Introduction

Tieflings are popular because they look really cool, and because sometimes it’s fun to have big ol’ demon horns. But they also have some great mechanical benefits.

Tieflings all share Darkvision and Fire Resistance, plus they gain some innate spellcasting from your choice of subrace. Remember that innate spellcasting is nearly always Charisma-based, which predisposes Tieflings to Charisma-based classes.

Table of Contents

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses a color coding scheme to rate individual character options.

  • Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
  • Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
  • Green: Good options. Useful often.
  • Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

RPGBOT is fan content published under Larian’s Fan Content Policy. This is not official content, and RPGBOT has no official relationship with Larian.

Tiefling Traits

The Tiefling’s most broadly useful benefit is resistance to fire damage. Beyond that, your most impactful traits come from your choice of subrace.

  • Base Racial Speed: You can move 9 m / 30 ft per turn.: Standard.
  • Darkvision: Helpful, but actual darkness isn’t common in the game, and you can also get the Darkvision spell via Camp Casting, so this won’t be unique beyond low levels.
  • Hellish Resistance: Fire damage is extremely common throughout the game, and resistance will be consistently useful.

In addition, you must select a subrace which grants additional traits.

Asmodeus Tiefling Traits

The go-to option.

  • Infernal Legacy:
    1. Produce Flame: A mediocre and frustrating cantrip, and it uses your Wisdom instead of Charisma for some reason. You will probably only use this outside of combat to do things like ignite surfaces or burn spider webs.
    2. Hellish Rebuke: A nice damaging Reaction that will remain useful for your whole career even though the damage doesn’t scale.
    3. Darkness: BG3’s mechanics for the Darkness spell aren’t as abusable as those in the tabletop rules, but it’s still a powerful way to force enemies to waste turns in combat because the AI doesn’t know how to effectively respond.

Mephistopheles Tiefling Traits

Avoid this.

  • Legacy of Cania:
    1. Mage Hand: Occasionally useful for shoving or for sending into small holes, but, with a 1-minute duration once per rest, you won’t get a lot of value here.
    2. Burning Hands: Passable damage in a small cone. If there is oil on the ground or if you can hit a big group of small targets, this can do quite a bit of damage. Unfortunately, it will become obsolete early in the game as better sources of damage come online. Characters built to fight at range will struggle to use this without getting themselves killed.
    3. Flame Blade: There are some neat exploits to get a permanent Flame Blade, but getting it from casting the spell is awful. 3d6 damage with no ability modifier will be much worse than what you could do with one of the mountain of magic weapons available.

Zariel Tiefling Traits

Good for melee builds with some dependence on Charisma.

  • Legacy of Avernus:
    1. Thaumaturgy: Not amazing on its own, but fantastic for the characters likely to select the Zariel Tiefling. Advantage on Intimidation checks can be applied mid-conversation, and advantage on Performance can be used to perform for crowds to earn money and create a distraction.
    2. Searing Smite: A nice damage boost for a melee attack. Since this targets Constitution saves for the ongoing damage, it will struggle once you’re out of Act 1, but, in Act 1, most enemies have terrible Con saves.
    3. Branding Smite: Very few enemies can turn invisible in combat, and even fewer can do it more than once. For most of the game, this is a once per day damage boost on a melee attack.

Classes

Barbarian

Fire resistance is the only significant benefit here.

Bard

Asmodeus Tiefling is an easy combination. College of Swords Bards may find a some value in the Zariel Tiefling, but once you find the Band of the Mystic Scoundrel (absolutely essential for the Swords Bard) your Bonus Action will be more effective when used for better spells, so Asmodeus Tiefling is still your best bet.

Cleric

Fire resistance is the only significant benefit here. The Tiefling’s innate spellcasting is Charisma-based, and few of the spells appeal to the Cleric.

Druid

Fire resistance is the only significant benefit here. The Tiefling’s innate spellcasting is Charisma-based, and few of the spells appeal to the Druid.

Fighter

Fire resistance is the only significant benefit here.

Monk

Fire resistance is the only significant benefit here. The Asmodeus Tiefling’s Produce Flame is Wisdom-based, which sounds interesting but won’t prove useful in combat.

Paladin

Zariel Tiefling combines very well with the Paladin, providing additional smite spells, plus Thaumaturgy to support using Intimidation.

Ranger

Fire resistance is the only significant benefit here. The Asmodeus Tiefling’s Produce Flame is Wisdom-based, which sounds interesting but won’t prove useful in combat.

Rogue

Fire resistance is the only significant benefit here.

Sorcerer

Asmodeus Tiefling is a nice complement to the Sorcerer’s spellcasting.

Warlock

An excellent combination. If you plan to focus on Pact of the Blade, Zariel Tiefling offers some options to support using melee weapons. Otherwise, go for Asmodeus Tiefling. If you plan to use Devil’s Sight, the Asmodeus Tiefling’s ability to cast Darkness is an excellent boost to your limited spellcasting.

Wizard

Fire resistance is the only significant benefit here. The Tiefling’s innate spellcasting is Charisma-based, and few of the spells appeal to the Wizard.