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5E Character Build—Tiefling Druid
Tieflings have come a long way since their introduction to D&D in the Planescape setting. While you won’t find them in the Player’s Handbook for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition, they are nonetheless a playable race in 5E. Despite an infernal legacy, nothing says a tiefling must be evil. Indeed, tieflings have essentially become as civil a race as any. However, they do still face undue prejudice so some of them are driven towards becoming evil. Or, if not outright evil, they tend to become loners. This is the case with Kallista Hope, a neutral tiefling druid.
This Neutral Tiefling’s Background:
“Neverwinter. A pinnacle of civilization for the entire Sword Coast. A place where one can live in anonymity if not in acceptance. My relationship with my home city is dichotomous. On the one hand, I loathe the bustling streets filled with street vendors trying to encourage you to part from the last of your copper. I detest the divided loyalties of its people. And I hate the passers-through, mostly the tradesmen on their way to or from Luskan.
“But on the other hand…it’s so easy to acquire things in Neverwinter. Mostly I’m referring to cherryfire, silkroot, and social interactions. Prior to coming to Neverwinter, I’d never partaken in either cherryfire or silkroot but once I did…I fell in love! Yes, I know what they say about silkroot. I don’t have a problem with it though. I’m sure I’d know when I’ve had enough. Besides, the silkroot gives me the edge I need to survive and easily offsets the cherryfire effects. When your mission is to destroy a small but growing cult of Asmodeus-worshipping nuts you need all the edge you can get.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing against Asmodeus per se. He’s actually got a lot of admirable qualities. His intelligence is only surpassed by his cunning. But he doesn’t advise his followers to senselessly hunt animals of Faerûn to extinction. This cult seems hellbent on destroying axe beaks for no reason.
“During my seclusion, I stumbled across a flock of axe beaks and they were subsequently slaughtered for sport by a motley crew of kobolds and a handful of duergar. I was too cowardly at the time to intervene but I studied the group and discovered their evil intent and their misguided notion that axe beaks’ talons have ritualistic properties. Fools. They have no idea that their ‘ritual’ is simply a ceremonial sequence of prescribed actions and that any magic associated with them is in spite of, and not the result of, the actions they perform. Killing the axe beaks is pointless and it is so upsetting to the ecology. Their evil is so ingrained that any reasoning with them is futile. They must be destroyed.
“My philosophy has earned me a reputation in Neverwinter and I’ll gladly share my learnings with anyone who will listen and who has enough coin in their purse to keep the cherryfire coming. I could give you such wonderful insight into true rituals versus fetishization. I could tell you why many of Asmodeus’s followers don’t really understand him…please understand, he IS evil. I’m not trying to say otherwise. But many of his strictest adherents simply do not understand the nature of his morality.”
A note on this character build
When I first created this character, the idea was to use only the 5th Edition Player’s Handbook. My children were younger and just learning to play Dungeons & Dragons (part of the inspiration for Truly Madly Deeply, a mini-arc for teaching D&D THROUGH roleplaying) so I wanted to keep the options narrow. It’s easy to seek supplemental material to help you create unique characters. This is a lot of fun to do and I often do it myself. However, I contend that you can make rewarding, complex characters with nothing more than the Player’s Handbook.
Feel free to download this free character sheet for the neutral tiefling. It’s form-fillable so you can easily make any changes you need.
5E-Character-Build-Neutral-Tiefling Download the free 5E Tiefling Druid character sheetTieflings on DMs Guild
If you like interesting tiefling nonplayer characters then I recommend you check out the best-selling Cottage on the Long Road by Travis Legge. Criella is an entrepreneurial tiefling just trying to earn an honest living. But something is harassing her and her sheep. What she thought would be a quiet and bucolic lifestyle is proving to be a nightmare. One of my sons surprised me while playing as a ranger in this adventure. Through his empathy (and a successful persuasion roll), he managed to shake Criella out of her frightened state and encourage her to join in the fight to defend her property.
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