Tieflings: No specific culture because they're just born from human families. Also Tieflings: Have a shared habit of naming themselves in an extremely specific way.
Doctor: Congratulations ma'am, it's a healthy baby boy... Also a tiefling Mother: Wait what!? A tiefling!? Doctor: Yeah, always a surprise when one is born. The other day we had a couple yelling at each other over who's ancestors had done the deed with a fiend. Anyway, please hold your baby and here's a list of infernal names Mother: Infernal names? We wanted to name him Richard, after his grandfather Doctor: Hahaha, yeah, no, please take the list and pick a name.
@@Lowdian Well, it says they tend to name themselves later. So, I imagine their naming convention tends to kind of be likes some elves where they have a childhood name and then later get an adult name.
Thyme, Sage, or Rosemary if they're wise Nutmeg, Liquorice, or Honey, if they're resilient Popcorn if they're fast Star Anise if they're charming or charismatic I can't think of any others, but this is fantastic inspiration.
@@trevorgreenough6141 Salt: Loud and gets into everything Pepper: Has Glasses Turmeric: Thick headed and one note Basil - Bold Ginger - Snappy and a little harsh Sugar - Energetic
@@freelancerthe2561 sugar, uses aganazzars scorcher as their go too spell flavoured by running so fast they set the ground on fire. All these are fantastic ideas.
Can you imagine a tiefling born to dwarf parents? This little ram-horned, red-bearded, thick scaly boy who works all day in the forge without tongs or heat protection because fire doesn't really bother him that much and he likes to feel the heat more precisely on his skin to know just how hard he has to hit the metal to shape it exactly how he wants it. The little community was a bit weirded out in the beginning, but that boy sure as hell can work the forge and once he drank Grandpa Broadhammer under the table, so who are they to judge him? I can see him in my head.
At the Table: "Tieflings are awesome, and we should always have one in every campaign we run." Tieflings in Lore: "VILE HELLSPAWN, GET OUT OF OUR TOWN!"
The lore reasons are why I came up with the idea of a ring of illusion for my tiefling character. Where they would have this magic ring of illusion, give them to them by their demonic dad. So that they would disguise themselves as a half elf. I chose half elf specifically because they would choose that Mainly so they don't have to explain why they know magic.
I'm reminded of the Carter family, mentioned in passing in the Discworld books. They had many children, and decided to name the girls after virtues. Hope, Prudence, Chastity, Charity. When they had boys, they decided to do the opposite. The ones we know about are Anger, Jealousy, Covetousness, Deviousness and Bestiality. Poor kids.
I feel like Pointy Hat understandably avoided the other major reason Tieflings are popular. People are really horny, and devils/demons often get the vampire treatment in media. What I'm getting at is, tieflings have the sex-appeal of demons and devils without the "being absolutely horrible and inherently evil" bit. Add the tragic backstory and general distrust to that, and you get the "I can fix them" vibe that people absolutely obsess over
i like teiflings because they have the air of being really good tragic characters hated by all perfect for my next paladin kind of like the salamanders from 40k
Yeah. Pretty much this. Add in the edginess of the demonic lineage and tieflings are the instant magnet race for teenage somethings new to D&D who write sexy loner characters who angst-sulk in the corners of taverns. I have a strict joke rule at my table that you have to be 25 years or older to play Tieflings and Drow.
Tieflings are liked because: 1. They are inherently an underdog 2. They are more humanoid than not 3. They have a lot of variety in terms of looks (skin color, horns, tail) It's the combination of these traits that make them so popular. And Mollymauk Tealeaf.
I like tieflings mostly because of tail and horns that are fun to look at. It kinda gives the same feeling of watching your pet cat play; the way the tail swishes is just so satisfying.
Ooh, A tiefling that loses conviction and then their horns snap off and they have to figure out what they want to do next. I actually don't usually think of making Tiefling characters but now I'm brainstorming ideas haha. Great video!
Conversely I've run a tiefling who - through genetic abnormalities and a younger age - had no visible horns (just lumps under the skin and covered by his hair) and a vestigial tail like a human's coccyx. His realisation of his lineage via the first time he noticed he was using his powers was a great moment, and made many things from his backstory click to the party. Was one of my favourite characters, especially because I was able to pull the "Hail satan, and have a wonderful afternoon." speech from Kingsman on a tiefling-racist.
Ooo maybe if a major change is about to befall a Tielfing their horns fall off in a sort of precondition event? An adademic Tielfing is studying in a great library late at night when studenly his horns snap off, blood from the painless wound stains his book. He gets up to get something to clean the page but when he passes the window he sees them. A mob of angry townsfolk with pitches and torches have come to destroy the library and its evil teachings. The Tielfing with no time to spare has to flee, finding himself alone in the woods. He is forced to live off the land. His horns begin to regrow into a shape to match the deer of the forest.
"Tieflings have great charisma that makes them naturally likeable" and "tieflings are looked down on and treated badly" doesn't add up on a societal level
Think of it more like a glamour. Maybe it's of a magical, fiendish nature; you feel drawn toward someone, but in an unnatural way, making you feel on-edge. You can't seem to pull yourself away from their eyes. Their face is too beautiful, too symmetrical - to the point it seems odd. When they speak, there's an undertone of devilish whispering, urging you to follow. Compelling, but also unnerving.
Charisma is the strength of a character's presence. A character can be intimidating and scary because of their charisma instead of them looking physically strong etc.
They always give me the perfect "I have every right to be evil but I won't" vibe or "People feared me for no reason, I'll give them one" everytime I use them in anyway
Teifling Horns Timestamps 14:00 Teifling Horns Lore Explanation 14:24 Strength 14:57 Nature 15:40 Acedemia 16:27 Religion 17:27 Social 18:23 Fusion of one or more idea For anyone who wants to make Teifling PC's or Npcs
im still trying to think how a teifling who servers near religously for a devil, an evil teifling like a warlock who servers their patron, would it be ring shaped since its religon or are the religous ones more for good religion?
@@thothgod420 Perhaps that could be a character element - allowing them to subvert/infiltrate order religious communities. I thought about something like that with an academic. Folks assume their two interests are the benign topics they teach but really it’s some kind of dark magic / necromancer craziness.
@@thothgod420 For the cleric tiefling, sure. But being a warlock isn’t a religious thing, and warlocks mostly don’t worship or even like their patrons.
I love this, but as a superstition that tieflings hold, rather than a thing that actually happens. Like, young tiefling Billy is growing horns that look like they'll be circular, and everyone "knows" that means he'll be pious, so they ship him off to join the clergy. And look, another circular-horned tiefling is now in the clergy, reinforcing the bias.
Yeah this makes the blatantly false assumption that tieflings and other winged/horned freaks are even tolerated in the Forgotten Realms. Even an Aasimar with angel wings would likely be called derogatory things and ran out of most shops.
@@charaznable9209 You seem to be making the assumption that every game featuring tieflings will be set in the Forgotten Realms, or that DMs do not alter settings to include dynamics that they prefer.
@@j.p.giambalvo1123 I mean, that's even assuming very specific things about a campaign setting with a metric ton of cultural diversity. Even when people are bigoted there, they're all bigoted about different things. Some only care about where you were born, some only care about what you can do for them, some hate mages, some hate non-mages, some will refuse to deal with anyone that doesn't wear a hat. Even directly "monstrous" creatures do open business at major trading hubs like Waterdeep as a big default canon plot/lore element. There are shops a standalone fullblooded devil or demon could walk into and be greeted warmly (a large group of such would probably still give universal pause, though). Exotic and planar races run a good number of those shops in officially published modules! Tieflings are kinda minor footnotes in Forgotten Realms compared to all the kooky things that go down on that continent and beyond.
@@j.p.giambalvo1123 What's the point in making a teifling if you're going to erase their defining feature of being discriminated against? Borrowing oppression is half the fun.
@@FacebookAunt wow, that's a sentence I didn't think I'd hear To answer your question though there are a lot of cool plot lines with demonic parentage beyond racism. Also, it's just a cool aesthetic.
Tieflings are both edgy, cute, sexy and have nice bonuses. They are both a teenage girl and teenage boys dream when it comes to character options. You can play them as quirky and cute or edgy and evil as you like. Very flexible race in every way, it's also not a "boring" elf or one of the non-conventionaly-attractive races.
@@IndyMotoRider you CAN play them like that, but then it all comes down to your roleplaying, while by the virtue of choosing a tiefling you are already different on a surface level which is much easier to convey than through actually roleplaying, because ... Well, you are purple and you have horns! You know what I mean? Basically they are an exotic race, but not too exotic to the point they are weird and they are also not one of the vanilla fantasy races. Humans do not have the inherent curte\ edgy factor, cause you look at them and they're just human, but when you turn the page and see this sexy, red and horny beast of a race, you realize NOW I can show everyone how quirky I am! etc.
Tieflings are just for cowards who aren't committed enough to be a monster to play a Lizardfolk, Bugbear, or something, but still want to be the party's weird +1
"so why are YOU in the stockades?" "you know the high priest, the tiefling?" "yhea, with the ring horns? what did you do to him?" "well, first off, ball is life"
Before Tieflings were a thing, it were Drow. And Drows are still a thing. Because a slight of evil is appealing to many people. Those which are a little bit evil as well as they feel familiar. Those which are righteous good, because they wish to sometimes excape their own limits.
Which is why I made a drow paladin in Baulder’s Gate 3. Overcoming evil through their player class. That, and I just thought the midnight blueish/grey skin looked cool and reminded me of Dunmer from Elder Scrolls
we still need teiflings or another race to cover the non-Hell fiends for character options. there was a really, really good homebrew done for Demonlings (or whatever they were called) that were super interesting. Damn I think that should be the new racial options Wizards works on...
5e didn't really backtrack on tieflings, they doubled down on the concept by introducing the other devil tieflings in MToF. They sucked because they looked almost the same as the default tieflings, and the only real differences were different spells, and stat distributions (which are now obsolete because all races now have +2 +1 to any of their stats). It's no wonder why MotM decided to drop the tieflings, while WotC have made it abundantly clear that they regret making MToF as they ignore it like SCAG. There is still hope for old tieflings to return. TCoE featured artwork of a classic tiefling from Planescape, and the planetouched races in MotM can be medium or small sized while their flavour has changed so it gives the players room for personal customisation. We'll have to wait until the 2024 core rulebooks are released which will give us the MotM planetouched changes to tieflings.
@@EdgeLie Drop as in they didn't make the transition from MToF to MotM. There was little point in bringing them when the only true difference was different spells, so they would've otherwise served as complete filler in the book. It doesn't really matter if MotM doesn't have all races when for the most part, it has effectively replaced MToF (generally a sign that WotC regrets making MToF as they've done a similar replacement in TCoE when it got the spells and Bladesinger from SCAG, making what little value SCAG had worthless). There's no point in getting MToF when all it has are those pointless tieflings, and boring filler lore that keeps assuming Forgotten Realms is your setting. As a side note, MotM hasn't really replaced VGtM. That book still has value for monster dungeon designs, and the exclusive orcs that are not in MotM because they're too lore specific to Forgotten Realms.
With this emphasis on the horns reflecting what the tiefling values, imagine the character stories that could come from someone pulling a Hellboy and purposefully filing them down could mean.
He touched on it in the video, but having the appearance differ based on their values would likely lead to even more prejudice against at least some tieflings. People would start judging the book by its cover. Having a counter-culture movement of tieflings that file their horns and hide their tails would absolutely happen in such a world.
Like a Barefaced Turian in Mass Effect who doesn’t wear the face paint of their family and or clan or homeworld. . Someone who has rejected their home and family. Someone who won’t be trusted by other Turians.
In a campaign run by my brother, we treated Infernal as an enchanted language that one could only speak and comprehend via either infernal legacy (Tieflings) or infernal pact (warlocks). It sounds like complete gibberish otherwise and applied to names of infernal origin too, so it’d result in hilarious situations of introducing yourself and them hearing something random like “banana”, meaning that’s what you’d be called by throughout the campaign. It also acted like a litmus test to help determine who was a warlock or a Tiefling concealing their true form, and it’s a house rule we’ve used ever since.
