Tiefling voice

[Bladewing2013]

What would a tiefling sound like?
Would it be snake-like? demon-like?
Or would it be like a regional accent, like German, or Irish, or something like that?

[Jerrykhor]

They would sound like whatever environment they were raised in.

[ATHATH]

Scottish.

They would sound like whatever environment they were raised in.

More seriously, though, probably this. Unusually-deep voices might be more common in tieflings than in humans, though.

[Ravens_cry]

I would play it by ear, no pun intended but accepted. If you want them to be more demonic in mein, go for that. If you don't, well, then a more regional voice makes sense.

[Zejety]

I've read a novel series that featured many tieflings (Brimstone Angels) and their voices were never pointed out to be peculiar.

[RazorChain]

If their voices are demonlike....what does a demon sound like? Never met one IRL

[Pelle]

I guess their accent would be German if they were raised in Germany...

[Marlowe]

Tieflings are more Humans with a recessive genetic condition than a race. They don't have their own culture as such, and whatever happened in their family tree that gave them their fiendish blood, it's probably a long way in the past. It's probably a well-learned Tiefling indeed that knows anything of their planar heritage. They're born from Humans and their kids will be overwhelmingly human.

It's most likely they'll speak in a way appropriate to a human with equivalent cultural background, upbringing, and life experience. Lily and Sarissa in my comic speak the way they do because they're well-travelled professional adventurers with oddball interests, one of whom has more of a formal education than the other. Not because of them being Tieflings.

[RedMage125]

I don't know why, but I tend to imagine Tiefling voices as kind of Russian-accented, in the same way that the stereotypical Dwarf is Scottish-accented.

Might have something to do with that 4e cartoon with the Tiefling and the Gnome, lol.

[Zejety]

They're born from Humans and their kids will be overwhelmingly human.

This is not true in the Forgotten Realms (unless the recent separation of Azuth and Asmodeus changed things): A Tiefling+Human pregnancy will always result in Tiefling offspring.

[Scots Dragon]

This is not true in the Forgotten Realms (unless the recent separation of Azuth and Asmodeus changed things): A Tiefling+Human pregnancy will always result in Tiefling offspring.

I'm pretty sure 4E's guidelines on the subject are as non-canonical to the Forgotten Realms as it's possible to be lately, with all but the very, very broad strokes being ignored by developers and designers as a result of just how utterly negative the response was.

In the 3E books, particularly Races of Faerûn, tieflings worked as they do in Planescape, and 5E has subtly moved them back into that model. They're partly-fiendish humans who can sometimes manifest as a recessive trait and can look and sound like basically anything.

[Marlowe]

This is not true in the Forgotten Realms (unless the recent separation of Azuth and Asmodeus changed things): A Tiefling+Human pregnancy will always result in Tiefling offspring.

Sometimes I wonder why they ever marketed Forgotten Realms as a D&D setting at all.

[Scots Dragon]

Sometimes I wonder why they ever marketed Forgotten Realms as a D&D setting at all.

Because in the old days it actually was given that it followed D&D rules pretty closely, and even shared a lot of explicit elements with Greyhawk. And to this day still does.

The 3.5E to 4E era was a goddamn aberration that should be ignored.

[NorthernPhoenix]

There are no rules, but I think they should sound more demon/devil like than usual! Otherwise they have the same accent as the region they're from.

[DigoDragon]

I've imagined that tieflings can sound as varied as humans, so I'd go with whatever environment they were raised in.

I remember WotC did their own take on one way back when 4e came out.

[LibraryOgre]

Being a bit more old-school, I'd say it also depends on who their demon ancestor was... I imagine succubus-spawn sound a fair bit different than vrock-spawn.

[lunaticfringe]

Fiends and their offspring sound Australian because they're from down under.

[LibraryOgre]

Fiends and their offspring sound Australian because they're from down under.

That's drow.

[lunaticfringe]

That's drow.

Eh. Drow are elves and everyone knows Elves are English. They just sound more menacing.

[Joe the Rat]

Clearly, tieflings are voiced by Frank Welker.

Eh. Drow are elves and everyone knows Elves are English. They just sound more menacing.

So, Australian then.

[Marlowe]

Eh. Drow are elves and everyone knows Elves are English. They just sound more menacing.

Funny. I do Elven as French.

Silvan is Italian.

Undercommon, of course, is Spanish.

[Honest Tiefling]

Irish tieflings amuse me horribly. Doesn't matter where they are born, always Irish. Could be a pathfinder Not-Asia campaign and the tiefling is still somehow Irish. Top of the Konnichiwa!

Anyway...Tieflings aren't a thing set in stone across all games and editions. In most, they're a pretty varied bunch with no unifying feature or bloodline. Some arose from demons, some from daemons, some from devils and some from gods...And others from nothing at all other then the mere presence of evil. They don't have any set features in most editions. Many aren't actually human-like, since they came from different races to begin with.

Even in 4th/5th with the set features, most of them sound quite human because most of them are basically humans. I'm not actually sure they have unusual voices in 5th edition since its never mentioned. I guess Asmodeus never felt the need to tamper with that in his great quest to rebrand tieflings. Considering that he himself is usually presented as pretty human it'd be odd that he decided that the tieflings needed a death metal growl for some reason.

Then again, in this video it's pretty much established to be a bad Russian accent.

In the end, you should probably ask the DM. As amusing as it is to show up and have an Irish accent, not all tieflings have the same origin or features in all games. Remember, only you can prevent DM frustration by adhering to the setting.

[gkathellar]

Unless the mouth, vocal chords, or diaphragm of tieflings are meaningfully different than those of human beings, they would sound exactly the same. Given their incredibly broad distribution across the Planes in (most) D&D cosmology, I would likewise hesitate to assign a "standard" regional accent.

That said, if you want to go the 4e route of having tieflings be a specific people, go nuts.

Funny. I do Elven as French.

Silvan is Italian.

Undercommon, of course, is Spanish.

See I like the Dragon Age approach where humans have European accents and everyone else sounds American/Canadian.

[Nifft]

They sound like they're constantly horny.

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[Mordaedil]

If their voices are demonlike....what does a demon sound like? Never met one IRL

I recommend watching Spawn the animated series for how telepathy and how demons sound like when they speak directly to your mind.

Like a whisper, but really wet and in your neck.

[Bogwoppit]

If their voices are demonlike....what does a demon sound like? Never met one IRL

Pop down to your local Demon Cultural Exchange and ask politely if you can do some recordings for research.

As for "snake-like", I'm sure your local zoo will let you interview any of the snakes that are up for it.



Seriously, I'll just add +1 to the "sound like the culture they grew up in" vote. Maybe you could also consider that they'd often be outcasts, so employ a street-level commoner accent for the region.

[ShadowFighter15]

Irish tieflings amuse me horribly. Doesn't matter where they are born, always Irish. Could be a pathfinder Not-Asia campaign and the tiefling is still somehow Irish. Top of the Konnichiwa!

Damnit - now I'm imagining a Tiefling version of Dave Allen.

[Alcore]

What would a tiefling sound like?
Would it be snake-like? demon-like?
Or would it be like a regional accent, like German, or Irish, or something like that?

Accent would be wherever they were raised. As for the voice itself? Depends as Golarian has 6 or 8 different 'breeds' of tiefling based on influence so 6 to 8 different base voices. Then random tiefling features gives another dozen different features that might affect voice. One is animalistic head, which provides as many unique voices as animals.


Different every time.