Variant Aasimar and Tiefling heritages: Is Aasimar just plain better?

[Propagandalf]

Variant Aasimar Heritages
Players may choose one of the following six heritages for their aasimar characters in place of the traditional aasimar racial features.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/featured-races/arg-aasimar

Variant Tiefling Heritages
The Fiendish Heritage feat allows for some variant options for tieflings.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/featured-races/arg-tiefling

Am I reading this right? So an Aasimar can just choose one of the Heritages but a Tiefling must take a feat for it?

Granted, they also get to roll 3 times on the Variant Tiefling Abilities and pick one but the usefulness of that can vary all the way from "You can now eat sand" to "+1 Reflex saves" to "DR 2/Cold Iron"

(Aasimars also get a Variant Ability table, but can only access it with GM permission).

So for example a Devil-Spawn Tiefling would have +2 Constitution, +2 Wisdom, –2 Charisma, Pyrotechnics (sp) and Choose one:Claws 1d4/Burrow speed 5/Bite 1d4 (rolled those randomly from the table).

While an Archon-Blooded Aasimar would get +2 Con, +2 Wis and the Continual Flame (sp).

Also, granted, in both cases the text specifies that you can ask you GM if you could choose one of the abilities from the Ability tables. The ability replaces the original ability (In tieflings case) or the Spell-like ability (in aasimars case).

So with a lenient GM one could replace almost all of the tieflings abilities with better ones and only one of the Aasimars (since it always replaces the Sp. ability).

But by default the Aasimar is just... better?

[Sayt]

The feat requirement was waved when Paizo released Blood of Fiends.

In blood of fiends, the roll on the table is traded for your SLA.

[Propagandalf]

The feat requirement was waved when Paizo released Blood of Fiends.

In blood of fiends, the roll on the table is traded for your SLA.

Thanks!:smallsmile:
That is a relief to know. On with the character creation!:smallbiggrin:

[T.G. Oskar]

It depends on build, I'd say?

For example: an Angel-Blooded Aasimar might not seem like the best choice for a Bard, unless the Bard's build relies on making lots of damage with a melee weapon and thus needs Strength. However, on a Paladin or Cavalier, the choice is spectacular. Not so much with Archon-Blooded, since the SLA isn't that great and the only advantage both would have is better Wisdom (Paladins can pretty much ignore Wisdom with Divine Grace, so maybe the Cavalier has better advantage), but a Monk or Cleric would benefit a lot more.

Likewise, an Oni-Spawn or Qlippoth-Spawn Tiefling would be a pretty awesome addition to a Monk, what with Alter Self/Blur and good scores, but not for a Paladin, which would likely prefer the Demon-Spawn Tiefling (although Shatter isn't that great). The qualities from the feat are just minor things that add (fluff or otherwise) to the Tiefling - your choice of claws or bite allows for an extra attack that can probably benefit from the Paladin's mark, the burrowing speed might not seem that great but has its uses out of combat...you can also have +2 to Charisma, Intelligence or Wisdom, DR that's hard to bypass and thus more effective than DR X/magic, and so on. The variant benefits are pretty fair for the cost of a feat, moreso when the usual benefit of a feat is "you get +2 to critical confirmation rolls with a club" or something along those lines.

Perhaps, considering that Tieflings apparently don't need to get the feat in order to change into one of the variant heritages, the Tiefling pushes up ahead with the feat (and by virtue of having more choices) than the Aasimar replacing its SLA for something else. Some might be good (say, Spear of Purity or Shield Other 1/day instead of Daylight), but not others. In fact, I'd like a sort of Celestial Heritage feat for Aasimar that's exactly like the one from the Tieflings.

So yeah...it depends on how you look at it. That said; accounting for what the Variant Heritages replace, the Aasimar edges out ahead when you consider other replacements (say, a Paladin with Angel-Blooded Aasimar, replacing Celestial Resistance and Darkvision for Deathless Spirit and Halo) and contrast with the same replacements on the Tiefling (say...an Oni-Spawn Tiefling Monk with Fiendish Heritage taking +2 to Dexterity, replacing Fiendish Resistance and Fiendish Sorcery for Scaled Skin and Prehensile Tail).

[Propagandalf]

It depends on build, I'd say?

-Snip-

So yeah...it depends on how you look at it. That said; accounting for what the Variant Heritages replace, the Aasimar edges out ahead when you consider other replacements (say, a Paladin with Angel-Blooded Aasimar, replacing Celestial Resistance and Darkvision for Deathless Spirit and Halo) and contrast with the same replacements on the Tiefling (say...an Oni-Spawn Tiefling Monk with Fiendish Heritage taking +2 to Dexterity, replacing Fiendish Resistance and Fiendish Sorcery for Scaled Skin and Prehensile Tail).

Yup. Thankfully now that we know they removed the feat tax for the tiefling heritages they are much closer to each other.:smallsmile: