https://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/UA_FiendishOptions.pdf
Unearthed Arcana reveals playtest options for tieflings and fiendish cults this month: it’s October the month of Halloween we
decided we wanted an under Turkana with
some darker elements in it and so it is
an entire unearthed Arcana of fiendish
options and this includes both some
options for players as well as for the
dungeon master so on the player side
what we have is some new sub race
options for the tea flame what what we
did is we looked at the Lords of the
nine hells and created a sub race that
is tied to each of those Lords and the
idea being that your family of T flings
would have some connection this dark
connection to one of these Lords of the
nine hells and that connection will then
alter a little bit the ability score
bonus you get rather than getting the +2
charisma and +1 to intelligence that
ulti flings get in the players handbook
you would instead get plus due to
charisma and +1 to something else
depending on which of the Archduke’s or
arch duchesses of hell your family is
connected to also in The Player’s
Handbook T flings have a trait called
infernal legacy and what this unearthed
Arcana article does is give you the
option of swapping that out for a
different version of the trait that is
tied specifically to the Lord of Hell
that is a part of your your your
ancestry and so what it does is it
basically swaps out the spells that your
character would normally get from the N
for Anna legacy trait for some other
ones that are just right for for your
dark past now the one Archduke of hell
who does not have one of these sub races
included is Asmodeus because what we
point out is the
default tiefling in the players handbook
actually represents that legacy and so
this is instead now among these options
a way for your character to instead be
connected distantly to the vistas or one
of the other characters of Hell like
dissipater and others so this on earth
Arcana also then for the dungeon master
has customization options for for
fiendish cults we have both options for
infernal cults so cults that are
associated with the nine hells and then
four abyssal cults those cults that are
associated with the abyss and what we do
is we give you sets of signature spells
that these various dark powers are
associated with and suggest that you
give mem cultists those particular
spells particularly if you’re using a
cultist monster like we have a cultist
monster in the in the monster manual and
a cult leader monster if you have a a
monster like that that might already
have some spell abilities or you’re
using some other monster as a cultist
you might decide for instance that you
have a cambian or some or some other
creature at the head of a cult and it’s
in that stat block there are spells you
can take these signature spells and swap
swap them for the spells that are in the
stat block we also provide a new feature
an ability that the cultist can have
granted to them by their Dark Lord and
so this would be an additional trait you
would add to the stat block of whatever
creature you’re using as a cultist or
cult leader some new special ability
that’s going to change how that monster
functions in combat or in some cases
outside combat so this is a really neat
way for us to
drill into the fact that the different
Lords of hell are quite different from
each other and as as well as the Lords
of the abyss who are wildly different
from each other one of the things we’re
exploring here that we really enjoy
about the nine hells and the abyss is
they’re basically the headquarters for
some of the worst villains in the D&D
multiverse these dark creatures Menace
all D&D worlds in some form or another
and each of them has a wonderfully
distinct personality often a different
you know a different style of evil and
so these different cult options are are
teasing that out a little bit
giving new toys for the dungeon master
to show that when you’re facing off
against a cultist of Asmodeus it’s going
to feel different from that battle you
have or that other encounter you have
with the cultists who serves up Des
Moines or some other abyssal Lord and so
that all of this together adds up to
again the set of fiendish options where
we will be walking in the dark realms in
in this month’s unearthed Arcanahttps://t.co/ScgHoEbFee #DnD pic.twitter.com/VTWaNPWhvv— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) October 9, 2017
— Some Time Ago —
WOTC: So you know how Tieflings used to come in a variety of types? Yeah, we decided we don’t like that idea anymore.
Players: Huh? But why?
WOTC: Because, now every Tiefling is descended from Asmodeus!
Players: Wait, what? How does that make any sense? There are tons of different devils that have established fiendish bloodlines! That’s why a Tiefling of a given type looks the way they do! They inherited their looks from whatever devil spawned their bloodline!
WOTC: Well… uh… you see, Asmodeus decided to used some plot-magic and cast a big ol’ spell which turned every non-Asmodeus descended Tiefling into a member of his bloodline instead! Now they all look the same, even if they originated from entirely different devils!
Players: …
WOTC: Eh? Ehhh? We knew you’d love it! Players hate options and custimization in their character races. That’s why we went to all this hard work to give you what you really want – bland uniformity and zero choice!
— Present Day —
WOTC: So, hey! We just had this great idea! What if Tieflings… came in different varieties? Like… instead of all of them just being descended from Asmodeus, what if some of them were descended from other devils instead?
Players: …
WOTC: Speechless, huh? Yeah, it’s a pretty brilliant idea. I dunno why we didn’t ever think of before!
Rofl I’m speechless