Aasimar & Tiefling offspring

[Roi C.]

I'm pretty sure there's no official answer to this (do correct me if I'm wrong), but what's the result of a tiefling and an aasimar, uh... Commencing in a, uh... A vertical grappling contest?

Is the result either a tiefling or an aasimar? Maybe a pure human (both cancel each other out)? Maybe a human that has both infernal and celestial, um... Genes (does it work that way? It's D&D after all) that he can pass on? Maybe some crazy magical mishmash that involves the mixture of celestial/angelic and demonic/devilish, using the human basis as a bridging agent of sorts (like using flour or whatever as a way of sorts to mix oil and water on the same thing)? Maybe not him happens at all, and that's it?

Did you have to deal with it in your games somehow? Maybe heard a crazy ass story from a friend? Perhaps there's an official answer to it after all (honestly, sounds like pure 2e fluff/3.5e splatbook territory)? Maybe you have a batcrap insane theory yourself? Hit me up, I'm dying to hear what you gave to say.

[Mechalich]

I'm pretty sure there's no official answer to this (**do** correct me if I'm wrong), but what's the result of a tiefling and an aasimar, uh... Commencing in a, uh... A vertical grappling contest?

Is the result either a tiefling or an aasimar? Maybe a pure human (both cancel each other out)? Maybe a human that has both infernal and celestial, um... Genes (does it work that way? It's D&D after all) that he can pass on? Maybe some crazy magical ****, involves the mix of celestial/angelic and demonic/devilish, using the human basis as a bridging agent of sorts (like using flour or whatever as a way of sorts to mix oil and water on the same thing)? Maybe not him happens at all, and that's it?

Did you have to deal with it in your games somehow? Maybe heard a crazy ass story from a friend? Perhaps there's an official answer to it after all (honestly, sounds like pure 2e fluff/3.5e splatbook territory)? Maybe you have a bat**** insane theory yourself? Hit me up, I'm dying to hear what you gave to say.

The easiest answer is that the two influences are incompatible and that cross-planetouched conception is impossible (not just aasimar/tiefling, but aasimar/genasi, or tiefling/fetchling, etc.).

A more complex option is that whichever bloodline is 'stronger' (meaning traces back to the extraplanar source more recently) would dominate and the offspring would be planetouched accordingly. So a tiefling with a fiend grandparent - the strongest option - would dominate over an aasimar with an angel great-great-grandparent. Of course, there's no official ruling on how long planetouched heritage lasts in the first place, which is a complication, and what happens when planetouched self-segregate and mate amongst themselves, so you'd need to address that.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

This might be an important moment of introspection for your setting. What are good and evil? If they're opposite ends on a sliding scale they might cancel out. If they're directly opposed forces of the universe one or the other probably wins. Or maybe they are simply unable to have children together at all, not even by means of the strongest wizardry. If good and evil are just different from each other you might get a mix with aspects of both.

Similar with other crossbreeds. If an elemental is per definition not aligned with evil but only with its element a genasi-tiefling crossbreed probably doesn't exist. If it's possible to serve both (which does not mean its possible to serve both good and evil, different crossbreeds can follow different rules) you can have a hybrid.

[Pippomaster92]

Well, this is the stuff of legends (and a pair of Graphic Novels)!

Probably the union of an aasimar and a tiefling must be something very very rare and strange. How about a bizarre mix of good and evil elements? Or, even cooler, something completely different.

Maybe the son of a tiefling and an aasimar is...a normal human? Evil and Good perfectly balanced.
Or perhaps if in your world devils are fallen angels, the offspring will be a true angel. Or a true devil, tainted by pure evil.

[exelsisxax]

If planetouched cancels out in opposed parents, then humans, possibly with a mutation or two just from the genetic wierdness.

If simple mendelian inherited, then 25% chance each of human, tiefling, aasimar, and something like this according to 3.5.

I think dilution is more reasonable than canceling out though, the way things actually work in real life. The children wouldn't look any further from human than an aasimar or tiefling usually does, but within that range they could vary depending on the genes inherited. Mixes of subsets of traits from each parent, with hybrid vigor accounting for fewer of the crazy mutations.

[Thunderfist12]

If you're using 5e there's a subrace of aasimar that could be reskinned as a hybrid well enough. It's in Volo's Guide - I believe it's called "Fallen" but I don't have the book on me right now so I'm not 100% sure.

[GorinichSerpant]

If you've read Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman you could steal the the result in the end there as your answer.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Or perhaps if in your world devils are fallen angels, the offspring will be a true angel. Or a true devil, tainted by pure evil.

A neutral "angeloid" with bland (but not weak) powers usable for either good or evil until they fall off the neutral razor to either side and from there on can never be neutral again? Darkvision, resistance to some sort of very neutral damage, bludgeoning maybe, some cantrips and spells with no real alignment, maybe stuff off the druid and ranger lists, resistance, locate object, nondetection?

[Potatomade]

One of our players wanted to do something like this for 2E (he really wanted to play a half-celestial/half-fiend, but I managed to talk him out of it). We wound up creating a homebrew "nephilim" race that worked like this: if his alignment was Good, he would be a flat-out Aasimar, if his alignment was Evil he'd be a Tiefling, and if he was Neutral he would only get those aspects that both races shared, and look mostly human. If his alignment shifted during play, he would gain/lose traits/powers, and his appearance would shift. In all cases he got the full AS adjustments from both Aasimar and Tieflings, and his class was open to anything that either could be.

Fluff-wise, we said that the race was extremely, extremely rare, because of a social stigma against the pairing. A race ultimately derived from pure Good and pure Evil "simply shouldn't exist. It's wrong, on a fundamental level." That kinda thing. And the appearance changes were because evil and good were fighting within him, or whatever.