Several of the races have inaccurate skin tones. Wood Elves have Copper Skin, High Elves have either gold Skin or Alabaster (like, actual white, not flesh white), the Gnome is pale despite their skin tones ranging from 'Tan to Brown', the Dwarf is in the same boat in spite of the only pale colour being explicitly 'tinged with red' (and it states that this is less common than darker, earth-like skin tones). At this point I just take it as implicit permission for your characters appearance and skin tone to be whatever you damn well please so long as it fits the character.
The color of tieflings is the tone of the image you liked, maybe there is a set of colors in the PHB but if you really like that greenish tiefling wizard you just use it.
I once made a Tiefling Bard that grew up in the Army. She became a field musician and eventually learned/developed bardic magic. She really liked the structured life of the Army and how she was able to translate orders into music and coordinate thousands of troops at once. So, I decided that she would take the Virtue name of Guidance.
Didn't know about virtue names. Funny thing though, that I had a tiefling who grew up an orphan turned criminal. Due to her fiendish nature, she was so brutal she was dubbed by the streets "Mercy". Her victims begged for Mercy, but all they saw was her.
An interesting consequence of the horns growing to match their values means it's an outward visual signal to everyone who sees them... meaning that you could incorporate ppl who want to conceal things about themselves purposely trimming or covering their horns. Or if a character has a life changing experience that totally shifts their values their horns might shed and then grow back different.
Could work VERY nicely with how, in 5e, Tieflings make great Warlocks and Warlocks can cast Disguise Self at will by level 2. Tieflings disguising themselves as OTHER types of tiefling. Regional stereotypes about Tieflings. E.g. people from a highly religious nation assume Tiefling horns/tails represent which demon lord or archdevil they're loyal to, and Tieflings with circular horns are "redeemed." They insist that they're NOT "anti-tiefling" racists, some of their best friends are Tieflings (which is true), but they also think that having moose antlers is irrefutable proof of a tiefling being a worshipper of Baphomet. The church has been trying to sort out this misconception for over a decade but people keep getting confused over the whole Demon/Devil thing.
I do genuinely have a weak spot for making very colorful teiflings. My favorite go to is pink and my favorite tiefling I ever played was an extremely pale pink(imagine if tieflings had albinism and you'll be able to see it) man with ram horns that he kept having to shave down so they wouldn't grow into his eyes. He was a circle of the shepherd druid and I love him dearly.
Fun fact: I floated around DnD spaces long before I actually decided to play the game, so I was extremely confused when I read about Tieflings having human skin tones or only reddish colours, when I had never seen a Tiefling fanart with human skin and the majority I had seen were blue or purple xD Also blue is my favourite Tiefling colour, its so pretty
5:00 That part always stroke me as odd. No one is teaching them infernal, so they must somehow know it regardless of their home and lineage. So I imagine normal parents trying to adopt a tiefling baby and it already being fluent in infernal, so the parents have to try to teach it common and prevent it from making a pact with a demon to get some candy.
@@jordanrayne3585 - Euphie, it's time for dinner! - Gaaa! - No, Euphie, you can't have a sweet roll for dinner! - *in infernal* SILENCE, FOUL HELLSPAWN, THOU SHALL NOT DENY ME MY SUSTENANCE!!! O, GREAT ASTAROTH, HEAR YOUR SERVANT IN TIMES OF NEED!!!
i like the idea they dont know it but completely understand it and sort of learn to speak really easily if they hear infernal. but they just sort of magically know what infernal words mean
@@thothgod420 I mean, that sounds like it makes sense, but there's still infernal in the category of "known languages". And if you magically understand words - it makes just as much sense to just magically know them. And besides - a baby being fluent in the language of devils is too funny to miss out on.
Every time I watch another one of these videos, I'm again think this guy needs to make a fantasy story, he'd go far into making one of the deepest worlds with the richest characters to date.
I also love ironic virtue names or aspirational ones. Like I have a raging kleptomaniac rogue tiefling named Charity, but that is mostly because she wants to stop her compulsion to steal stuff. So for now she steals and puts it back (mostly back to the wrong person though, for that is the spice of life…) I also got a liar called honesty, cause of course they would be lying about their virtue name.
One faction in my setting (not necessarily tieflings just a political group) that had vice names. The older/former members had virtue names and no one ever found out what happened. Good times.
Made a tiefling Druid first called Comfort, but currently Aurora as in northern lights, but she has like 97 mental illnesses which constantly frighten her and aspires to be just as at peace as the stars, sun and moon
Because they're mechanically strong, overloaded with more cool lore than every other race combined, and it doesn't take a particularly complex backstory to make sense out of them going on an adventure... it's the natural conclusion to the unique circumstance of their birth and the way society would react to it. Everything that makes a good DnD character, they have, in a way that's very easy for new players to figure out, and even easier for experienced players to make something amazing with.
And from an aesthetic sense, if you want to make a seducer-type character, the tiefling has a certain forbidden charm to them. Their Charisma bonuses help with that too!
Can't forget that, even if you don't read or care about lore or the stats, they just look damn cool. If I'm new to D&D, I'm skimming through the PHB, and I see my options are a person, a person with pointy ears, person but shorter (x3), person but green and buff, lizard, and a person with the baller-ass horns and a tail and colorful skin, my choice is a little skewed already.
There's hella good lore on every other race. I'd say Tieflings just get more attention because of how thematically cool/edgy/beautiful/sad they are. Especially with shows like Critical role taking off and promoting DnD during Covid.
The idea of the image reflecting the growth and personality it's so great. I love how it allows you to customize it even more without making a mechanical change and lets you go deeper with the character's mind
4:58 Did you know a newly born Dragon can speak Draconic right after they hatch. Literally right after they hatch if there jaws and vocal cords work then they can speak Draconic.
I think a lot of it is art direction too. Shifters (humans touched by lycanthrope lineages) touch a lot of the same beats as tieflings, customization, distrust, even hatred, but like no official character art has ever made them look cool or appealing. Tieflings had great art direction from the beginning, full of charisma, color, and charm, and so jumped in popularity.
I had a co-player that had an amazing tiefling bard named "Quill" (true name: Lana). The setting had a very medieval streak with commoners being unable to write or read. Her job, before adventuring, was to write messages for folk and send them around by way of carrier pigeons she bred, or read messages she received. But her true passion was writing epic tales she'd tell at the tavern come the evening. She was inspired one evening by the tall tales of the party's Paladin, so she decided to set out alongside him and record the deeds of the party, with the idea of one day publishing a book. She sculpted her horns in the shape of tiny wings and would sport feathers of all sorts in her hair and tail tuft. She'd add one for every deed we shared. She once broke a horn during combat, which was a big deal for that character since she felt her identity got taken from her. My druid made a lotion to help her regrow it faster. Then the rogue stole the recipe and sold vials of it to balding men, which had no effect on their hair...
Fun idea for a tiefling bard - because of their horns and appearanced this tiefling found it really hard to perform openly in front of the crowd, so they chose puppeteering as their act so that they can remain behind the curtains while still singing and dancing (with puppet) to entertain people. There's even fanmade college of marionettes and college of puppets that fit thit character very well, might be an interesting combo.
My favorite part of this is that even if you don’t go with the Tiefling’s body changing with their personality angle, it’s still a wellspring of inspiration for character design
I've tallied up my own reasons over the years: 1) They are a wonderful opportunity to play out a Nature vs Nurture story with the character. 2) They are ripe for a conflicted character, one with internal and external struggles built into them-- this makes for good stories. 3) They have the potential for wonderful 'Redemption Arc' stories (which people love, myself included), even if they have no personal reason to seek it. 4) They are a condensed down, inoffensive (because they're fictitious) way to play a character suffering from discrimination. 5) They are entirely unique, their own microcosm (they were even more so in Planescape, where you had to roll on charts to determine their peculiarities). 6) Tracking back to the Redemption Arc and Discrimination storytelling, they did nothing wrong. They didn't get a choice. What they are is completely beyond their control, they were merely born that way and want to be treated as an individual nine times out of ten... Just like everyone else, for realsies. They are a mirror.
I once designed a Drow bard. He was young, offended the strict society of the Underdark with his desire for music and levity, and ran to the surface knowing his assassin sister was literally on his tail. (Think Zuko and Azula but Drow). He had heard horror stories of the surface people, how they loathed his kind, and knew he needed a disguise. If anyone recognized him he would be killed without hesitation, either by a racist human or an Underdark assassin. He needed a disguise. It took him some time but eventually he got the resources and enough coin to craft himself a set of wearable horns. He dressed as the surface folk did, and with a knee length sash beneath a cloak giving the illusion of a tail, combined with his natural charisma and musical skills? It wasn't long until all traces of the missing Drow boy vanished, instead replaced by surprisingly good natured ashy "Tiefling" bard exploring the various night pubs and venues. He knew his time was short, he knew he couldn't escape Lloth's wrath for long. But he'd enjoy what he could so long as his disguise held out. As long as he stuck to drunken bars and the dark corners, carefully and excitedly getting to know other performers in the area until he was no longer suspicious to the owners. I haven't gotten to play him yet, and one group even laughed the idea away. Why would I design a cosplaying Drow when I could just make a Tiefling? I hope to bust him out one day though, an odd balance between Lackadaisy's Rocky and Freckle, bold enough to perform and deceive with a stage face yet with enough survival instinct to keep hidden in plain sight and enough of a conscience to recognize the abuse he endured and what goes on around him. Here's hoping the group will enjoy role play, imagine the interactions as someone notices a slight unnatural shifting of the horns with his hair, or someone in the party knows Tiefling lore and grills him beyond what he can adequately make up, or they wind up in a setting where they assume he knows Infernal or has flame resistance but he doesn't. And when the DM surprises the party with whatever his assassin sister has planned? It may be weird, but I think it could be fun to cosplay a Tiefling.
Those people who laughed at it are stupid. That's *absolutely* something a bard would do. A lot of people design their class to pretend it's another class, why the hell not do that with character races too? It's funny.
That's an amazing character idea & I'm sorry you got laughed away by that one group, whoever they are, they're unimaginative assholes. Character ideas that are based around a "this isn't what it looks like" theme are a personal favorite of mine. My first time playing pathfinder(I'm normally a 5E dm so when I was invited to be a player, even in a system I knew nothing about, I was super stoked!) I came to the first session with my character, a rogue/cleric. He was a criminal who decided to change his ways & I was the only person who multiclassed. Two people at the table groaned & said I should have gone full cleric & taken the criminal background if that's what I wanted to roleplay. After a couple sessions those same people told me that my build had great synergy, because of my 3 levels in rogue I could Disengage, Dash, & Hide as a bonus action so I was often zipping around the battlefield, healing my party or helping our dedicated rogue by flanking enemies so she could get sneak attack(and so would I!) Anyway if anyone read my reply all the way I want to say thanks for reading my random rambling & I hope you find a great D&D group to have fun with.
I watched your video on Beholders a few days ago. I have now subscribed and begun watching your entire catalog. Your channel is incredible, even from the beginning. Your humor and creativity are ON POINT, and I'm here for every bit of it. 😂🤘
Knocked it out of the park again, Antonio! Also I now have 7 new tieflings made in the 22 minutes this video lasted and one of them is a golden Tiefling named Honey who runs an inn and wants to feed you sweets like a southern grandma
@@pointyhatstudios there are so many tieflings today... Something tells me that there will be more, but at least they will actually vary from each other (They will, right? RIGHT?!).
Beginning of the video: Poor Tieflings! Misjudged due to their appearance! End of the video: Let’s make Tieflings’ appearance reflect their personality and profession! Now others will have a solid reason to judge them by their looks! 😜
an idea i always found interesting was a tiefling who has a great shift in ideals or has regrets, i.e. they've used their physical strength to hurt others, or have used their social prowess/intelligence to manipulate, sawing their horns off to symbolize a shift in their path and allowing them to grow again as they grow in their new path.
