Tiefling: the new drow

Filed under D&D 4E Preview on January 30, 2008
Keywords: 4E, drow, Dungeons and Dragons, tiefling

I don’t play tabletop RPGs much anymore. My interest in the previews of D&D 4E stems largely from a design standpoint. I’m speculating on the rationale behind these decisions to change: is it truly an improvement to an older mechanic, or is it driven by a desire to expand the playerbase by adding features that make it more accessible to other demographics.

A couple years ago, there was a Design & Development article about monsters with traction. While the article argues that the githyanki as the poster child, I’d argue it was the drow, largely due to its successful crossover from monster to player race, and its integral role in D&D fiction. It has still to reach the pinnacle, however–inclusion in the PHB.

I don’t think we’ll ever see the drow as a player race in the core rules. The news that the tiefling was replacing the gnome as a player race in the core rules appears to be something of a compromise. Tieflings are the offspring of evil outsiders (specifically, demons and/or devils; I can’t recall, exactly) and mortals. They are not required to be evil, but are easily painted as such, especially given their proclivity to be warlocks (arcane spellcasters whose powers derive from infernal pacts).

Why not just go with the drow? Surely the decision isn’t based on level adjustment, as nothing would prohibit the designers from altering drow abilities so they were balanced with the other core races. Drow are firmly entrenched as adversaries, however, and while WotC fiction may flirt with dark anti-heroes, or variant rules provide options for evil campaigns, it’s clear that the company’s emphasis is still on the players being the good guys.

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