Am I in the wrong here?

One of my players told me that he wants to create a tiefling - already a huge red flag. Then he told me it will be a tiefling paladin.
I really want him to drop the idea, but I can't really justify it yet. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth - I mean, who looks at a redskinned demon with horns, hooves and a tail, and thinks: "Oh yeah, this is the holy warrior material right here."

Unless the player has a bad history it doesn't hurt to let him try.

>badwrongfun

Yeah, you are in the wrong

It could be a cool part of the character. Someone trying to rise above their nature to be something truly great or something like that. It might also be cancerous. Can't know until you watch it play out.

Let him be his fallen angel snowflake. It seems to be a common combo in 5e. You are wrong here to deny him but i agree its an edgy character choice.

You are the problem.

if you don't like tieflings, why play in a setting with tieflings?

Honestly I don't think the concept is bad. Person with "evil" origins wants to overcome their nature and become good, that's pretty standard stuff. And better a player who makes a tiefling thinking "oh yes, that'd make for a great character arc" than a player who picks tiefling for the edge of playing a demon-blooded person. If you simply don't like the idea, tell your player. >Sorry, X, I'm not too fond of that idea. You wouldn't be wrong, and neither would he. It's okay for the GM to have preferences and say no.

I think OP likes tieflings but not as PCs. I mean, my setting has Beholders, but I'm not letting one into the damn party.

It's your setting and if you can't imagine it, turn him down, but explain it to him.
If he wants it for non-cheese mechanical reasons, let him pick Tiefling as his mechanical race, but otherwise he is a normal human.
If he wants it simply for roleplaying reasons, ask him why it can't just be a human. Personally, I've rarely seen race really have a deep effect on roleplaying. At the end of the day, you're playing another guy with a certain personality. If the race is only a quick explanation for the personality (tiefling wants to be good and redeem himself, cuz he comes from a evil background), it doesn't matter. It could simply be a human who came from a bad background.
If your setting has a specific and relevant background, it might be worthwhile (tieflings for some reason are more numerous and the party is often faced with communities that now have to accomodate these people, with possibly special needs. Here it could be interesting to have someone who can play both sides, but it definitely requires special set up. If your campaign is mostly about dungeoncrawling, it doesn't matter anyway)

>can't imagine a character that doesn't fit a cookie cutter concept
>turns to strangers on the internet for validation instead of discussing it with his player or just rolling with it

Yes, you are in the wrong here.
Why do you hate creativity, if I may ask?

It sounds cool, have people judging him based on his race and him having to prove them wrong or something. It could be fun.

sounds pretty unanimous.
one more for let him try if he isn't playing his waifu fetish

Your analogy is bad and you should feel bad.
Tieflings are a PC race, Beholders are monsters. I get that Tieflings bare a similarity to some demons/devils, but there's completely different rules and fluff behind them.
Sure a DM can have demons in their setting and call them Tieflings, but then why are Tieflings in that setting in the first place, when their entire reason for existing is to be a demonic/abbysal planetouched PC race option.

>One of my players told me that he wants to create a tiefling - already a huge red flag
Unless there's some prior history to this, just one sentence in and you already sound like a faggot, OP.
Care to elaborate?

Just because a person is descended from a literal embodiment of evil in a setting where evil is a real force diametrically opposed to good, doesn't mean that they're a bad person.

Besides, paladins aren't holy warriors anymore. They get their powers from their oaths and devotions to concepts like justice. There's no Plane of Justice, so a Tiefling - even an evil one - could still be a paladin.

>There's no Plane of Justice,
They got rid of the upper and lower planes?

>If he wants it simply for roleplaying reasons, ask him why it can't just be a human

This question invalidates non-human races entirely, since every race is really just human with a jaunty hat.

AND SO, BY AN 8-1 VOTE, IT WAS DECIDED.

OP IS A FAG.

Depends on the player.
If he wants to roleplay it correctly let him.
If he's not a serious player then stop him.
If you don't want to let people play interesting builds that aren't the fucking most archetypal things then its you that needs to stop

So he wants to be Hellboy?

Reminder that tieflings are not inherently evil because depending on setting (or individual in settings with both) they were created by a curse over an entire country, OR if they are actually a descendant from a fiend their blood is diluted enough not to directly affect their morality (otherwise they'd have greater powers as well and statted as a cambion or half-fiend)

It's totally a valid thing. While some of the race avoid the prejudice and hide themselves, and others give in and fulfill the stereotypes because that's all they think they can do or are wanted for, still others can try to rise above them.
Maybe an orphaned kid was dropped off with the clergy and they wound up having the god's favor and capacity for an Oath. Perhaps they were put on the right path by a paladin that wasn't the most strict and would rather reprimand and reeducate a bread thief. Maybe they crawled to faith after losing all else, and zealously repent for their heritage. Maybe they've got a complex that THEY have been saved, and it's their duty to save or put down other monstrous types.
There's plenty of fertile ground for a character, as long as you and your player both understand this. But if he doesn't care enough about the setting or character building to get that far, anything he plays will be shit.

What is it with tiefling paladins and flails?

Flails, warpicks, etc are just in that slight level of obscurity that a player who cares to make a slightly off key character might notice. Also, tieflings are wanting for strength, so will likely be upping that instead of taking feats, which incentivizes a one handed weapon and shield rather than feat-hungry heavy weapons, so they fall to aforementioned weapons if a basic sword, axe, etc doesn't appeal.

Also, something something spiky horns

Not necessarily. If the player can provide some compelling reasons based on the setting and/or campaign, it could make sense to come from a non-human background.
However, if the only reason is "because X is a PC race in the rules", then it's a no, because the race is obviously not a relevant part to the character/personality

Some people in this thread are retarded. The idea that race must be inherent to the character roleplaying is hilarious. Even something as simple as the aesthetics of a race are reason enough for a PC to pick one.

Are you guys like those anti-SJWs who say main characters should always be white dudes unless race/gender is important to the story?

>Thread has nothing to do with politics
>Brings up politics

I don't think they're just as bad, but I think they're moving in a bad direction.

>can't refute my point

It's a popular contemporary mentality on this website and I've never before seen it infect a hobby based around creativity and roleplay.

People in this thread are unironically saying the only race you should roleplay is the one you literally already are.

>And he does the reddit spacing too
What could he possibly mean by this?

>reddit spacing

Not even a thing. I'll be taking those dubs back

Nothing wrong with it you idiot. That's like if someone's playing some kinda real life PnP RPG, and the GM's mad that a character roleplaying as a black guy doesn't want to be a ghetto gang member but a doctor instead.

>playing against type is bad
Agreed. If you're in my game, you have the following options:
>Human Fighter
>Elf Wizard
>Dwarf Cleric
>Halfling Rogue
Anything else is special snowflake bullshit.

>thread has nothing to do with reddit
>brings up reddit

Alternatively

>can't argue a point
>"haha le reddit"

>puttingspacesbetweenwordsandsentences
>usingpunctuation
fuckoffyoupleb

I never really got why people cared so much about race when it comes to actors anyway, Like I get it when you're doing a historical film or it's set in a nation were demographics make sense for casting, but otherwise just choose an actor who can fit the styling and attitude of the character. like when they chose Samuel L Jackson for nick fury he did that role amazing and granted they wrote some of the lines for him, but it worked.

Please just shut the hell up and go back to /pol/ and make whatever point you were going to make there.

You're not in the wrong, necessarily. Do you have a story in mind? What's the player's proposed back story? If they don't fit with the campaign you are trying to run, then just tell him that it's not a good fit and to cook up something else.

But if this is a beer and pretzels kind of campaign, then I say let him do it. Assuming that the player can handle the RP challenge. Why not?

In ambiguous situation like this, questions help. They nail down expectations, help him think through things that may not have occurred to him. Oh, and if he does something That Guyish, you catch him now before he fucks up the game.

I'm fine here, thanks. Hope you have fun playing only Human Paladins so they don't clash with OP's ORIGINAL AND NEW campaign.

Nick Fury was actually cast because he'd previously said that they could base the comic version on his likeness with the condition that he'd play him in any movies they made

What even is Reddit spacing? I mean, obviously how Reddit users space their posts but I've been here for years and can't see the difference.

Though this guy is right and keep the pol shit out of here.

>I mean, who looks at a redskinned demon with horns, hooves and a tail, and thinks: "Oh yeah, this is the holy warrior material right here."

They don't. That's the point. Tiefling Paladin is a pretty standard "cover-doesn't-match-book" archetype that sees some gameplay every now and again. It's not the worst *cough* anything Psion *cough* but if played by the right player would be a fun addition to any adventuring party.

just a reminder; once you've opened the door, there's no closing it, OP.

>reddit spacing

t h e w o r s t t h i n g im a g i n a b l e

Classic Core Races only

GTFO dragonmen and demonpeople! Go back to being enemies to kill.

Cool, I remember the og nick fury being white, but it makes sense that they'd want to update the comics to fit the whole MCU plus Samuel L Jackson sounds like the kinda guy to do that in a contract so he can keep on having fun doing superhero movies, Like how he is backing the theory about Mace Windu being alive since he wan'ts to be a Jedi again.

Yeah but extreme role reversals like this are every bit as much of a cliche as the cliches they supposedly defy.

Now, you could really upend things by going off axis. Like a tiefling who's off the alignment axis entirely and works to help Nature.

Or, IMO the best, is someone who's long on personality and background, but doesn't have a strong ideology/religious conviction and no big family tragedy and no identity politics. In other words, a good well conceived character without strong overwhelming motivations driving him. Just a guy driven by events, a feeling for right and wrong, and a good dollop of common sense.

That used to be a cliche, too (most of the hobbits in Lord of the Rings, for example). But people prefer strong overriding motivations these days, like you see in comic books.

In the phb it explicitly states that tieflings often rise against their evil nature and take on a "virtue" name that encompasses the type of lifestyle they want to emulate.
That being said, I have a trifling palidan in my party and I hate it
>the shopkeeper doesn't trust you
>"why not? I'm a palidan he should know I'm good!"
>YOU HAVE RED FUCKING SKIN AND HORNS DURING aTotallyOriginalDemonInvasion.jpeg OF COURSE HES HESITANT ROLEPLAY YOURE FUCKING CHARACTER
>"I am, I'm a palidan"

One of my players told me that he wants to create a dwarf - already a huge red flag. Then he told me it will be a dwarf rogue.
I really want him to drop the idea, but I can't really justify it yet. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth - I mean, who looks at a fat stubby legged grumpy man with a beard, and thinks: "Oh yeah, this is the thief material right here."

One of my players told me that he wants to create a human - already a huge red flag. Then he told me it will be a human fighter.
I really want him to drop the idea, but I can't really justify it yet. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth - I mean, who looks at a guy who looks like a guy, and thinks: "Oh yeah, this is fightet material right here."

>extreme role reversals like this are every bit as much of a cliche as the cliches they supposedly defy
true, but not every character can be completely original. makes me think of how every stag do has to be completely original amd extreme, when most people would rather have a nice evining at the pub. sometimes people want a somewhat vanilla "kill the BBeG, save the world" happy end campaign

>PANCAKES PANCAKES PANCAKES.jpg

>Paladins are always good guys

Literally nothing wrong with wanting to be pic related.

Kill yourself OP.

>he wants to create a tiefling - already a huge red flag
Yes, you are in the wrong.

I can understand your distaste for certain races or class combinations.

However if the player is earnest and presents a backstory that makes sense I don't see anything wrong with giving them the opportunity to try this character.

Your task is setting aside your own bias as you can, and giving the player the same opportunities for fun as everyone else.

The trope of the redeemed evil is not a new one. It's been done before, but perhaps explain to the player your own personal distaste and why you don't believe it would be a good fit. Talk to them.

Furthermore, Tieflings are not inherently an evil race. They have all the same potential for alignments humans do despite looking like Tim Currey in Legend. If they lean evil or chaotic as a community it's typically due to the racism thrown their way because they look like classic depictions of the great antagonist.

to:dr:
Give em a chance, don't be a dick.

>Not necessarily.
Yes always.

