Planetouched

Planetouched is a general category of races that shows up in Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder. Semi-official, it is a general term for races who have mortal ancestors, but who are marked by the outer planes.

In other words, someone whose ancestor heroically refused to allow dimensional barriers to stand in the way of humanity's endless quest to put their penises inside of non-humans. Or, conversely, a woman brave enough to face the dangers of angel/demon/elemental cock. Generally, the first-generation products of these sorts of things are a bit too powerful to fall into PC hands, so most of the races below are the result of watering around that extra-planar potency a bit through a few generations of interbreeding with mere mortals.

Sure, theoretically it can also manifest as a result of arcane pacts, exposure to planar energies in-utero, wizardly meddling, blessings/curses (particularly by planar beings) and all other sorts of non-sexual stuff. But, as with sorcerer bloodlines, everyone's imagination immediately jumps straight to the porn.

Planetouched have always been popular choices for PCs since their introduction. There's the Mary Sue factor, sure, but there's honestly plenty of potential there for interesting concepts. And, as the editions go on and more and more people recognize Level Adjustment as the swollen inoperable cancer it was, playing one has only gotten easier and more-attractive.

Tieflings

The original and, in the eyes of many, the best Planetouched, tieflings started it all when they appeared way back in the Planescape Campaign setting. They are the descendants of mortals and fiends - the denizens of the Lower Planes.

The general tiefling is expected to be of human ancestry; demihuman tieflings consist of the Fey'ri (Elf) and Tannaruk (Orc) from Monsters of Faerun, the Maeluth (dwarf/devil) and whispling (halfling/demon) in the Fiend Folio, and the Worghest (goblin/barghest) from Dragon Magazine #350. Pathfinder actually stated out a number of different strains, originating from mortals with one predominant kind of fiendish ancestor.

For more details, see their page: Tiefling.

Aasimar

The opposite-aligned counterpart to tieflings, aasimar trace their lineage to the Upper Planes and its resident celestials.

There are far fewer aasimar/demihuman crosses, with the only named example being the Celadrin (elf/eladrin) of Dragon Magazine #350. However, Pathfinder still gave them a lot of varieties from different kinds of celestial ancestor.

For more details, see their page: Aasimar.

Genasi

Seeing the pattern here yet? These are your basic Elemental Planetouched, with powers relating to earth, air, water or fire. This might be the result of actually boning a creature made of primordial fire (no mean feat!), or of boning the properly-aligned elemental genie.

For subraces, we got two demihuman-specific crosses (the Dwarf/Azer hybrids called "Azerbloods", and the Halfing/Genie hybrids called "D'hin'ni", both from Dragon Magazine #350), and an assortment of alternate elemental affinities. Dragon Magazine #297 gives us Paraelemental Genasi (Dust, Ice, Magma, Ooze, Smoke and Steam), 4th edition had Athasian Genasi of Sand, Silt, Sun and Magma, whilst a Ravenloft fan-splat called Quoth the Raven #7 has Dread Genasi (Grave, Mist, Blood and Pyre).

Yet again, check their page out here: Genasi.

Pathfinder reworked the concept a lot, with four distinct races filling out the roles of "elemental Planetouched," plus the suli, who originate from jann genies and have a bit of all four elements inside them.

Axani

Hailing from Dragon Magazine #297, the axani are the inevitable "Axiomatic Planetouched", to contrast the Upper, Lower and Elemental Planetouched we already got. They're associated with all the Lawful Neutral planars, and to a lesser extent the ultra-lawful Upper and Lower Planes. They're extremely organized, disciplined and regimented, as you'd expect of someone with pure Law in their bloodline. They've also never been nearly as popular as the first three.

There are a number of sub-categories thereof:

• Mechantrix: No, not some sort of dominatrix warforged monstergirl. (Damn it!) These are planetouched who (somehow) display heritage connecting them to the mechanical outsiders of Mechanus -- the Modrons and the Inevitables. This is usually non-sexual, for obvious reasons. They originated in the Fiend Folio.

• Zenythri: Short version? Some other lawful outsider knocked up your grandma.

Cansin

The axani's counterparts, the cansin are the spawn of pure chaos, serving the role of "Anarchic Planetouched," right down to never being as popular or well-supported.

• Chaond: Coming from the Monster Manual 2 in 3.5, the chaond are demonstrably tied to Slaadi rather than any generically chaotic outsider. Not usually the result of mating with a slaad, simply because slaadi "mate" by laying their eggs inside of other creatures with all the romance of a bot fly so their larvae can eat their way out.

Shyft

The ghost-like shyft, documented in the Fiend Folio, owe their lineage to the Ethereal Plane. There's not a lot else to say about them, and they haven't really been updates since.