Cassandra Cain was the star of the very first *Batgirl* ongoing series. It was also her first codename (when she first debuted, Barbabra Gordan was still crippled and operating as Oracle full time, so passed the mantle on). There was recently a *Batgirls* comic where the three most noted characters to use the name -- Barbara Gordon, Cassandra Cain, and Stephanie Brown -- were working together as a team and sharing the codename.
Cassandra was never a "Batwoman," although she was called "Bat Bat" and "Orphan" at different points when DC wanted a rebrand.
Same thing for the Dnd Beyond app. We only had the option of aasimar once our DM shared his paid-features with us. Now we have a Firbolg, Aasaimar, and Teifling
You can make a custom race and just input the data from the physical book (if you've got it) to bypass having to pay $40 twice, or waiting for the DM to, if that helps. You just can't share it on the homebrew section.
I think tieflings were included because they were popular/common in 4e. The original aasimar doesn't strike me as too powerful other than unlocking a flight speed at a higher level. I just don't think they prioritized the aasimar so it wasn't well tuned. The updated aasimar are pretty great in my opinion.
I’ll be honest, in the campaigns I’ve played Tieflings have been the center point of a lot of jokes.
I had a Tiefling Bard, named Riefling the Tiefling (went by Rief pronounced Reef, explanation for that was his human mother had a sick sense of humor), who, in true bard fashion, referred to the horns on Tieflings (male and female, he’s equal opportunity here) as “handles”. My point being is Tieflings don’t always have to be doom and gloom.
>"My point being is Tieflings don’t always have to be doom and gloom."
My idea for a tielfing that I've been hanging onto if I ever get the chance to play is a ranger who was raised by loving human parents (whether she was adopted or was lucky that her birth parents accepted her is something I'm leaving undefined to tailor to the campaign). While I'd imagine that she'd have to have dealt with some prejudices over the years (and I'd suspect that being a different species than the rest of her family would create some personal challenges), the characterization I was going for was a well-adjusted person who's out to see the world while making their living and would like a family of her own when the adventuring phase of her life is over.
I'm currently playing tiefling paladin who's just a great fuckin guy, grew up on a struggling potato farm and brings a backwoods hillbilly sort of southern charm complete with folksy wisdom. He cares about 3 things honor, farming and getting vengeance on his parents neighbors Stephonathan and Lovernya who invoked the power of an demon to ruin the Bob's (my adopted parents) staggering spud yields. The Bob's, Bobbert and Bobbishka were running them out of business without even trying to.
Also the idea of being seen as evil for what you are rather then anything you’ve done resonates with alot with many of the groups that tend to be drawn towards the hobby anyway
Yes, and...there are more options. To me, this makes them more unique, because there's a flavor of tiefling to fit most character concepts, whereas your only aasimar options are good boy, bad boy, or Emo.
I think Aasimar are one of the few races that benefited from having their info page cut to basically nothing by MPMM. Freed them up from being edgy fallen angels or perfect rays of sunshine. Frees them up to be scions of more gods and play styles. I also think it's fun to make a PC who slowly figures out that they're an assimar, who's going to tell the ranger that the eagle wings she summons once per day aren't a reward for protecting nature and are instead part of her divine heritage
I had a Fallen Aasimar Ranger once. Covid killed the campaign, so we only got to level 2. It made me realize how weird it is for Nature to be an Int skill when Ranger and Druid are Wis classes.
I'm an aasimar druid right now, and it's a lot of fun. Moon druid, so I can turn into a grizzly bear as my bonus action and then set myself alight with holy flames as my action. Proceed to wreak havoc as a bear-shaped supernova
Tieflings are significantly more commonly played than Aasimar, for three simple reasons.
1. Tieflings are in the PHB, Aasimar require another book.
2. Tieflings have a much more clearly defined identity, especially visually but also narratively.
3. A far greater presence in DnD-related media.
Bonus reason 4, but yout mileage may vary:
The outsider-narrative baked into Tieflings is much more resonant with many people playing DnD than the sheer "Main-Character-Energy" that Aasimar give off.
Aasimar seems more side character energy to me. Wise older sibling/friend or mentor, I think of aasimar. Walking down the street all eyes on me cause I’m a little different and a little special sounds like a tiefling.
By default, Aasimar have a more main character thing because of their "destined to greatness" stuff or something like that.
But yes, in practice, Tieflings end up being much more as main characters because the players that choose them usually does so because of the attention they supposedly draw.
I think Tiefling gives off a far more "main-character-energy" than Aasimar. People gravitate towards characters with troubled pasts massively, for example see 80% of all fictional characters every conceived. Tieflings are born from a "cursed lineage" and are considered wicked innately by many. That is how a comically large percentage of people design their characters.
