Unboring tieflings: more than charismatic pariahs
Tieflings are too cool for their own good.
Players see the horns, skim the lore, see something about pacts with demons and say, “cool!”
Like a rich person who’s bad with money, tieflings get away with having weak, boring lore because the writers didn’t have to think too hard. The lore could say all tieflings descend from a tribe of mule farmers and folks would still go nuts for them.
And so they should - tieflings are awesome.
That doesn’t mean we can’t do better, though.
Here are the core concepts of the tiefling, according to the Players Handbook:
1. A distant ancestor made a deal with a demon
2. People naturally fear, despise and distrust you. You’re probably a criminal, orphan or both
3. Have +2 to Charisma!
(3) is there to make Tiefling Warlocks work, which is fair enough.
But (2) and (3) contradict each other.
And (2) is really boring. It applies just as well to any monstrous race, including half-orcs. Also, drow.
Some players could take that whole “people hate you thing” as an excuse to ignore all social encounters. It’s hard to argue against a tiefling who’s a murder hobo.
Let’s do better, shall we?
Let’s create some tiefling lore that meshes with the mechanics, is unique to them and provides potential plot hooks.
Pact Tieflings
Folks most often think about deals with devils, so let’s start there.
You already know that a warlock signs a pact with a powerful creature - like a demon - to serve them in exchange for power.
No one does this for the fun of it. (I mean, Players do, but no character would…) They do it because they have a specific goal in mind.
That goal might be something simple, like free a village or retrieve an artefact.
What if it’s something more complicated?
Like, say, to kill the entire royal family or free a forest from corruption?
One warlock might be able to do that by themselves.
What if they can’t, though?
What if the pact takes generations to fulfil?
Then generations, they shall have…
If you’re a Pact Tiefling, your ancestor made a vow that’s still unfulfilled. Your whole family carries the mark of this decision, every moment of their lives.
This might have been your grandmother, who sometimes feels a twinge of guilt when she looks at you.
It might have been an ancestor lost to history.
Even then, your family knows the nature of the pact. You all feel a faint compulsion sometimes - say, an urge to track down the Crown Prince and water the grass with his blood. Most of you can ignore this voice whispering in the back of your mind. Maybe one in ten of you succumb to the dark urges.
(This gives Players and DMs choice. If they want the pact to feature in the plot, it can. If not, it doesn’t have to. A Pact Tiefling can embrace their birth and sign a warlock pact, or rally against it by becoming a paladin.)
Pact Tieflings breed true - every offspring will also be a tiefling like them. This lasts until the pact is fulfilled - then Pact Tieflings breed as if they were the race they would be without the pact.
What does the demon get out of this?
Maybe the souls of all pact tieflings when they die. Imagine being so desperate for power that you condemn your descendants to the hells, maybe even for all time. This could make a great motivation for a Pact Tiefling - either fulfil the pact or defeat the demon, otherwise every member of your family will suffer in the afterlife.
An interesting twist on this would be that the original ancestor who signed the pact doesn’t go the demon on death. Instead, they reincarnate into the family every few generations. This creates an extra force compelling the Pact Tieflings to fulfil the pact, while also making the ancestor extra selfish. They’re spared from the hells, even as their descendants aren’t.
Perhaps every Pact Tiefling that walks the world weakens the barriers that keep demons out. If there are limits to how much demons can influence the world, Pact Tieflings help them bypass them.
Then again, the demon might just enjoy the chaos, fear and death these twisted tieflings spread.
How do other folks react to you?
Demons are great at reading people. They have to be, in order to persuade mortals to doom themselves for power. Pact Tieflings inherit some of this ability. Other people make sense to them - their desires sometimes shine through like sunlight. As such, they gain +2 to CHA.
Signing a pact that condemns your family is a desperate and evil act. People see that whenever they look at you. Every day, you pay for the sins of your ancestor.
The pact probably wasn’t to eliminate poverty. It was probably something sinister - or, at least, questionable. This makes you an unstable lunatic, tormented by a faint (or not so faint) compulsion you can’t free yourself from.
Crusaders will see you as an instrument of a demon, whether you embrace your nature or not. Some might decide the right thing to do is to end your bloodline.
Imagine an enlightened village that doesn’t care about your appearance. You move in, marry a local and have a few kids. Those kids marry other villagers, who have more kids… Because Pact Tieflings always sire Pact Tieflings, soon they overrun the village. You may have been a noble soul, but will all of your descendants? As such, prepare to face widespread discrimination. Few folks want you moving into town, dating their daughters or attending their brothels.
