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Thread: Do tiefling horns have skin?
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2021-09-20, 06:56 AM (ISO 8601)
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Do tiefling horns have skin?
This question came up in my D&D group a week or two ago. The party’s firbolg barbarian was asking the satyr druid and tiefling warlock (my character) how we took care of our horns.
The satyr replied that he buffed and polished his, and the tiefling explained that she has to keep hers moisturized, since they’re covered in skin.
This came as a surprise to the rest of the group (both IC and OOC), but it makes sense to me- in most illustrations I’ve seen of tieflings, the horns come directly out of the forehead and are the same color/texture as the rest of the skin, which I assumed meant the horns were covered by a layer of skin.
Has anyone else given any thought to this? I’m curious to hear other people’s opinions!
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2021-09-20, 07:09 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Nov 2008
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Re: Do tiefling horns have skin?
I guess that should come down to each player's choice. If I were to play a tiefling my horns would be external bony protrusions, but I feel there's a lot of freedom here.
Last edited by Cicciograna; 2021-09-20 at 07:10 AM.
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2021-09-20, 07:27 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Do tiefling horns have skin?
Tieflings are incredibly varied (one AD&D book had a two-page random table for how they looked). Many dont' even have horns. As a DM, I'd say that's the kind of small thing I'd absolutely leave up to the player to decide. I mean, it has no rules impact whatsoever.
Resident Vancian Apologist
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2021-09-20, 08:03 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Do tiefling horns have skin?
In the real world, cattle, sheep, and antelope have "true" horns with a bony core sheathed in keratin, the same substance that makes hair and fingernails. Rhinoceroses have horns that are entirely keratin. Deer antlers grow as bone sheathed in skin. When the antler is mature, the skin peels off, leaving dead bone. Later the antler is shed. Giraffes have "ossicones", with skin over a bony core, and never shed.
It sounds like the tiefling warlock had ossicones.
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2021-09-20, 09:29 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Do tiefling horns have skin?
I totally agree here, as long as it doesn't matter, it's up to the player to decide. The only time something has to match is for instance in PF2 where you can take a tiefling feat that gives you an extra attack form. The body part needed for that attack, be it hooves, a tail, claws of big teeth, you have to have of course. And even then I would allow you to customize how you see fit (there are many forms of hooves and tails for instance).
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"Magic can turn a frog into a prince. Science can turn a frog into a Ph.D. and you still have the frog you started with." Terry Pratchett
"I will not yield to evil, unless she's cute."
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2021-09-25, 02:03 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Do tiefling horns have skin?
I have always thought of the tiefling horns to be this way, but not because they have to be but rather because it has never come up and thus I have never thought beyond my core basic mental image.
As a GM, I would not mandate a type and leave it to the player as others have said. It feels like one of those fun facts about a character, like hair style for example, that is fun t know but should be a player call.Last edited by dafrca; 2021-10-04 at 02:12 PM.
*It isn't realism, it's verisimilitude... seeming to be true within the context of the game world.
"D&D does not have SECRET rules that can only be revealed by meticulous deconstruction of words and grammar. There is only the unclear rules prose that makes people think there are secret rules to be revealed."
Consistency between games and tables is but the dream of a madman - Mastikator
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2021-09-25, 04:13 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Do tiefling horns have skin?
Tiefling horns tends to look like goat horns, so they should have as much skin as goat horns
Black text is for sarcasm, also sincerity. You'll just have to read between the lines and infer from context like an animal
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2021-10-04, 06:38 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Do tiefling horns have skin?
I'd say that most tiefling horns tend to be based on some real world horn or other (for example, the tiefling in my current game has springbok horns, as it fits her character).
It's kind of an odd one, since tieflings started off with random traits, but got a more specific appearance in art as time's gone on (and a lot of people ignore that; when was the last time you heard of a tiefling who was restricted to red skin?).Hi, I'm back, I guess. ^_^I cosplay and stream LPs of single player games on Twitch! Mon, Wed & Fri; currently playing: Nier: Replicant (Mon/Wed) and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (Thurs or Fri)
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2021-10-04, 02:27 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Do tiefling horns have skin?
*It isn't realism, it's verisimilitude... seeming to be true within the context of the game world.
"D&D does not have SECRET rules that can only be revealed by meticulous deconstruction of words and grammar. There is only the unclear rules prose that makes people think there are secret rules to be revealed."
Consistency between games and tables is but the dream of a madman - Mastikator
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2021-10-17, 04:12 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2009
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- In my library
Re: Do tiefling horns have skin?
Most Tieflings I see, which isn't many.
As for Tiefling horns, I'd personal assume they're all keratin, although I'd also understand people going for 'true' horns. Earlier editions I believe tended towards true horns, them looking like they might be covered in skin is relatively recent (I believe 4e, although it might be 5e).
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2021-10-17, 08:38 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Do tiefling horns have skin?
Not so sure about older editions... there's like a half dozen named Tieflings in Planescape that also have illustrations, I don't think any of them even have horns.
Resident Vancian Apologist
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2021-10-17, 09:06 AM (ISO 8601)
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2021-10-17, 09:57 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Do tiefling horns have skin?
This might be a Tiefling with horns in the crowd scene:
Spoiler
Other than that, flipping through the books, there's a lot of digitigrade legs with hooves, a few tails, but no horns. Pointy ears on everyone, though.Resident Vancian Apologist
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2021-10-19, 03:55 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Do tiefling horns have skin?
