Tiefling Traits
Tieflings share certain racial traits as a result of their infernal descent.
Ability Score Increase
Your Charisma score increases by 2.
Age
Tieflings mature at the same rate as humans but live a few years longer.
Alignment
Tieflings might not have an innate tendency toward evil, but many of them end up there. Evil or not, an independent nature inclines many tieflings toward a chaotic alignment.
Size
Tieflings are about the same size and build as humans. Your size is Medium.
Speed
Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision
Thanks to your infernal heritage, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Hellish Resistance
You have resistance to fire damage.
Languages
You can speak, read, and write Common and Infernal.
Variant Tiefling: Infernal Tiefling
An infernal tiefling draws upon the power of the Nine Hells and its diabolic masters. These tieflings have the following additional features.
Ability Score Increase
Your Intelligence score increases by 1.
Hellish Resistance
You have resistance to fire damage.
Infernal Legacy
You know the Thaumaturgy cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the Hellish Rebuke spell as a 2nd-level spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the Darkness spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Languages
You can speak, read, and write Infernal.
Variant Tiefling: Abyssal Tiefling
All abyssal tieflings trace their bloodline to the demons of the Abyss. These tieflings have the following additional features.
Ability Score Increase
Your Constitution score increases by 1.
Abyssal Arcana
Each time you finish a long rest, you gain the ability to cast cantrips and spells randomly determined from a short list. At 1st level, you can cast a cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can also cast a 1st-level spell. At 5th level, you can cast a 2nd-level spell.
You can cast a spell gained from this trait only once until you complete your next long rest. You can cast a cantrip gained from this trait at will, as normal. For 1st-level spells whose effect changes if cast using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, you cast the spell as if using a 2nd-level slot. Spells of 2nd level are cast as if using a 2nd-level slot.
At the end of each long rest, you lose the cantrips and spells previously granted by this feature, even if you did not cast them. You replace those cantrips and spells by rolling for new ones on the Abyssal Arcana Spells table. Roll separately for each cantrip and spell. If you roll the same spell or cantrip you gained at the end of your previous long rest, roll again until you get a different result.
| d6 | 1st Level | 3rd Level | 5th Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dancing Lights | Burning Hands | Alter Self |
| 2 | True Strike | Charm Person | Darkness |
| 3 | Light | Magic Missile | Invisibility |
| 4 | Message | Cure Wounds | Levitate |
| 5 | Spare the Dying | Tasha’s Hideous Laughter | Mirror Image |
| 6 | Prestidigitation | Thunderwave | Spider climb |
Abyssal Fortitude
Your hit point maximum increases by half your level (minimum 1).
Languages
You can speak, read, and write Abyssal.
Source: Unearthed Arcana: That Old Black Magic
Variant Tiefling: Revenant
Having met a cruel and undeserved end, you have returned to the realm of the living. As a revenant, you thirst for revenge against those who wronged you in life, or seek to complete a final, critical task you left unfinished.
The revenant subrace can be applied to any race that has a subrace, and replaces that race’s existing subrace options. Alternatively, you can apply this new subrace to a race without subrace options using the modification options provided below.
Your DM might also allow you to take this subrace for a slain character. In that case, your character rises from the dead with its original subrace replaced (or with the necessary modifications made to its base traits), filled with a determination to seek vengeance or complete its mission.
A prior installment of Unearthed Arcana outlined two tiefling variants, Infernal and the Abyssal Tiefling, that make use of subraces. Use that article to make a tiefling revenant, replacing the subrace options with the revenant subrace options
Ability Score
Your Constitution score increases by 1.
Relentless Nature
Your DM assigns a goal to you—typically, one related to your character’s death. The goal must be a specific task you can complete, such as slaying an enemy or liberating an area and its people. Until you fulfill that goal, you gain the following benefits:
- If you are below half your hit point maximum at the start of your turn, you regain 1 hit point.
- If you die, you return to life 24 hours after death. If your body is destroyed, you reform within 1 mile of the place of your death at a spot determined by the DM. If your equipment was also destroyed, you do not regain it.
- You know the distance and direction between you and any creature involved in your goal, such as a person you seek vengeance against or someone you pledged to defend. This awareness fails if the creature is on another plane of existence.
When your goal is complete, you finally find rest. You die and cannot be restored to life.
Source: Unearthed Arcana: Gothic Heroes