I showed this to a friend who made a tiefling recently and he went to his DM with your video and is changing his character to incorporate a bunch of these ideas because he liked it so much. Amazing content and love your videos a whole lot!
tbh i like tieflings because they have this vibe to them for lack of better wording a vibe of them "rebelling against fate"/"carving their own destiny" considering everything surrounding a tiefling you would expect alot more of them to go straight evil cursing the world but alot more of them less black and white and more complex greys on top of the demon aesthetics
I was convinced that thanks to Tiktok, Tieflings were synonymous with "queer" and it gave people an outlet that feels right despite the lore. I had a Tiefling Bard who broke his horns and would constantly lie about how they broke off to sound intimidating when in reality he fell off a tree when he was 6
@@Cibershadow2 thanks! He was my first legitimately evil and first meme character. His full name was Corinthinogue Salamberge Endyhaus, but it shortened down to "Cory IntheHouse" He was raised by a pitfiend, plotted to overthrow Asmodeus to steal his chair, held severed heads like teddy bears, and singlehandedly became the inciting incident of our current campaign by trapping the soul of one god, and screwing over a different god. He also has a big yellow bow tie. That's very important.
Tbh tiktok and twitter ruin tieflings for me for a long time since they were a brilliant race when they orginal released but those platforms ruined it to the point a teifling warlock thats bi is the same joke as a horny bard meme, but its been waterdown 100x times.
I originally gravitated towards tiefling because their struggle seemed to mirror my own as a POC in the United States. Obviously in a more fantastical way but I think that the ability to map yourself and your struggles on to the race has made it popular.
I can't believe your channel is only two months old. Your rythm, theme, editing, basicly everything in this video screams that this is the work of a veteran D&D youtuber. Yup, i'm subscribing for sure! :)
I had an idea for a Bard/Sorcerer named Alagada who started off with just one set of horns until they learned they had a storm-bloodline. Their second pair grew in with frosted tips too and i cannot thank you enough for the help in developing their design
I actually *DO* have tieflings have some inherent predisposition towards "sin", be it wrath, lust, pride, deceit, etc, with somewhat different yet still corruption-focused origin of their parents. I do it partially because I run a furry game and having and people being racist towards a horned guy with weird eyes and tail is very unrealistic if there are literal deer-people in the same village. Moreover, I have it so tieflings could be born to ANY race, basically like a template. Because why would only humans be prone to making dark pacts, getting possessed or the like? But that inherent predisposition is something that can easily be written into flaws of the character (I mean the box for flaws is literally on the character sheet for a reason), while also serving as a conflict. In my take it's BOTH the internal conflict between what they want and what they are prone to, as well as all the racism. Though to be fair, being literally corrupted by dark forces is not always seen as abhorrent, especially if it was due to your parents' doing. Many, be it in academies, churches or just those that want to do some good in the world, do take pity on the tieflings, especially when they are young, and give them a chance. Hell! there are even laws in places that say to not prosecute petty crimes done by tieflings if they show penance (especially if Zone of Truth is used), and to let go. After all - not only the players want to hug those devilish Woobies. NPCs want to do it too. Why not make it reflected in the setting?
As far as I understand tieflings are specifically the end result of interaction with devil's or demons for humans. Dungeon and Dragons does have other races similar to tiefling they're just called something else such as Tanarukk (ork) and Durzagon (Duergar). I believe lore wise this is due to cultural reasons. Although this is just the theory for me. At the end of the day tieflings is not a all encompassing term for a mortal touched by the Infernal or abyssal. That being said I understand the way you're using tiefling. I've been in games that have used it that way. Not to mention it technically would work the same way as aasimar do. Lore wise for aasimar they can be anything else not just human.
I have it as a racial ability to sense misery in others, in the form of a pleasing aroma. All tieflings experience pleasure from the suffering of others but some will use this ability empathically to find people in need and help them. As a result tieflings are naturally drawn toward evil but those that resist the temptation have a tool to help those in need
Sin isn't even really a thing in Forgotten Realms. It's a polytheistic setting and while some things are objectively good and objectively evil, sin refers more to a personal grievance with your deity and it is never referred to or called that in any Forgotten Realms literature I've read. You can read about the Nine Hells of Baator and not see that word pop up once. I'm pretty sure they left out anything that sounds too Judeo-Christian on purpose.
21:24 Wait, what?? How could that have been your third video @pointyhatstudios? Imo it is SO incredibly well made! 😳 Next to the fact that a (I think … I'm new to the topic) comprehensive overview is presented about the stated topic, giving many information and backgrounds - you even go beyond that by questioning e. g. possible existing flaws regarding depth of the existing lore and presenting possible (a) solution(s). Not to forget that it is comprehensively explained why there could be a potential to add depth and which areas might be not worth / too difficult to extend. Imo, creating a video with such amazing balance of actually funny jokes, executed with great timing alone seems like a huge thing to me (not to forget the length of over 20 Minutes). Paired with so many wonderful drawings with a consistent art style and design and a enjoyable, calm (but still emotional) voiceover (and voice … however, this might be something one hardly has any control over, at least not to a large extent, I guess) that sounds extremely authentic and un-staged to me: Damnnn, I am a total D&D noob (and English isn't my mother tongue), but I followed every word (and most of all was able to follow, comprehending the spoken words AND the topic presented) and wasn't even thinking about skipping forward - also because the whole video seemed well thought out to me and no content did feel filler-ish. Oh ye, and the fact that you designed characters with story and art and give it to us for free! I can't even imagine the amount of time and effort invested in that video - so I simply want to say: thank you very much for doing so, for this video and the general enjoyment I got out of it!
I don't know if anyone else thinks this but the horn growth thing and the virtue names just reminds me of my little pony, with the cutie marks and the naming conventions there, Like, now I'm imagining a tiefling wizard who's virtue name is Twilight an they went to a magical academy ran by two half celestial unicorns blessed with sun and moon magic respectively.
@@SeedYum that sounds interesting. but why shouldn't it work. Pinkie Pie is very cheerful and it breaks the archetype of the brooding loner for necromancers. also i'm pretty sure that Pinkie Pie has ADHD.
that was sooooo interesting thank you so much for the research you’ve made, absolutely love the bits about chosen names and different horn shapes based on moral compass and personality
My Tiefling is Heckle, abondoned to the church as a kid he knew he never fit in and despite truly loving his god and becoming a cleric, he just can’t get over how rude some people can be, so he chose to annoy them. Trickster clerics are fun
I feel like D&D is one of those games that are very attractive to people with their own identity issues in real life because it lets them play and act out being something other than what they are. A lot of people in the LGBT community feel lonely or isolated or misunderstood or openly hated by large groups of people as well as being considered evil or the result of sin, and it makes them identify with tieflings on those levels. They want to play this character they think will feel the way they do or think their own experiences will help inform them of how that character will behave, etc. But then the reality is nearly all DMs shy away from intense fantasy racism and are uncomfortable with treating any of the PCs as lessers or others, so they never get to genuinely experience that in game in the first place and their race choice ends up not really meaning anything aside from how they look and how they justify their angst (despite the fact there is no perceivable reality to the reasons they claim). You'll have a tiefling character wax on about how they're hated and mistreated and distrusted, but in reality they haven't had a single interaction with people that showed that to be the case. Regardless, I think this is the real reason they're so popular. And having an excuse to have purple skin is just icing on the cake to a lot of people too.
Your hypothesis does hold some water, as least in my experience, but you should also consider that tieflings are strong mechanically. The Hellish Resistance to fire is way better than the half-elf's Fey Ancestry resistance to sleep/charm (which becomes quickly forgotten after the first levels), and the different bloodlines grant free cantrips. So, many "gamer" D&D players gravitate towards the tiefling for minmaxing, even if they don't identify at all with the ideas behind the character, roleplaying it as "purple human".
I've only played D&D video games, but I still see the same sort of thing there also. Though in the case of video games, I think it's mostly the inherent difficulty of creating differing paths based upon the race the player is playing as (since it'd basically be like making multiple games), and at most you'll just get some flavor text acknowledging your differences. It really makes me want to create my own campaign generator that actually reacts to the player's character's race / class etc. to a more significant degree.
@@ardenorcrush649 If you don’t mind me adding my own two cents, I've run into three groups of players who pick Teiflings on a regular basis: 1. The Edgelord who picks it and makes a character so edgy, they make Evanescence look like K-pop as they go on and on about their tragic and edgy backstory until someone put the poor sap out of their misery. 2. The ‘Special Snowflake’ who picks it to feel special and tries to make the entire campaign about themselves and their character by all costs, including derailing the campaign. These eventually get kicked out after a messy fight and ruins the game. 3. The Critters who pick it to make a poor man's Molly or Jester and inevitably fail at it and get angry that either the DM and/or the other players don't humor their personal fantasies. Ran into all three and it was pain to say the least. Not to say that all tiefling characters are bad. Currently running two myself. One a LG Dex-Paladin and the other is a N Pact of the Old Ones Warlock.
I'm honestly really glad my DM is having the Tieflings and Dragonborn be EXTREME minorities to the point where it's dangerous to show any traits of them. We haven't fully started the campaign, but from what I've squeezed out of the DM, it's going to be heavily used in the world. I'm very glad they're not shying away from these topics :)
@@Lobsterwithinternet Typically, isn't DnD meant to be something you do with friends? You seem to have strong opinions about the people you're suppose to be having fun with.
When you went into the twist part of the video, I got SO excited because I love this concept! It only makes sense that with tieflings being so customizable, their personality traits and interests as they mature would affect their physical appearance!
I think a way to "gamify" your concept would be to have the horn shape tied to class. The plus side to this is that it would give really clear iconography for a Tiefling wizard vs a Tiefling Cleric. The downside is that every new class would need to come with a section dictating specifically what the horns look like, and that would almost feel like preferential treatment towards Tieflings.
I'm pretty sure most of the things he showed were literally tailor-made for different classes (except maybe the social ones but even then, bards and the like exist)
I have yet to actually play D&D outside of a video game, these videos are a pure joy to watch regardless of whether I'm going to finally organize a dnd night with my friends 😂 keep following your passion Mwah~
"Visually, Tieflings are very easily recognizable for their horns" - ((shows a picture of a Qunari from Dragon Age.)) In fact, there's lots of Qunari in here. And I am HERE FOR IT, they are SEXY MFers, hell yes to the Qunari love, I love to see it so much. Thank you for this video!
I miss my depressed thiefling oath of devotion paladin named "Promise" who'd always deceive on principle, except if you backed him into a literal promise.
I love the ideas for the horns and tails!! I think I'm gonna add that when drawing my tiefling since she's a druid and I love the idea of her having ram-like horns! She's one of my favorite characters. She has a pet badger, has personal beef with any and all construction companies and plays the bagpipes because it was suggested as an inventory joke, and my DM got super excited. So even though I'm not a bard, I can still try and play music to get people to like us. It's great!! (also the DM just let me have the badger as a pet so he can't do damage, but he can't be hurt either and that just makes me so happy to know my baby badger is always safe)
At least in my world the reason tieflings are seen as evil isn't so much because their 7th great grandpappy made a pact with Asmodeus, it's because your average Joe can't tell the difference between a tiefling and a cambion (cambions being true half-devils and are innately evil) Same with half orcs, most people can't tell the difference between a half-orc and a full orc (especially since in lore many of the orcs you fight are actually half-orcs because the one good thing you can say about orcs is they don't give a crap about racial purity)
@@augustuslunasol10thapostle exactly, there's two cities in my homebrew setting which have a significant enough tiefling population where they are not discriminated against, one of them is a trade city (totally not the fantasy version of New York), and the other is the Capital (totally not the fantasy version of Constantinople)
I normally see two types of Tieflings with One being the descendant of someone who made a pact with Asmodeus and these are being the most common type. One being the descendant of a Cambion, where somewhere up your family tree a mortal ancestor of yours had carnal relations with a fiend.
My tiefling is the latter except my DM told me later that she was straight up a Half Devil. She never found out her true nature in campaign and I hope one day I'll get to play her again.
Loving these videos!! I actually have a blue tiefling wizard whose horns actually fits the description for the arcane based tiefs 👀 loving it all honestly might use it in my campaign even
These are brilliant ideas, and fun new ways to explore a character and lore. I generally have Teifling virtue names after significant events, like Resilience the Teifling Sorcerer (aberrant mind) Warlock (genie), who has two sets of horns from being cruelly experimented on by an ancient green dragon in an effort to bolster its army to make half dragon creatures. I love that character because it puts a spin on the commonly seen outgoing of people and turns the stereotype on its head.
Interesting. I have never heard of tieflings before but I instantly fell in love with them in BG3. I love the eay they look. I like the whole “looks like a devil but you don’t actually know if they are evil” vibe. The two characters I think of as my “mains” that aren’t just there to fully explore the game are a sort of neutral good sorcerer who is sometimes a trickster and a warlock who is kind of neutral or lawful evil.
