Tiefling Alt. Racial Traits (Pathfinder Race)

Alternate Racial Traits

Replaces Ability Score Bonuses

• -2 Strength, +2 Intelligence, +2 Charisma: Some tieflings, while still quick in mind, are born of a subtler heritage such as the succubus, incubus, beguiler, or erinyes, leaving them weaker of body but inherently charming.

Replaces Fiendish Resistance

• Alternate Sanity (3 RP): Descending from a Derghodaemon has always been tough. You hear voices that no one else does, and you see thing that aren’t there. Most people would have gone insane from this, but somehow you draw strength from it. You gain a +2 racial bonus on saves against mind-affecting spells and effects.
• Cool as Ice (3 RP): They say ice water run in the veins of certain people, but in your cast that’s almost true. Your cold and calculating manner is courtesy of your relationship with a Gelugon (or Ice devil). As a result you get a +2 racial bonus against any fear or emotion effects.
• Fiendish Anatomy: Something about a tiefling’s internal organs just isn’t right. A tiefling with this racial trait gains DR/— equal to his total character level against sneak attacks and precision damage.
• Fiendish Metabolism: The tiefling’s metabolism and tissues work differently than those born on the material plane. A tiefling with this this racial trait gains a +2 racial bonus to saves against disease and poison and spells and spell-like abilities with poisonous or disease effects such as the contagion and poison spells.
• Gaze of the Abyss (3 RP): Your gaze holds the promise of a painful death, like your Nabassu ancestor, though much less potent. As a free action once per day, you can activate your gaze attack. All living creatures within 30 feet must succeed on a Fortitude Save (DC 10 + Charisma modifier) or be stunned for 1d4 rounds.
• Horns of the Hellbeast (3 RP): Some tieflings have vestigial horns, but in your case, those horns are prominent. Taking the form of bull’s horns, antlers, ramshorns or any other type of horn, these show your ancestor as being a Cornugon, or horned devil. Due to the presence of the horns, you gain a free gore attack whenever you charge, resolved as a secondary attack (resulting in a -5 to hit). The damage is 1d6 + 1/2 Strength for a medium sized character.
• Kin to Kind: The evil embodied in a tiefling protects him from similar creatures. A tiefling with this racial trait gains DR/— equal to 1 + his Constitution modifier against attacks from creatures with the evil subtype.
• Nauseating Touch (3 RP): Foul poisons and pollutants seep from your pores, courtesy of your Hezrou ancestor. Anyone grappled by you must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + Constitution modifier) or be nauseated. The nausea ends 1 round after the grapple ends.
• Opportunistic: A few tieflings prefer to take any opportunity they can to spread the corruption of evil in the human heart and are granted a special power by the more vile deities Once per day as a melee touch attack these tieflings can cause a creature to become more susceptible to pain and suffering. Creatures touched take a –2 penalty on all saving throws and must roll all opposed skill checks twice, taking the worse result. This effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to 1/2 of the tiefling’s character level (minimum 1).
• Scrying Foil: The tiefling’s connection to two separate planes makes him harder to locate. A tiefling with this racial trait gains a +4 racial bonus to saves against divination spells.
• Spell Resistance: A tiefling possesses greater magic resistance. A tiefling with this racial trait gains spell-resistance equal to 10 + 1/2 his total character level.
• Strengthened Bone Structure (3 RP): Hailing from Osyluth, or bone devil, stock has given you a stronger bone structure and bone spurs protrude from your skin at all joins. This grants you the ability to shrug off attacks that would incapacitate other mortals. Whenever you suffer a critical hit, you have a 20% chance to negate the critical attack and only suffer the normal damage. (This works similarly to the armor quality fortification and stacks with the armor qualities)

Replaces Fiendish Resistance and Fiendish Sorcery

• Ageless Form (Ex): You no longer have a maximum age, nor do you suffer from age penalties. As long as you avoid violence, you may live indefinitely.