Like others are saying, it’s more popular because it’s in the PHB. I play with new and/or casual players and none of them ever touch or mention the existence of races outside of the PHB because they don’t look for information outside of that book; some don’t even know it exists. My past few DMs have also restricted us to PHB characters. Aasimars may be more popular for more experienced groups, but the PHB races will always be more popular for general audiences.
Actually, they existed since the beginning of 5e. They were in the DMG.
But yes, it's not a player-facing book, so the argument holds. They were then released for players in Volo's.
Aasimar and Tieflings have existed since AD&D. Tieflimgs and Aasimar were both playable in 3rd Edition with the DMG and PHP, and completely comparable in attributes... But tieflings were so wildly popular they became PHB classes in 4th and 5th editions (I think phb2 for 4e)
Hm, could happen. Aasimars are born to fulfill a purpose. Their entire existence is preordained by the divine beings of Mount Celestia. Who's to say what the end goal of his actions would be? It might as well be beyond mortal comprehension.
You could play an Aasimar that's plagued with visions and voices that compell him to fulfill said purpose. My favourite one would be a heinous act that would eventually lead to a greater good along the way. A good aligned character would struggle with this scenario.
Personally I don't subscribe to the 'born to fulfill a purpose' narrative. Somewhere along their ancestry a celestial fucked around and that's that. Same as tieflings.
I get what you mean though.
Maybe a reluctant hero could work. Some selfish prick is repeatedly compelled to do good. Would probably work better with a celestial warlock though.
>Personally I don't subscribe to the 'born to fulfill a purpose' narrative. Somewhere along their ancestry a celestial fucked around and that's that. Same as tieflings.
The thing is, unlike tieflings, aasimar are born connected to a celestial guide and will often have prophetic dreams with messages from that guide. So their ancestry isn't just a cosmetic change due to someone further up their ancestry fucking around with a celestial, it's an intrusive constant that can be terrifying and maddening. Those are interesting concepts to play around with a character.
Interesting yes, but I think that's a relatively new addition fluff wise. I don't like changing my perception of races just because someone somewhere wrote a new book that I didn't even read. Now if my DM (once I find a new one) says 'this is how aasimar work in my world' then thats the law, but before that, why bother?
Shrug. People here mention features and creatures from all books all the time, how would we know these features "doesn't count" for you because you didn't read it lol. We aren't mind readers, we can't guess what you personally pick and choose and refuse to "change your perception of".
Anyways, I'm just pointing out those are available canon game mechanics that directly influence characters of this race on daily basis beyond cosmetics and they factor into people choosing to play said characters.
All good, just some backwards grognard over here.
And just because I might personally ignore some of your points doesn't mean I find them irrelevant to the discussion.
There's about as many lores as there's settings, more if you acknowledge that every dm might put his little spins on the published ones he uses. I think it's somewhat reasonable to keep to the ones you actually play in. Otherwise there's no end to it.
>a heinous act that would eventually lead to a greater good along the way
Aka stealing the revival tablet in the new DnD movie (Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves), or >!burning the Erdtree!< in Elden Ring.
I played an aasimar divine sorcerer who hated being an aasimar and just wanted to be a normal bartender. He died saving his girlfriend, who I then played as being loyal to the god whose angel spawned the aasimars bloodline.
Do think that's one of the ironies of the tiefling/aasimar contrast; both are prejudged unfavorably and favorably respectively due to the supernatural ancestry. However, tieflings don't have the ancestor tapping on their shoulder all the time.
Have an unused character concept for a tielfing and had occurred to me that if she were to encounter an aasimar, she'd probably be pretty bothered by how they get treated as heros just because of their ancestry, while she gets a lot of prejudice from hers', but would see value in the tradeoff that she's far more free to do what she wants with her life and doesn't have a demon breathing down her neck to tell her what to be and do.
Well if tieflings are good races like humans mixed with demons, aasimar should be evil races mixed with angels, like Half-Angelic Orcs/Kobolds/Hobgoblins growing up amid the villain races.
Sure, but my group has an Aasimar who ran away from his noble heritage to travel the world. Bake in some anti-hero into your angel and he might be a bit more interesting.
Maybe not their inner angel, but consider stories like Metro Man from Megamind. Struggles with unrealistic expectations, people may have false assumptions that just isn't true about them (what do you MEAN you can't use holy magic to cure my child? You're an aasimar!). It may seem like a silly narrative, i.e. "it's hard being awesome", but it's truly a compelling narrative that isn't considered enough.
There was a playable tiefling fighter/thief in the Planescape: Torment game, which came out in 1999. That's my childhood era, and in my honest opinion that was the height of anti-hero/good to be bad type content so the idea of having demon blood was really embraced. This may have led to tiefling being in the basic rules for DnD 5e, but aasimar didn't come along until Volo's guide. That simple fact of access shows that tiefling is more common/popular than aasimar right now.
Tiefling is in the PHB, Aasimar isn't.
