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Adjust the following if you like.

This is a tiefling class for use in OSR games. The design goals are:

Allow customisation but also randomness.
Support some of the blastiness of later edition tieflings (yet to be implemented), but also how most people seem to like-em, as charming con-artists
Avoid character builds and players thinking about what they get next level. Acquiring a new fiendish power should happen because it fits the events & unfolding story occuring in play, not because the chart says you get a new one at 3rd level.
Still be a useful resource for 5e players.. Some of the minor traits have specified game effects beyond appearnce, keep them system-neutral as much as possible. Write the fiendish powers such that they make decent replacements for the Hellish Resistance and Infernal Legacy traits of 5e tieflings.
Ignore the Great Wheel cosmology for something more personally interesting, but avoid being so far gone that they're nonsensical within that cosmology.
Make all-tiefling parties interesting.

note if you're looking for a tiefling name generator, try these:

4e/5eD&D names

https://www.aidedd.org/dnd-gen/index.php
https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/dnd-tiefling-names.php

Pathfinder names

https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/pathfinder-tiefling-names.php

Tiefling Class

Requirements: None
Prime Requisite: DEX and INT
Hit Dice: 1d6
Maximum Level: 10
Attack as: Cleric
Save as: Cleric
XP as: Cleric
Allowed Armour: Leather or chain armour, shields
Allowed Weapons: Any
Languages: Alignment language, Common. Circumstance causes many tieflings to be Chaotic, but they have mortal free-will, their path is for them to determine.
Prime Requisites: If your game awards bonus XP for high prime requisites, a tiefling must have at least 13 in one or the other prime requisite in order to get a +5% to experience. They must have a DEX and INT of 13 or higher to get a +10% bonus.

Abilities

Combat: Tieflings may use any weapon, armour up to chain, and shields.

Minor Traits: Your heritage is apparent to those who can read the signs. Roll any reasonable number of times on the Minor Traits table below.

Fiendish Powers: You start with one fiendish power. Roll twice on the Fiendish Powers table below and choose one. It is possible to acquire more of them, ether through your actions in play, or via a roll of 100 on the Minor Traits table, but not through levelling up.

Each time you learn another one, it may be chosen by player and referee based on story appropriateness, or chosen from a random selection of two, as above.

If the campaign offers many opportunities to acquire new fiendish powers, the referee may choose to restrict the total known to no more than your level.

Taint of Demonkind: The more you accept your fiendish heritage, the more you become entangled in the many conflicts of the Outer Planes.

When making a reaction roll for an Outworlder or a mortal animal (who are perceptive of such things), you or the referee roll 2d6 + 1d6 per fiendish power you possess. You then total the worst two dice and apply any reaction modifiers.

A modified result of 2 or less with an Outworlder indicates that both of you feel the instinct for conflict in your very blood and soul. Intelligent Outworlders may be able to control these instincts, but Outworlders of animal intelligence will simply attack.

Note many mortal animals will cower or flee on a modified result of 2 or less, only attacking if cornered.

Thief Skills: Tieflings often have to turn to criminality to survive. You have some training in two thief skills. Roll or choose from the list below:

Climb Sheer Surfaces
Find or Remove Traps
Hear Noise
Hide in Shadows
Move Silently
Pick Locks
Pick Pockets
Read Languages

Note that wearing chain armour or a shield may interfere with some thief skills at the referee’s discretion.

The tiefling starts with some training in those two skills. The referee will explain how the skill system works, may have a different skill list in mind, or may let you define your own freeform skills. For a rules-as-written B/X game, use the “Rolling on d100” variant under Conversion Notes for the Referee, below, and if Hear Noise is one of the chosen skills, convert its odds to d6.

Reaching 9th Level: Your fragment of fiendish power reaches its true potential.

Design a magic seal. A visage of you can be conjured by any petitioner who draws that seal. The real you is unimpeded in any way, but is aware of and can control the visage. Through it, you can speak with petitioners, and grant them any one of your fiendish powers. You do not lose the gifted power, and may revoke it at any time.

You attract a cult that starts with 2d6 mortal worshippers. Even if you choose not to design a special seal, one mysteriously appears in grimoires throughout the mortal plane. It’s too late. You have a cult now.

Your path to becoming a true demon prince, should you choose to walk it, is left to the referee to determine. It will involve great suffering and sacrifice, not necessarily your own.

Minor Traits

Roll a d20 if you want more "traditional" tiefling traits, or a d100 if you want a wider range. Roll as many times as you feel like.

Some entries have have multiple options listed in [brackets] -- roll a d6 or choose.

