If there is a Feral Tiefling race available for purchase in the D&D Beyond marketplace for the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide, why are there subraces of it available for acquisition? We’re talking about Variant Tiefling and Variant Feral Tiefling, and let us discuss the distinctions among them to clarify all your doubts regarding them.
Although there are no significant differences between them, just one difference is that Feral and other variants of Tiefling boost dexterity (+2) and intelligence (+1), and standard Tiefling boosts charisma (+2) and intelligence (+1). But let us now discuss the Tiefling and their subraces to find other minor distinctions among them.
The difference between a Feral Tiefling, Variant Tiefling, and Variant Feral Tiefling is that a Feral Tiefling boosts the score by +2 dexterity rather than charisma (+2).Variant Tiefling is a subrace of Standard and Feral Tieflings that appears different because of its non-shared infernal heritage. Moreover, Variant Tiefling applies to the Feral Tiefling framework, while the other two Tieflings apply to the Standard Tiefling Framework.
Tieflings introduced in the 2nd edition of D&D were human-based mortal creatures infused with fiendish planes, demons, yugoloth, and evil deities who had bred with humans. If you choose a Tiefling, they have the power to boost your score. For example, your intelligence score can be increased by 1, and your charisma score can be increased by 2. Let us discuss some subraces of Tiefling and why they exist and differ from each other.
Feral Teifling
TheSword Coast Adventurers Guideintroduced Feral Tiefling on a sidebar on page 118 of the guide. The term Feral Tiefling is not explicitly mentioned in the guide; there are various Tiefling varieties or subraces, and it is one of them. It provides aFeral trait that can increase dexterity by +2 and intelligence by +1 point.It differs from a standard Tiefling that can increase the scoring ability by increasing intelligence (+1) and charisma (+2) rather than dexterity (+2).
You can choose a 1d4 +1 Feral Tiefling, which has the following features: small horns, fangs or sharp teeth, or forked tongue, six fingers on each hand, goat-like legs, cloven hoofs, a forked tail, leathery skin, red or dark blue skin, and cast no shadows. The players have the option of replacing the Infernal Legacy trait of a standard Tiefling with any one of the three following options:
Devil’s Tongue: It replaces the Infernal Legacy trait by changing all its racial cantrips and spells gained. Every player must reach the 3rd level to cast a charm person spell and the 5th level to cast enthrall spell charm.
Hellfire:Once you reach 3rd level, you can cast the burning hands to spell to replace the hellish rebuke and racial spell only, keeping the others unchanged.
Winged:You can get bat-like wings germinating from your shoulder blades to fly at a speed of 30 feet, and it also replaces the Infernal Legacy trait.
Variant Tiefling
It is a subset of Tiefling and Feral Tieflings, used to account for morphological differences that may occur due to non-shared Infernal heritage. You have to unlock it by purchasing it from the Marketplace. Theonly difference between a Feral Tiefling and Variant Tieflingis that a Variant Tieflingmay display horns that could look different from the Asmodeus and Feral Tieflings. Still, the rest of the features are the same.
Variant Feral Tiefling
It is identical to the Variant and Feral Tiefling because of its same features compared to them.It differs from other Tieflings since it applies to the Feral Tiefling framework, whereas the others lay to the Standard Tiefling framework.Its features are identical to Feral and Variant Tieflings. It also enables you to substitute the Infernal Legacy traits with any of the three sub-options (devil’s tongue, hellfire, and winged) while being at higher levels such as level 3 or level 5. Its +2 dexterity replaces the +2 charisma to enhance scoring options.
Which Tiefling Variant Is Best?
A winged variation tiefling is the best variant since it can fly at a speed of 30 feet, which is quicker than a conventional tiefling’s Infernal Legacy. It is a lethal variation for any player that no one wants to face in the game. Its other fortes are that its cast spells never fall in pits or retreat in a direction enemy cannot anticipate, and its wings are nimble and fantastic as well.
So far, we have tried to clarify your doubts regarding the need and difference between subraces of a tiefling. Now, let us answer some more queries regarding tieflings in the next section.
Will a Tiefling Be Born to a Tiefling/Human Couple?
Yes, the Teifling section of PHB says the tieflings are a result of ancient sin, for which they and their children and grandchildren will always be held accountable. So a tiefling would be born to a Tiefling/human couple with less fiendish features.
If you want to take it a step further, you could interbreed tiefling with other races such as orcs and elves to see the result. The hypothetical elf/tiefling pairing would yield a tiefling offspring. It all depends on the players and the DM. If they allow the players to have fun with game mechanics, then a tiefling and human couple would yield a tiefling offspring.
Can Infernal Tiefling Always Fly?
The Sword Coast Adventure’s Guidestates that a Tiefling Variant known as a winged variant allows the tieflings to fly effortlessly. It gives you bat-like wings sprouting from your shoulder blades to fly at a speed of 30 feet, but it relaces the Infernal Legacy trait to fly. Although, you have to consult and discuss with your Dungeon Master if he allows you to choose a winged variant for your tiefling character.Overall an Infernal Tiefling cannot fly without using any variant.
What’s the Difference Between a Tiefling and a Cambion?
Tieflingsare emanated from human bloodlines,and their appearance is remarkably similar to that of humans,with just minor differences. They have infused the essence of Asmodeus-overlord of the Nine hells into their bloodlines.
A Cambion is an offspring of a fiend (an evil creature) and a humanoid (a human).All cambions are half-fiends (although not all half-fiends are cambions)since half-fiends are always the result of the fiend and humanoids (human) union. However, the union of a fiend and a human may not always produce a cambion progeny.
The difference between a tiefling and a cambion is that a cambion is a powerful expression of fiendish ancestry that you may get with one fiendish parent. A tiefling,on the other hand, is a considerably less mild expression of such lineage that also occurs in descendants removed far from the original fiendish influence.
What Different Skin Colors Can a Tiefling Officially Have?
According to dnd 5e description for a Tiefling player race from PHB, pg 42, the color of a tiefling ranges from human skin color to a few hues of red. Apart from red and blue skin colors, a tiefling could have the following skin colors:
Purple, yellow, or pink: According to the Explorer’s guide to Wildermount, tieflings usually have deep crimson skin color or shades of purple, blue, green, and sometimes yellow and pink skin color. Since it is a first-party (Wizard of the Coast) sourcebook, we can conclude that their official skin color could be purple, yellow, and pink in 5e.
Translucent:In dnd 3e, Lords of Darkness, Rekart (a tiefling) has an almost transparent color head that clearly displays his skull. So a translucent color could be the official color of tieflings.
Pale White:There is an assumption that before dnd 4e, tieflings of extraplanar used to have mysterious and varied ancestry that had a variety of skin colors, and most of them had pale white skin color. Kleb also had a pale white skin in 3e,Lords of Darkness.
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