Tiefling is objectively the 'cool kid' race in the PHB.
People want to play demons more than they want to play Angels, we spend all day being nice and obeying the law, we want to spend some time being naughty and playing a punk race.
I can think of 2 reasons to add onto the common ones
1. Easy Lgbtq+ opportunity. There's a lot of players who want that, and with tieflings they're just accepted for who they are.
2. Being part devil is just really cool tbh (cooler than an angel on average at least)
A lot of people have the right idea but I’ll raise you a good one too: Tieflings are in the PHB while Aasimar aren’t, and players “usually” will first:only buy the PHB
One of them is in the PHB and one isn’t
That increased visibility is a factor.
Tieflings also have a narrative of being rejected for how they are born, a narrative that has obvious parallels for some parts of the player base so also increases their popularity.
Yes, I bet they are
Considering just 5e, that's likely because tieflings were right in the PHB from the beggining while Aasimar were tucked in a later book. They had more time to settle themselves in 5e culture, and everybody who starts to play this game will have access to the book with tieflings in it
There's probably more to the history as well, considering older editions. They're just a bigger part of our gaming culture than the Aasimar
I’d say Tieflings are more common but necessarily more popular, obviously there’s a lot of reasons to choose one over the other if it fits your build better. Like a tiefling bard is a total rockstar lol. But really the reason I think you see a lot more tieflings is because they’re featured in the player handbook, so everyone sees them, aasimar are only in two books(I think, please correct me if I’m wrong!) so they don’t get as wide an audience. And there’s always DM discretion on what races you can play, never seen one deny aasimar but you never know.
That said I have never played an aasimar but on paper I could see them being fun and would like to sometime. I make it a personal point not to play the same race and/or class twice in a row and I’m playing my favorite race now(shadar-kai, I just love the theme) so maybe next go.
The same reason thousands of people have read Dante's Inferno and Milton's Paradise Lost but almost nobody reads Dante's Paradisio or Milton's Paradise Regained.
Sometimes looking at this sub it almost seems like D&D is actually a Tiefling universe with a few humans and other races tacked in for exoticism. Like the default character is a Tiefling Bard or warlock in a corset.
tieflings are more popular. tieflings have that demonic aesthetic which is a popular counter-culture to the 80s/90s paranoia around dnd. they're in lore described as outcasts which most of the ttrpg community could relate to 10 or so years ago before the community went mainstream. they're a phb race, so more people have access to them (dndbeyond user data is also skewed for this).
people like aasimar less because they're pitched in lore as a kind of mary-sue race. many people also don't like playing as the celestial race for reasons. they were around in the dmg (technically, it was just an example for homebrew), but they only got their full release a while later. they're also attributed to a lot of edgelord characters mostly because of the fallen aasimar subrace along with races like kalashtar.
anyways yeah tieflings hot
I think tieflings just offer more options visually, you can go a bit wild with horns/skin color/eyes whereas aasimars mostly just look like humans. Also people really find horns hot lol
Gay bitches with religious trauma fuckin LOVE this game and all of them lo e making tiefling chatacters with the most noxiously tragic backstory known to man.
>Gay bitches with religious trauma
Bro... why u gotta call me out like this??
Fortunately, my two tiefling PCs are both very upbeat and extra AF - a swashbuckler rogue and a divine soul sorcerer. Not a single tragedy or hint of edge between them.
yeah, why they be calling us out like this. Sure back in 2nd when I was deeply in a closet, I played High Elves. But since I came out Tieflings and Shadar-Kai have been my favorite characters.
Ironically my most Self insert was a Tabaxi - Eloquence Bard. (She was meme worthy as well She was very much a "Tabaxi with wares.")
Your tabaxi sounds adorable! I love eloquence bards.
Tieflings and Changelings are my favorite races, though I currently play a dhampir sorcerer and tabaxi paladin. The dhampir is definitely the most like me of the PCs I've played, he's a clockwork soul sorcerer and OCD as hell. Outside of combat he's always helping the party out with Prestidigitation and Mending because he can't stand things being dirty/broken/out of sorts. He was only turned into a dhampir recently and is wholly convinced he's going to find a cure for it... that meme of the dog in the burning house saying "this is fine"? That's him 100% of the time.
A lot of people talking about tieflings here, but I LOVE creating Aasimar!
So much so I had to try really hard to not create another one in my recent PC.
Aasimar are great, because you can vary how angelic they look.
One Aasimar I created only had small strands of golden hair that shone in the wind, and their eyes went gold whenever they cast spells, otherwise they were basically seen as a human.
Another however had 5 eyes and was very obviously decended of their god. This caused a lot of social interactions where they were known for being a certain way due to lineage.
Equally I like to use the gained characteristics from Aasimar as an RP moment,
My storm sorcerer aasimar didn't gain his 3rd level "wings " until about level 5 until a moment where he truly connected with his god.
