As far as I know, the only exception to the “Tieflings don’t like being Barbarians” is if you take the winged option from the SCAG, that is, since you forfeit you spells to get wings.
Incorrect, but it takes creativity with what you get. Generally you need to consider taking Feral (Charisma to Dex) and from there you generally go for spells that you can make use of. Dispater and Glasya both work fantastically as it's all utility, likewise with Mammon, the Charm Mock trio from the SCAG gives utility for a Barbarian and something aside from flinging Javelins to do at range, and if you're like me and thus a bit thick, Hellfire/Burning Hands to make Oni fire breath. Oh, and Levistus because Armor of Agythys works even as you rage.
... yeah... but flying and getting hit by most monsters is kind of antithetical. Winged means you're either ranged or taking opportunity attacks every single time you swoop down to melee an enemy. And if you don't take damage as a Barbarian, then you lose rage (which is basically the entire point of a Barbarian). Without rage, Barbarians are just restricted fighters. So, as a winged barbarian, you basically HAVE to either: A) swoop in, thereby taking opportunity attacks AND regular attacks every turn and turning you into a demonic pin cushion B) You just don't fly during combat... which is kinda lame. Half the fun of having wings in the cool stuff you can do in combat to provide advantage or disadvantage on enemies (aka being able to fly away from them). You can still use wings during social and exploration portions of the game, but not using an entire portion of your anatomy during combat (which can be entire game sessions) kinda sucks. C) You basically only fly during combat as a movement method. Which... you could also just walk in most cases. It's super rare that you will need, or have, enough flying speed to strafe around 1 enemy and still make it to another. And, as a Barbarian, you don't WANT to avoid people. You want to draw the attention to you in most cases. So, again... you might as well just walk. Tieflings can be good Barbarians if you take one of the bloodlines that has mage hand, thaumaturgy, minor illusion, or charm/hold person, and throw your best scores into STR, CON, and CHA. You use those spells outside of combat (which isn't a huge lose because in most scenarios, you aren't using them inside combat anyway), then when someone catches you using your "party tricks", you get really offended, rage, and kill someone for referring to your magic as a parlor trick.
@@thestoryofusall4805 you maintain rage as long as you Attack/Take damage. So no, you don't need to swoop for AoO. Just dart about their head before chomping said head off.
8:52 Jeremy Crawford confirmed that unarmed strikes, while not being weapons, count as weapon attacks, meaning that you can absolutely smite with an unarmed strike. And if your dm still doesn't care, you can always go Kensei.
Unfortunately this is not the case. Divine Smite specifically states that this damage is "in addition to the weapon’s damage" the key word being "weapon's". Whilst it does not specify immediately that it is a melee weapon attack with a weapon, it does follow up by stating it has to be a weapon with this additional phrase. The ability is so TERRIBLY worded and 5e has this issue in a lot of places which is why these rules debates still happen, but yes you do need a weapon even though at first glance it would seem you don't. (But I think its bullshit anyway so at my tables it works because f*ck you Crawford it's cool) Even more upsetting, even if you ignore this really poorly worded hot mess of an ability you still cant use Improved Divine Smite as a punch boi because that one very clearly states it requires a weapon. TLDR: RAW you cannot use Divine Smite to punch, kick or tail whip your foes but RAW is bullshit and the guys that wrote 5e are cowards.
@@orioninfernal7269 they have an errata on dndbeyond saying that technically it doesn't work, but since it makes no mechanical difference to balance just thematic difference if your dm doesn't want to do that they can just ignore it with little to no change.
Another personal favorite use of the Zariel Tiefling is for Pact of the Blade Warlocks. You don’t get a lot of spell slots so having some Smites you can use as backups sounds pretty good. Of course you could say that about any Tiefling and any Warlock but my point still stands. You can also use it for Gish’s that wanna Gish more.
I'm using the zariel tiefling for my hexblade (using Tasha's rules to swap the strength for dex). It is handy having smites spare without using spell slots
Uhh, eldritch smite only uses warlock spell slots and racial innate spellcasting doesn’t actually give you a slot that can be used for smiting - just a free casting of the specific spell at a specific level. Edit: ohh... smite spells... that makes sense.
@@alexandrudorries3307 I never said eldritch smites. I don't actually have that invocation as I'm focusing on permanent passive buffs for them rather than additional active abilities. The racial smites mean I can have potential big hits without using up spell slots
I had a Mammon Tiefling Necromancer. Utilized his Floating Disc to hold bones & weapons. Raised a skelly, armed it, sent it into certain doom, repeat ad nauseam.
"tieflings dont make good barbarians" *looks at Levistus tieflings giving a barbarian Armor of Agathys which effectively soaks up 20 points of damage and deals damage to anyone who hits the barbarian and can be cast as an action while you rage as a bonus action, and while not raging you have a ranged cantrip that slows enemies.*
7:56 Actually, devils don't need to lay with mortals to create Tieflings - the whole affair can be as dry as making a deal or trade with Zariel and down the line having kids with a different person and those kids turning out to be Zariel Tieflings.