Replaces Fiendish Sorcery

• Beastly Brutality (1 RP): The backs of your hands have serrated edges, reminiscent of your forebear, the Shemhazian demon, and its mantis legs. Whenever you use unarmed attacks, you threaten a critical hit on a roll of 19-20 and do x3 damage, as your rip your target open.
• Blood of the Messenger (1 RP): Slightly stunted, compared to your fellows, reddish skin and vestigial horns is proof that one of your ancestors had a relationship with a Quasit. As a result of this you have gained a measure of this tiny abyssal messenger’s powers and you are able to cast sending once per day.
• Cage of Ribs (1 RP): Your internal anatomy is drastically different to that of other mortals. Like one of your ancestors, a Gylou (or Handmaiden devil), your ribcage has an empty hollow. You can use this to hide any item of size Small or smaller, getting a +10 racial bonus to Stealth checks to hide the item in question. (The cage is restrictive and should a living creature hide there, she will start to suffocate in 1d4 rounds. Unwilling creatures cannot be placed inside the cage).
• Darkborn: Several tieflings are born into cultures where evil outsiders are held in high esteem, and as such, these tieflings are treated like a special type of nobility. Once per day when making a Diplomacy check you may roll twice, choosing the best result; you must declare the use of this ability before the roll. You also start with the maximum amount of starting wealth if 1st level or +10% if starting at a level higher than 1st. You also bear an official title in a nation or domain chosen by the GM. While in this land, you can access the upper levels of the nobility or government. You might not gain an audience with the king, but you can speak with an official or minor noble, if you wish.
• Empty Stomach (1 RP): You look emaciated, no matter your actual weight, and you have hyena-like features, including a horrible laughter. This is due to your Meladaemon heritage. This heritage allows you to continue on, in spite of hunger and thirst. You ignore the fatigued condition from starvation and thirst, and you gain a +5 racial bonus to Constitution checks to avoid damage from starvation or thirst.
• Fiendish Benefactor: Not all fiends are blessed with the power of sorcery, instead, some are favored by dark deities and strange powers. Tiefling oracles with the Bones, Dark Tapestry, Flame, or Outer Rifts mysteries treat their Charisma score as 2 points higher for all oracle class abilities. Tiefling witches with the Death, Deception, Enchantment, Insanity, Occult, Plague, Shadow, Trickery, or Vengeance mysteries treat their Intelligence score as 2 points higher for all witch class abilities.
• Horned Body (1 RP): Horns cover your body, sprouting everywhere from head and arms to knees and ankles. Descending from a Kalavakus, or horned demon, the horns are of incredible strength and you have learned to use them. Whenever you are trying to disarm an opponent, when you are unarmed, you count as armed and you gain a +2 racial bonus on the check.
• Known to the Ferryman (1 RP): You have always appeared older than your actual age, which took awhile to get used to. Due to your Thanadaemon heritage, this does not affect you and your appearances stops aging at middle age. You do not suffer the negative effects of getting older. You still die from old age at the end of your lifespan.
• Recall the Past (1 RP): Your memory is almost perfect, and you’ve always been able to relay information quickly and effectively. This is due to your forebear a Zebub, or accuser devil. Similar to your ancestor you can impart your knowledge of recent events to a willing subject. You can impart any scene that you have witnessed in the past 24 hours to a willing subject. This take round per hour of the scene and the recipient gets all the information in a flash of insight, though the imparted scene is visual only. The information relayed cannot be tampered with, though the tiefling can control when the imparted scene starts and stops.
• Whiplasher (1 RP): A long time ago, a Balor found it’s way into your family and the influence has lain dormant since. With you, it resurfaced once more and you have inherited some of your infamous forefathers ability with a whip. A tiefling with this traits treats a whip as a light weapon for the purposes of two-weapon fighting, and can inflict lethal damage on a foe regardless of the foe’s armor.