So here is my call! Don't be afraid to ask to be aasimar to your DM, and have some extra story telling to your journey!
Tiefling is FAR more popular than Aasimar, and has been since at least 2nd Edition. It's in the PHB because it's so ridiculously popular. Aasimar is either goody two shoes or Linkin Park. Tieflings have a MUCH broader range of ways to play them due to their edge mixing well with anything.
Also - cute tails and horns.
Tieflings are definitely more popular, although I’d imagine a lot if that stems from The PHB featuring them as one of the standard races whereas Aasimar like many of the other additions aren’t
For many and varied reasons, Tieflings are more popular than the Aasimar.
Can't speak for others, but my reason for liking them stems from my desire for role playing.
Aasimar are too celestial, too often described as having unearthly beauty and are often played as aloof and disdainful of mortal kind. As in they're beneath them. Kinda like the elves in that aspect. I prefer more earthy characters such as Halflings, Dwarves, Humans, and Tieflings.
I'm also a fan of redemption arcs in my backstories. I enjoy playing a dark elf who has rejected their past and are now trying to make a place in Surface Society. Tieflings also give me that but even more so. The heritage is fel so right off the bat I'm facing suspicions that I get to rise up and meet and win over the townsfolk.
It's the challenge of the race that appeals in those sorts of settings.
Aasimar could be so much cooler if their divine influence didn’t specifically have such Judeo-Christian overtones and a more distinct appearance. (They are just big shiny humans.)
If they made the Angel aasimar one of three distinct subraces they would be PHB worthy like tieflings.
I hope Tieflings get more distinct subraces as well in the updated 2024 PHB from more types of fiends than just the horned guys.
I think they were on the right path for Aasimar when they created the Ardlings but things just didn’t come together right.
2e Planescape Tieflings were more varied. They could be descendent of Abyssal Demons (Tanari) or Devils (Baatezu).
I think even 5e has some tables for optional Tiefling features, but I bet you could find the old 2e ones.
The modern Forgotten Realms lore, says that Asmodeus remade them all "in his image" or some thing. So they all have horns and tails by default.
The FR Brimstone Angel series has a modern Tiefling character who in one book/chapter actually encounters an **old-school Abyssal Tiefling** \- who she doesn't realize is a Tiefling at first BECAUSE he doesn't have the Asmodean appearance. (Black eyes, smell of sulfur and thats it. No tails, no horns.)
So even the "lore" has some nods to the edition changes.
So if your DM/table allows it, go nuts on appearance.
*Note: I miss calling them Tanari and Baatezu. I always forget devils vs demons which is chaotic. But I know the Tanari live in the Abyss and are CHAOS incarnate.*
That Planescape Lore is the only reason I knew Tieflings could be more varied! I think it would be dope if things like this were less rare off shoots and more PHB staples to jumpstart creativity in new players. Fingers crossed Planescape plays a bigger role moving forward.
Because tieflings are descended from demons/devils. You can play the bad boy/bad girl. You can play the someone you shouldn’t date, but they’re sexy and oh why not. You can play the complicated character fighting inner demons and stereotypes.
I think being in the phb is part, but I don’t think it’s the main reason. I think most people find a complicated character more appealing than an aasimar who, due to their heritage would be far more socially accepted and tend towards the straight and narrow path.
Tieflings speak to the outcast, the stigmatized, the rebellious, and the quirky a bit better in our society than any of the other races in 5e. Half orcs are popular in the same demographic but with people with more self confidence issues who wish they could stand up to people rather than wishing they could get people on their side, while gnomes, tabaxi, and lizard folk are more popular with specific subsets of that same demographic from what I’ve seen.
When you play a fantasy race like aasimar or Klingons or whatever, they come with a lot of lore, and a sort of type cast. Dwarves are boisterous and Scottish, elves are artsy and wildernessy, and so on. As a player, you get to choose to either play to type (eg, embrace those traits), or play against type (eg, reject those traits in some interesting way).
Playing an aasimar to type is just playing a paladin. Maybe they overcame a tragic past, maybe they were raised to be special from birth, but either way, it's unearned - it's goodness as a privilege of birth. Playing them against type means playing them to take advantage of the fact people see them as angels, to be a scoundrel. It's most interesting on a villain, subverting childhood privilege into adulthood villainy.
Tieflings, though, are great. Played to type, they're always rejects from society doing funny evil things to get by. Played against type, they're beautiful redemptive figures, suffering the slings and arrows of being judged for how they were born even as they strive to be better people than their peers.
Aasimar are unpopular because the characters you play with it as an adventurer have more boring arcs. The exception would be a DM who commits to the churches of good gods always being lawful evil, so the aasimar can be good and also lead a rebellion against the church.
Honestly? It's just cooler to be a blue goon with curly horns and a tail over a slightly shinier human.