Is no one going to mention that the main difference between a satyr and the standard image of the devil is the red skin? also in dnd most devils and demons don't look like that anyway

This may be the fist time that image has cropped up and I'm not wondering about the poster's amount of chromosomes.

...

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

>who looks at a redskinned demon with horns, hooves and a tail, and thinks: "Oh yeah, this is the holy warrior material right here."
Anyone with a single ounce of creative potential.

Contradiction is the heart of good character.

You might possibly have a point if you were playing 2e, but in 3.0 and later Tieflings aren't inherently evil, and in 4e/5e they're right in the PHB. Get over it, let him make his Hellboy paladin. It's not like trying to overcome stereotypes and the sins of a family isn't a useful set of story hooks for you to use as a GM anyway.

OG Nick Fury was white. When Marvel rebooted their continuity with the Ultimates in the early aughts, they based the new Nick Fury off of Sam Jackson with his blessing, provided he actually got tapped to play him in any movies. MCU is partially based off of the Ultimates continuity, so they used that version of Fury and tapped Sam to play him.

On Reddit you can't put things a single line below another. You need to linebreak between a quote and your response.

Tiefling Paladins are actually sensible when you think about it. Some are going to be so eager to prove themselves that they're going to throw themselves straight at mama church, militant orders abound, and magnificent specimens of high charisma (and CHA) end up pushed towards Paladins for service rather than parish work or medics.

I wouldn't be surprised if at least one Pally order wasn't specifically on the lookout to recruit young Tieflings with the promise of taking them in where they'll be fully accepted. They might look a bit funny but between the bigger smites, higher intimidation factor, and constant urge to prove themselves they work just fine.

I mean, you can't rule out that your player is a min-maxer who's bad at it (assuming 5e where Paladins want *a* +x to CHA, but a +1 is just as good as a +2 because half-feats cause weird emergent behavior) but there's a good chance there's a cool story to be told there.

What's wrong with tiefling paladins, OP? I'm currently playing one and I really like the "person who looks evil but wants to rise above their heritage and accomplish genuine good in the world" approach.

Besides, the encounter where I saved the party by almost single-handedly defeating a mummy lord with a dagger after breaking my weapon earlier in the dungeon became one of the highlights of the campaign.

Not even Hellboy. Hellboy's a full-blooded abyssal. Player wants to be Hellboy's great-great-grandchild. (Grandchild at the least, possibly 100's of generations back)

>I can't think outside the box
>I'm a good GM honest!
>it's the player that's the problem for sure
Whatever.

Scourging oneself and others drives the evil out, user.

Have you by chance heard of Hellboy?

>>"What is better - to be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?"

You're in the wrong, Tieflings don't have a mandatory alignment, just because his greatX10 granddaddy porked a succubus doesn't mean he can't be a Paladin.

Would you get mad at an Aasimar character for playing a Warlock? Just because his ancestor fucked an angel doesn't mean the bloodline stays pure and holy forever, people still have the freedom to make choices.

It also depends on the God and (depending on edition) the Oath he takes too. Tieflings might find the Ancients or Vengeance ones more attractive since they're less judgemental/more objective driven and would be easier to carry out.

I always wanted to run this except I wanted Elf Cleric, Human Wizard, Dwarven Fighter, and Halfling Rogue.

I think I know what my next sealed-envelope game is going to be.

>You might possibly have a point if you were playing 2e, but in 3.0 and later Tieflings aren't inherently evil, and in 4e/5e they're right in the PHB.
No... the point is that he should be playing 2e. And Tieflings aren't a player race. And this kinda faggotry doesn't belong in games. But he's playing bad games so he deserves it.

That racism is a huge red flag to me

>"How can you be a paladin when you have redskin and horns?"
>File your horns down like Hellboy
>Wear a mask and gloves so people don't see your skin.

People have been telling fantasy stories for years. We should have it down to a science at this point.

Tiefling paladin is snowflake as hell. Maybe he could have pulled it off, but he's probably another shitty fa/tg/uy looking to subvert tropes.

>hellboy

capeshit is fucking infantile pablum for manchildren, end yourselves

i don't let cape comic fans at.my table and neither should you

>Tiefling paladin is snowflake as hell
if you've played stereotypes before they became stereotypes it doesn't mean vanilla diversity chars aren't for others. maybe they just started roleplaying and need to get the vanilla out of their systems before they start playing wizards

>I don't like capefags at my table.

