Editing Tiefling (section)

===4th Edition===
[[File:Tiefling Bard.png|300px|thumb|right|What tieflings look like in 4e. Not everybody liked this change.]]
When 4th edition rolled around, [[Wizards of the Coast]] had a little discussion about races. The first thing they agreed upon was that [[gnome]]s were, frankly, kind of lame, and that whilst the [[half-orc]] had a certain appeal to edgelords, it generally wasn't very popular. Both of these races needed a lot more time to rework them if they were to actually be ''good'', rather than simply being included because "muh sacred cows!" So, for one replacement, they created the [[Dragonborn]]. For the other, they decided to give promotions to one of the most favored and loved "edgy" races of all D&D; the tiefling.

But, updating it to a corebook posed a certain challenge. Namely, in a non-[[Sigil]] setting, would there ''really'' be enough demon-fuckers running around to make tieflings especially common? The [[succubus]] and [[marilith]] are hot, but they're not ''that'' easy to bang!

WoTC's decision, then, was to recreate the tiefling origin a little. In the [[Nentir Vale]] history, tieflings are the descendants of [[Bael Turath]], an empire of humans who forged diabolic pacts with [[Asmodeus]] and his [[Arch-Devil]] underlings for the power to defeat Arkhosia, empire of the Dragonborn. This empire-wide pledge, combined with several generations of widespread [[warlock]] pacts and diabolic interbreeding (this ''was'' the edition where they made succubi into devils), resulted in the entire population being replaced by tieflings, although this wasn't enough to prevent them fighting to mutual destruction with Arkhosia, scattering the tieflings across the world.

Now, all in all, this wasn't a bad deal for them, but a rather large amount of [[skub]] erupted as a result of one key decision: their appearance. See, traditionally, tieflings were supposed to be super-variable in terms of their appearance. In practice, few people bothered going outside of the "horns, tail, hooves; use one or more as desired" paradigm for their artwork, especially in AD&D. So, WoTC decided to just go with it and give them a unified "diabolic" look, with curling horns, a long reptilian tail, crimson skin and glowing eyes. The players pissed off at this only got more pissed when the [[Forgotten Realms]]' large tiefling population was retconned into the same sort of appearance as a result of Asmodeus dicking around.

It didn't help matters at all that the "4e is [[World of Warcraft|WoW]]!" crowd seized upon this and a single cartoon featuring a female tiefling with a Russian accent to rant about how tieflings were now trying to rip off the [[draenei]].

Never mind that the [[draenei]] had basically been ripping off the [[diabolus|diaboli]] from [[Mystara]]. No, the "4e is WoW!" crowd couldn't be swayed by logic like that.

As for why this was such a big deal when everybody basically ignored the unofficial template of the artwork before and could still use the purely visual aspects of the 2e generator at their table, well, [[skub|/tg/ likes to argue about shit]]. That's the only reason.

Tieflings in 4th edition are a mystic race, with +2 to Charisma and Intelligence, +2 to Bluff & Stealth checks, Medium size, 6 squares of movement, low-light vision, the racial traits Bloodhunt (+1 to attack rolls vs. bloodied foes) and Fire Resistance (reduce fire damage taken by 5+1/2 character level), and the racial power of Infernal Wrath. This encounter attack allowed you to add damage equal to your Charisma modifier if you use it whilst attacking some asshole who hit you in the previous turn. You also get a +1 bonus when using this attack, to reduce the chance of wasting it.

The lessons WoTC had learned meant that when the PHB3 came out, they modded this basic formula; now a tiefling could trade the +2 Intelligence for +2 Constitution, and Infernal Wrath was altered so that, instead, you could burn a reaction once per encounter to scorch the asshole who just hit you for D6 per tier + Cha or Int mod fire damage.

4th edition also added the idea of "tiefling bloodlines", tieflings who could trace their powers by blood or pact to a specific arch-devil. This came in the form of a feat, plus some extra boosting feats, and a racial [[Paragon Path]] to amplify its powers.

[[Dragon Magazine]] #381 featured the Blood-Crowned Courtiers, tieflings who bore direct blood-ties to devils and so had the ability to call upon more conventional diabolic powers. Most notably, they traded Infernal Wrath for Diabolic Transformation, letting them turn into a rampaging fiend once a day for a whole encounter. In this hulked-out state, they had better fire resistance, could regenerate, doubled their Bloodhunt bonus, got +2 to damage rolls, and could target a single foe with the Black Wrath of Hell. This fancy-named title basically let you boost the damage of a successful hit (it triggers on a free action on a hit) for +1d10 per tier damage, and afflict the victim (if they survived) with a save-ends penalty to attack rolls equal to the '''higher''' of your Int modifier or your Cha modifier. These guys didn't fit the formula of the later Bloodlines articles, but were definitely the most flavorful.

[[Dragon Magazine]] #383 featured the Broken Mirror tieflings, who traced their power to Levistus and had the power to bestow ill-fortune, via their Mantle of Misfortune racial power. In crunch terms, this amounted to the ability to create a turn-long, 5-square aura as a minor action, where any enemies in the aura suffered a -2 penalty to attack rolls and you could slide them 1 square if they missed. Given 4e placed a lot of emphasis on interesting environments, there's a certain comedic potential in this. At least, if you're the kind of person who can laugh at an [[ogre]] slipping on the remnants of one of its past victims and falling headfirst into its own pit full of spikes.

[[Dragon Magazine]] #387 featured the Blightseer tieflings, who traced their power to Baalzebul and had the power to cause decay in whatever they chose to look at. This manifested as the Gaze of Ruin racial feat-power, which was a 1/encounter 10 square minor action ranged attack that could impose either Vulnerability (All) on a target, a penalty to damage rolls with its weapon, or a -2 penalty to AC, depending on what you chose to stare at.

Needless to say, although the [[Warlock]] came out in late 3.5, it is 4th edition that has really pushed the tiefling/[[warlock]] racial to class matchup. However, that array of stat bonuses also makes 4e tieflings surprisingly good [[Paladin]]s and [[Warlord]]s, to say nothing of [[Sorcerer]]s, [[Bard]]s, [[Wizard]]s, [[Ardent]]s and [[Battlemind]]s. Although not statistically a good matchup, the tiefling rogue is still a time-honored archetype, and there's even a tiefling-exclusive rogue paragon path called the Hellstalker, which gains the ability to blind others and turn itself invisible.

In fact, 4e even made some nods to the fact that Tieflings make great Warlocks and Paladins; Dragon #381 mentions the existence of the Crimson Legion, an organization of hybrid & multiclassed Paladin/Warlocks that used to serve [[Asmodeus]] during the days of [[Bael Turath]] - now they view him as a turncoat, so they swear pacts to devils who want to oust Asmodeus and also to the gods, serving as the "go-betweens" for these allies of convenience as they seek to topple the God of Sin from his throne in the burning depths of [[Baator]].