I'm planning a pirate campaign set on an ocean world, and in my campaign, Tieflings are the results of Eldritch horrors, rather than demonic influence. Instead of hooves, horns etc, they have pale cold skin, extra eyes or mouths where there shouldn't be eyes or mouths, etc. I gave them +3 int, -1 cha, minor telepathic powers, and oh yeah they constantly hear dark whispers from whatever Cosmic Horror they're connected to.
Interesting take. I was just thinking that I'd make Tieflings like the Omens from Elden Ring... which is to say rather than having cool-looking devil horns, they'd just have papilloma-style hornlike growths randomly sprouting from their body, causing varying amounts of inconvenience, discomfort and pain.... focusing on making them more tragic and far less charismatic. They'd get a Constitution bonus to match penalties to Charisma and possibly Dexterity.
I think you missed a point in your analysis. DnD tieflings are representative of counter culture. Unnatural hair colors, eye colors, evil ancestry, uncomfortable relationships with family members, assumptions made about them on appearance alone, etc. Throw in some weird piercings and they’d be the epitome of the “scary punk kid is nice actually” concept on the internet from around the time of 5e’s development. The assumption of evil is less racism larping as much as it is a simple set up for a character ego boost when you educate the uneducated hicks who treated you poorly (and a tiefling character gets to try all the options: violence, kindness, debate, callous neglect at a crucial moment, the works). They fit a very particular power fantasy in counter culture groups: defying expectations. Wether it’s their evil ancestor or the mindset of the people around them - tiefling players live for the moment they get to define their own self in relation to the game world, usually at the expense of someone who took them for granted
I am so entirely impressed by the sheer effort and quality of these videos. Very quickly becoming my favorite DnD content creator. Great art, great concepts love to see more!
"you already have 34" Sir, there is no need to call me out so harshly -- My favorite way that I've seen Tieflings handled is in my group's homebrew setting, where they're just their own race, rather than born to human parents. They have an incredibly nuanced society, living in a massive desert city and divided up into clans. I'm doing a poor job of explaining it, but having that culture where they come from really gave them an extra sense of interest.
I made them not human exclusive so every race can give birth to a tiefling and these subraces of the different races see the tieflings born from other races as brothers and sisters which actually gives them a huge feeling of unity.
I only know tieflings through extended media, but weren't they already their own race in 4e ? Still descended from humans because of a civilization-wide pact with demons, but no longer being born randomly from human parents ?
Absolutely wonderful yet again! Very informative, fun, and lovely edited (so many good references to so many cool things, oh gods). One can tell the effort and passion you put into these. Love the idea of giving greater importance to virtue names for their culture and it even reflecting on their appearance. Also, heck yeah to the encouragement of using safety tools
Omg i love your videos with all the new twists and customizations!!! Also I think you’re very funny and I’m glad I found your RUclips channel, hope to see more content!!!
My first character was a Tiefling. Instead of any of the typical Nine Hells-inspired themes for his backstory, I had him essentially experimenting with forbidden Necromantic magic from a cursed tome written by the God of Death, before realizing that such magic was too powerful and dangerous to be controlled, leading him to shift his focus to protecting the tome from all who would seek to use its power, whether their intentions were for Good or for Evil.
I like going back to this video a lot, cause it's just so damn good. Especially taking such a basic concept and turning it into such an epic part of a race's physiology. It's super creative and I would love to see a take on Aasimar considering how good this video was.
I LOVE THIS SO MUCH OH MY GOD!! aaaaaa this video has me thinking about a tiefling cleric i made years ago for a campaign that fizzled out...... his name was Coniferous Worthy, and he gave himself the surname Worthy as an aspiration. he was raised in a temple, and kept pretty sheltered because of how people generally treated tieflings. as he got older, he began to worry that maybe there really was an inherent evil inside of him (spoilers, there was not) so he made it his life's mission to prove his worth and devotion to the goddess he worshiped. originally he had these impractically tall, spiral antalope-like horns that he would decorate with necklace chains that had broken, and wildflowers that he would weave into the chains, but now i'm tempted to drag him out of the brain archives and do an entire re-design based on this video.......... if i remember correctly, his goddess was a nature adjacent deity so what if........... spiral halo..............
The editing on this is at god-level ! Also thanks for educating us what the tiefling actually is. I'm not really advanced D&D user, just brushed by it on the occasion of Baldur's Gate 2 and now 3.
This reminds me of this one picture that I stumbled across of a tiefling that was blindfolded and had multiple large horns that had eyes grown into them. I guess they had an interest in the far realm and/or the esoteric/occult.
I have been watching this series of videos for my campaign and it has helped me a lot, these concepts, arts, all of this is excellent, thank you very much Mr. hat 😉
I've had two tieflings that I can remember. A Zealot Barbarian named Glory with golden skin, a thick muscular tail, and antlers that curved upwards with a silvery light between them. She worshiped the God of Adversity and she prayed that combat would be more difficult. The DM was happy to oblige. The other, Cassy, was a cleric of order with heritage from Levistus. She had cyanic/white skin and small horns that curved back downwards. She fervently believed that Laws are the building blocks of society and has trouble comprehending how a person in a position of authority could be bad.
Now I'm just thinking of the teifling NPC that our DM introduced that is a cleric/paladin of Lathander. We haven't interacted with him much, but he's strong and short and very shy around new people. So of course I adore him. I'll pitch the halo horn idea to my DM since he didn't go into too much detail over his appearance. We'll see how it goes.
I love this! I would love to see you do video on Aasimar, since unlike the Tiefling who have conflict and customizability built in Aasimar have almost none of that. They are the Messiah to the Tiefling's Pariah and are comparatively boring. They are pretty humans who sometimes have wings and a bit of healing, what kind of fun twist can you give them to make them more interesting?
In Islam angels are rather robotic creature. Based on that a friend of mine in the past had her Aasimar Divine Sorcerer having conflict between her free-spirited human mind and her robotic celestial mind. In one of session she wondering whether her good deeds are based on her own good will or just something set by her celestial mind. When her celestial mind took over she speaks with flat tone and expression and become more judgemental.
Make them arrogant and judgmental, make them see themselves as inherently superior for their divine origins. Put pressure on them to be "perfect" and everyone to count on them often to their breaking point
I have them fall into a similar trope as tieflings, they are seen as tribal freaks in my home brew, more feared than loved. In my lore, their ancestors were gods and Demigods of light, nature, war, or something similar and have become nomadic and tribal shunning most civilized societies or living on the fringes of it, the exception to this is a home brew race that is a cross between Aasimar and half giants, but of Fey origins. So the Aasimar tribes can be found near or live amongst them.
So that concept of the character that has had a rough life and you just want to hug? I find that most compelling when the character is actively doing something about their situation to the best of their ability, especially if it doesn't fully solve the situation, but there isn't anything they can do more despite them struggling. My last tiefling I played she started off being proficient in the use of a disguise kit, basically so she could makeup her skin to look like human skin as part of her morning ritual. She also started by wearing hoods to help cover her horns as well as knowing either minor illusion or some other cantrip that would allow her to hide or disguise her ram horns temporarily in case she had to take her hood down. Basically she was initially trying to hide who she was, and her story and character growth involved gaining confidence in who she was as a person and accepting herself, leading to interesting roleplay moments like when she finally trusted the party enough to let them see her for what she was. But yeah, tieflings are really cool, they have a lot of customization and have potential drama and conflict baked in.
@@Kylora2112 huh. I mean, you aren't wrong, but she wasn't lesbian. She was straight, though maybe leaning a towards asexual... though there was one guy she found hot, but that didn't lead anywhere, the guy died in an unfortunate cave in that may or may not have been caused by the party using earthquake in the Underdark while two armies were fighting each other.
Tieflings: No specific culture because they're just born from human families.
Also Tieflings: Have a shared habit of naming themselves in an extremely specific way.
Must be the devil blood.
Doctor: Congratulations ma'am, it's a healthy baby boy... Also a tiefling
Mother: Wait what!? A tiefling!?
Doctor: Yeah, always a surprise when one is born. The other day we had a couple yelling at each other over who's ancestors had done the deed with a fiend. Anyway, please hold your baby and here's a list of infernal names
Mother: Infernal names? We wanted to name him Richard, after his grandfather
Doctor: Hahaha, yeah, no, please take the list and pick a name.
@@Lowdian Well, it says they tend to name themselves later. So, I imagine their naming convention tends to kind of be likes some elves where they have a childhood name and then later get an adult name.
*Laughs in all trans people choosing in a really narrow specter of names*
That's just how nonbinary people be irl
The simple idea of a cook Tiefling who chooses the name "Cinnamon" won you a subscriber
Thyme, Sage, or Rosemary if they're wise
Nutmeg, Liquorice, or Honey, if they're resilient
Popcorn if they're fast
Star Anise if they're charming or charismatic
I can't think of any others, but this is fantastic inspiration.
@@trevorgreenough6141 thank you so much
@@trevorgreenough6141
Salt: Loud and gets into everything
Pepper: Has Glasses
Turmeric: Thick headed and one note
Basil - Bold
Ginger - Snappy and a little harsh
Sugar - Energetic
@@freelancerthe2561 sugar, uses aganazzars scorcher as their go too spell flavoured by running so fast they set the ground on fire.
All these are fantastic ideas.
Yeah, that sounds like it’s just a stripper name lol
Can you imagine a tiefling born to dwarf parents?
This little ram-horned, red-bearded, thick scaly boy who works all day in the forge without tongs or heat protection because fire doesn't really bother him that much and he likes to feel the heat more precisely on his skin to know just how hard he has to hit the metal to shape it exactly how he wants it.
The little community was a bit weirded out in the beginning, but that boy sure as hell can work the forge and once he drank Grandpa Broadhammer under the table, so who are they to judge him?
I can see him in my head.
Seems like a very dwarven thing to do, accepting a Hellspawn because he does good forgework and holds his liquor.
satan be damned my boy can work a forge
this is perfect lmfao
:')
This is a fantastic idea. Would also work if a very accepting Dwarf family adopted an abandoned Tiefling child/baby.
At the Table: "Tieflings are awesome, and we should always have one in every campaign we run."
Tieflings in Lore: "VILE HELLSPAWN, GET OUT OF OUR TOWN!"
At the table: I am a pansexual whore and I want to be a bard
The lore reasons are why I came up with the idea of a ring of illusion for my tiefling character. Where they would have this magic ring of illusion, give them to them by their demonic dad. So that they would disguise themselves as a half elf. I chose half elf specifically because they would choose that Mainly so they don't have to explain why they know magic.
13:59 "I'm not inheritly evil, in fact I'm gonna become the embodiment of what I find most important in life!"
- Greed, Tiefling
-Greed, fullmetal alchemist
Heathen became a paladin out of spite
I'm reminded of the Carter family, mentioned in passing in the Discworld books.
They had many children, and decided to name the girls after virtues. Hope, Prudence, Chastity, Charity.
When they had boys, they decided to do the opposite. The ones we know about are Anger, Jealousy, Covetousness, Deviousness and Bestiality.
Poor kids.
@@Ninjat126 kid named Bestiality
@@boiankokid named Deviousness 😈
I feel like Pointy Hat understandably avoided the other major reason Tieflings are popular. People are really horny, and devils/demons often get the vampire treatment in media. What I'm getting at is, tieflings have the sex-appeal of demons and devils without the "being absolutely horrible and inherently evil" bit. Add the tragic backstory and general distrust to that, and you get the "I can fix them" vibe that people absolutely obsess over
THE real answer.
the “sexy” race
This. They're "good" demons and have animal ears/tails.
i like teiflings because they have the air of being really good tragic characters hated by all perfect for my next paladin kind of like the salamanders from 40k
Yeah. Pretty much this. Add in the edginess of the demonic lineage and tieflings are the instant magnet race for teenage somethings new to D&D who write sexy loner characters who angst-sulk in the corners of taverns.
I have a strict joke rule at my table that you have to be 25 years or older to play Tieflings and Drow.
Tieflings are liked because:
1. They are inherently an underdog
2. They are more humanoid than not
3. They have a lot of variety in terms of looks (skin color, horns, tail)
It's the combination of these traits that make them so popular. And Mollymauk Tealeaf.