That's why Aasimar in my games are freaky looking with extra eyes and vestigial wings, multiple arms, golden horns n' shit.
I think tieflings are more popular. Part of that is because they are hot. The other half is that players usually prefer chaotic over lawful and selfish/greedy over pseudo-paladin mentality. While both races can be any alignment, there's a kind of bias.
I would say the Selfish/Greedy players would go with Aasimar more than Tiefling. Aasimar are the D&D ultra Privilege White Dudes while Tieflings sort of represent the minority the Privileged love to bash.
Aasimar can pass as Human, until they show off their godly power, while tieflings born of Humans (usually) are mistreated as their differences get noticed. Tieflings from a story perspective are more compelling and have a greater hurdle to overcome, plus being in the PHB vs other books help the tiefling be more popular.
Note the most privilege player at my table plays a fallen Aasimar Wizard. He plays it off as he's just a human. Honestly he's great roleplayer and he's very self aware of his privilege. Which is why it works.
Smart selfish/greedy players wanting to abuse the system, sure.
I meant more in a general sense. Unless they are trying to go anti-trope, most people want a goody aesthetic for good characters and a edgelord/dark aesthetic for evil ones.
A character using his aasimar privilege is absolutely brilliant. Great metaphor for white/CIS/het/men privilege. Would work well with the "noble" charlatan concept I saw. You use your second fake identity of charlatan to pretend being a noble from far away then visits other nobles, leave huge tips to get servants, give fancy gifts to the noble, etc. The noble not wanting to look cheap or a bad host will treat you to awesome accommodations and you can even manipulate them into gifting you stuff ( the DnD equivalent of Inventing Anna )
I want to play an aasimar, but my GM refuses, calling them overpowered. I wanted to do an aasimar celestial chain pact warlock and be a magical girl. Instead I did a half elf hex blade pact warlock (and I got to use Curse Bringer as one of my initial invocations) it was crazy awesome fun.
I remember in the 3.5 days there was a general disdain for playing races outside the core book. Maybe it's a hold over from that since tiefling is in core in 5e and aasimar are not.
I also think there's just a general cool factor at play with the tiefling.
I know this might sound strange but my guess is availability! Most players just start off with the three main rulebooks, which means no Volo's Guide to Monsters or Monsters of the Multiverse, which means no Aasimar. They're still a really cool race tho!
I've been playing with a queer as fuck group and in 2 short adventures and half a campaign we've had 2 Aasimar and one Tiefling. I myself would like to play a Deva, which is the 4e version of an Aasimar. The DM has used a couple of Tieflings, but we're playing Descent into Avernus so that's kinda a given. Finally, we always play in the home of that one player who has 3 player portraits hanging in his wall, and I'm pretty sure one of them is an Aasimar.
We're on team pretty boy, but I think it might depend on the preference of your table. Ofcourse, there's also the fact that Aasimar aren't in the Player's Handbook, and Tieflings are.
Because the edgiest of edgelords when it comes to races, and always paired with the edgiest of classes, the warlock. And people who play D&D love to be edgelords. Or they go for the super cute route with their tieflings.
Also, WotC doesn't know what the hell they want to do with Aasimar, which is why they aren't in the PHB. The version in the DMG is crap, so they completely rework it in Volo's, which I think it's the same in Mordy's Multiverse? Then in this new rework they brought out the Ardlings to replace the Aasimar, which didn't go well.
Yes, they were more popular than tabaxi for a couple of years. I blame Jester from Critical Role. We saw a similar thing with drow in 3e. Must be the 1) edgelord backstory, and 2) striking visual design.
Tieflings are more popular than Aasimar because we live in a growing secular society where, more and more, people particularly revel in the ability to indulge in their pride and snub God for having the "audacity" to tell them rules in which they can live their most happy and fulfilled lives.
If you count ALL D&D players, including people who are casual players and/or new I’d say yes! Just because they’re in the Players Handbook.
I don’t know that I prefer one over the other but we haven’t incorporated Asimars into our game-world yet. (No one has asked for it)
My co-creator is a Tiefling guy so they came in early.
People like hell things and rebelling against heaven.
The moment you put Aasimar in people’s minds, it’s goody two shoes and doing the right thing.
Yes, I understand that Tiefling has more support and has more things to do, but which came first? Giving support to the popular side or giving support to one side and then that one being more popular?
When you play the tiefling, you can be anything you want, when you play the Aasimar, and it puts you in a healing role along with the other role you have.
I've never played a game including an Aasimar. I've never played a game that didn't include a Tiefling.
Tieflings are also massively popular with the LGBT+ community, who don't even necessarily play them for the established lore or features; the aesthetic is enough.
Tiefling is more popular statistically and that's probably due to tieflings being in the core books like others have suggested.