That's easy to do when you don't have friends anyway.

>snowflake as hell

Oh yeah, the protagonists of fantasy stories should never be unique, different or stand out from the common rabble of the setting. Everyone loves reading about the same archetypes going on the same adventures over and over and over again.

anyone have the thread about the campaign run with "nobodies" that were all killed by rats?

Go home, you're drunk

I don't have that but it sounds amazing.

Tiefling Paladin is babby's first subversion. It's the same damn shit.

basically their GM runs a side-game, they all play nobodies (non-hero chars with absymal stats) and fail at killing a few rats in the tavern. TPK, they leave the cellar door open. Roll for new chars, go to try again. shit hit the fan, rats got out, village is in lockdown, the keys lost in the tavern with the rats' lair... fast forward, entire village got wiped, because of no heroes.

fast forward IRL, they run another campaign, stumble upon a village where the gates have been broken down from the outside, everyone in the village lies long dead, doors to the tavern open... it dawns on the players. its the village from that other game they had.
paraphrasing now:
>I never turned a NPC down for killing rats or other menial tasks after that

Consider the following: Sikhism is as close to "real world D&D paladins" as you can get without magic getting involved (after all D&D paladins have little to do with *real* real paladins). Sikhism also believes in equal rights and fair justice for all peoples, which includes things like your race.

Also, that your thread is poor bait.

Missed the opportunity to use as their name example "Chastity".

Naming your daughter that is pretty much the guaranteed way to ensure she ends up on the stripper pole.

You ever heard of Nightcrawler from X-Men?

Borrow some concepts from him.

>Tiefling babby the product of rape or human and demon had a falling out/somebody broke their end of a contract/etc
>For safety little tiefling babbu is abandoned at a monastary
>Monks and nuns raise little babby tiefling like any other orphan, repeatedly bullied by other orphans but taught to be good and just by grandmotherly nuns and shit
>Tiefling grows up to want to defend everyone
>Tiefling paladin

Or fuck, you ever read Hellboy?

Or heard of Beta Ray Bill?

There's tons of characters who work extremely well who are just like this.

From the way you've worded this it seems that you think tiefling is an intrinsically spergy edgelord race choice. You need to realise that just because many people who play them do play them to be edgy that doesn't automatically make them edgy. You can make any race or class edgy it's all in how the individual plays it.

So here's my first character, a tiefling monk noble with a neutral good alignment. Can I get some opinions I guess because I don't want to upset people like op. I thought it could all roll together well in a sense. Bastard child of noble who made a mistake on night. Hid away from the public, only

>Wear a mask and gloves so people don't see your skin.

and so left with nothing else to do cut away from the public and left with daddy issues does everything to improve themselves. That sounds like it would work right? Kinda replaces monastery stuff from normal monk situations. I couldn't really work in neutral good besides like a pretty monkish everyone equal type of stuff wet nurse.

Is this to much for a first character?

Oh my.

CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED

Hard to pull off, and he's sure as hell an uunuuusuuuual CHARACTER

it has potential, but i've seen the troupe before
>i have infernal blood
>i'm more than the sum of my parts

>OP

Here you go.

>Can't know until you watch it play out.
Sometimes just being an observer in bad faith is enough to turn someone's game choice cancerous.

>a redskinned demon with horns, hooves and a tail
>tieflings all look the same
Trash.

>not being a rebelious teen tiefling

DAD MIGHT HAVE BEEN A CE DAEMON.
AND MOM A SHE-WHORE WARLOCK NE.
BUT THIS ISNT A PHASE.
I AM A LG WARRIOR OF THE LIGHT.

>demon+human
That's not a tiefling you goob.

How is tiefling then?

I just wanted to make a joke user.

Tieflings are much less than half demon. Half-demon gets you cambions/alu-demons/things with the half-demon template. Tieflings are more 'my great^3-grandfather fucked a demon'.

Hellboy`s mother was a human. He`s only half-demon.

It can happen as soon as being the child of a cambion actually.