Some entries are contradictory, others can be reconciled. e.g. perhaps you have striped skin of two different colours?

snake fangs
seven-fingered left hand
tail [barbed, dog, hare, peacock, rat, serpent]
can conjure gold jewellery into existence on your body, or gold coins into your hand. They're real, but disappear if they leave you.
blue skin colour [pale, dark, muted, vivid, iridescent, glossy]
sulfurous breath
wings, small and nonfunctional unless you have the Wings fiendish power [bat, bird, draco lizard, flying fish, locust, luminous geometric forms]
palms reversed
no pupil or sclera, eyes are solid [black, blue, green, red, silver, gold]
purple skin colour [pale, dark, muted, vivid, iridescent, glossy]
forked tongue
asymmetrical [eyes, ears, arms, legs, face, torso]
compound eyes
combined masculine and feminine secondary sex characteristics
freeze ground you walk on
always accompanied by 1d6 flies
a crown of flame appears when you use a fiendish power
red skin colour [pale, dark, muted, vivid, iridescent, glossy]
horns [buffalo, deer, ibex, markhor, ram, rhinoceros beetle]
voice of three people in discordant union
serpentine nose
skin texture [rose thorns, scarified, crystalline, deep furrows, cobbled, rust-pitted]
uncanny face, too symmetrical to be real
pedipalps
rooster-like crest and wattle
tiny centipede legs running down the side of your body
flesh fluoresces, reflecting/emitting twice as much visible light as falls on it.
trilobite cephalon
too many teeth, needle sharp
lobster claws (stronger unarmed attack, weapons unusable unless modified)
skin is dozens of lace/honeycomb layers, onionskinned
greyscale skin
grass and seedlings you walk on wither and die
toadlike mouth -- no teeth, just two bony plates
emaciated
must sleep standing up
claws of a lizard
retractible fingers, emerge wet, glistening from stubby palms
extra pair of arms, stunted and vestigial
fingers twice human length
flames burn twice as bright/as quickly in your presence
thick animate hair, like earthworms
green skin colour [pale, dark, muted, vivid, iridescent, glossy]
parchment, leather and skin will curl away from you if unsecured
loose skin, flakes off like ash
knowledge of one ancient mortal tongue
orange skin colour [pale, dark, muted, vivid, iridescent, glossy]
horns [crescent-shaped, opalescent, forked lightning, polyhedral void, stone, sprouting fungus]
eat food by first vomiting digestive juices onto it
perfect sense of time
heavy thick blood, like quicksilver
no eyes at all, just flaming sockets that somehow see, shed light as a candle
no navel
arms are tentacles
lipless, affects pronunciation
cast shadow towards all light sources (instead of away)
fine clothes you wear remain pristine
purr when content
bloodstained hands, indelible
goat legs
translucent skin, visible skeleton, organs
heart is a noxious weed, growing tendrils out of your chest. requires frequent pruning or it will strangle you in your sleep.
your shed blood spontaneously catches fire
shed your skin once a month like a snake
face of a microbat [leaf-nosed, horseshoe, ghost-faced, pipistrelle, long-eared, tube-nosed]
elongated, orangutan-like arms
unusually tall, 7 ft or higher
chicken legs
hair and clothing self-arranges to be tousled, rumpled, suggestive
hairy palms
pangolin-scale "hair"
ears of an ass
fur [woolen, shaggy, slick, bristled, floofy, thin]
loose rope/thread unravels in your presence
your reflections misbehave
feathered muttonchops
unusually short (cannot wield longbows or two-handed swords, as dwarf or halfling)
resonating casque on your forehead, as loud as a bugle
hyperflexible owl neck
voice of wet gravel
skin always moist, gelatinous
your gaze curdles milk
boar tusks
clinging odour [ash, decay, floral, fresh-turned earth, sex, vinegar]
goat beard, grows back within 10 minutes if shaved
eyes of a [cat, frog, gecko, goat, octopus, slug]
lion mane
voice of rolling thunder
food you handle spoils within a day
yellow skin colour [pale, dark, muted, vivid, iridescent, glossy]
knife-glint facial features
bald, wrinkled vulture head
birthmark, the symbol of a forgotten god. Only functions as a holy symbol if you convert.
antennae instead of a nose
objects you carry are twice as likely to break
other mortals find food tastes amazing in your presence
eye arrangement like to a jumping spider: two large primary eyes, two anterior lateral eyes providing peripheral vision, four posterior eyes (vestigial)
you cannot dream. 1 in 6 chance of parasitically hopping onto nearest mortal's dream each night.
total absence of body hair
Roll an extra fiendish power

Fiendish Powers

Change Shape. You can change into an alternate form, which is either in the shape of an animal or a chimera of two animals. You decide this form when you first gain this power.