As someone playing a zariel tiefling paladin once you get to higher levels you won’t be using your smite spells all that often.Your concentration will be used on things like haste ,spirit shroud and protection from evil and good.the only time I used my innate spells recently was when we fought creatures that turned invisible so I used branding smite on them. This isn’t the zariel tieflings fault but one with the spells. so I feel the zariel tiefling best fit is with a class that doesn’t always use their bonus action like a fighter
See, I was using Hellfire for a Tiefling Barbarian... because I wanted to go for an Oni themed one. I used to use it either on a starting round on a group of enemies before raging, or if for some reason I was forced to drop rage as a Backup tool. But I might actually look into Glasya or Dispater in the future, because Oni do like to disguise themselves and out of combat spells probably work far better for the Barbarian... but then Levistus could also work. Also on the Barbarian side, you can go Storm Herald for the Elemental power angle, Wild Magic for emphasising the Oni Mage angle, or Ancestral Guardian for spoopy spirit angles - twisted Yokai spirits floating about, clawing at the enemy.
Levistus tieflings make really good bards. Ray of Frost does significantly more damage than any bard cantrip, and requires an attack roll unlike any bard cantrip so it can both benefit from sources of advantage and crit. 2nd level Armor of Agathys gives you 10 temporary hp, which can help with the defense problem caster bards have and both makes melee bards tanker and give them some extra damage. Darkness is a good multi-purpose spell useful to basically anyone.
7:16 Or a Roleplay-heavy rogue. You have high INT, so your investigation, nature, arcana, and history mods will be super high. Plus, it validates in game the sneaky 4D Chess Leverage/Sherlock Holmes playstyle a lot of rogues have. On top of all of that, you're a Teifling making you a great potential criminal, since you're ostracized in a lot of settings. You basically only need your magic to scare off whoever caught you long enough for you to escape. Hence the non-optimal spells with a focus on theatrics.
I picked a Levistus tiefling with a "wild northerner" druid vibe. Maybe his ancestry made a pact to survive a harsh blizzard and gave em cold resistance. I love tieflings
I’ve personally made two tiefling characters, both weirdly coming from a circus, a storm barbarian with desert to give that hellish heat aura as the strongman guy in a circus, and a drunken monk with a psudeo molly personality as a type of acrobat.
As a pretty minor thing, you can use the smite spells with the Zariel subrace with unarmed strikes. Despite not using weapons, they are still melee weapon attacks as all attack rolls are either weapon or spell attacks even if they're using neither a spell nor a weapon. It's also good to note that branding smite only requires a weapon attack and doesn't specify melee so it can also be used to give yourself a little extra punch at range.
On the Barbarian note, I did a Zariel Tiefling Storm Herald Barbarian of the Sea and took Infernal Constitution to get 7 resistances total while I am raging, it's great against casters because the most common high damage spells use fire, or lightning, and maybe cold, and then Poison which is a very common non-magical damage type. So you get Bludgeoning, Piercing and Slashing then Fire, Cold, Lightning and Poison, which is incredibly helpful in combat.
Baalzeebul tieflings are necromancers. The Ray of Sickness isn't great, but it is the only 1st and 2nd level necro spell that actually does damage. That means it's the only low-level spell that triggers bonus healing from the necromancers Grim Harvest ability. Since a Necromancer is going to want this spell anyway - getting it as an innate spell casting feature is means you can use your level up picks on more useful spells, while still always having at least one casting of this ready.
Side note, Baalzeebul tieflings were released before the Infestation cantrip. I would swap out thaumaturgy for infestation for their innate spellcasting. Infestation is far more thematic for Baalzeebul, even though it's just more poison damage. Let the player choose which they want.
I'm currently playing a noble Zariel Teifling whose human great grandfather was based on Timur and Ghengis Khan, the type of people who would willing fight for Zariel.
I like levistus tieflings for bards. Bards don’t get a solid ranged damage cantrip beyond vicious mockery, so this adds to their already vast options. Throw it on a swords/valor bard and armor of Agathys becomes even more useful
I've been playing a Tiefling cleric of Mammon (Order domain) for a number of months now, trying to tempt my fellow party members into joining the Gucci Gang with me. It's been a lot of fun. I generally don't care for mechanical synergy between the race and the class, more for the synergy of themes, and silver-tongued devils can be pretty preachy, you know? The devils' whole shtick is to persuade the people them to give in to some form of indulgence, which is perfect for a cleric.
Cool stuff as always. I might suggest cestus as a viable weapon for the unarmed character. Basically spiked or metal knuckles on a glove. A finesse weapon that would allow your hand to hand guys some joy. They could be magical they could be imbued with spells. Or even brass knuckles which would also fill the gap.
I once asked my DM if I could have tiefling that isn't based on devils but on demons instead. I was intending for my ancestor to make a deal with a marilith. I also asked if I could sell my infernal legacy, not for pair wings but pair of extra arms (marilith has 6 arms) and he agreed. I ended up making true neutral/chaotic neutral thief rouge.
My Tiefling has forward-swept bulllike horns and while I haven’t tried that, I have thought about it, though it would be pretty out of character for him unless he was barbarian rage kind of angry. This is the guy that specifically uses a mace because (the enemy’s) bones would be easier to heal afterwards.