Hi, I'm back, I guess. ^_^I cosplay and stream LPs of single player games on Twitch! Mon, Wed & Fri; currently playing: Nier: Replicant (Mon/Wed) and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (Thurs or Fri)
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2021-10-19, 05:31 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2009
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- In my library
Re: Do tiefling horns have skin?
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2021-10-19, 08:22 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2018
Re: Do tiefling horns have skin?
>.>
<.<
...could Twi'leks be a potential evolutionary future of Tieflings whose lekku are actually skin horns...?“Rule is what lies between what is said and what is understood.”~Raja Rudatha, the Spider Prince
Golem Arcana
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2021-10-22, 10:16 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Do tiefling horns have skin?
The idea of horns covered in skin evokes such a primal disgusted reaction from me. If it has skin, it probably has nerve endings, and that really creeps me out.
The original idea came from goat horns, but I'm fine with leaving it up to each player. I just don't understand why you would want that.
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2021-10-22, 11:59 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Do tiefling horns have skin?
*It isn't realism, it's verisimilitude... seeming to be true within the context of the game world.
"D&D does not have SECRET rules that can only be revealed by meticulous deconstruction of words and grammar. There is only the unclear rules prose that makes people think there are secret rules to be revealed."
Consistency between games and tables is but the dream of a madman - Mastikator
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2021-10-24, 10:11 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Do tiefling horns have skin?
Yeah, if that creeps you out, never research deer antlers online. Especially not what they do with them in spring and autumn.
Resident Vancian Apologist
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2021-10-24, 11:01 AM (ISO 8601)
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2021-10-30, 10:08 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Do tiefling horns have skin?
Think about how metal a Tiefling with antler style horns would be though. Spring rolls around and suddenly the dude is covered in blood and using his own horns as a BBQ spit, and eating it all, meat and bones both.
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2021-11-05, 01:12 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Do tiefling horns have skin?
For what is worth whenever I play a tiefling they tend to be descendants of beshaba, so they definitely have antlers.
Originally Posted by Races of FaerunThanks a lot Gengy for the awesome... just a sec... avatar. :)
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2021-11-05, 04:13 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Do tiefling horns have skin?
Well this is how I generally think of the little nubby horns (1-3 inches) that have the same colour as the skin (because the skin covers the growth from the skull)
As for why you'd want it. Because it evokes horns without fully having them. The skull is stretching out as if is wants to grow full horns but not so much that it actually breaks through the skin. Do the fiend has big horns, the half-fiend has small horns and the tiefling great-grandchild has these nubs that evoke their ancestor but are not like their ancestor...just enough to remind you that they are not quite human. Thus it also evokes that the dark nature exists under the skin as is waiting to burst out but is not open about it.
And also shouldn't those whose blood is touched by the dark forces be disturbing?
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2021-11-05, 07:19 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Do tiefling horns have skin?
*It isn't realism, it's verisimilitude... seeming to be true within the context of the game world.
"D&D does not have SECRET rules that can only be revealed by meticulous deconstruction of words and grammar. There is only the unclear rules prose that makes people think there are secret rules to be revealed."
Consistency between games and tables is but the dream of a madman - Mastikator
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2021-12-13, 02:58 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Do tiefling horns have skin?
if they are kewl tieflings do not have skin over their horns, skinned horns are what tieflings that get bullied by other tieflings have. Long death to tieflings anyway! long life our aasimar friends!
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2022-01-09, 11:50 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2022
Re: Do tiefling horns have skin?
I think they don't have to be mutually exclusive by any means. What we understand about biology currently points to multiple facets of a living being's genetic makeup combining in incredibly complex ways, resulting in a hugely diverse expression of possibility. Tieflings with skin-covered horns might have adapted to a specific climate over centuries of adaptation. Depending on how you and the DM of your table want to reflect the idea, you could easily adapt the lore: maybe that particular trait is the mark of a bloodline whose ancestors settled down somewhere particularly cold. Maybe the physical expression of their horns reflects some other physical characteristic; big ol' true horns might be a sign of great physical strength, or coated horns are seen as a sign of quick intellect (I'd keep away from associating negative traits in this manner personally, it echoes a lot of Bad Things if it goes that route). Maybe it's tied to the dark aspects that bore the first tieflings into the world, depending on what type of fiend served as their progenitor - in which case tieflings with the same type of horn might all consider one another as some level of kin to one another. Maybe it's the opposite of that, closer to full-blown speciation - only tieflings with the same kind of horns can make more little tieflings to run around, but because of their commonality of experience and general ancestry, they all consider one another to be one people.
I can't personally comment on what the "canon lore" is, as a Forever Dwarf Player, but since this question probably doesn't have a "true canon" answer: the truth is what makes you as a player say, "I dig it."Last edited by The Morgue Bats; 2022-01-09 at 11:51 PM. Reason: Missed the spacebar.
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2022-01-10, 07:53 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Do tiefling horns have skin?
There's also the fact that tieflings explicitly have a supernatural element to their heritage, which gives you a bit of room for "it's magic".
Personally I like to design my tiefling characters based on their bloodline (my current character's Glasya, so she has a forked tail, for example).Hi, I'm back, I guess. ^_^I cosplay and stream LPs of single player games on Twitch! Mon, Wed & Fri; currently playing: Nier: Replicant (Mon/Wed) and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (Thurs or Fri)