Changing form does not alter your hit points, to-hit, or saving throws. Other statistics, including ability scores, movement, attacks, special senses, and abilities, of the alternate form are left to the referee to determine, and are not necessarily based on any existing monster statistics for the form chosen.

Extra Face. You are only surprised on 1-in-6, and have +2 to saving throws vs traps and similar natural hazards. This face manifests wherever you see fit, e.g. a complete face the back of your head, eyes on the back of your hands and a mouth on your torso, etc. The face can see, smell, breathe, and speak.

Facethief. You can swap faces with a creature of human size and shape by pressing your hands against their cheeks for 10 minutes. This lasts indefinitely. You can choose to apply relevant minor traits to your new face. Once the choice is made it cannot be revoked, and faces transferred from you keep any applied minor traits.

False Radiance. You can cause your body to emit a sickly light, illuminating surroundings to a distance of 30 ft. This ability takes 10 minutes to activate or deactivate.

Familiar. You can beseech the Planes for a familiar. The process takes from 1 to 24 hours (referee's discretion). While it is a spirit from the Planes, it takes the form of an animal of your choice. The animal cannot be one that attacks for more than 1d3 points of damage, or inflict a poison more dangerous or debilitating than a typical bee sting. A non-exhaustive list of suitable animals is provided below. Regardless of form, the familiar has an Armour Class of 7[12], Hit Points equal to 1d6+1, and Saving Throws of a 1st-level Fighter (unified 14, or D12 W13 P14 B15 S16)

As long as you have line of sight to your familiar, you can project your mind into its body, perceiving what it perceives. This provides no additional control over its behaviour -- it must be within earshot to receive new orders from you. Familiars are more intelligent than ordinary animals. A familiar understands its master's known languages, and can communicate with its master using animal cries that only its master understands. While not subject to reaction or morale rolls, a familiar treated poorly by its master will find ways to exact revenge, petty or otherwise.

If a familiar dies, you may not conjure another one for a year and a day. If you die and you have line of sight to your familiar, you can permanently project your mind and live on in its body. You retain your Fiendish Powers, but have the Hit Dice and AC of the familiar. Your thief skills and saving throws become that of a 1st-level tiefling. You share control of the body with the familiar’s soul.

Familiar Forms (d66)

bat	kiwi	raccoon dog
capybara	lizard	raven
cat	locust	seagull
chicken	mantis	sloth
cockroach	monkey	snail
dingo	moth	snake
duck	mouse	spider
fox	nudibranch	squirrel
goat	octopus	toad
hawk	opossum	wallaby
hedgehog	pigeon	wasp
ibis	rabbit	weasel

Flight. You are capable of unpowered flight. If you gain this fiendish power a second time, you are capable of true flight. If you don't already have wings, you can roll d6 on the first entry on the minor traits table, or simply decide you can levitate through some unseen force.

Hermetic Lore. You have a 3-in-6 chance of identifiying any herb, poisonous plant, or precious stone. This knowledge is mystical and innate in nature. Add 1-in-6 to this chance for each additional fiendish power you possess. If this raises the chance to at least 6-in-6, you instead roll 2d6, failing only on a 12. At the referee's discretion, this knowledge may extend to alchemical and ritual uses for such materials, possibly at a penalty.

Hidden Ways. You can slip through the cracks of reality, taking yourself and creatures in physical contact with you to a Transitive Plane. Using this power takes 10 minutes. Creatures are entitled to a saving throw vs spells to resist the effect, but if they fail and are unwilling to follow you, must find their means of returning home.

This plane maps strangely onto the mortal world, allowing rapid travel. In this space, you can travel at 5 times your normal overland travel rate (note in B/X, this means you can travel miles per day equal to your base movement rate, typically 120').

Once you reach your destination, you can re-enter the mortal plane, emerging in a location within 6 miles of your destination.

At the referee's discretion, this may also be used to travel to other planes in the campaign's cosmology, at greater peril.

The transitive plane contains many Outworlders, which will prompt reaction rolls. The referee should determine the nature of the transitive plane, or roll on the table below:

d6	Transitive Plane
1.	the Plane of Shadow, through a glass darkly
2.	the Celestial Bureaucracy, a dozen dozen layers of precise inefficiency emanating from the Supreme Being
3.	the Sea of Chaos, unseen and unformed
4.	the Dream World, semantic, incorporative, subconscious, malleable
5.	the Stack, fragile tower underpinning all, micromanaged by daemons
6.	Space, the one place that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism

Psionics. You can telepathically communicate with any creature that meets your gaze, as long as you share a language. Additionally, roll a random 1st-level magic-user spell. You can “cast” that spell once per day with nothing more than a thought. Unlike other powers, this one may be gained again. Each time, roll on the next level of spells. (The referee may also allow you to roll on other spell lists, such as the Cleric list, or the Elementalist list provided in Theorems & Thaumaturgy, or may replace this with a psionics system of their choosing).

