Traditional Garment
Thief refused to dress up for our 200th comic. Given her love of cosplay, I’d have thought she’d be all over the Slave Leia look. Oh well. I guess the boys will have to make up the difference.
Since we’ve already tackled the perennially popular female armor question, what say we talk about the mysterious popularity of tiefling cheesecake? Because let me tell ya, there is a lot of the stuff. The interwebs are practically bursting with it. In fact, I suspect that a Google image search for “female tiefling” will render a greater degree of bare skin than any other race.
Now I’ll admit that I don’t have much in the way of hard proof. However, my latest character is a tiefling warlock. And in the course of my search for appropriate character art I came across more skimpy bikinis than a Baywatch marathon. My theory is that there’s a bit of the succubus mystique attached to the race. Characters with literal demon/devil blood running through their veins are going to have that bad girl appeal, and the trope comes prepackaged with a heavy dose of seductress.
I dunno. Maybe I’m jumping to the smutty explanation on account of our ongoing Handbook of Erotic Fantasy comic. But it’s undeniable that some ineffable something has propelled the tiefling race from its obscure Planescape origins to a coveted spot in the pantheon of core player races.
What do you guys think? Why are tieflings so popular? How did they manage to outcompete all the other wacky races to win their place in mainstream D&D? Let’s hear your wild speculation in the comments!
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I would probly say it comes from the desire of the masses to play some sort of fiendish race. Same would go with people’s desire to play angelic races and Aasimar. Other wacky races are just that, their nature only really appeals to the few who’d want to play a gargoyle or a frog, be it seriously, or as a joke….
Or the few who only see them as numbers on a piece of paper.
Just found some an interesting article from Wizards:
http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/dd-survey-results-summary
Tieflings didn’t crack the top five. Still, it sounds like they weren’t too far behind the pack. And even more interesting, that survey was “in terms of their use in play.” I wonder how the answer would change if it was straight up, “What is your favorite race?”
More interesting data on race/class popularity here: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/is-your-dd-character-rare/
By way of D&D Beyond user data.
Warlocks give Tieflings a big boost in characters in 5E (dat +2 Cha), but they’d probably still be in the spot they are without that.
I saw that data a couple weeks back, and actually thought about posting it as a footnote beneath this comic. Glad somebody was on top of it. Well done that man! 😀
And four of the races it lagged behind are major fantasy races—dwarves, elves, half-elves, and friggin’ humans.
Now I want to see an RPG where the characters are literally only a bunch of numbers.
Modron game?
Any game in Cyberspace? As your character will be an avatar of a program, which is a bunch of numbers (well just 1s and 0s, but still)
Well, tieflings are basically my single most beloved race ever. If I am ever magically transported to a fantasy realm that only I can save by kindhearted goddess, I’m demanding she first retcons a fiend into my ancestry. I can think of few things that contribute to their popularity.
Firstly, just like many players may come to the table “wanting to play a dragon”, many others come that would rather be a demon instead. Tieflings offer that monster race vibe, but toned down to a “D&D PC-apropriate” level, something that I’m just not getting from, say, half-orcs (not to mention, fiends are objectively cooler than orcs. I’m sorry, orc-fans. Those are just facts. Deal with it).
Secondly, they hold great appeal both for players who want to play evil characters, and those preferring “token heroic orcs”. You don’t get much more evil than a demon. You don’t get much more “redeemed bad guy” than ascended demon.
Finally, and I think most importantly: tieflings are just freaking cool! I mean come on! Just look at it! They’ve got horns, and a tail, and wierd eyes, and a marilith granny, and they are partially made of LITERAL EVIL… You could basically replace the dictionary entry for “Awesome” with a picture of a tiefling and noone would ever notice.
Funny that you should mention the relationship between orcs and tieflings. I’m working my way through “Divinity: Original Sin” at the moment. Have you seen the “orc” models in that game?
http://68.media.tumblr.com/d88f586ffe9457e6cab6b06b4a5107f0/tumblr_inline_mo5vl6oFXg1qz4rgp.jpg
That’s… an orc… You know. even ignoring the horns and the tail, I would assume orc woman would be more, well, orc-y. Some of the males I’ve seen on the screenshots were like, troll-sized. That’s some pretty dramatic sexual dimorphism right there.
You guys need to read Praise The Orc! a bit.
http://www.wuxiaworld.com/pto-index/
But it’s the same allure of making a good guy who stands out in a pack of baddies that Mr. Do’urden provoked for so many years. The reverse provides plenty of shock value when people realize that you’re an Evil Aasimar, except people don’t get to play Evil nearly as often as Good and Neutral. Something about difficulties fitting in with the party.
