They're not in every game, but wait.. are they?

I haven't played DnD for too long, but I've always been in a game with a Tiefling. Personally I don't get it, aside from the +2 Charisma stat. Someone who mains a Tiefling and enjoys it, can you tell me why you like it?

Fire Resistance

Darkvision

Racial Spells

Horns

Ah, the pragmatic answer. I can appreciate that

I'm running a game right now without any -- human, dwarf, gnome, aarakocra.

I did tell the players they are almost entirely unknown in the campaign world and you'd get some real stares if not outright fear, but I did not disallow them. No one went for it.

I don't know, but part of that may be that I went with a more generous starting array (17,15,13,12,10,8) to allow people to pick what races they want instead of feeling beholden to the race that bumps their prime stats the most. I also allowed them to move 1 point from a stat with a racial bonus to one without. Maybe people felt comfortable enough with those stats that they did not feel the need to min-max their race (which, if true, means the more generous array did its job).

Tieflings have a lot to prove.

Their backstory always has that "hook" that ties back to the fact they draw their appearance and powers from devils & demons.

The fact that they must be "charismatic" to put people around them at ease has it's own appeal to roleplay.

Then there is always the risk that when Infernal monsters start showing up, suddenly these tieflings seem like threats to everybody.

This all makes good sense.

I read the passage:

"To be greeted with stares and whispers, to suffer violence and insult on the street, to see mistrust and fear in every eye: this is the lot of the tiefling. And to twist the knife, tieflings know that this is because a pact struck generations ago infused the essence of Asmodeus—overlord of the Nine Hells—into their bloodline. Their appearance and their nature are not their fault but the result of an ancient sin, for which they and their children and their children’s children will always be held accountable."

and I think: "People want to play this... people want to play this? Yes this is a perfectly fine option.... but wait is it?"

Sorry if I come off as if I'm trying to fight people's opinions. Just a random thought I wanted to open up

I wouldn't want to play it. But some people like playing the outcast.

And others just take it for the racial bonus and either hope or maybe even expect that the DM will not have the world react that negatively to their character.

I’m running a campaign where the PCs are from an area where an adventuring party made up of an Aarakocra, a Goliath, and a Half Elf are aren’t unusual enough to even be noticed. But when they traveled to a more civilized area briefly they were stared at, watched, and over charged for everything. It’s role playing and making that dynamic into part of the campaign world so that it’s believable and it impacts the players, both good and bad, is part of the DM’s job. It’s a fun part too!!

I played a Tiefling Monk once, I mainly did it to play against type as Normally they are broody or childlike I played Break like he was Scrappy-Doo. Always trying to fight the biggest guy and having everyone else hold him back.  he was amazing just the idea of on top of furry of blows smacking a fool with your tail for a stunning strike just adds insult to injury

I have not played a Tiefling yet, but I def want to play a Tiefling Rogue in the future. 

They also tend to be favored by the edgier types of players, or players trying to subvert the edgelord stereotype with a good tiefling character. Combine those two (large) subsets of the D&D fandom and you end up with a lot of people playing tieflings. 

I've always hated Tieflings, not because of the race or any player I knew who played one, it's because that Tiefling NPC you were stuck with in NWN 2 was so annoying. 

That being said, my fiancee is playing a Tiefling right now in my Descent campaign, and well, everyone's got a crush on Jester. 

Good news is that a Tiefling (according to PHB) will wind their tail around a leg in some situations, can have small horns, and have regular Human skin color. Some (un?)lucky Tieflings can hide their appearance among Humans.

If I ever play a Tiefling (have a L.1 character created but needs ability rolls - never played, though), that's the kind of Tiefling I'd play. Unknown Infernal heritage in the family. His parents loved him anyway. He decided to hide his ancient heritage (and nobody else told him to do it). He is able to get to know people before they can judge his character by some ancient oops. Other than that, no real story there.

A simple life. No troubled past. No family drama. All's good.

So, why did he leave? Those loved the most have the courage and strength to go further. There might be a rude awakening out in the world, but that's up to the campaign - a forestory to be told (as there's not really much of a backstory, just how I like it). EDIT: I prefer someone with a simple beginning becoming a hero rather than a hero being heroic from the start.

Quote from dahhahm >>

They're not in every game, but wait.. are they?

I haven't played DnD for too long, but I've always been in a game with a Tiefling. Personally I don't get it, aside from the +2 Charisma stat. Someone who mains a Tiefling and enjoys it, can you tell me why you like it?

 Well I dont have a main that I know of, but if I had to hazard a guess, they are a lot like the warlock. Very customizable. 