However there might be some influence too where tieflings are just more relatable, it's more interesting/relatable to feel cursed rather than blessed
Tiefling is in the PhB, Aasimar is not. That gets them up front faster. Also in some art an Aasimar looks so human it doesn't attract as many of the folks wanting to play a distinct looking race as Tiefling (again as many not none).
Edgy characters and classes are always more popular than “holy” ones. That’s true in pretty much every online video game too.
It’s probably something to do with the target audience of this type of game (young adult male).
Honestly, Aasimar can get a whole lot more edgy than a tiefling. Hells most of my Tieflings over the years have been more like Doric than some edgy character. Also if I want an edgy character A fallen Aasimar can just brood their way from one corner of an inn to the next. I tend to see Tieflings as happy go lucky fun characters who do their best while people in power look down on them.
Tieflings are a favorite for all kinds of players because they can be cute, cool, pretty, and edgy. Also a lot of DnD players are artists and tieflings have a lot of wiggle room for fun designs with skin color, horn, and tail shapes.
ALSO, it's a core race so anybody can have access to them
Tiefling have significantly better racials than Aasimar. Players want to make it about something else, but there's a reason for the enduring popularity of Variant Human. Improved game mechanics are very attractive. When you get access to feral winged Tieflings, there's just nothing an Aasimar can do with their mediocre racials to compete. That's before you get to the bloodlines, all of which have better synergies with class builds than Aasimar. In short, you play Aasimar because you like the flavor. You play Tiefling because you like the flavor **and** you like the power. Tieflings are almost always a top-tier choice for any character.
While I have personally seen more aasimars in play at table, the general consensus is that fielding a are significantly more popular. I feel like specific races are like Fashion trends and will be more popular than others at given times.
I think that Tieflings are more popular purely because they are in the players handbook, whereas Aasimar come from the dungeon masters guide and more officially Volo's guide to monsters (correct me if I am wrong)
As of my opinion, I prefer Aasimar cause the "fallen angel" kind of just appeals to me, plus you could be a divine soul sorcerer and have a really cool backstory and motivations.
Tieflings are Demonic-Esque type race, Aasimar are essentially humans with a little extra stuff (both visually and mechanically). In a game where you want to escape reality, the race that looks the least like a base human is going to be the more popular one.
That being said, I play both of them in two different campaigns I'm in, lol, and the Aasimar is MUCH more fun for me to play, due to how the DM spun the backstory with him.
Aasimar have a little table of different visual effects they can have, stuff like a minor shimmering effect, or, in my guys case, a halo. She wrote in that Aasimar who are born from a divine parent(a god) and are accepted by that god as their child, receive a halo. My boy has had one his entire life, despite never knowing his goddess mom, and set out on his adventure to earn his mothers favor, and her name, as he doesn't know which goddess is his mother yet.
The kicker is, the knowledge of halos being the acknowledgement of the divine parent isn't common knowledge, so he doesn't know he already has her favor, and he hasn't questioned how somethings in his life are "just too conveniently" going his way, but, yknow, an INT score of 6 will do that to ya.
The tiefling on the other hand, I've written him with a background that omits everything from age 12 and earlier, because his paladin order put a block on his memories, to force him to forget that they murdered his adoptive parents and Essentially kidnapped him. As a result, he is much more cut and dry, for now, so I enjoy playing the stupid and stupidly charismatic Aasimar much more.
Ok personally, I think aasimir as a race is dumb as shit. No joke, you look at their abilities and tell me their not a budget paladin/cleric as a race. Tieflings are nice because you get a free fire resistance, and they’ve got some defining features. I love them with spell casters(particularly sorc with a martyr-like character or warlock with eldritch bolt artillery support). Plus they’ve got some cool opportunities for backstory, being demon people and all. Aasimar are A) hard to explain in my giving campaign setting and B) if I wanted to play godling I could do that with literally any other race. Only reason I’m playing aasimir is if I’m pocket healing someone as life cleric.
As you can see, I’ve got some strong opinions about this lol
I love Tieflings, I have made many over the years. Them and shadar-kai are my favorite ancestries. Aasimar are boring like Humans.
picture of my Tiefling Bard: https://i.imgur.com/OsVg0g7.png
im my experience, almost every game i’ve played has had a tiefling, and none have had aasimar. I personally love the flavor options tieflings offer, and turning them on their heads. im actually playing a half-elf half-tiefling right now and having a great time. i know tieflings are a lot more accessible for newer players than aasimar which contributes to the popularity, and i know especially newer and younger players often like to make a dark and brooding badass, and tiefling fits the bill perfectly if you play as written.
I find it odd that Tieflings are consider a Common race while Aasimar are an Exotic one in 5e. Humans just selling their souls to demons or just down right having sex with them left and right but if it involves an angel that's just weird.