It’s not all bad, though. Pact Tieflings have a reputation for discipline and determination. Fighting your dark impulses strengthens your mind and character, while your demonic nature fills you with drive and purpose.
If they can stomach what your existence implies, folks will want to hire you.
Especially for adventurers that take you anywhere else but here.
Bloodline Tieflings
Moving onto the conceptually simplest tieflings - Bloodline Tieflings.
One of your recent ancestors was a demon. Maybe a parent was a succubus or incubus - instead of being a cambion, you are a tiefling for whatever reason. Or maybe your parent was the cambion, making Bloodline Tieflings quarter-demons.
Perhaps your mother exposed herself to demonic magic while pregnant with you.
There are endless possibilities here.
When building a Bloodline Tiefling, you might end it there. You might ask deeper questions, though.
Like why did a demon sleep with an ancestor of yours? Were they chosen because they were convenient? Or were they specifically targeted?
Demons might have seen your grandmother’s pure soul and sought to corrupt her. Then again, maybe her soul was impure and so vulnerable to demonic corruption.
Astral prophecies might surround your family, so both angels and demons seek to use you as pawns in their battles.
Bloodline Tieflings might sire more like them or their children might carry the traits of the other parent.
What does the demon get out of this?
I touched on some of that above, assuming your ancestor was special.
If not, then there’s no mystery here. The demon wants more follows, especially on the Material Plane.
How do other folks react to you?
Since your ancestor was a succubus or incubus, you carry a portion of their supernatural charm with you. Folks find you strangely alluring, giving you +2 to CHA.
You were born to be a tool of evil. Whether you fulfil that purpose or resist it almost doesn’t matter. They’ll see your horns and tail, and know you carry the blood of demons with you.
You also show the world the weakness of your lineage. Imagine a normal, wholesome, temple-going girl who gives birth to a Bloodline Tiefling. People will wonder - did she make a deal with Orcus or something? Was she gullible and tricked by a demon?
Is there something wrong with her?
Is there something wrong with you?
Corruption Tieflings
Those other flavours of tiefling put the pivotal choice before birth.
What if we flip that?
What if they became a tiefling during their lifetime?
Consider someone who embraces sin so completely that it consumes them. It starts as a typical craving for food, desire for wealth, inflated ego or lustful desire. They indulge it, only for it to grow.
They become walking embodiments of their chosen vice, their minds never far from how they’ll satisfy themselves next.
A demon might take notice and offer to satisfy their desires… for a price.
Or maybe the excessive indulgence is enough to corrupt them on its own.
From there, the Corruption Tiefling has a new destiny. Do they throw themselves even further into their vices, now all is lost? Or do they turn back, horrified by what they’ve done to themselves?
I won’t tell you that a Tiefling Monk makes sense mechanically, but a Corruption Tiefling seeking self-mastery is a delightful concept.
What does the demon get out of this?
This might be a simple deal: your desires for your soul.
It might be more subtle than that, though. Your soul and body both carry demonic corruption. You might lure others to follow your path of indulgence, or you might inspire fear, hatred and revulsion wherever you go.
Either way, the demon wins.
How do other folks react to you?
Having explored desire to depths few mortals have, you instinctively understand the secret urges that drive people. This is the origin of your +2 to CHA.
Along with the usual fears that follow tieflings around, people will see your weaknesses upon you. Maybe as a gluttonous tiefling you have an enormous, distended stomach. They’ll look at you and think themselves better than you. Sure, they indulge here and there, but at least they’re not you.
Your vices are an obsession, though. As such, you have extraordinary powers of focus and resilience when you need to. Yeah, you’re probably easily distracted by your urges. That also makes it easy for others to motivate you. A mercenary leader might seek out Corruption Tieflings specifically, knowing how easy it is to buy their loyalty.
If you’re on a path of redemption, people like this are incredibly dangerous to you.
Variant: Sin-eater Tieflings
These are exactly the same as Corruption Tieflings… only who says the sins have to be theirs?
Rich and powerful individuals, especially those close to death, will want to free their souls of their sins. Redemption is hard; paying someone to absorb your sins is easier.
These tieflings are the same as Corruption Tieflings, with one difference: their relationship with those in power. The affluent will see them as a rare resource and their ticket to salvation. On the other hand, they carry all the dark secrets of the rich and powerful. This makes them both exalted and despised.
Speaking of exalted…
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Whether or not they’re tieflings?
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