So like… is the orc’s name “Praise?” Are people racist against orcs because they’re OP in the game? I have so many questions….
Colin, my friend, you’re going to have to read it. I promise that if you’re not quietly murmuring “Bul’tar” to yourself halfway in, I’ll drum up another swanky poem for you, free of charge.
I can confirm, Colin, Tieflings are super sexy. For me, it’s not the bad girl(/boy) appeal so much as their features.
They have exotic, strikingly colored skin; Blue, Red, Purple, and more. Although their skin seems smooth and normalish, sometimes they also have scales or other interesting features that seem like they would be interesting to feel (as long as they aren’t spikes.)
Their horns are quite visually appealing, plus they provide a much less sensitive grab point on the tiefling’s head.
They have thick, strong, nimble tails that seem to move on their own depending on their mood. I love the expressive nature of a tail. A nervous tiefling’s tail wraps around their leg, per the PHB. It would stand to reason that an aroused tiefling would keep their tail up high or perhaps slowly flick it back and forth. A possessive tiefling’s tail might wrap tightly around your waist, keeping you held tightly to them.
Their wings might be the best of all. Large, powerful, exotic, sensitive, visually appealing, and granting an ability we all want, wings are pure sexy. In NWN (and thus probably 3.5), Red Dragon Disciple wings gave you +2 Charisma, which I found perfectly fitting. The intimacy of a winged tiefling’s embrace, with their tail around your waist and wings enveloping you in your own private world, cannot be overstated.
——————–
Also, just sayin’, Annah from Planescape: Torment probably helped a lot of young gamers (male and female) discover that Tieflings are quite fetching and alluring.
“Also, just sayin’, Annah from Planescape: Torment probably helped a lot of young gamers (male and female) discover that Tieflings are quite fetching and alluring.”
Agree — And DiTerlizzi’s Planescape tieflings weren’t exactly conservative!
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pb7JO0FyGVY/V88euD3eAcI/AAAAAAAAI6U/2EUmgGVAILYrUr1Mq8wCoym-jwoFflMOgCLcB/s1600/realmstiefling.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/5f/1e/7b/5f1e7b41c132ec93553fa381d533d300.jpg
I would ask those ladies for recommendations on new punk rock bands.
So what you’re saying is that I need to play Planescape: Torment.
Enhanced Edition is coming out soon, or maybe it already has, so you might as well. =)
Well then. Between this news and your tiefling write-up, I’ll be in my bunk.
I think it’s the variety that grabs onto a lot of role players, or even stat builders. There are a wide array of choices to customize them both vissually and statistically.
They tried this with Damphire too, but when every single one describes them as ugly, you don’t get visions of Blade or Vampire Hunter D…
As for the succubus heritage, that seems like a bit of a cop out. Why not a male with succubus heritage who finds the extra attraction embarrassing or inconvenient, or a female with a more war-like demon’s heritage who prefers full plate to wire mesh and can’t stand pretty things?
Also I would think some redeemed followers would shun their heritage, but you do see few of those too.
While researching for this post, I stumbled across this section of the 1d4chan article on tieflings:
https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Tiefling#The_Legendary_Tiefling_Tables
I think that, “Gaze in awe at the potential combinations of traits your munchkin special snowflake could have possessed!” about sums it up.
Probably the same reason that Drow(putting aside Drizzit) are popular. There’s always a desire to play a villainous character because villains get to wear cool black armor with spikes and horns. Tieflings are able to look like that with an excuse about not actually being evil.
Also, Tieflings are quite exotic and sexy. There’s always that.
So they’ve got the antihero character arc baked right in? Yeah, I’d buy that.
Why are they so popular for cheesecake? I think it’s because they are one of the most well known exotic looking races that is still distinctly humanish. It’s the same reason Twi’lek and Asari are so popular. Contrast this with half orcs, who are just hulking guys with green skin and fangs (not exotic enough) or dragonborn who are full on reptilian* (too inhuham). Yes I know cheesecake for both of those exists because Rule 34, but it’s different with tieflings. The exotic skin tone, the horns that can be drawn quitw cute, the expressive and…handy tail. And they’re prominently featured in the 5e PHB. It’s a perfect storm for a prime cheesecake race.
*Female dragonborn should not have mammaries. Just saying
I keep tinkering with a female dragonborn script, but I can never get the “eek, my falsies!” gag to play quite right….