And Jester...
long may he reign
they're hot*
learn from mollymauks downfall that lead to his death........missing a crucial roll haha
It sounds more like a stereotypical Gen Z would see itself: Charismatic, Smarter than you, Claiming opression and yet Friendly.
So the muscle types are beeflings
The rogue is a sneakling
The arcane types are weaklings
and the ambassadors are greetlings.
Any other suggestions?
The ones with no parents are grieflings
@@rythmiccoma2809 that a rougeling
The nature ones are quite obviously seedlings!
Oh how you missed the chance on the rogue one it should be the Thiefling.
And if a Tiefling get's to be the leader of the group, they will henceforth be called: Chieflings
I like tieflings mostly because of tail and horns that are fun to look at. It kinda gives the same feeling of watching your pet cat play; the way the tail swishes is just so satisfying.
me too
Ooh, A tiefling that loses conviction and then their horns snap off and they have to figure out what they want to do next. I actually don't usually think of making Tiefling characters but now I'm brainstorming ideas haha. Great video!
I had a character (sad he didnt get an end) choose to have his horns rip off so he could save the party.
Sad i couldnt flesh that decision out
Conversely I've run a tiefling who - through genetic abnormalities and a younger age - had no visible horns (just lumps under the skin and covered by his hair) and a vestigial tail like a human's coccyx. His realisation of his lineage via the first time he noticed he was using his powers was a great moment, and made many things from his backstory click to the party. Was one of my favourite characters, especially because I was able to pull the "Hail satan, and have a wonderful afternoon." speech from Kingsman on a tiefling-racist.
Damn.. I always play human rogue..wtf
Reverse Hellboy
Ooo maybe if a major change is about to befall a Tielfing their horns fall off in a sort of precondition event? An adademic Tielfing is studying in a great library late at night when studenly his horns snap off, blood from the painless wound stains his book. He gets up to get something to clean the page but when he passes the window he sees them. A mob of angry townsfolk with pitches and torches have come to destroy the library and its evil teachings. The Tielfing with no time to spare has to flee, finding himself alone in the woods. He is forced to live off the land. His horns begin to regrow into a shape to match the deer of the forest.
"Tieflings have great charisma that makes them naturally likeable" and "tieflings are looked down on and treated badly" doesn't add up on a societal level
Think of it more like a glamour. Maybe it's of a magical, fiendish nature; you feel drawn toward someone, but in an unnatural way, making you feel on-edge. You can't seem to pull yourself away from their eyes. Their face is too beautiful, too symmetrical - to the point it seems odd. When they speak, there's an undertone of devilish whispering, urging you to follow. Compelling, but also unnerving.
Think of it as the way some women are drawn so dead beat druggy Alcoholics that society shuns.
Charisma is the strength of a character's presence. A character can be intimidating and scary because of their charisma instead of them looking physically strong etc.
It's presence people fear them hence the charisma and just because people don't like you means you can't convince them shit
Less likeable and more charming. Think of how drag queens can definitely make a spectacle and can be magnetic but can still be shunned by society
They always give me the perfect "I have every right to be evil but I won't" vibe or "People feared me for no reason, I'll give them one" everytime I use them in anyway
Teifling Horns Timestamps
14:00 Teifling Horns Lore Explanation
14:24 Strength
14:57 Nature
15:40 Acedemia
16:27 Religion
17:27 Social
18:23 Fusion of one or more idea
For anyone who wants to make Teifling PC's or Npcs
I was liked by point hat, i have made it
im still trying to think how a teifling who servers near religously for a devil, an evil teifling like a warlock who servers their patron, would it be ring shaped since its religon or are the religous ones more for good religion?
@@thothgod420 Perhaps that could be a character element - allowing them to subvert/infiltrate order religious communities. I thought about something like that with an academic. Folks assume their two interests are the benign topics they teach but really it’s some kind of dark magic / necromancer craziness.
@@thothgod420 For the cleric tiefling, sure. But being a warlock isn’t a religious thing, and warlocks mostly don’t worship or even like their patrons.
@@eatingtheleaf4659 ok butnunder the situation of worshiping an evil diety or warlock patron
I love this, but as a superstition that tieflings hold, rather than a thing that actually happens. Like, young tiefling Billy is growing horns that look like they'll be circular, and everyone "knows" that means he'll be pious, so they ship him off to join the clergy. And look, another circular-horned tiefling is now in the clergy, reinforcing the bias.
Yeah this makes the blatantly false assumption that tieflings and other winged/horned freaks are even tolerated in the Forgotten Realms. Even an Aasimar with angel wings would likely be called derogatory things and ran out of most shops.
@@charaznable9209 You seem to be making the assumption that every game featuring tieflings will be set in the Forgotten Realms, or that DMs do not alter settings to include dynamics that they prefer.
@@j.p.giambalvo1123 I mean, that's even assuming very specific things about a campaign setting with a metric ton of cultural diversity. Even when people are bigoted there, they're all bigoted about different things. Some only care about where you were born, some only care about what you can do for them, some hate mages, some hate non-mages, some will refuse to deal with anyone that doesn't wear a hat. Even directly "monstrous" creatures do open business at major trading hubs like Waterdeep as a big default canon plot/lore element.
There are shops a standalone fullblooded devil or demon could walk into and be greeted warmly (a large group of such would probably still give universal pause, though). Exotic and planar races run a good number of those shops in officially published modules! Tieflings are kinda minor footnotes in Forgotten Realms compared to all the kooky things that go down on that continent and beyond.
@@j.p.giambalvo1123 What's the point in making a teifling if you're going to erase their defining feature of being discriminated against? Borrowing oppression is half the fun.
@@FacebookAunt wow, that's a sentence I didn't think I'd hear
To answer your question though there are a lot of cool plot lines with demonic parentage beyond racism. Also, it's just a cool aesthetic.
Tieflings are both edgy, cute, sexy and have nice bonuses. They are both a teenage girl and teenage boys dream when it comes to character options. You can play them as quirky and cute or edgy and evil as you like. Very flexible race in every way, it's also not a "boring" elf or one of the non-conventionaly-attractive races.
Humans can be played EXACTLY the same.
@@IndyMotoRider you CAN play them like that, but then it all comes down to your roleplaying, while by the virtue of choosing a tiefling you are already different on a surface level which is much easier to convey than through actually roleplaying, because ... Well, you are purple and you have horns! You know what I mean? Basically they are an exotic race, but not too exotic to the point they are weird and they are also not one of the vanilla fantasy races.
Humans do not have the inherent curte\ edgy factor, cause you look at them and they're just human, but when you turn the page and see this sexy, red and horny beast of a race, you realize NOW I can show everyone how quirky I am! etc.
Tieflings are just for cowards who aren't committed enough to be a monster to play a Lizardfolk, Bugbear, or something, but still want to be the party's weird +1
@@aprinnyonbreak1290 yeah, they wanna play a "monster" but also be cute and weird
@NoName-ym5zj is that too much to ask?
"so why are YOU in the stockades?"
"you know the high priest, the tiefling?"
"yhea, with the ring horns? what did you do to him?"
"well, first off, ball is life"
What's that "ball is life" thing? I don't understand that
@@dianaferreria basketball through the horns
Ballin' but at what cost?
😂
I cackled out loud while reading this, thank you
My first DnD char was a tiefling but the main reason was because “they looked cool”. Customization was a good point too tho.
Same. As of now she's still my only Dnd character
Me too , I chose to be a tiefling because being a demon sounded cool
Before Tieflings were a thing, it were Drow. And Drows are still a thing. Because a slight of evil is appealing to many people. Those which are a little bit evil as well as they feel familiar. Those which are righteous good, because they wish to sometimes excape their own limits.
Even before there were drow, some people used half-orcs the same way (albeit without the sex appeal factor).
Drow has always been my favorite
Which is why I made a drow paladin in Baulder’s Gate 3. Overcoming evil through their player class. That, and I just thought the midnight blueish/grey skin looked cool and reminded me of Dunmer from Elder Scrolls
@@edman9953but paladin isn't a reason to be good
@@DungEnjoyerrthere are good drow (there's even a good alignment drow goddess)
Understand your confusion, that Asmodeus homogenizing Teifilngs was a 4e thing, and like many 4e changes, people hated it, so 5e backtracked.
we still need teiflings or another race to cover the non-Hell fiends for character options. there was a really, really good homebrew done for Demonlings (or whatever they were called) that were super interesting.
Damn I think that should be the new racial options Wizards works on...
Of course they rightly hated it, as it severely restricted customization.
@@jemm113 Same, I desperately want yugoloth tieflings. but we'll probably never get them as WOTC don't give a damn about yugoloths
5e didn't really backtrack on tieflings, they doubled down on the concept by introducing the other devil tieflings in MToF. They sucked because they looked almost the same as the default tieflings, and the only real differences were different spells, and stat distributions (which are now obsolete because all races now have +2 +1 to any of their stats). It's no wonder why MotM decided to drop the tieflings, while WotC have made it abundantly clear that they regret making MToF as they ignore it like SCAG. There is still hope for old tieflings to return. TCoE featured artwork of a classic tiefling from Planescape, and the planetouched races in MotM can be medium or small sized while their flavour has changed so it gives the players room for personal customisation. We'll have to wait until the 2024 core rulebooks are released which will give us the MotM planetouched changes to tieflings.
@@EdgeLie Drop as in they didn't make the transition from MToF to MotM. There was little point in bringing them when the only true difference was different spells, so they would've otherwise served as complete filler in the book. It doesn't really matter if MotM doesn't have all races when for the most part, it has effectively replaced MToF (generally a sign that WotC regrets making MToF as they've done a similar replacement in TCoE when it got the spells and Bladesinger from SCAG, making what little value SCAG had worthless). There's no point in getting MToF when all it has are those pointless tieflings, and boring filler lore that keeps assuming Forgotten Realms is your setting. As a side note, MotM hasn't really replaced VGtM. That book still has value for monster dungeon designs, and the exclusive orcs that are not in MotM because they're too lore specific to Forgotten Realms.
With this emphasis on the horns reflecting what the tiefling values, imagine the character stories that could come from someone pulling a Hellboy and purposefully filing them down could mean.
He touched on it in the video, but having the appearance differ based on their values would likely lead to even more prejudice against at least some tieflings. People would start judging the book by its cover. Having a counter-culture movement of tieflings that file their horns and hide their tails would absolutely happen in such a world.
My tiefling passes as a tanned human. He files down his horns and hides his tail.
a short horn? imagine what it could be capable of!!
Like a Barefaced Turian in Mass Effect who doesn’t wear the face paint of their family and or clan or homeworld. . Someone who has rejected their home and family. Someone who won’t be trusted by other Turians.
Tiefling midlife crisis?
In a campaign run by my brother, we treated Infernal as an enchanted language that one could only speak and comprehend via either infernal legacy (Tieflings) or infernal pact (warlocks). It sounds like complete gibberish otherwise and applied to names of infernal origin too, so it’d result in hilarious situations of introducing yourself and them hearing something random like “banana”, meaning that’s what you’d be called by throughout the campaign. It also acted like a litmus test to help determine who was a warlock or a Tiefling concealing their true form, and it’s a house rule we’ve used ever since.
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the artwork of a tiefling in the PHB a PURPLE tiefling?
it's supposed to be "redish"
it is
but its of a non-forgotten realms tiefling
Several of the races have inaccurate skin tones. Wood Elves have Copper Skin, High Elves have either gold Skin or Alabaster (like, actual white, not flesh white), the Gnome is pale despite their skin tones ranging from 'Tan to Brown', the Dwarf is in the same boat in spite of the only pale colour being explicitly 'tinged with red' (and it states that this is less common than darker, earth-like skin tones). At this point I just take it as implicit permission for your characters appearance and skin tone to be whatever you damn well please so long as it fits the character.
The color of tieflings is the tone of the image you liked, maybe there is a set of colors in the PHB but if you really like that greenish tiefling wizard you just use it.
@@raylordofkhalah28 I may be wrong, but isn't that Farideh, from Brimstone Angels, which is a forgotten realms tiefling?
I once made a Tiefling Bard that grew up in the Army. She became a field musician and eventually learned/developed bardic magic. She really liked the structured life of the Army and how she was able to translate orders into music and coordinate thousands of troops at once. So, I decided that she would take the Virtue name of Guidance.