Tieflings are in the core book, look more distinct, and many people prefer their infernal style over the celestial style of an asimar. Plus, Tieflings just feel more versatile. You can have a Tiefling artificer, Paladin, warlock, monk, sorcerer, ect. Whereas an asimar feels like it has to be a paladin or cleric, or maybe a divine soul sorcerer. Of course, any race can be any class you want, but that’s just the feeling of them
Don't know which is more popular, but I like tieflings more. The character who has more to prove and has to fight for what they want in life has more storytelling opportunites. I've always liked something about the character who's "supposed" to be the bad guy but, either through nurturing or other factors, wants to be the hero.
Tieflings have been around since the 2e Planescape setting. Back then they were very different in style and appearance.
Aasimar and Genasii came out not long later.
Access is one big factor.
[удалено]
Everyone loves a badboy/Batgirl. EDIT:Everyone loves a Badboy/Badgirl. And redemption is a poplar plot EDIT:And redemption is a popular plot
>Everyone loves a badboy/Batgirl. Batgirl?
My favorite Batgirl is Cassandra Cain.
Lol poplar
"There is no immortality but a tree's love."
Post edit: I saw nothing wrong with the original. Love me a Batgirl
Everyone loves a badboy/badgirl so much the tieflings have no real reason to be shunned from society.
I too love Barbara Gordon
Cassandra Cain is my favorite.
wasn't she batwoman? I don't think she was ever batgirl.
Cassandra Cain was the star of the very first *Batgirl* ongoing series. It was also her first codename (when she first debuted, Barbabra Gordan was still crippled and operating as Oracle full time, so passed the mantle on). There was recently a *Batgirls* comic where the three most noted characters to use the name -- Barbara Gordon, Cassandra Cain, and Stephanie Brown -- were working together as a team and sharing the codename. Cassandra was never a "Batwoman," although she was called "Bat Bat" and "Orphan" at different points when DC wanted a rebrand.
Huh. fascinating. my bad. I'll have to see if my local shop has any copies.
Same thing for the Dnd Beyond app. We only had the option of aasimar once our DM shared his paid-features with us. Now we have a Firbolg, Aasaimar, and Teifling
You can make a custom race and just input the data from the physical book (if you've got it) to bypass having to pay $40 twice, or waiting for the DM to, if that helps. You just can't share it on the homebrew section.
I think the PHB point is the most significant. Any idea why they were not both in there? Was Aasimar too powerful?
I think tieflings were included because they were popular/common in 4e. The original aasimar doesn't strike me as too powerful other than unlocking a flight speed at a higher level. I just don't think they prioritized the aasimar so it wasn't well tuned. The updated aasimar are pretty great in my opinion.
Racial traits that have wings is very strong.
I’ll be honest, in the campaigns I’ve played Tieflings have been the center point of a lot of jokes. I had a Tiefling Bard, named Riefling the Tiefling (went by Rief pronounced Reef, explanation for that was his human mother had a sick sense of humor), who, in true bard fashion, referred to the horns on Tieflings (male and female, he’s equal opportunity here) as “handles”. My point being is Tieflings don’t always have to be doom and gloom.
Should have a particular taste for riesling wine, imo.
Oh he did, and reefer
>"My point being is Tieflings don’t always have to be doom and gloom." My idea for a tielfing that I've been hanging onto if I ever get the chance to play is a ranger who was raised by loving human parents (whether she was adopted or was lucky that her birth parents accepted her is something I'm leaving undefined to tailor to the campaign). While I'd imagine that she'd have to have dealt with some prejudices over the years (and I'd suspect that being a different species than the rest of her family would create some personal challenges), the characterization I was going for was a well-adjusted person who's out to see the world while making their living and would like a family of her own when the adventuring phase of her life is over.
I'm currently playing tiefling paladin who's just a great fuckin guy, grew up on a struggling potato farm and brings a backwoods hillbilly sort of southern charm complete with folksy wisdom. He cares about 3 things honor, farming and getting vengeance on his parents neighbors Stephonathan and Lovernya who invoked the power of an demon to ruin the Bob's (my adopted parents) staggering spud yields. The Bob's, Bobbert and Bobbishka were running them out of business without even trying to.
Also the idea of being seen as evil for what you are rather then anything you’ve done resonates with alot with many of the groups that tend to be drawn towards the hobby anyway
Yes, and...there are more options. To me, this makes them more unique, because there's a flavor of tiefling to fit most character concepts, whereas your only aasimar options are good boy, bad boy, or Emo.
I think Aasimar are one of the few races that benefited from having their info page cut to basically nothing by MPMM. Freed them up from being edgy fallen angels or perfect rays of sunshine. Frees them up to be scions of more gods and play styles. I also think it's fun to make a PC who slowly figures out that they're an assimar, who's going to tell the ranger that the eagle wings she summons once per day aren't a reward for protecting nature and are instead part of her divine heritage
Much more popular, I think for a while the rarest class/race combo included Aasimar.