[TealWastelander]

If you're using 5e there's a subrace of aasimar that could be reskinned as a hybrid well enough. It's in Volo's Guide - I believe it's called "Fallen" but I don't have the book on me right now so I'm not 100% sure.

This is the answer I would have suggested.

[rferries]

Strictly by mixing the SRD traits for each race:

+2 Wisdom, +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence
Medium size
Outsider (native) type
Base land speed 30 feet.
Darkvision out to 60 feet.
Racial Skills: +2 racial bonus to Bluff, Hide, Listen, Spot
Special Attacks: darkness, daylight
Special Qualities: resistance to acid 5, cold 10, electricity 10, fire 5
Automatic Languages: Celestial, Common, Infernal. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Goblin, Halfling, Orc, Sylvan
Favoured Class: Paladin, Rogue
Level Adjustment: +1

I think that's actually rather balanced for LA+1. For something (slightly) more imaginative and flavourful though:

Nephilim
Descended from humans who interbred with fallen angels (i.e. powerful outsiders who were already half-celestial, half-fiendish). Whereas aasimar and tieflings persuade others towards their ideals (for good or ill), nephilim are focused on themselves and are wary of manipulation.

+2 Wisdom, +2 Dexterity: Nephilim are strong-willed and elusive.

Basics: Medium size, outsider (evil, good, native) type, base land speed 30 feet, darkvision 60 feet.

Align Weapon (Sp): As the spell, once per day (caster level = HD).

Introspective (Ex): Nephilim look within themselves for morality, rather than to higher (or lower) ideals. They ignore all class and feat alignment restrictions (a chaotic nephilim may become a monk, a good nephilim cleric may cast [Evil] spells, etc.). Nephilim paladins should ideally become the paladin variant that best matches their actual alignment (Freedom, Slaughter, etc.) however.

Focused (Ex): +2 Concentration, +2 Sense Motive. Nephilim are resisting distractions, and are suspicious of the motives of others.

Twilight-Blooded (Ex): Nephilim have both the Good and Evil subtypes. They are always treated as being both evil- and good aligned, except for class restrictions (see Introspective, above). Their natural weapons and any weapons they wield are treated as being both good- and evil-aligned.

Nephilim Resistances (Ex): Resistance to cold 5 and electricity 5.

Automatic Languages: Abyssal, Celestial, Common, Infernal. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Halfling.

Favoured Class: Monk.

Level Adjustment: +1

[Bohandas]

Probably something like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Nicky

[Westhart]

Probably something like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Nicky

"When he shatters the orb, Ozzy Osbourne appears, bites Adrian's head off, and spits it into the flask."

That's... XD
LMAO
THis and a comment on my shaodw death assassin have made my day wonderful XD

[Solaris]

One of our players wanted to do something like this for 2E (he really wanted to play a half-celestial/half-fiend, but I managed to talk him out of it). We wound up creating a homebrew "nephilim" race that worked like this: if his alignment was Good, he would be a flat-out Aasimar, if his alignment was Evil he'd be a Tiefling, and if he was Neutral he would only get those aspects that both races shared, and look mostly human. If his alignment shifted during play, he would gain/lose traits/powers, and his appearance would shift. In all cases he got the full AS adjustments from both Aasimar and Tieflings, and his class was open to anything that either could be.

Fluff-wise, we said that the race was extremely, extremely rare, because of a social stigma against the pairing. A race ultimately derived from pure Good and pure Evil "simply shouldn't exist. It's wrong, on a fundamental level." That kinda thing. And the appearance changes were because evil and good were fighting within him, or whatever.

This kind of appeals to me as a thing that could be fun to apply to all of the aasimar and tieflings in a setting - to set up that the difference between celestials and fiends is essentially phenotypic, not genotypic (to mangle biological terminology) and that the expression of their 'genes' varies based on the character's alignment.

Nephilim
Descended from humans who interbred with fallen angels (i.e. powerful outsiders who were already half-celestial, half-fiendish). Whereas aasimar and tieflings persuade others towards their ideals (for good or ill), nephilim are focused on themselves and are wary of manipulation.

+2 Wisdom, +2 Dexterity: Nephilim are strong-willed and elusive.

Basics: Medium size, outsider (evil, good, native) type, base land speed 30 feet, darkvision 60 feet.

Align Weapon (Sp): As the spell, once per day (caster level = HD).

Introspective (Ex): Nephilim look within themselves for morality, rather than to higher (or lower) ideals. They ignore all class and feat alignment restrictions (a chaotic nephilim may become a monk, a good nephilim cleric may cast [Evil] spells, etc.). Nephilim paladins should ideally become the paladin variant that best matches their actual alignment (Freedom, Slaughter, etc.) however.

Focused (Ex): +2 Concentration, +2 Sense Motive. Nephilim are resisting distractions, and are suspicious of the motives of others.

Twilight-Blooded (Ex): Nephilim have both the Good and Evil subtypes. They are always treated as being both evil- and good aligned, except for class restrictions (see Introspective, above). Their natural weapons and any weapons they wield are treated as being both good- and evil-aligned.

Nephilim Resistances (Ex): Resistance to cold 5 and electricity 5.

Automatic Languages: Abyssal, Celestial, Common, Infernal. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Halfling.

Favoured Class: Monk.

Level Adjustment: +1

I think I'd have gone with +2 Int, +2 Wis instead. Say they're enlightened.

Why the alignment subtypes, though? Neither aasimar nor tieflings have them.

[DuctTapeKatar]

I think the resulting spawn would probably be whatever a Nyarlathotep is.

Congratulations! It's incomprehensible!