Didn't know about virtue names. Funny thing though, that I had a tiefling who grew up an orphan turned criminal. Due to her fiendish nature, she was so brutal she was dubbed by the streets "Mercy". Her victims begged for Mercy, but all they saw was her.
15:30 damn i kinda really want to make a tiefling druid now... and add that to my pile of unused characters
20:30 WAIT, NO! I CAN JOKE ABOUT IT BUT U CANT CALL ME OUT LIKE THIS
When I first got into DND, my very first character was a tiefling druid. He was a pirate and a motherfucker and I love him
@@SiaDione these two comments are amazingly aesthetic together, thank you for making my day
I've played one, Wildfire of course, it was amazing! He also had an INT of 6 which was amazing
Just a character for each race and class option. Problem solved
An interesting consequence of the horns growing to match their values means it's an outward visual signal to everyone who sees them... meaning that you could incorporate ppl who want to conceal things about themselves purposely trimming or covering their horns. Or if a character has a life changing experience that totally shifts their values their horns might shed and then grow back different.
Could work VERY nicely with how, in 5e, Tieflings make great Warlocks and Warlocks can cast Disguise Self at will by level 2.
Tieflings disguising themselves as OTHER types of tiefling.
Regional stereotypes about Tieflings. E.g. people from a highly religious nation assume Tiefling horns/tails represent which demon lord or archdevil they're loyal to, and Tieflings with circular horns are "redeemed."
They insist that they're NOT "anti-tiefling" racists, some of their best friends are Tieflings (which is true), but they also think that having moose antlers is irrefutable proof of a tiefling being a worshipper of Baphomet. The church has been trying to sort out this misconception for over a decade but people keep getting confused over the whole Demon/Devil thing.
@@Ninjat126I'm so glad I gave baldurs gate a try. Dnd is the most creative thing to learn about. It's so cool.
@Ninjat126 this is an AMAZING concept thank you for sharing
@@Ninjat126not the "I CAN'T BE RACIST, MY FRIENDS ARE TIEFLINGS"
I do genuinely have a weak spot for making very colorful teiflings. My favorite go to is pink and my favorite tiefling I ever played was an extremely pale pink(imagine if tieflings had albinism and you'll be able to see it) man with ram horns that he kept having to shave down so they wouldn't grow into his eyes.
He was a circle of the shepherd druid and I love him dearly.
Fun fact: I floated around DnD spaces long before I actually decided to play the game, so I was extremely confused when I read about Tieflings having human skin tones or only reddish colours, when I had never seen a Tiefling fanart with human skin and the majority I had seen were blue or purple xD
Also blue is my favourite Tiefling colour, its so pretty
Let me guess.
Jester of the Mighty Nein.
(Or something somehow connected thereto.)
@@RedBlitzen lol, she definitely played a part xD
But jester is mostly blue cause of her Water Genasi lineage
People were drawing Nightcrawler from the X-Men whether they knew it or not.
Similar thing happened to Dragonborn.
No matter how hard they try and say Dragonbown don't have tails, people keep drawing them with tails
5:00 That part always stroke me as odd.
No one is teaching them infernal, so they must somehow know it regardless of their home and lineage.
So I imagine normal parents trying to adopt a tiefling baby and it already being fluent in infernal, so the parents have to try to teach it common and prevent it from making a pact with a demon to get some candy.
Okay a baby being fluent in infernal is kind of funny
I might actually go for that with my tiefling Euphie.
@@jordanrayne3585
- Euphie, it's time for dinner!
- Gaaa!
- No, Euphie, you can't have a sweet roll for dinner!
- *in infernal* SILENCE, FOUL HELLSPAWN, THOU SHALL NOT DENY ME MY SUSTENANCE!!! O, GREAT ASTAROTH, HEAR YOUR SERVANT IN TIMES OF NEED!!!
i like the idea they dont know it but completely understand it and sort of learn to speak really easily if they hear infernal. but they just sort of magically know what infernal words mean
@@thothgod420 I mean, that sounds like it makes sense, but there's still infernal in the category of "known languages". And if you magically understand words - it makes just as much sense to just magically know them.
And besides - a baby being fluent in the language of devils is too funny to miss out on.
Every time I watch another one of these videos, I'm again think this guy needs to make a fantasy story, he'd go far into making one of the deepest worlds with the richest characters to date.
I also love ironic virtue names or aspirational ones. Like I have a raging kleptomaniac rogue tiefling named Charity, but that is mostly because she wants to stop her compulsion to steal stuff. So for now she steals and puts it back (mostly back to the wrong person though, for that is the spice of life…) I also got a liar called honesty, cause of course they would be lying about their virtue name.
One faction in my setting (not necessarily tieflings just a political group) that had vice names. The older/former members had virtue names and no one ever found out what happened. Good times.
My Tiefling pact of the tome warlock who likes torturing others is called Mercy.
Made a tiefling Druid first called Comfort, but currently Aurora as in northern lights, but she has like 97 mental illnesses which constantly frighten her and aspires to be just as at peace as the stars, sun and moon
Because they're mechanically strong, overloaded with more cool lore than every other race combined, and it doesn't take a particularly complex backstory to make sense out of them going on an adventure... it's the natural conclusion to the unique circumstance of their birth and the way society would react to it. Everything that makes a good DnD character, they have, in a way that's very easy for new players to figure out, and even easier for experienced players to make something amazing with.
they are also edgy right out of the box
And from an aesthetic sense, if you want to make a seducer-type character, the tiefling has a certain forbidden charm to them. Their Charisma bonuses help with that too!
Can't forget that, even if you don't read or care about lore or the stats, they just look damn cool. If I'm new to D&D, I'm skimming through the PHB, and I see my options are a person, a person with pointy ears, person but shorter (x3), person but green and buff, lizard, and a person with the baller-ass horns and a tail and colorful skin, my choice is a little skewed already.
Meanwhile, I keep making kobolds because they're so damn cute.
There's hella good lore on every other race. I'd say Tieflings just get more attention because of how thematically cool/edgy/beautiful/sad they are. Especially with shows like Critical role taking off and promoting DnD during Covid.
The idea of the image reflecting the growth and personality it's so great. I love how it allows you to customize it even more without making a mechanical change and lets you go deeper with the character's mind
4:58
Did you know a newly born Dragon can speak Draconic right after they hatch.
Literally right after they hatch if there jaws and vocal cords work then they can speak Draconic.
I think a lot of it is art direction too. Shifters (humans touched by lycanthrope lineages) touch a lot of the same beats as tieflings, customization, distrust, even hatred, but like no official character art has ever made them look cool or appealing. Tieflings had great art direction from the beginning, full of charisma, color, and charm, and so jumped in popularity.
I had a co-player that had an amazing tiefling bard named "Quill" (true name: Lana). The setting had a very medieval streak with commoners being unable to write or read. Her job, before adventuring, was to write messages for folk and send them around by way of carrier pigeons she bred, or read messages she received. But her true passion was writing epic tales she'd tell at the tavern come the evening. She was inspired one evening by the tall tales of the party's Paladin, so she decided to set out alongside him and record the deeds of the party, with the idea of one day publishing a book. She sculpted her horns in the shape of tiny wings and would sport feathers of all sorts in her hair and tail tuft. She'd add one for every deed we shared.
She once broke a horn during combat, which was a big deal for that character since she felt her identity got taken from her. My druid made a lotion to help her regrow it faster. Then the rogue stole the recipe and sold vials of it to balding men, which had no effect on their hair...
Fun idea for a tiefling bard - because of their horns and appearanced this tiefling found it really hard to perform openly in front of the crowd, so they chose puppeteering as their act so that they can remain behind the curtains while still singing and dancing (with puppet) to entertain people.
There's even fanmade college of marionettes and college of puppets that fit thit character very well, might be an interesting combo.
This is so cute and kinda heartbreaking… Dam you’ve mastered the wobble
My favorite part of this is that even if you don’t go with the Tiefling’s body changing with their personality angle, it’s still a wellspring of inspiration for character design
The idea of creating guidelines for Tiefling characteristics helping to determine their horns is genius. Chef’s kiss.
I've tallied up my own reasons over the years:
1) They are a wonderful opportunity to play out a Nature vs Nurture story with the character.
2) They are ripe for a conflicted character, one with internal and external struggles built into them-- this makes for good stories.
3) They have the potential for wonderful 'Redemption Arc' stories (which people love, myself included), even if they have no personal reason to seek it.
4) They are a condensed down, inoffensive (because they're fictitious) way to play a character suffering from discrimination.
5) They are entirely unique, their own microcosm (they were even more so in Planescape, where you had to roll on charts to determine their peculiarities).
6) Tracking back to the Redemption Arc and Discrimination storytelling, they did nothing wrong. They didn't get a choice. What they are is completely beyond their control, they were merely born that way and want to be treated as an individual nine times out of ten... Just like everyone else, for realsies. They are a mirror.
I once designed a Drow bard. He was young, offended the strict society of the Underdark with his desire for music and levity, and ran to the surface knowing his assassin sister was literally on his tail. (Think Zuko and Azula but Drow). He had heard horror stories of the surface people, how they loathed his kind, and knew he needed a disguise. If anyone recognized him he would be killed without hesitation, either by a racist human or an Underdark assassin. He needed a disguise.
It took him some time but eventually he got the resources and enough coin to craft himself a set of wearable horns. He dressed as the surface folk did, and with a knee length sash beneath a cloak giving the illusion of a tail, combined with his natural charisma and musical skills? It wasn't long until all traces of the missing Drow boy vanished, instead replaced by surprisingly good natured ashy "Tiefling" bard exploring the various night pubs and venues. He knew his time was short, he knew he couldn't escape Lloth's wrath for long. But he'd enjoy what he could so long as his disguise held out. As long as he stuck to drunken bars and the dark corners, carefully and excitedly getting to know other performers in the area until he was no longer suspicious to the owners.
I haven't gotten to play him yet, and one group even laughed the idea away. Why would I design a cosplaying Drow when I could just make a Tiefling? I hope to bust him out one day though, an odd balance between Lackadaisy's Rocky and Freckle, bold enough to perform and deceive with a stage face yet with enough survival instinct to keep hidden in plain sight and enough of a conscience to recognize the abuse he endured and what goes on around him. Here's hoping the group will enjoy role play, imagine the interactions as someone notices a slight unnatural shifting of the horns with his hair, or someone in the party knows Tiefling lore and grills him beyond what he can adequately make up, or they wind up in a setting where they assume he knows Infernal or has flame resistance but he doesn't. And when the DM surprises the party with whatever his assassin sister has planned? It may be weird, but I think it could be fun to cosplay a Tiefling.
Dude, this idea is awesome and I really hope you find a good group to use him!
Those people who laughed at it are stupid. That's *absolutely* something a bard would do. A lot of people design their class to pretend it's another class, why the hell not do that with character races too? It's funny.
That is genius and could be a story all it's own. Stick to your guns and run with it!
That sounds awesome! If I were running an online game, I would immediately ask you to join!
That's an amazing character idea & I'm sorry you got laughed away by that one group, whoever they are, they're unimaginative assholes.
Character ideas that are based around a "this isn't what it looks like" theme are a personal favorite of mine. My first time playing pathfinder(I'm normally a 5E dm so when I was invited to be a player, even in a system I knew nothing about, I was super stoked!) I came to the first session with my character, a rogue/cleric. He was a criminal who decided to change his ways & I was the only person who multiclassed. Two people at the table groaned & said I should have gone full cleric & taken the criminal background if that's what I wanted to roleplay. After a couple sessions those same people told me that my build had great synergy, because of my 3 levels in rogue I could Disengage, Dash, & Hide as a bonus action so I was often zipping around the battlefield, healing my party or helping our dedicated rogue by flanking enemies so she could get sneak attack(and so would I!) Anyway if anyone read my reply all the way I want to say thanks for reading my random rambling & I hope you find a great D&D group to have fun with.
I watched your video on Beholders a few days ago. I have now subscribed and begun watching your entire catalog.
Your channel is incredible, even from the beginning. Your humor and creativity are ON POINT, and I'm here for every bit of it. 😂🤘
Knocked it out of the park again, Antonio! Also I now have 7 new tieflings made in the 22 minutes this video lasted and one of them is a golden Tiefling named Honey who runs an inn and wants to feed you sweets like a southern grandma
my only goal with this is to increase the net amount of tieflings tenfold
@@pointyhatstudios Showing this video to one of my party members did inspire a new tiefling character. It's absolutely working.
