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Vyrdallen
Acolyte
10 Posts |
 Posted - 23 Feb 2014 : 18:55:10
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Okay, so I apologize because this is an older thread, perhaps necromantically so. It seems the most suited to the question, however.
I feel like I should know this by now, but I'm still not clear on what the difference between a tiefling and a cambion actually is. I've read Brimstone Angels, Lesser Evils, and Adversary so I know about tieflings and their history. Previously to this I had thought that a tiefling was a devil and human, while a cambion was a tanar'ri/demon and human, yet that seems to no longer be the case. |
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Shemmy
Senior Scribe
USA
492 Posts |
Posted - 23 Feb 2014 : 19:30:14
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quote:
Originally posted by Vyrdallen
Previously to this I had thought that a tiefling was a devil and human,
That's never been the case actually. Prior to 4e, tieflings were mortals with some fraction of fiendish blood below the level of a half-fiend. It could be any type of fiend: demon, devil, yugoloth, etc. It could also be any type of mortal. There were also some specific subtypes like the fey'ri that were true-breeding.
Cambion was more specifically used to refer to half-fiends of exclusively demonic origin.
4e posited that core 4e tieflings were exclusively devil and human. This was then pushed as also being the case for tieflings in other settings regardless of prior history.
I don't care at all for the 4e redefinition of tieflings, so I can't say for specific how it handled the gulf of a disconnect with the mass of prior lore on the topic, since I haven't read all the 4e sources. |
Shemeska the Marauder, King of the Crosstrade; voted #1 best Arcanaloth in Sigil two hundred years running by the people who know what's best for them; chant broker; prospective Sigil council member next election; and official travel agent for Chamada Holiday specials LLC.
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Hawkins
Great Reader
USA
2131 Posts |
Posted - 25 Feb 2014 : 20:19:49
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| If you want a fun way to mix and match tieflings in 3.5 and PFRPG, check out today's blog post on my blog: Easy Hybrid Races – Part 2: Native Outsiders (Planetouched). |
Errant d20 Designer - My Blog (last updated January 06, 2016)
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He left it dead, and with its head
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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
7974 Posts |
Posted - 25 Feb 2014 : 23:48:24
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Vyrdallen:
The definitions you understand for “tiefling“ and “cambion“ are accurate enough, given the (D&D4E) background provided in the novels you listed. And continuing to use the definitions you understand very likely won‘t cause any problems in subsequent lore.
The arguments about definition in this scroll come from the AD&D2E-era usage of these same terms (largely in Planescape lore) to refer to substantially different things. 4E fiends are a bit more simplified, generic, streamlined, and consistent than their 2E counterparts, and the same applies to all their hybrid-fiendspawned descendants.
I summarized the old definitions earlier in this scroll, although I won‘t claim that my definitions are uinversally accepted. |
[/Ayrik] |
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Fiendish Reproduction
