgusting mucus on his skin, da da da...") and stick with the first-person roleplay for this (*casually scrapes the length of his forearm with his dagger's edge, then flicks the blade and flings a thick, wet glob to the floor, where it lands with a weeping SPLUT*).


As for the idea of neutral Outsiders, bear in mind that satyrs and nymphs aren't Outsiders. That would be more along the lines of modrons and slaadi, the respective embodiments of Law and Chaos. There are also quite a few Outsiders who are neither devil, demon, angel, archon, modron nor slaad; that's where we start veering into the territories of rakshasa, hellhounds and everything else, all the way up to deities. Sorcerers are known to have some such Outsiders* in their lineages. We can probably forget about playing half-deities, though, as those guys tend to be a tremendously big deal. Look at all the hooplah over Alphabet Xvim and the Bhaalspawn, right?

So what do you suppose a half-modron would look like? :P


* Except for hellhounds. Winners don't bang hellhounds.

[Claymora]

Figured I would be better of hijacking this thread than making a new one. But I am curious if anyone here knows how easy/hard it would be to create a patch or override that we could download and use to overwrite the ugly tan devil tail with the CEP plt devil tail that changes skin colour with your characters skin colour.

[Wids]

That's the problem which I had with the devil tail too: It looks nice, as devil tails go, but it's always the same brownish color. My tiefling (the late Lazulei Zenn) was randomly determined to be of demonic descent, so I went with a succubus for her grandmother, so Lazulei ended up having this pretty soft pink color for her skin. And so the tail really clashed with the rest of her.

Ah, well. I've moved on. Tirah's plenty of fun, I dare say more fun than Laz was. Starting off at a higher Level really isn't all it's cracked up to be, especially when you add an ECL to that.