Originally Posted by merkmerk73
Cambions are Tieflings with wings. There's like zero distinction.


There are tieflings with wings and they are not cambions. Cambions are flat out fiends even if they have human parentage.

Tieflings, on the other hand, are mortals and are equally likely to be good as they are to be evil. Also, in general, tieflings tend to be weaker. That's not 100% since there are "mortals" that are basically demigods to the point of basically not aging at all. (one of the of the post 20th level epic boons is immunity to age and to be frank, unaging is such a low impact thing I would just let people have it. They just wouldn't be immune to supernatural aging such as from dealing with some undead.).

That said, winged tieflings are rare. It's pretty much a PC / important NPC only feature.

Also, the similarity of all tieflings is something of a sore point with me and started with....really near the middle or end of 3.X (see the standard appearance of tieflings in NWN2 which was produced and published well before 4th ed was a thing.) I don't dislike the horns/tail(sometimes wings) aesthetic. Indeed it is one I appreciate, but originally tieflings were basically human with one or two stand out odd features. (one of my 3rd tieflings looked human save for tattoos that covered most of her body and depicted a bastion of virtue surrounded by scenes of siege and cruelty...the tattoos shifted when people weren't looking and she hid them under robes.)

I think when tieflings started getting more popular that there was a push to make them more uniform. 4th edition tieflings sort of explained this by them being the descendants of an ancient fallen empire that had made a deal with Asmodeus. This was fine 4e's default setting was the Points of Light setting...which honestly, was interesting and had a new pantheon and a new cosmology (I'm fine with the Great Wheel but I like alternate cosmological settings to play with.) My problem was that they decided to extend the Points of Light cosmology and tiefling origins to Faerun and other settings...where it...created a lot of static with fans like me.

The beginning of 5e had the lore continue along this trend by deciding that Asmodeus, as part of becoming a legitimate God, had a bunch of warlocks cast a ritual that caused him to "claim" all tieflings the effect of which is to make them all have the horns/tail + sometimes wing look. Because there's no actual metaphysical impact from what I can tell. A tiefling who loyally serves Tyr isn't going to be pulled to hell by Asmodeus when they die. There's some variation in colorization based on their actual bloodlines...Zariel, Mephistopheles, etc. But they still all have that horns + tails + sometimes wings. And non-Devilish tieflings are just not canonically a thing anymore. Which...again...would be fine...if they gave us parallels for demons and daemons (tanar'ri and yugoloth). And I kind think making mechanically different from tieflings would be overcomplicating matters and...so again WHY BOTHER?

I really don't like the standardization of their appearance. At all.

In many ways, Aasimar and Tieflings are actually more common to a wider section of myth, legend, and fantasy fiction than Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings. I am seriously a Tolkien fan, but really, dwarves and elves aren't as common in myth as children of humans and spiritual entities of various types ranging from Greek style Demigods to Abe no Seimei's fox-spirit mother and the versions of Merlin that have him the child of a devil. Fantasy, yeah, lots of elves there, but again, that's due to the influence of Tolkien and, actually, more than Tolkien...D&D itself. (most pop culture Elves and Dwarves are much more D&D than Tolkien).

Last edited by Thrythlind; 12/11/20 10:39 PM.