Quote from The_Glimpse >>

everyone's got a crush on Jester. 

Speak for yourself. 

I utterly despise the character, personally.

To be faaaaaair, a good number of players like being the center of attention and Jester is definitely an attention-getting device. (Never been a fan of those unless there is an equal amount of foil against them. I know a character in a stream that's a horrible attention-seeking, rather lazy mostly-coward [not a complete-coward], but he's offset by the other four players who, in amusing ways, deny his undeserved ego and steal the spotlight much of the time and still manage to let him be an effective party member all the time despite all his flaws.)

a good number of players like being the center of attention

... which is terrible in a D&D group unless everyone else is OK with it. As a DM, I try to give all the characters "equal time" to the extent possible (it is not always possible of course).

But I think you are right, a character type like a Tiefling is probably the sort that those who are attention-seeking would gravitate toward -- because of the odd appearance and the fact that nearly ever NPC in the game is going to comment upon it. The *real* problem comes if you get an attention-seeker who then gets upset if the attention is ever negative.

I had that once... in Champions, with a player who always wanted to make Presence attacks (attempts at intimidation/persuasion) and yet got upset when doing that drew focused fire from the villains. I.e., "I want to AOE taunt the room so I can make a loud, attention-grabbing, braggadocious threat... but I'm going to object when the villains I just taunted all attack me." He wanted positive attention only.... 

Unless one is talking about a homebrew world, Tieflings are liable to get lots of attention, yes, but mostly the negative kind, from NPCs. (How the player characters react is potentially a different matter, e.g., in a party of all Tieflings or something.)

I remember in my first campaign where we didn't discuss our characters ahead of time and didn't have a proper session zero we ended up with two tieflings in our party (and also 3 rogues, if you count an NPC we ended up traveling with for a decent amount of time). Both players were really interested in the drama of their demonic heritage... and by coincidence both had chosen to be of abyssal descent instead of the more common infernal.

Okay.  There's a lot of "there's a lot of tiefling players because tieflings are EDGY and ATTENTION HARLOTS and DEMONY and stuff!"  That's...just no.  Yeesh.

I love tieflings.  Something like a third of my characters are tieflings, in part because the demonic aesthetic appeals to me strongly, and partly because it's very malleable.  When one makes a dwarven character by way of example, one is automatically saddled with fifty years of Dwarf Baggage.  The race is so strongly defined that even the play-against-type archetypes are defined and widely recognized.  There is very little room to make a dwarf your own.  All the dwarves have already been played.  Same for elves.  Same for halflings.  All the 'classic' D&D races that people think are Right And Proper and should see more play are often so rigidly defined that they're a turn-off to anyone who wants to try and explore their own character ideas, instead of things other people wrote fifty years ago.

On the flip side, shit like aarakocra are so obviously one-note gimmicks that there's no room to explore those, either.  Unless you're willing to backfill all your own racial lore and just ignore whatever's in Volo's Guide to DM Headaches, the outlandish monstery races are all flat, uninspired, and generally there just to satisfy goofy one-shot requirements.  When was the last time anyone here saw any serious attempt at an aarakocra that wasn't fueled by "I would like free fifty-foot flight speed from level 1, please"?

Tieflings occupy a space between the extremes, where you can dive deep into the Evil Heritage lore if you like, or you can lighten up on that and just make a colorful devil gal because the aesthetic jives with you.  It's not like humans, where every single human character ever created looks like every other single human character ever created, and every bloody one of them ends up the exact same Vhuman martial feat-stacker cheddarbuiild.  It's not like gnomes either, which have become a sad caricature of themselves at this point.

I really like tieflings not because I'm an edgy awful buttmunch or because I can't stand not being in the spotlight.  I play tieflings because I like tieflings.  I enjoy the tension of a character at odds with society, who has to be careful what she does, where she goes and what she says.  I enjoy the built-in potential for story arcs that comes with that fiendish taint in the blood.  I enjoy being colorful and fabulous in the game, as opposed to just another sun-weathered chain-wearing former soldier looking for more money.  The fact that tieflings are also a pretty potent race mechanically, and that there's a billion varieties of the things to further enhance the customization/self-expression aspect of them is even better.

I just...I just like tieflings.  Is that really such an issue? q_q

Nope, it's not an issue. As long as your character concept fits into your DM's world, or your DM is willing to change his or her world to make it work.

No race is "an issue," not even the "one note" Aaracokra you're so quick to deride in the same post you use to eloquently defend Tieflings -- as long as the DM says it's not an issue.