Saturday, August 24, 2013

New-school race-as-classes part the third: Tieflings

I mean, I guess Tieflings aren't really that new school given they were in 2e, but 4e took them in a particular direction that I quite liked. I'm not 100% happy with it yet, so if you think there's something that needs changing I'm not above putting out a second draft. UPDATED 8/26: Make that a third draft, thanks to Anonymous Commenter #1.

Tiefling
Art by Zaebrael (you have no idea how hard it is to find a female tiefling in reasonable armor!)
Prime requisite: STR and INT
Requirements: INT 9
Hit Dice: 1d6
Attack as: Fighter
Save as: Elf
Advance as: Elf
Maximum level: 10

Tieflings are the descendants of nobles of a decadent human empire that entered into a series of alliances (both military and marital) with the forces of Chaos. They resemble devilish humanoids with an aristocratic bearing, and often have reddish, grey, or stark white skin, horns, and tails. Some have cloven hooves for feet. In the Wilderlands, Tieflings are also known as Viridians and tend towards green skin instead. Tieflings tend to be about the same height (not counting their horns) and weight as humans.

Restrictions: Tieflings use 6-sided dice (d6) to determine their hit points. They may advance to a maximum of the 10th level of experience. Tieflings may use any type of weapon or armor and may use shields. A Tiefling character must have a minimum Intelligence of 9.

Special Abilities: Tieflings have infravision and can see 60 feet in the dark. They cast spells as Magic-Users or Elves of two thirds their level, as detailed on the chart below. Tieflings are immune to fear effects. While wearing leather armor or less, a tiefling may hide in shadows, move silently, and backstab as a thief of the same level. Inherently Chaotic monsters still often remember the old pacts made between them and the first Tieflings and so apply a +2 bonus to their reaction rolls and a -2 penalty to saving throws against any Charm spells the Tiefling uses against them.

Table: Tiefling spells by level

Character Level
1st level spells
2nd level spells
3rd level spells
4th level spells
1
1
-
-
-
2
1
-
-
-
3
2
-
-
-
4
2
1
-
-
5
2
1
-
-
6
2
2
-
-
7
2
2
1
-
8
2
2
1
-
9
2
2
2
-
10
3
2
2
1


Tieflings:

AC: 5 (14)
HD: 1+1 
Move: 120' (40')
Attacks: 1 weapon Damage: 1d8 or by weapon 
# Appearing: 1d4 (2d12)
Save as: E1
Morale: 8
Treasure Type: E
Alignment: Neutral or Chaotic

Tieflings are handsome, devilish-looking humanoids. Each tiefling will have one first level spell (chosen at random) If a group of 15 or more Tieflings appear, one will be a leader of level 2-7 (1d6+1). To check for magic items the leader may own, multiply the leader's level by 5. The result is the percentage chance for that leader to have a magic item from any subtable. Roll separately for every subtable. So long as the leader is alive morale is 10 rather than 8.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

HD is d8 at the top but d6 lower down.

This is a damn strong class! Fighter stuff, MU spells and thief skills? Man.

Rachel Ghoul said...

Thank you, corrected the HD.

I don't know about strong but it is perhaps a little more versatile than it ought to be. I was hoping to split the difference between the 2e- and 3e-era tiefling's tendency towards Assassin stuff and the 4e tiefling's more warlocky flavor.