@@pointyhatstudios there are so many tieflings today... Something tells me that there will be more, but at least they will actually vary from each other (They will, right? RIGHT?!).
Honey just got duplicated.
@@FlatOnHisFace Don't worry, I have other tiefling characters waiting in the wings :) Besides, Honey can still be any class.
Beginning of the video: Poor Tieflings! Misjudged due to their appearance!
End of the video: Let’s make Tieflings’ appearance reflect their personality and profession! Now others will have a solid reason to judge them by their looks!
😜
an idea i always found interesting was a tiefling who has a great shift in ideals or has regrets, i.e. they've used their physical strength to hurt others, or have used their social prowess/intelligence to manipulate, sawing their horns off to symbolize a shift in their path and allowing them to grow again as they grow in their new path.
I showed this to a friend who made a tiefling recently and he went to his DM with your video and is changing his character to incorporate a bunch of these ideas because he liked it so much. Amazing content and love your videos a whole lot!
tbh i like tieflings because they have this vibe to them for lack of better wording a vibe of them "rebelling against fate"/"carving their own destiny"
considering everything surrounding a tiefling you would expect alot more of them to go straight evil cursing the world
but alot more of them less black and white and more complex greys on top of the demon aesthetics
Love the effort put into your videos and the NPCs and plot hooks that you just give away FOR FREE! You are amazing!
Making a Tiefling look different based on their virtue is a super clever idea. I think I might start using that.
I had a sea green tiefling that was from sea monsters. He was very hydrophobic because he KNEW what horrors lurked in the depths
I genuinely love this, you even do your own illustrations! You're so cool!! 🎉
So true!😀
I was convinced that thanks to Tiktok, Tieflings were synonymous with "queer" and it gave people an outlet that feels right despite the lore.
I had a Tiefling Bard who broke his horns and would constantly lie about how they broke off to sound intimidating when in reality he fell off a tree when he was 6
Ok that is a brilliant backstory though. Also fully agree on the link between tieflings, queerness and their popularity
@@Cibershadow2 thanks! He was my first legitimately evil and first meme character. His full name was Corinthinogue Salamberge Endyhaus, but it shortened down to "Cory IntheHouse"
He was raised by a pitfiend, plotted to overthrow Asmodeus to steal his chair, held severed heads like teddy bears, and singlehandedly became the inciting incident of our current campaign by trapping the soul of one god, and screwing over a different god.
He also has a big yellow bow tie. That's very important.
Tbh tiktok and twitter ruin tieflings for me for a long time since they were a brilliant race when they orginal released but those platforms ruined it to the point a teifling warlock thats bi is the same joke as a horny bard meme, but its been waterdown 100x times.
I originally gravitated towards tiefling because their struggle seemed to mirror my own as a POC in the United States. Obviously in a more fantastical way but I think that the ability to map yourself and your struggles on to the race has made it popular.
Lul what
I can't believe your channel is only two months old. Your rythm, theme, editing, basicly everything in this video screams that this is the work of a veteran D&D youtuber. Yup, i'm subscribing for sure! :)
I had an idea for a Bard/Sorcerer named Alagada who started off with just one set of horns until they learned they had a storm-bloodline. Their second pair grew in with frosted tips too and i cannot thank you enough for the help in developing their design
Surprised no Hellboy clips, he's one of the best representing of tieflings through media
Everytime I see someone mention hellboy
I reminded of his terrible marksmanship.
and i have a I little giggle.
I actually *DO* have tieflings have some inherent predisposition towards "sin", be it wrath, lust, pride, deceit, etc, with somewhat different yet still corruption-focused origin of their parents. I do it partially because I run a furry game and having and people being racist towards a horned guy with weird eyes and tail is very unrealistic if there are literal deer-people in the same village. Moreover, I have it so tieflings could be born to ANY race, basically like a template. Because why would only humans be prone to making dark pacts, getting possessed or the like?
But that inherent predisposition is something that can easily be written into flaws of the character (I mean the box for flaws is literally on the character sheet for a reason), while also serving as a conflict. In my take it's BOTH the internal conflict between what they want and what they are prone to, as well as all the racism. Though to be fair, being literally corrupted by dark forces is not always seen as abhorrent, especially if it was due to your parents' doing. Many, be it in academies, churches or just those that want to do some good in the world, do take pity on the tieflings, especially when they are young, and give them a chance. Hell! there are even laws in places that say to not prosecute petty crimes done by tieflings if they show penance (especially if Zone of Truth is used), and to let go.
After all - not only the players want to hug those devilish Woobies. NPCs want to do it too. Why not make it reflected in the setting?
As far as I understand tieflings are specifically the end result of interaction with devil's or demons for humans. Dungeon and Dragons does have other races similar to tiefling they're just called something else such as Tanarukk (ork) and Durzagon (Duergar). I believe lore wise this is due to cultural reasons. Although this is just the theory for me. At the end of the day tieflings is not a all encompassing term for a mortal touched by the Infernal or abyssal.
That being said I understand the way you're using tiefling. I've been in games that have used it that way. Not to mention it technically would work the same way as aasimar do. Lore wise for aasimar they can be anything else not just human.
I have it as a racial ability to sense misery in others, in the form of a pleasing aroma. All tieflings experience pleasure from the suffering of others but some will use this ability empathically to find people in need and help them. As a result tieflings are naturally drawn toward evil but those that resist the temptation have a tool to help those in need
Sin isn't even really a thing in Forgotten Realms. It's a polytheistic setting and while some things are objectively good and objectively evil, sin refers more to a personal grievance with your deity and it is never referred to or called that in any Forgotten Realms literature I've read. You can read about the Nine Hells of Baator and not see that word pop up once. I'm pretty sure they left out anything that sounds too Judeo-Christian on purpose.
21:24 Wait, what?? How could that have been your third video @pointyhatstudios?
Imo it is SO incredibly well made! 😳
Next to the fact that a (I think … I'm new to the topic) comprehensive overview is presented about the stated topic, giving many information and backgrounds - you even go beyond that by questioning e. g. possible existing flaws regarding depth of the existing lore and presenting possible (a) solution(s). Not to forget that it is comprehensively explained why there could be a potential to add depth and which areas might be not worth / too difficult to extend.
Imo, creating a video with such amazing balance of actually funny jokes, executed with great timing alone seems like a huge thing to me (not to forget the length of over 20 Minutes).
Paired with so many wonderful drawings with a consistent art style and design and a enjoyable, calm (but still emotional) voiceover (and voice … however, this might be something one hardly has any control over, at least not to a large extent, I guess) that sounds extremely authentic and un-staged to me:
Damnnn, I am a total D&D noob (and English isn't my mother tongue), but I followed every word (and most of all was able to follow, comprehending the spoken words AND the topic presented) and wasn't even thinking about skipping forward - also because the whole video seemed well thought out to me and no content did feel filler-ish.
Oh ye, and the fact that you designed characters with story and art and give it to us for free!
I can't even imagine the amount of time and effort invested in that video - so I simply want to say: thank you very much for doing so, for this video and the general enjoyment I got out of it!
Oh, also: purple :)
Na, just joking c: … I really can't decide for a 'favourite colour' really, lol (perhaps blue-ish or something, but idk Xd ).
This also adds a lot more intensity to a villain who collects tiefling horns. Dude, such a good video.
Oh..... that's good!
I don't know if anyone else thinks this but the horn growth thing and the virtue names just reminds me of my little pony, with the cutie marks and the naming conventions there, Like, now I'm imagining a tiefling wizard who's virtue name is Twilight an they went to a magical academy ran by two half celestial unicorns blessed with sun and moon magic respectively.
@@SeedYum Gosh bless! 🙏
I am now going to ask every tiefling player what their cutie mark is.
@@SeedYum that sounds interesting. but why shouldn't it work. Pinkie Pie is very cheerful and it breaks the archetype of the brooding loner for necromancers. also i'm pretty sure that Pinkie Pie has ADHD.
that was sooooo interesting thank you so much for the research you’ve made, absolutely love the bits about chosen names and different horn shapes based on moral compass and personality
My Tiefling is Heckle, abondoned to the church as a kid he knew he never fit in and despite truly loving his god and becoming a cleric, he just can’t get over how rude some people can be, so he chose to annoy them. Trickster clerics are fun
I feel like D&D is one of those games that are very attractive to people with their own identity issues in real life because it lets them play and act out being something other than what they are.
A lot of people in the LGBT community feel lonely or isolated or misunderstood or openly hated by large groups of people as well as being considered evil or the result of sin, and it makes them identify with tieflings on those levels. They want to play this character they think will feel the way they do or think their own experiences will help inform them of how that character will behave, etc. But then the reality is nearly all DMs shy away from intense fantasy racism and are uncomfortable with treating any of the PCs as lessers or others, so they never get to genuinely experience that in game in the first place and their race choice ends up not really meaning anything aside from how they look and how they justify their angst (despite the fact there is no perceivable reality to the reasons they claim). You'll have a tiefling character wax on about how they're hated and mistreated and distrusted, but in reality they haven't had a single interaction with people that showed that to be the case.
Regardless, I think this is the real reason they're so popular.
And having an excuse to have purple skin is just icing on the cake to a lot of people too.
Your hypothesis does hold some water, as least in my experience, but you should also consider that tieflings are strong mechanically. The Hellish Resistance to fire is way better than the half-elf's Fey Ancestry resistance to sleep/charm (which becomes quickly forgotten after the first levels), and the different bloodlines grant free cantrips. So, many "gamer" D&D players gravitate towards the tiefling for minmaxing, even if they don't identify at all with the ideas behind the character, roleplaying it as "purple human".
I've only played D&D video games, but I still see the same sort of thing there also. Though in the case of video games, I think it's mostly the inherent difficulty of creating differing paths based upon the race the player is playing as (since it'd basically be like making multiple games), and at most you'll just get some flavor text acknowledging your differences. It really makes me want to create my own campaign generator that actually reacts to the player's character's race / class etc. to a more significant degree.
@@ardenorcrush649 If you don’t mind me adding my own two cents, I've run into three groups of players who pick Teiflings on a regular basis:
1. The Edgelord who picks it and makes a character so edgy, they make Evanescence look like K-pop as they go on and on about their tragic and edgy backstory until someone put the poor sap out of their misery.
2. The ‘Special Snowflake’ who picks it to feel special and tries to make the entire campaign about themselves and their character by all costs, including derailing the campaign. These eventually get kicked out after a messy fight and ruins the game.
3. The Critters who pick it to make a poor man's Molly or Jester and inevitably fail at it and get angry that either the DM and/or the other players don't humor their personal fantasies.
Ran into all three and it was pain to say the least.
Not to say that all tiefling characters are bad.
Currently running two myself. One a LG Dex-Paladin and the other is a N Pact of the Old Ones Warlock.
I'm honestly really glad my DM is having the Tieflings and Dragonborn be EXTREME minorities to the point where it's dangerous to show any traits of them.
We haven't fully started the campaign, but from what I've squeezed out of the DM, it's going to be heavily used in the world. I'm very glad they're not shying away from these topics :)
@@Lobsterwithinternet
Typically, isn't DnD meant to be something you do with friends? You seem to have strong opinions about the people you're suppose to be having fun with.
When you went into the twist part of the video, I got SO excited because I love this concept! It only makes sense that with tieflings being so customizable, their personality traits and interests as they mature would affect their physical appearance!
I think a way to "gamify" your concept would be to have the horn shape tied to class. The plus side to this is that it would give really clear iconography for a Tiefling wizard vs a Tiefling Cleric. The downside is that every new class would need to come with a section dictating specifically what the horns look like, and that would almost feel like preferential treatment towards Tieflings.
I'm pretty sure most of the things he showed were literally tailor-made for different classes (except maybe the social ones but even then, bards and the like exist)
I loved the twist you did with their horns and tails growing to reflect their virtues. I will probably use this the next time I make a tiefling
I have yet to actually play D&D outside of a video game, these videos are a pure joy to watch regardless of whether I'm going to finally organize a dnd night with my friends 😂 keep following your passion Mwah~
"Visually, Tieflings are very easily recognizable for their horns" - ((shows a picture of a Qunari from Dragon Age.))