I was always shocked when I googled female orcs. For a race known for it’s shocking physical strength and bafbaric battle prowess, there sure are some very sexy, very human-looking ladies in the greenskin tribes. Not even half-orcs, though there were plenty of them, too. I wonder if that says something about the misogyny of our culture that even in string, brutish wartribes we imagine the ladies to be scantily clad slips who can’t possible compete with the men. Hmmm…
I think the lady orcs in question are trading on a very specific trope:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6p0DAz_30qQ/hqdefault.jpg
Unfortunately the pictures found beg to differ, I would be much more okay with female orcs in risque wear if they were more like Snu Snu amazons.
Tieflings, at least in some regard, were changed in the change from 3.5E to 4E (Where they ended up with +2 Charisma (and a choice between +2 Constitution or Intelligence)) was due to a change in attitude toward Charisma in general.
See, in 3.5 the excuse given for Tiefling’s Charisma penalty was “Tieflings’ infernal heritage grants them quickness and cleverness, but others find their sinister aura unsettling.”
And yet despite their sinister aura and unsettling nature, many undead and powerful evil characters have high Charisma scores. In the transition, I think many of the game developers wanted to fix that issue. It seems wrong that “unsettling” would be a fundamental negative in some cases but a fundamental positive in similar cases.
And on some level, I think it was because Tieflings were getting a campaign setting push. Tieflings were more common due to the influence of Asmodeus, who became a god in the Forgotten Realms setting that was the basis of 4E. Since Aasimar never returned, the planetouched race was Tiefling.
And on a class level, they were almost custom made for the Warlock class, which was based heavily around Charisma (which was a change from 3.5E where Warlocks didn’t really need any score above a 3 to still actually be “useful”).
I really do believe it was a combination of thematic and mechanical issues that gave it the +4 Charisma change.
No one knows all that risk factors that can lead to reverse Klingon syndrome, but there are treatment options. Talk to your GM today about extra strength Charisma Drain today.
Reading the other comments, I think pretty much everyone is correct. There is a *lot* that goes into how Tieflings are viewed and why people like them so much and they’ve got sexual undertones.
Certainly pretty much all of the reasons people gave are things I appreciate. With the addition that they’re a character you can still design as “sexy” or “cute” or other ways you would think of a human without having to play a human or an elf. Which is important for people who are like me and will always at least put in an effort to see if they can make a character work as something other than a human because they like doing something different. Heck I barely even play elves just because of how much I want to play races aside from the ones you’ll often see four of in a five man group.
This gave me a thought. You know how other races have a lot of baggage? I’m talking about the “dwarves are drunken Scotsmen” or “elves are Legolas clones” type issues. Maybe because tieflings are less established in popular culture, they’ve got more freedom to be characters first and caricatures second. Usually you use humans for that reason, since they aren’t as pigeonholed by race.
I’d agree with the antihero theme most of the other commenters are mentioning. Tieflings are viewed as menacing and cruel, but more dignified than the other PC balances monster races, like orcs or goblins. They’d fit the “black knight” archetype much better.
You’re not the only one who’s eyes reflexively roll at the mention of a tiefling femme fatale. A worn and shallow trope if ever I’ve seen one.
…well there is one worse: the “redeemed demon” archetype (opposite to the “fallen angel”) that all these edgy kids seem to be drooling over. If I never see another shiny full-plate wearing, “at war with their own nature”, Dante wannabe, it’ll be too soon.
Funny you should mention the “redeemed demon” archetype. I don’t know if you’re subscribed, but that’s actually the topic I wrote about on the most recent Handbook of Erotic Fantasy. You know…the one that’s currently teased at the top of my Twitter: https://twitter.com/ColinStricklin
TLDR: Yes, I agree. It can be done well, but it’s awfully hard to get past the overdone trope baggage.
And instead of redeemed demons we need slaadi going off to become formians and vice-versa
I’ve got a gold dragon PC in one game who’s currently molting into a red. Awfully tough to be a barbarian when you’re the wrong color!
Sadly, I don’t have a Patreon (that is to say money to spend there).
Don’t worry, Doge Archon. When you’re rich and famous and an internationally renowned patron of the arts, the comic will still be there waiting for you. 😛
You know, it occurs to me that this might actually be justified, in-world. If tieflings are the offspring of humans and demons, then what kind of demon is a mortal likely to produce offspring with? A succubus. You don’t summon balors or imps for sex. So the vast majority of tieflings probably have succubus or similar influence on their bloodline, simply because that’s the kind of demon that people are likely to have sex with.
I prefer that headcanon to the half-orc style alternative. Anything to take some of the squick out of a setting.