Replaces Fiendish Sorcery and Spell-Like Abilities

• Child of Tyranny: On the lawful planar levels of Damnation, tieflings form enclaves of their own kind, having been inborn with nature accepting of both tyranny and community. Once per day as a standard action, you can give a creature an emotionless yet undeniable order, as per the spell command; a Will save negates this effect. Your caster level is equal your character level; this is a supernatural ability rather than a spell-like ability and as such ignores spell-resistance.
• Nether Life (3 RP): Your body is cold to the touch, and there is a corpse-like pallor to the color of your skin. This is the physical evidence of your family’s relationship with an astrodaemon. More important than the physical attributes or your heritage are the abilities bestowed on you. You do not live in the present like others, but have an impact on both the immediate past and the near future. Once per day you can focus your presence and obscure the lines of past, presence and future, and you can cast displacement as a spellcaster of the same level as you.
• Sting of Madness (3 RP): Like your ancestor, the Vrolikai, you have a poisonous stinger and tail. As a standard action, you can make an attack with it, at your normal attack bonus. Anyone hit must make a Will save (DC 10 + charisma modifier) or be confused for 1 round as mad visions and hallucinations affect the target’s senses. A successful save means that the target is staggered for 1 round instead.
• Swarmlord (3 RP): Being a descendant from a Leukodaemon, you have always looked pale and ill, even though you are in fine health. Flies and vermin swarm around you and you have a measure of control over them. Once per day you can turn them into a breath weapon, with a 30 foot cone range. Anyone caught in the cone take 2d6 points of damage. A successful Reflex save halves the damage (DC 10 + Constitution modifier). Anyone failing the save is sickened for one round.
• Weapons Master (3 RP): Descending from a line of great warriors and tacticians, the influence of a Marilith is clear in your family. Like your ancestor you have an affinity with weapons. You can choose a weapon that you own, and spend 8 hours attuning it to you. After the attunement period the weapon performs as a +1 weapon if it’s type (if previously non-magical). An already magical weapon adds a +1 bonus (a +1 weapon performs as +2 and so on, to a maximum of +5). This attunement lasts until another weapon is attuned. Anyone else using the weapon ends the attunement immediately.

Replaces Skilled

• Acidic Sweat (4 RP): In the past, one of your ancestors had a tryst with a Babau, or assassin demon, and some of its abilities have passed on to you. Due to your acidic and slimy sweat, you gain a +2 racial bonus to Escape Artist checks and you do a further 1d4 points of acid damage when using unarmed attacks.
• Blend into the Shadows (4 RP): Shadows seem to cling to your form, a testament to the power of your Shadow Demon ancestor. During any conditions other than bright light, you get a +2 racial bonus on Stealth checks and you may always take 10 on Stealth checks to remain hidden, even if rushed.
• Deceiver: The fallen are great prevaricators. A tiefling with this racial trait can lie better than most. He receives a +2 racial bonus on Bluff and Diplomacy checks.
• Feathers of the Fallen Angel (4 RP): Where other tieflings look fiendish, instead you appear angelic to the untrained eye. Hailing from Erinyes stock, wings protrude from your shoulder blades. Closer inspection reveals that that the wings resemble those of a predator, with feathers falling out and regrowing continuously, while the molten feathers melt away within seconds. This gives the tiefling a fly speed of 30 feet, with clumsy maneuverability.
• Mad Intuition (4 RP): Your brutish appearance is proof that your blood carries the taint of a Nabasu, but your appearance belies the intelligence that lies beneath. When learning new spells or formulae, you gain a +2 racial bonus on the Spellcraft check to add a spell to your spellbook and when using metamagic feats, they require 1 level less when applied to a spell, to a minimum of 1.
• Night Eyes: Darkness is a tiefling’s natural habitat. A tiefling with this racial trait gains a +4 racial bonus to Perception checks in dim or darker lighting.
• Purge by Fire (4 RP): An aura of flames surround you at all times. Warm to the touch, it is not hot enough to start a fire, but it does give off the same amount of light as a torch. This is the inheritance from your ancestor, a Puragaus or Immolation devil. As a standard action, once per day, you can cause your aura to erupt, doing 2d6 points of fire damage to anyone within 10 feet. (Reflex save DC 10 + charisma modifier for half damage). As a free action you can suppress the aura, so that it no longer sheds light or heat.
• Silver-Tongued Liar (4 RP): Claiming a Bdellavitra, or belier demon, as a forebear, has gifted you with honeyed words and a pleasing manner. You gain a +2 racial bonus to Bluff checks and you automatically know if you are the target of discern lies or similar divination magic. (Though you do not automatically know who has cast the spell).