Sense Desire. You can perfectly sense if a being is sexually attracted to you. Note this does not tell you if they wish to act on this attraction, merely that the attraction exists.

Sin Sense. You can stare at a mortal for 10 minutes to detect the degree of un-absolved sin. If the mortal fails a saving throw vs spells, you also learn the predominant, general nature of such sins, such as wrath.

The nature of this power may vary from setting to setting, depending on the relationship between the mortal, the divine, and the afterlife, if any.

Speak With Dead. You can reanimate a creature's remains for up to 10 minutes and compel it to answer three questions. It is an Outworlder and thus makes a modified reaction roll toward you, but is unable to lie and its threats are impotent. You cannot reanimate the same creature twice.

Tiefling Level Progression

To-Hit lists two numbers, the first is THAC0, the second, [bracketed] value is for ascending AC systems.

Saving throws, in order, are a unified saving throw, and the old-school saving throw categories: death/poison, wands, paralysis/petrify, dragon breath, and rods/staffs/spells.

The unified save values are taken from Swords & Wizardry: Whitebox. All other values are taken from B/X: Essentials, including ascending to-hit, calculated as 19 - THAC0. Adjust as necessary for your preferred ruleset.

Tiefling Level Progression
Level	XP	Hit Dice	To Hit^*	Saving Throws
Level	XP	Hit Dice	To Hit^*	Unified	Death	Wands	Paralysis	Breath	Spells
1st	0	1d6	19 [+0]	15	11	12	14	16	15
2nd	1,500	2d6	19 [+0]	14	11	12	14	16	15
3rd	3,000	3d6	19 [+0]	13	11	12	14	16	15
4th	6,000	4d6	19 [+1]	12	11	12	14	16	15
5th	12,000	5d6	17 [+2]	11	9	10	12	14	12
6th	25,000	6d6	17 [+2]	10	9	10	12	14	12
7th	50,000	7d6	17 [+2]	9	9	10	12	14	12
8th	100,000	8d6	17 [+2]	8	9	10	12	14	12
9th	200,000	9d6	14 [+5]	7	6	7	9	11	9
10th	300,000	9d6+2^†	14 [+5]	6	6	7	9	11	9

^*First number is THAC0, for use with descending AC systems, the second [bracketed] number is for use with ascending AC systems.
^†Hit point modifiers from CON no longer apply.

Conversion Notes for the Referee

Thief skills are one of the most-houseruled subsystems in old-school games -- you probably already have ideas on how to revise how the tiefling’s skills work. Go with what feels right -- make them modifiers or advantage to appropriate ability score rolls, tweak the odds, make them rolled on smaller die types, combine, separate, or define new skills...

If the level-up process would take a thief skill above 100% odds, ask yourself whether this is meaningful, and if it isn't, tell players to reallocate excess odds. That is, do you referee in a style that involves situational modifiers to thief skills? In B/X as-written, the only thief skill that exceeds 100% is Pick Pockets, which specifies a penalty based on the target’s level.

You may also decide to allow players to choose where to allocate increased odds, or weight it in favour of skills that the character has practiced in-game. You might also allow characters to progress in a third skill.

If you want to overhaul all the skills to be d6 or d20, I suggest the following guidelines:

Rolling on d6

1st level: Choose two thief skills. The tiefling starts with a 1-in-6 chance in each. If Hear Noise is chosen, it starts at 2-in-6 instead.

Level-Up: Increase one of the chosen skills by 1. Flip a coin to decide which one.

Rolling on d20

1st level: Choose two thief skills. Roll d6. The tiefling starts with that number of ranks in one skill and 7 - that number in the other skill. If Hear Noise is is chosen, it has +3 ranks.

Level-Up: Flip two coins. Put 1 rank in the first skill for every heads, and 1 rank in the other for every tails.

Rolling on d100

1st level: Choose two thief skills. Roll 2d20. The tiefling starts with that percentage of success in one skill and 41% - that number in the other skill. If Hear Noise is is chosen, it has +17%.

Level-Up: Roll 2d6. Add the total to one skill, and 13 - that total to the other.

If the referee wishes to keep Hear Noise rolls on the traditional d6, divide the percentage by 17 and round up. Keep a note of the percentage for whenever the tiefling levels-up.

Glaucus Hauriant

Tuesday, 19 February 2019

Tieflings in OSR Games