In fact, there's lots of Qunari in here. And I am HERE FOR IT, they are SEXY MFers, hell yes to the Qunari love, I love to see it so much. Thank you for this video!
I miss my depressed thiefling oath of devotion paladin named "Promise" who'd always deceive on principle, except if you backed him into a literal promise.
I love the ideas for the horns and tails!! I think I'm gonna add that when drawing my tiefling since she's a druid and I love the idea of her having ram-like horns! She's one of my favorite characters. She has a pet badger, has personal beef with any and all construction companies and plays the bagpipes because it was suggested as an inventory joke, and my DM got super excited. So even though I'm not a bard, I can still try and play music to get people to like us. It's great!! (also the DM just let me have the badger as a pet so he can't do damage, but he can't be hurt either and that just makes me so happy to know my baby badger is always safe)
At least in my world the reason tieflings are seen as evil isn't so much because their 7th great grandpappy made a pact with Asmodeus, it's because your average Joe can't tell the difference between a tiefling and a cambion (cambions being true half-devils and are innately evil)
Same with half orcs, most people can't tell the difference between a half-orc and a full orc (especially since in lore many of the orcs you fight are actually half-orcs because the one good thing you can say about orcs is they don't give a crap about racial purity)
So it would make sense for areas with alot of tiefflings to be less discriminated upon
@@augustuslunasol10thapostle exactly, there's two cities in my homebrew setting which have a significant enough tiefling population where they are not discriminated against, one of them is a trade city (totally not the fantasy version of New York), and the other is the Capital (totally not the fantasy version of Constantinople)
@@ADT1995 pre Christian Constantinople or post because I don't like Constantinople without the gay seggs parties
@@augustuslunasol10thapostle the Constantinople of the 9th and 10th century
@@augustuslunasol10thapostle Don't worry, these were present during christian times too
I normally see two types of Tieflings with
One being the descendant of someone who made a pact with Asmodeus and these are being the most common type.
One being the descendant of a Cambion, where somewhere up your family tree a mortal ancestor of yours had carnal relations with a fiend.
My tiefling is the latter except my DM told me later that she was straight up a Half Devil. She never found out her true nature in campaign and I hope one day I'll get to play her again.
these videos are the light of my life the fire of my loins
your strange words have enchanted me
This reply is the light of my life the fire of my loins
oh you make me blush
>//
Rawr
Loving these videos!! I actually have a blue tiefling wizard whose horns actually fits the description for the arcane based tiefs 👀 loving it all honestly might use it in my campaign even
These are brilliant ideas, and fun new ways to explore a character and lore.
I generally have Teifling virtue names after significant events, like Resilience the Teifling Sorcerer (aberrant mind) Warlock (genie), who has two sets of horns from being cruelly experimented on by an ancient green dragon in an effort to bolster its army to make half dragon creatures. I love that character because it puts a spin on the commonly seen outgoing of people and turns the stereotype on its head.
Interesting. I have never heard of tieflings before but I instantly fell in love with them in BG3. I love the eay they look. I like the whole “looks like a devil but you don’t actually know if they are evil” vibe.
The two characters I think of as my “mains” that aren’t just there to fully explore the game are a sort of neutral good sorcerer who is sometimes a trickster and a warlock who is kind of neutral or lawful evil.
Same and for the same reasons! It helps that you met a community of them ten minutes in the game:)
I'm planning a pirate campaign set on an ocean world, and in my campaign, Tieflings are the results of Eldritch horrors, rather than demonic influence. Instead of hooves, horns etc, they have pale cold skin, extra eyes or mouths where there shouldn't be eyes or mouths, etc.
I gave them +3 int, -1 cha, minor telepathic powers, and oh yeah they constantly hear dark whispers from whatever Cosmic Horror they're connected to.
Thay sounds so cool
Interesting take. I was just thinking that I'd make Tieflings like the Omens from Elden Ring... which is to say rather than having cool-looking devil horns, they'd just have papilloma-style hornlike growths randomly sprouting from their body, causing varying amounts of inconvenience, discomfort and pain.... focusing on making them more tragic and far less charismatic. They'd get a Constitution bonus to match penalties to Charisma and possibly Dexterity.
@@SotiCotoomens fit perfectly in that theme! I might see if i can convince my next DM to add them in
I think you missed a point in your analysis. DnD tieflings are representative of counter culture. Unnatural hair colors, eye colors, evil ancestry, uncomfortable relationships with family members, assumptions made about them on appearance alone, etc. Throw in some weird piercings and they’d be the epitome of the “scary punk kid is nice actually” concept on the internet from around the time of 5e’s development. The assumption of evil is less racism larping as much as it is a simple set up for a character ego boost when you educate the uneducated hicks who treated you poorly (and a tiefling character gets to try all the options: violence, kindness, debate, callous neglect at a crucial moment, the works).
They fit a very particular power fantasy in counter culture groups: defying expectations. Wether it’s their evil ancestor or the mindset of the people around them - tiefling players live for the moment they get to define their own self in relation to the game world, usually at the expense of someone who took them for granted
There's a reason for the "LGBT+ players love tieflings" stereotype
@@alicev5496 oh god no, I've been called out haha
The way I smiles ear to ear when you used a “Paris is Burning” scene for Opulence. 💀💀💀
When i finished this video, i fully expected multiple thousands of subs, your content is A+ man keep it up.
Thank you! These comments make me so happy, I'm glad you like it!
I am so entirely impressed by the sheer effort and quality of these videos. Very quickly becoming my favorite DnD content creator. Great art, great concepts love to see more!
0:58 I used to watch this show when I was a kid and that edit was exactly what I expected yet still maximally hilarious
Every one of these illustrations are so good. Beyond that, the entire concept of this video is amazing. Thank you so much!
"you already have 34"
Sir, there is no need to call me out so harshly --
My favorite way that I've seen Tieflings handled is in my group's homebrew setting, where they're just their own race, rather than born to human parents. They have an incredibly nuanced society, living in a massive desert city and divided up into clans. I'm doing a poor job of explaining it, but having that culture where they come from really gave them an extra sense of interest.
I made them not human exclusive so every race can give birth to a tiefling and these subraces of the different races see the tieflings born from other races as brothers and sisters which actually gives them a huge feeling of unity.
I only know tieflings through extended media, but weren't they already their own race in 4e ? Still descended from humans because of a civilization-wide pact with demons, but no longer being born randomly from human parents ?
I guess everyone has atleast 34 Tieflings, I believe this phenomenon is also known as "Rule 34"
@@eberlix I was searching for this comment
your drawings are really good and help visualize your ideas a lot :)) goud job
Absolutely wonderful yet again!
Very informative, fun, and lovely edited (so many good references to so many cool things, oh gods). One can tell the effort and passion you put into these.
Love the idea of giving greater importance to virtue names for their culture and it even reflecting on their appearance. Also, heck yeah to the encouragement of using safety tools
Omg i love your videos with all the new twists and customizations!!! Also I think you’re very funny and I’m glad I found your RUclips channel, hope to see more content!!!
My first character was a Tiefling. Instead of any of the typical Nine Hells-inspired themes for his backstory, I had him essentially experimenting with forbidden Necromantic magic from a cursed tome written by the God of Death, before realizing that such magic was too powerful and dangerous to be controlled, leading him to shift his focus to protecting the tome from all who would seek to use its power, whether their intentions were for Good or for Evil.
I like going back to this video a lot, cause it's just so damn good. Especially taking such a basic concept and turning it into such an epic part of a race's physiology. It's super creative and I would love to see a take on Aasimar considering how good this video was.
I LOVE THIS SO MUCH OH MY GOD!! aaaaaa this video has me thinking about a tiefling cleric i made years ago for a campaign that fizzled out...... his name was Coniferous Worthy, and he gave himself the surname Worthy as an aspiration. he was raised in a temple, and kept pretty sheltered because of how people generally treated tieflings. as he got older, he began to worry that maybe there really was an inherent evil inside of him (spoilers, there was not) so he made it his life's mission to prove his worth and devotion to the goddess he worshiped.
originally he had these impractically tall, spiral antalope-like horns that he would decorate with necklace chains that had broken, and wildflowers that he would weave into the chains, but now i'm tempted to drag him out of the brain archives and do an entire re-design based on this video.......... if i remember correctly, his goddess was a nature adjacent deity so what if........... spiral halo..............
The editing on this is at god-level !
Also thanks for educating us what the tiefling actually is. I'm not really advanced D&D user, just brushed by it on the occasion of Baldur's Gate 2 and now 3.
i fucking love the horns edited onto the movie clips
This reminds me of this one picture that I stumbled across of a tiefling that was blindfolded and had multiple large horns that had eyes grown into them. I guess they had an interest in the far realm and/or the esoteric/occult.
I have been watching this series of videos for my campaign and it has helped me a lot, these concepts, arts, all of this is excellent, thank you very much Mr. hat 😉
I've had two tieflings that I can remember.
A Zealot Barbarian named Glory with golden skin, a thick muscular tail, and antlers that curved upwards with a silvery light between them. She worshiped the God of Adversity and she prayed that combat would be more difficult. The DM was happy to oblige.
The other, Cassy, was a cleric of order with heritage from Levistus. She had cyanic/white skin and small horns that curved back downwards. She fervently believed that Laws are the building blocks of society and has trouble comprehending how a person in a position of authority could be bad.
I love this idea for tieflings! The horns reflect the individuals intent in life, definitely gonna mash this idea in to my next one!
you're dedication and hard work is commendable :)
Now I'm just thinking of the teifling NPC that our DM introduced that is a cleric/paladin of Lathander. We haven't interacted with him much, but he's strong and short and very shy around new people. So of course I adore him. I'll pitch the halo horn idea to my DM since he didn't go into too much detail over his appearance. We'll see how it goes.
I love this! I would love to see you do video on Aasimar, since unlike the Tiefling who have conflict and customizability built in Aasimar have almost none of that. They are the Messiah to the Tiefling's Pariah and are comparatively boring. They are pretty humans who sometimes have wings and a bit of healing, what kind of fun twist can you give them to make them more interesting?
You can make them question free will?
Make them biblically accurate
In Islam angels are rather robotic creature. Based on that a friend of mine in the past had her Aasimar Divine Sorcerer having conflict between her free-spirited human mind and her robotic celestial mind. In one of session she wondering whether her good deeds are based on her own good will or just something set by her celestial mind. When her celestial mind took over she speaks with flat tone and expression and become more judgemental.
Make them arrogant and judgmental, make them see themselves as inherently superior for their divine origins. Put pressure on them to be "perfect" and everyone to count on them often to their breaking point
I have them fall into a similar trope as tieflings, they are seen as tribal freaks in my home brew, more feared than loved. In my lore, their ancestors were gods and Demigods of light, nature, war, or something similar and have become nomadic and tribal shunning most civilized societies or living on the fringes of it, the exception to this is a home brew race that is a cross between Aasimar and half giants, but of Fey origins. So the Aasimar tribes can be found near or live amongst them.
I love the ideas for customizing tieflings! The physical customization of their traits in accordance with their personalities is such a fun idea!
So that concept of the character that has had a rough life and you just want to hug? I find that most compelling when the character is actively doing something about their situation to the best of their ability, especially if it doesn't fully solve the situation, but there isn't anything they can do more despite them struggling. My last tiefling I played she started off being proficient in the use of a disguise kit, basically so she could makeup her skin to look like human skin as part of her morning ritual. She also started by wearing hoods to help cover her horns as well as knowing either minor illusion or some other cantrip that would allow her to hide or disguise her ram horns temporarily in case she had to take her hood down. Basically she was initially trying to hide who she was, and her story and character growth involved gaining confidence in who she was as a person and accepting herself, leading to interesting roleplay moments like when she finally trusted the party enough to let them see her for what she was.
But yeah, tieflings are really cool, they have a lot of customization and have potential drama and conflict baked in.
Welp, there's the inherent queerness allegory popping up in Tiefling backstories again :)
@@Kylora2112 huh. I mean, you aren't wrong, but she wasn't lesbian. She was straight, though maybe leaning a towards asexual... though there was one guy she found hot, but that didn't lead anywhere, the guy died in an unfortunate cave in that may or may not have been caused by the party using earthquake in the Underdark while two armies were fighting each other.