Modifies Skilled

• Body Spikes (2 RP): Coming from Hamatula stock has left you marked, with your body covered in razor-sharp spikes and thorns. Anyone performing a grapple or unarmed attack on you suffers 1d4 points of damage. Furthermore you can use these spikes in combat to cause a further 1d4 points of piercing damage when unarmed. This racial trait replaces your skill bonus on Bluff.
• Demonic Charms (2 RP): You’ve always had an easy time getting others to do your bidding. Charming and devious, you give off a “bad boy/femme fatale” air that attracts others. Courtesy of your Succubus inheritance you gain a + 2 racial bonus to Bluff checks when seducing members of the opposite gender. Furthermore your Leadership score from the Leadership feat never decreases from causing the death of followers, as it is obvious that a bad person, like you, would act this way. This racial trait replaces your skill bonus on Stealth.
• Gelatinous Body (2 RP): Descending from the lowest of devils, the Lemure, your body acts like a gelatinous blob. The malleability of your body allows you to squeeze into tight spaces and helps to protect you. You gain a +2 racial bonus on Escape Artist checks and your AC is treated as 4 higher when determining critical hits. This racial trait replaces your Skill Bonus on Bluff.
• Slime Anatomy (2 RP): Your body has always been somewhat malleable and you have noted that you are able to contort limbs and move organs around, far beyond what is normally possible for a being of your size. Because of your Omox demon ancestry you are able to squeeze through areas as if you are one size smaller. (i.e. a Medium-sized character would be able to squeeze through areas sized for a tiny character, in effect squeezing as if you are of Small size). This racial trait replaces your Skill Bonus on bluff.

Modifies Skilled and replaces Spell-Like Abilities

• Unspoken Wishes (4 RP): As one of the most common fiends to manipulate mortals, it is not surprising to find a Glabrezu in your family’s past. Like your ancestors you have an uncanny ability to read others around you and assume a form pleasing to them. You gain a +2 racial bonus to Sense Motive and can cast disguise self once per day. If you designate a target (a free action) when you cast the spell, it will give you a +5 racial bonus on Bluff checks made against that target. This racial trait replaces your skill bonus on Stealth.

