The tiefling ( ) is a fictional humanoid race in the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy roleplaying game. Originally introduced in the Planescape campaign setting in the second edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons as a player character race for the setting, they became one of the primary races available for player characters in the fourth edition of the game.
In the Planescape setting, where tieflings were introduced, they were described as being a mixture of human and "something else" with the implication that the medium-sized non-human ancestors originated from the evil "lower planes". In further supplements it was clarified that tieflings were usually descended from fiends but not in the same manner as half-fiends, since a tiefling's fiendish ancestry lies further up the family tree. This description remained true in 3rd Edition.
In 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons, tieflings are a race whose human ancestors made a bargain with devils to increase their power. Their origin is similar in 5th Edition.
Name
The name, pronounced , was derived by Wolfgang Baur from the German word tief meaning "deep, low", and the suffix -ling, "offspring," alluding to their origins in the "lower planes" (in the 2nd and 3rd editions).
Publication history
One of the first artists to depict the tiefling was Tony DiTerlizzi.
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition
The tiefling was introduced in the Planescape Campaign Setting (1994) with more information in the first Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix (1994) and The Planewalker's Handbook (1996).
Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition
The tiefling appears in the Monster Manual for this edition (2000) under the "planetouched" entry.
The fey'ri and tanna'ruk tieflings appeared in Monsters of Faerun (2001). The tiefling is presented as a player character race for the Forgotten Realms setting in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (2001), and the tiefling and fey'ri appear as player character races in Races of Faerûn (2003).
Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition
The tiefling appears in the revised Monster Manual for this edition (2003) under the planetouched entry.
The tiefling paragon was introduced in Unearthed Arcana (2004).
The tiefling appears as a player character race in the Planar Handbook (2004), and Races of Destiny (2004).
Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition
The tiefling appears as a player character race in the Player's Handbook for the 4th edition (2008), and again in Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms (2010). Tieflings also have a racial book dedicated to them in this edition, Player's Handbook Races: Tieflings.
William O'Connor, the artist responsible for designing tieflings in this edition, commented that there were few artistic depictions of the race in previous editions. However, with the tiefling becoming a core player race, the 4th edition design team "wanted to radically update their appearance to make them look more intimidating and 'cool'. [...] The horns and the tail were the defining elements of the race so my first direction was to make them as prominent as possible. Part of the design of the 4th edition was to integrate the design into being a miniature game so part of the process was to make the character's silhouettes easily recognizable from a distance". O'Connor highlighted a conversation he had with the creative director Stacy Longstreet who described tieflings as a "cursed people" which helped him figure out "their cultural aesthetic". O'Connor stated that:My immediate touchstone was of course vampires, and I worked to give the tielfing that sexy, dark and gothic appeal despite their "deformity". I carried this idea over into everything about them, their clothes and equipment. I wanted everything to have a twisted aesthetic as if all of their prized heirlooms and weapons, all the relics of a lost past, were also cursed and contorted into horrible but beautiful shapes, imagining that the forms of the weapons should reflect the shapes of their tails. Elegant and deadly like the tielfing themselves.
Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition
The tiefling appears as a player character race in the Player's Handbook for the 5th edition (2014). Variant tiefling options appear in the Sword Coast Adventure Guide (2015) and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (2018). Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes specifically outlines the nine tiefling bloodlines of the Archdevils of the Nine Hells.