Why Tieflings?

[The GrumpyCat]

Well I mean, Harper can be neutral or good - so you can be a tiefling harper. Zhents (at least according to the wiki) must be evil, so you can't can't be an aasimar zhent.
Hexblades and all the listed classes there must be evil.
PM can only be neutral with an award, but you can't 'stack' awards (at least not currently) which rules them out too.

[Watchful Glare]

I'd say the vast majority of tiefling characters are female. There's a reason for that.

You made me laugh out loud, you can't just leave this here and not explain

[Ork]

I think he can. The implication doesn't need to be written out.

[Airport Proximity Jesus]

I'd say the vast majority of tiefling characters are female. There's a reason for that.

Begun, the waifu wars have

[Lexx]

It's fun to have backgrounds that stand out / are different. Tieflings just happen to be a flexible vehicle for such and a myriad of character concepts.

[La Villa Strangiato]

hot demon lady

[Red_Wharf]

hot demon lady

Nothing else needs to be said.

[AstralUniverse]

Two notable differences I can think of.
1) Alignment flexibility
2) The opportunity to use them sexy horn head skins.

[Nurel]

Personally I would pick Aasimar over Tiefling anyday, but I voted #1 as I understand Tiefling would be preferable mechanics-wise as it benefits from powerful spells and classes available to evil only.

[chris a gogo]

Personally I don't like them and wouldn't want to play one other than for the mechanics as there is no concept for tiefling that couldn't be done by a standard human.
So I voted Mechanics.

[Dreams]

I've wanted to play a tiefling for a long time. What appeals to me is the torn nature of characters that are tieflings. Inherent evil urges or predilection that has to be either overcome, or might even become more entrenched by the response of the people around them. It's a fun concept, and I haven't really seen it done in the way I particularly have in mind (which isn't fully detailed here mind you).

[The Quest For Bhelliom]

Honestly- more towards the people claiming mechanical benefits, Tiefling and Aasimar aren't too different really, outside of class restrictions the only real mechanical difference is Spot/Listen vs Bluff/Hide. So sure, there's less build options, but ultimately if you're willing to roleplay the alignment properly. Being a blackguard tiefling isn't that different from being a paladin aasimar unless I'm completely drunk.

I honestly think it's a much more aesthetic choice than mechanical, personally, but also most of my favourite characters I've interacted with of either race have been the aasimar characters. Between Melodia, Aremis and the one that's ages old that had the brown cloak and hood on most of the time they were far more memorable than any tiefling I can think of.

[Aradin]

...and the one that's ages old that had the brown cloak and hood on most of the time they were far more memorable than any tiefling I can think of.

Azrael. Had a plot involving him way back with my warlock Revyn and I still remember him. One of those enigmatic Arelith characters of legend IMO.

[Peachoo]

I'm a little hesitant to comment on this, considering the only tiefling I played was a very good example of what not to do when it comes to roleplay. So, I don't really think I'm a good expert on this...But...

Long winded response short, it's just because they're a really popular race with cool cannon lore that people crave.

From how I see it now, it's the background lore around tieflings that make them so interesting. They can be deep and disturbing without feeling extremely out of character or 'cringe'. It gives any character an extra level of error, hardship, emotional, and social issues that adds a little spunk to a character concept. Even the worst of roleplayed tieflings have something interesting to offer, and there have been a ton of good ones that prove that.

Azrael would be a good one. I 'believe' he was a tiefling. I actually am still not sure if he was a fallen aasimar or a very sneaky tiefling posing as an aasimar.. I believe it was the later. I didn't have a lot of personal interaction with them, but I have been told their roleplay was great.

Another good example of this would be Hound. I was not around for Hound, but I am told by many who were that his roleplay was very interesting as a tiefling character.

I know a lot of people say the playing a tiefling just gives you an excuse to be 'edgy', but frankly I don't think it's about that. I think it just brings you a lot of options and interesting concepts you can play off of that gives it the appeal. If I remember right, tieflings used to just have a dex or int ability too, so they weren't even that great mechanically for building. They're better for it now, but that's definitely not why people play them. It's just a plus.

Honestly it's probably a similar reason as to why dragons were so popular. It's a wildly cool idea, that you can really play around with considering there are so many different types of chromatics and metallics.

Plus, tieflings are outcasts and underdogs with a darkside to them. Everyone loves those kinds of characters. There's a reason why Drizzt Do'Urden was so popular!

Also, now that 5% is no longer able to be personalized (sadly) - Tieflings and aasimar give you more stuff to work with. There's SO many types of devils, and the lore has been changed several times through the years. There's so many angles you can play. I imagine that might also be another factor.

[Void]

Tiefling offers an interesting perspective where the character will be judged by their blood despite not being inherently evil. That is, if people rp the prejudice properly.

Technically, a tiefling is not guilty of anything, but would need to prove that they're different (and still face prejudice at some point), or embrace the inner darkness (and the other people will say "I knew it!"). Another option is to ignore anything and anyone and keep things to yourself, sitting on the border between neutrality and evil.

