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Jayngfet
2008-05-09, 03:13 PM
Do the tieflings of different celestial and fiendish races make different half celestial and fiends?

Like a succubus tiefling would have a charisma bonus, a hound archon aasimar has scent and so on?

Kizara
2008-05-09, 03:17 PM
There are no rules that I've seen for that.

Would be a very good thing to houserule/homebrew though.

Keld Denar
2008-05-09, 03:18 PM
Tieflings and Aasimars are so far removed from their extra planar relatives that only a glimmer of extraplanar shows through. All the mortal dilution purges most of the extra properties of the ur-parent that the end result is pretty uniform, regardless of the ancestory.

Or so I gather....

Kizara
2008-05-09, 03:22 PM
Tieflings and Aasimars are so far removed from their extra planar relatives that only a glimmer of extraplanar shows through. All the mortal dilution purges most of the extra properties of the ur-parent that the end result is pretty uniform, regardless of the ancestory.

Or so I gather....

Sure. But it's pretty hard to imagine how a succubus-decendant manages to get a racial PENALTY to Charisma...

Keld Denar
2008-05-09, 03:24 PM
Sure. But it's pretty hard to imagine how a succubus-decendant manages to get a racial PENALTY to Charisma...

Something to do with the emo comb-over, black eyeliner, and wrist tracks?

Aquillion
2008-05-09, 03:28 PM
Sure. But it's pretty hard to imagine how a succubus-decendant manages to get a racial PENALTY to Charisma...If I had to guess, I'd say that it comes from the Uncanny Valley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_Valley) effect. A succubus is an inhuman beauty; a tiefling descended from one just looks inhuman. The features that are hot or cute on a plainly non-human creature look disconcerting and strange on someone who is otherwise human.

Not that I necessarily agree that that's how it should work, but it makes at least a little sense.

Jayngfet
2008-05-09, 03:41 PM
Tieflings and Aasimars are so far removed from their extra planar relatives that only a glimmer of extraplanar shows through. All the mortal dilution purges most of the extra properties of the ur-parent that the end result is pretty uniform, regardless of the ancestory.

Or so I gather....

Read the discriptions, Planetouched have almost nothing in common apperance wise.

Keld Denar
2008-05-09, 03:49 PM
Uniform stat wise....of course, you are a unique snowflake, just like everyone else in the infinite planes....

Pironious
2008-05-09, 07:13 PM
I've got a half-fiend who's the spawn of a succubus and a human.

It's getting Str +4, Dex +4, Con +2, +2 Int, +4 Cha instead of the usual

Devils_Advocate
2008-05-09, 11:25 PM
Lookin' for some half-fiendish variety (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060630a)?

That won't help with tieflings, of course. (Unless it deals with them, too. I only skimmed it.) They're not even a template; the MM only covers human planetouched. Pft. Weak. I say, just pick out/modify some cool abilities from the character's outsider ancestor and have the DM determine the LA and/or CR based on his or her best judgment. There's no real need to get all formulaic about it.

Almost all of the justifications that people give for the tiefling's Cha penalty disregard that Charisma is explicitly not supposed to represent how one is perceived by others in a social setting. Being creepy and off-putting would be properly modeled by penalties to, say, Diplomacy and Gather Information checks. It shouldn't make you a worse sorcerer. But then, older people being more experienced is properly represented by giving them more class levels, not bonuses to mental stats, so tiefling creepiness might well be the justification of the actual game designers, who obviously don't know how to employ their own game mechanics sensibly.

Still, it's just plain weird that half-fiends get a bonus to Charisma but tieflings get a penalty.

Jayngfet
2008-05-10, 12:41 AM
Lookin' for some half-fiendish variety (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060630a)?

That won't help with tieflings, of course. (Unless it deals with them, too. I only skimmed it.) They're not even a template; the MM only covers human planetouched. Pft. Weak. I say, just pick out/modify some cool abilities from the character's outsider ancestor and have the DM determine the LA and/or CR based on his or her best judgment. There's no real need to get all formulaic about it.

Almost all of the justifications that people give for the tiefling's Cha penalty disregard that Charisma is explicitly not supposed to represent how one is perceived by others in a social setting. Being creepy and off-putting would be properly modeled by penalties to, say, Diplomacy and Gather Information checks. It shouldn't make you a worse sorcerer. But then, older people being more experienced is properly represented by giving them more class levels, not bonuses to mental stats, so tiefling creepiness might well be the justification of the actual game designers, who obviously don't know how to employ their own game mechanics sensibly.

Still, it's just plain weird that half-fiends get a bonus to Charisma but tieflings get a penalty.

According to wikipedia there's an official orc and elf version of tieflings out there.