Replaces Spell-Like Abilities

• Bred for Battle (2 RP): Weapons, battle and death in combat comes naturally, courtesy of the Purrodaemon involvement in your family’s past. As a result you gain Martial Weapon Proficiency or Weapon Focus in the weapon of your choice.
• Calling the Darkness (2 RP): A part of your family was entrenched in the hierarchy of one of the lower planes in ages past, and some of the power gained still lives on in you. When you take the Improved Familiar feat, you may always choose to take a Cacodaemon as a familiar. Furthermore, you gain the ability to consume Soul Gems (as described in the Cacodaemon’s Soul Lock ability) as if you were an evil outsider. Note that consuming a soul in this way remains an evil act.
• Dark Ocean Blessing (2 RP): You have webbing between your fingers and toes, as well as small gills on your neck. Along with a frog-like mouth, these are the traits gained from a dark affair in your family’s past with a Hydrodaemon. You gain the aquatic subtype, giving you a swim speed equal to your movement speed and the ability to breathe underwater.
• Devil’s Tail: The forked tongue of a fiend is only matched by his barbed tail. A tiefling with this racial trait can make an attack with a tail that inflicts 1d3 points of damage on a hit. This is a primary attack, or a secondary attack if the tiefling wields a manufactured weapon.
• Dretchling (2 RP): You are the unfortunate inheritor of someone who had questionable tastes at best. At some point in the past, that person engaged with the lowest of a demonic lifeforms, a Dretch. As a result, you are surrounded at all times by foul vapors, though you consider yourself lucky that at least you don’t smell like a Dretch. You have the ability to increase the amount of vapors so once per day you can cast fog cloud.
• Fall of Civilization (2 RP): You’re surrounded by an uncomfortable feeling that civilization and all life is headed towards an inevitable doom. As a descendant from an Olethrodaemon, you have learned to focus this feeling on a single target. Once per day, you can cast cause fear and you get a +2 racial bonus on Intimidate checks.
• Fiendish Apprentice: A tiefling’s fiendish parent is sometimes a powerful duke or lord. A tiefling with this racial trait has a demonic or devilish servant he can call for aid. Once per day he may cast summon monster II as a spell-like ability to summon a fiendish creature, with a caster level equal to the tiefling’s class level.
• Master of Hell (2 RP): Having descended from one of the infamous Pit Fiends, you have gained a measure of power over the lower forms of devils. Whenever you cast a summon monster spell, all animals and magical beasts are summoned with the fiendish templates. You may summon only monsters with the Lawful and Evil subtypes when casting summon monster IV or higher. Furthermore any monsters with these subtypes or the fiendish template are affected as if you had the Augment Summoning feat.
• Razorbeard (2 RP): Hidden among your ancestors is a Barbazu, or bearded devil, which manifests in razor-sharp growths along your jaw, in a bearded shape. This gives you a natural attack doing 1d6 points of damage (for a medium character, 1d4 if small), treated like a bite attack.
• Rejected Heritage: A rare handful of tieflings can trace their lineage back to fallen angels (such as erinyes) who later were able to reject their evil nature and embrace the cause of good and self-sacrifice. Once per day these tieflings may, as an immediate action, move up to their speed to place themselves adjacent to or in the same square as another creature within the range of the tiefling’s movement. (This creature cannot be an enemy.) They still provoke attacks of opportunity for this movement. When these tieflings arrive, they may place themselves in the path and become the target of one attack, spell, or other harmful effect that was going to affect an ally. They suffer the consequences of this attack as if they were the initial target instead of the other creature. The creature they are protecting completely avoids all effects of the attack. They may intercede at any point during the attack, but cannot intercede once the attacker’s turn is over. Multiple attacks from the same creature in a single round (such as iterative attacks from a weapon, several magic missiles from a single spell, or multiple eye rays from a many-eyed creature) count as one attack for the purpose of this ability. If the tiefling intercedes against one of the attacks, he intercedes against them all. You may not roll a Reflex save to avoid damage since you are deliberately putting yourself in harm’s way to save another. You may still roll other saving throws as normal (if the attack allows it). If you are incorporeal, gaseous, or otherwise physically unable to prevent an attack from reaching the creature (including being paralyzed, ethereal, and so on), this ability has no effect and is wasted.
• Seeding the Air (2 RP): Feathers replace the hair on your head in a circular pattern, giving you a vulture-like appearance. Like the fiend you descended from, a Vrock, you are able to release spores from your feathers. Unlike those of your ancestor, they are not deadly. As a standard action, you can release a cloud of spores in a 20-foot circle around you as per a fog cloud spell.
• Self-Serving (2 RP): Descending from a Ceustodaemon has left you with a keen sense of self-preservation and the ability to survive hardships that others could not. Whenever you are the cause of lethal damage to yourself (Such as falling damage or casting a fireball centered on yourself ) you take 1 die less damage, to a minimum of 1. (Example. taking 2d6 points of damage becomes 1d6, 2d8+2 becomes 1d8+2, but it could not reduce 1d6 points of damage to 0).
• Shadow Child: The tiefling carries shadows wherever he walks. Once per day he can envelop himself in swirling darkness that makes it harder for opponents to hit him. He gains the benefits of a blur spell with a caster level equal to his character level.
• Tentacled Horror (2 RP): Your forebear, the Piscodaemon, gifted you with the tentacles that are now growing from your face, giving you an octopus-like appearance. These tentacles give you an extra limb that can hold or use items, though they cannot be used for weapons or attacks, as they are not strong enough. These tentacles are roughly the size of fingers, giving you an extra slot for magic rings. (To a maximum of 3).
• Transgression Against Nature (2 RP): Your small stature and devilish appearance is due to the Imp that inserted itself into your family tree. Your size changes to Small and you can cast invisibility once per day.

Replaces Nothing

• Bloodthirsty: Like many demon-kind, violence and blood stirs a few tieflings into a minor frenzy. These tieflings were often exposed to violence at a young age, or, by their very nature, they enjoy inflicting pain on others. Once per day if these tieflings deliver an attack that immediately causes an opponent to die (by dropping to –10 hit points or lower) they gain a +2 morale bonus to damage that lasts until the end of the combat encounter. (Note: this blow must slay a conscious, active opponent; neither a coup de grace nor the killing of a helpless foe will grant this benefit.)

Sources Fat Goblin Games' Astonishing Races, City of 7 Seraphs, Purple Duck Games's Monstrous Races, Rite Publishing's 101 Featured Alternate Racial Traits, Samurai Sheep Dog's Book of Many Things III

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