The situations when well-meaning people in the name of good end up pushing the character towards path of evil are amazing. It is hard to make something like that with any other race.

[Kenji]

Why? So one can start quoting Paarthurnax from Skyrim:
“What is better? To be born good or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?… No day goes by where I am not tempted to return to my inborn nature.”

But that was a decade ago. Now I avoid tieflings and play only HOrcs or Dwarves. Lawful ones at that.

[Hazard]

There's a lot going for tieflings. The bad Snuggybear appearance. The internal struggles. The way others can perceive them. Tieflings are very popular, I think, because they're a great way to express the edgy dark teenager we all have somewhere still inside us. lol

nO oNe gEtS mE!!!

I love tieflings. They can be a real treat to play, and to play with.

But it probably doesn't help that on top of being the coolest, they're the most mechanically optimal for a lot of builds. They're just humans (the best race) but better. A straight up upgrade over any human build.

Wouldn't mind seeing them tweaked a bit, mechanically. Take away some attributes in exchange for more tiefling toys.. like only tieflings allowed into a certain club at Dis or something fun like that.

[Bees in Space]

hot demon lady

it's this, hth

[Hazard]

hot demon lady

Yes.

[Void]

hot demon lady

Yes.

Playable Succubus Race?

But on PG13 server.

[Babylon System is the Vampire]

I personally think making them the same thing with blood lines took away from both of them and don't want to play either as a result, but while i might be alone in that specific opinion their homogeny may be part of the reason. Tieflings can play in the underdark, the underdark was always better for leveling before the recent upheaval to the process which in turn could easily make more tieflings because there are more people that lean that way grinding for rewards. There is also the emo factor of tieflings vs the traditional goodly aisimars, and how that tends to attract the modern day d&d nerd. I mean, let's be honest, we would have 10% of the paladins we currently have were it not so powerful both as part of a multi-class build and a mostly pally build. You can tell that's true just by how paladins are often played on the server. Since Aasimar and Tiefling mechanically are the same thing, unlike the differences between a paladin and black guard to stick with that example, players are clearly going to gravitate toward the more popular play style.

[perseid]

I think there's a slight flaw in the way the question is phrased. Even if Tiefling was a bit mechanically weaker, a lot of 5% options are outright bad unless built to specific builds and even then some are just not great. A tiefling chasis by comparison can facilitate a wide variety of builds without doing so at a loss 'for flavor' and thus is probably going to be more appealing to anyone who doesn't want to build to a niche.

Edit: Put another way, it's not necessarily "Why tiefling?" but rather "Why Ogre/Rak/Vamp/etc?" Usually for tiefling the answer is simply "Because it'll be at least on par with a human."

[AskRyze]

I think there's a slight flaw in the way the question is phrased. Even if Tiefling was a bit mechanically weaker, a lot of 5% options are outright bad unless built to specific builds and even then some are just not great. A tiefling chasis by comparison can facilitate a wide variety of builds without doing so at a loss 'for flavor' and thus is probably going to be more appealing to anyone who doesn't want to build to a niche.

Edit: Put another way, it's not necessarily "Why tiefling?" but rather "Why Ogre/Rak/Vamp/etc?" Usually for tiefling the answer is simply "Because it'll be at least on par with a human."

This is about where I'm at. All of the other races except Aasimar feel like wasted opportunity unless worked toward a very specific narrative or mechanical niche, so if you're not looking to follow that path or if you don't like the flavor of that specific pidgeonholed race then you're SOL. Add to this, the fact that Aasimar is cut off from any semblance of ambiguity and will be treated as part of Team Good by default unless you keep your nature hidden. This is a hell of a missed opportunity - If you have this deep and tragic backstory, what good is it if you don't at least hint towards its existence? If no one knows your secrets, they might as well not exist.

Plus, you know, "evil woman" is attractive as a concept and a lot of other PCs will be more likely to notice/include you if you play one, weirdly enough. Not to say that a pair of tits and a pair of horns is enough to give personage to a wooden plank, but it does make it nicer to look at.

[Void]

Add to this, the fact that Aasimar is cut off from any semblance of ambiguity and will be treated as part of Team Good by default unless you keep your nature hidden. This is a hell of a missed opportunity - If you have this deep and tragic backstory, what good is it if you don't at least hint towards its existence?

The lore mentioned, I believe, that Aasimar make terrifying opponents when they end up being evil. Although it looks like evil aasimars are not mechanically allowed on creation.

Same things goes for tieflings when they end up being good, by the way.

[ltlukoziuz]

Neutral aasimars is totally a thing though, and in fact, could make for some pretty interesting stories and narratives, trying to push for the outlook that "Aasimar != Good". It's not an easy feat to pull off, but I wish to see that one day if that Epic Sacrifice rework happens in 2062 as planned