Player’s Handbook Races: Tieflings Review

Though not exactly a fan of dragonborn I thought that Player’s Handbook Races: Dragonborn kicked ass. It added a lot of fluff and crunch to the race that helped inspire a few characters (that I’ll honestly probably never play, but still). Tieflings got kind of a bum rap at the start of 4th Edition, and thanks to numerous racial feats, a few Winning Races articles, and the infernal wrath update they’ve become a lot more viable (not that it stopped me in the past). Even so, Player’s Handbook Races: Tieflings adds a lot of cool shit to the race, following the same model that PHR: Dragonborn did.

You get eight solid pages of information on tieflings in general, in addition to their noble ancestry and history (including sample noble houses and noble backgrounds). It then moves on to discussing tieflings by power source–including the psychic source–with a paragon path for each, and all of this eats up 24 pages of a 32-page book. Like PHR: Dragonborn, I could easily see using all of these. Where before I was torn on a paragon path for my warlord, I’m absolutely sold on the Turathi hell-kite (head-butt attack? FUCK YES). Shit, the redeemer of the damned (primal paragon path) has you channeling the damned spirits of your ancestors.

And then, there’s feats. Its a hefty section with 31 feats, and I particularly love the tail feats. Clever Tail lets you use your tail to stow/retrieve objects, including making unpenalized Thievery checks, while Tail Slide lets you slide an ally when you shift. There are more warlock feats that help make tieflings the best warlocks possible, such as Blood Pact of Cania (damage bonus when you use warlock attacks that rely on Constitution) and Hellish Blast (eldritch blast becomes a fire attack and gains a damage bonus), but many classes get something and most of them are for tieflings in general.

The book then wraps up with some new magic item properties, fluff information on tiefling quests (two more pages), and the heir of the empire epic destiny. Heir of the empire gives you a Int and Cha bonus, bonus on Cha skills, causes infernal wrath to auto-prone targets, and lets you dominate the first creature you hit in an encounter (for free). Ruler of life and death lets you auto-dominate a slain creature, causing them to get back up and fight for you, and when they finally save against the effect they die.

This book is a fucking must-have for tiefling fans of any capacity.

Winning Races: Tieflings

I’ve always liked the idea that not all tieflings need share the exact same qualities. After all, there are many types of devils, and it stands to reasons that some tieflings (or tiefling families) might display other benefits from their pacts. I allow this sort of cosmetic adjustment in my games despite the “official” stance being that they all have horns and tails, and I’ve specifically stated that in my Eberron games players can opt to display the cat-like features of a rakshasa instead.

If a player bothered to play a tiefling, I’d probably allow some sort of feat tree to emphasize that…which is what The Broken Mirrors is all about.

Some families made a deal with Levistus, and in doing so can inflict misfortune upon the world. Any tiefling can opt to belong to the broken mirrors by picking up the Mantle of Misfortune feat, which is a tiefling bloodline feat that gives you an encounter feat power of the same name, as well as a bonus to Insight and Perception. The actual mantle of misfortune power is pretty potent, imposing an automatic attack penalty to all enemies within a pretty hefty range. To top it off, if they miss you get to slide them.

Like all bloodline feats, Mantle of Misfortune is a gateway feat to the few others included in the article. There are two that let you mark creatures or get an attack bonus against creatures that you slide due to mantle of misfortune, which is pretty sweet and gives tiefling defenders a nice edge. The last one is kind of wonky in that you get to roll multiple Insight checks against creatures affected by mantle of misfortune, which I guess gives it some interesting social encounter potential. >_>

The article also adds a paragon path called broken mirror, which is only open to tieflings with the Mantle of Misfortune feat. The features let you use mantle of misfortune twice, slide or prone creatures when you burn an action point (automatically), and eventually let you add your Charisma mod to mantle of misfortune damage.

The level 11 attack is interesting in that its an encounter kicker that you trigger with a minor action, and stacks on an attack you make. It adds a nice damage bonus and also prones a target. The level 12 utility lets you generate an area of effect that imposes attack and defense penalties in addition to sliding targets that stop in the area. It can be sustained, which gives you a really nice debuffing power. Finally, the level 20 attack is similar to the level 11 power in that you trigger it and stack it on another attack. It deals more damage, prones, and you can slide it whenever it misses no matter where it is.

Not a bad article despite its incredibly short length. I’m a massive fan of tieflings, and want to see more of these articles expand on specific devil pacts. My next campaign takes place in the ruins of Bael Turath, and I’m going to “encourage” my players to give them a shot. At least the article provides me with an interesting way to implement such specialties. ^_^

Winning Races: Tieflings

Tieflings have been my favorite race (followed closely by gnomes) since I played Planescape back in the days of 2nd Edition, a trend which has endured through each edition to this day. Mostly its the look, though I dont really mind their racial stuff (I havent found infernal wrath to be useless no matter which class I’ve played).

Winning Races: Tieflings provides three pages of Heroic feats that are mostly useful for paladins, warlocks, and wizards. There are some general feats that I think I might pick up if I ever get to play Kobal again, but the offerings in this article make me want to kick my minotaur tactical warlord/artificer to the curb and roll up a fire-based wizard. A lot.

For highlights, I’m going to have to cite Wrath of the Crimson Legion, which lets you use Charisma for basic attacks and swaps out infernal wrath with a close burst 5 auto-sanction. Diabolic Soul also swaps out infernal wrath with a polymorph daily that changes you into a demonic brute with regen, improved fire resistance and bloodhunt, and a damage bonus. For wizards, we get Wizard’s Wrath, which creates a zone that causes any creature to grant you combat advantage and lose all resistances and immunities. Holy shit.

I think as a houserule I wouldnt replace infernal wrath, but instead let you choose between the racial powers each encounter. If its a daily, then you lose them until you take an extended rest. I can see instances where infernal wrath could be handy, you see, and drow get away with it just fine.