I personally played the default Tiefling as a barbarian and loved it. It was a game of lost mines, and i used both hellish rebuke when i rolled low on initiative so i could still do something impactful. I used darkness if we ever needed to run away from a fight. and since i was limited on my rages it was important to have these spells i could use when i need to save a rage or two. if i ended up going to like 10-12 lvl i could see where it really wouldn't work
Right now I am playing a divine soul Tiefling Sorcerer and I love having the charisma stat boost, it also helps I rolled a total of 18 for my stats so I had max charisma right out the gate haha.
Big fan of the devilish bois. And to be basic i love pairing them with the warlock class and maxing cha and int. The all the sight themed invocations pair really well with an archaist character. Take the observant feat and by the end of the campaign you can most of the perks from “true sight” at will. You arent a tank so be careful but in a high magic and investigation friendly campaign its a fun build.
i was so glad my dm let me take the wongs cause we both knew what double-edged sword they are. Why is everyone crying how op wings are? Do people realise falling can easily get you killled? For example, i failed my saving throw against a scare row and fell down (i think i was paralyzed or stunned dunno) and sure i fell into a muddy ground, still took some damage, but 1. i was covered in mud so flying was impossible until i get myself clean and I'm in difficult terrain and also far away from the party and in company of a hidden spider who was chilling there minding his own business.
Literally the only reason out of game that my Tiefling is the vanilla asmodeus flavor is because I didn’t know there were other kinds before we started. So I came up with him having a self-sustaining circle of True Polymorph carved into his back that is the reason he is an asmodeus tiefling (because with his parentage, that makes no sense otherwise) and it’s not his true form but he’s been that way since he was a toddler so he absolutely does not want to change back. Also he’s a Light Cleric so he’s got lots of Fire Funsies going on. And I like the whole light/darkness duality thing.
Just so everyone knows, it is possible to Smite with the Armorer's Guardian mode Thunder Gauntlets, since they count as simple melee weapons. Not to mention the blade cantrips. So you can legally Smite Punch.
Tiefling barbarian, with the wings, that way you can be a force of absolute terror with the feral stats or with an ability score increase of one of the other subraces
My fiance made a Mephisto tiefling Illusionist for a campaign of mine. Themed her after the archetypal black-cat witch and everything using some of the aesthetic alterations allowed by the SCAG. It was a really cool concept and I got really sad that the game fell through shortly after starting. Spawned a whole sidequest plot that I fleshed out after looking through MToF and noticed that I could use the Archdevils to be a dark mirror to the deities that were in my homebrew game.
I would say winged tiffling warlock is the best race class combo. Truning your self into a sell throwing fighter jet from the word go is a blast and the warlocks range can keep you self early game so ling as you have the high ground.
As for a new player, I have to say I only undertsood like 40 percent of what you said. Because I don't now the spells or the "meta" of a race/class. Besides that, I was looking for a quick summery and I recived it
Every time I've heard someone say that monk is underpowered I get this sinking feeling they've never ran a game for one/played one. Sure four elements is underwhelming, but stun is plain busted in any context. Sure maybe enemy is immune to stun, guess who gets to make more attacks in that case, or they can play crowd control with the minions, keeping them from acting and using their super speed to bounce between them.
You can still play a heavy armor proficient class and use the wings. Just…wear medium or light armor. If youre that worried about AC, level Dex and take a shield :/ Plate armor is too ‘spensive anyway
My Zariel tiefling was a stand in Belmont for our gothic horror session. My explanation for his heritage was that his great grandfather made a deal with Zariel to influence our genes for some sweet bloodline powers in exchange that, after death, we would join her army in the endless fight against the demons.
Hey Davvy, I got a question about the varient tiefling subraces, Iwanted to make this winged tiefling Warlock gish, but I also wanted to get the +1 to dex from the Glaysia bloodline, I can live without the spells but how would you rule this?
I disagree about Barbarians, you could use your smite spell before raging to get some early damage off and potentially debilitate a foe you're about to be stuck in melee with. Then you flavor as a Zealot of Zariel for funsies.
@@JaelinBezel you wont find many dms that aprove flying races.Best bet is to talk with him on swiching the race traits of a race with another or other homebrew
Speaking of Teifling I hope wizards re-release the old module Hellgate Keep. One of my favorite 1st edition adventures growing up......yes I know they are Cambions not Teiflings but still
Tiefling barbarian can be a lot of fun, actually. I'm playing one, Bloodline of zariel and no racial spells, but wings. A tiefling without spells as a barbarian can work. ( I'm gonna take one level in sorcerer anyway because having a few spells would be flavourful and kinda "refreshing" for the character)
@SURROUNDED BY GIANTS sure, wings are cool and very useful. My zariel tieflings sorcerer level is also just for flavour and fun, it wont make my character useless in battle and also the game I'm playing in is more about roleplay than battle. anyway, can you name something cooler than a flying barbarian?
Smiting with your fists is not against the rules Unarmed strikes are weapon attacks, spell attacks vs weapon attacks: only 2 types, and punching someone sure isn't a spell If you don't buy that, consider why else stunning strike would be on a weapon attack