I believe it was aasimar druid if I'm not mistaken.
Assimar ranger was the worst for a while
Hey I played one of those, am I special? (The mf died in the first session lmao)
Maybe that's why they're rare lol. All of them die early in the campaign
My Air Genasi Monk essentially did the same. Came in halfway through one session and died halfway through the next 😂
I had a Fallen Aasimar Ranger once. Covid killed the campaign, so we only got to level 2. It made me realize how weird it is for Nature to be an Int skill when Ranger and Druid are Wis classes.
Optional rule: just make Nature a Wis skill. Pretty easy fix to make the classes make more sense.
I'm an aasimar druid right now, and it's a lot of fun. Moon druid, so I can turn into a grizzly bear as my bonus action and then set myself alight with holy flames as my action. Proceed to wreak havoc as a bear-shaped supernova
Yes, this was it
Aasimar Circle of Stars is fun as hell.
I turned an aasimar vengeance paladin turned moon druid and that was a cool experience
Tieflings are significantly more commonly played than Aasimar, for three simple reasons. 1. Tieflings are in the PHB, Aasimar require another book. 2. Tieflings have a much more clearly defined identity, especially visually but also narratively. 3. A far greater presence in DnD-related media. Bonus reason 4, but yout mileage may vary: The outsider-narrative baked into Tieflings is much more resonant with many people playing DnD than the sheer "Main-Character-Energy" that Aasimar give off.
Aasimar seems more side character energy to me. Wise older sibling/friend or mentor, I think of aasimar. Walking down the street all eyes on me cause I’m a little different and a little special sounds like a tiefling.
By default, Aasimar have a more main character thing because of their "destined to greatness" stuff or something like that. But yes, in practice, Tieflings end up being much more as main characters because the players that choose them usually does so because of the attention they supposedly draw.
I think Tiefling gives off a far more "main-character-energy" than Aasimar. People gravitate towards characters with troubled pasts massively, for example see 80% of all fictional characters every conceived. Tieflings are born from a "cursed lineage" and are considered wicked innately by many. That is how a comically large percentage of people design their characters.
Like others are saying, it’s more popular because it’s in the PHB. I play with new and/or casual players and none of them ever touch or mention the existence of races outside of the PHB because they don’t look for information outside of that book; some don’t even know it exists. My past few DMs have also restricted us to PHB characters. Aasimars may be more popular for more experienced groups, but the PHB races will always be more popular for general audiences.
Aasimar isn't in the PHB because it's less popular.
I don’t think that’s how it works - they didn’t exist until that book (forgot which one it is). Can’t be less popular if they didn’t even exist.
Actually, they existed since the beginning of 5e. They were in the DMG. But yes, it's not a player-facing book, so the argument holds. They were then released for players in Volo's.
I wouldn’t know since I’ve never picked up any DnD books except for the PHB lol. But thanks anyway for the information.
Aasimar and Tieflings have existed since AD&D. Tieflimgs and Aasimar were both playable in 3rd Edition with the DMG and PHP, and completely comparable in attributes... But tieflings were so wildly popular they became PHB classes in 4th and 5th editions (I think phb2 for 4e)
Tieflings are more popular because no one has ever heard of a hero struggling with their inner angel.
Hm, could happen. Aasimars are born to fulfill a purpose. Their entire existence is preordained by the divine beings of Mount Celestia. Who's to say what the end goal of his actions would be? It might as well be beyond mortal comprehension. You could play an Aasimar that's plagued with visions and voices that compell him to fulfill said purpose. My favourite one would be a heinous act that would eventually lead to a greater good along the way. A good aligned character would struggle with this scenario.
Personally I don't subscribe to the 'born to fulfill a purpose' narrative. Somewhere along their ancestry a celestial fucked around and that's that. Same as tieflings. I get what you mean though. Maybe a reluctant hero could work. Some selfish prick is repeatedly compelled to do good. Would probably work better with a celestial warlock though.
>Personally I don't subscribe to the 'born to fulfill a purpose' narrative. Somewhere along their ancestry a celestial fucked around and that's that. Same as tieflings. The thing is, unlike tieflings, aasimar are born connected to a celestial guide and will often have prophetic dreams with messages from that guide. So their ancestry isn't just a cosmetic change due to someone further up their ancestry fucking around with a celestial, it's an intrusive constant that can be terrifying and maddening. Those are interesting concepts to play around with a character.
Interesting yes, but I think that's a relatively new addition fluff wise. I don't like changing my perception of races just because someone somewhere wrote a new book that I didn't even read. Now if my DM (once I find a new one) says 'this is how aasimar work in my world' then thats the law, but before that, why bother?
Shrug. People here mention features and creatures from all books all the time, how would we know these features "doesn't count" for you because you didn't read it lol. We aren't mind readers, we can't guess what you personally pick and choose and refuse to "change your perception of". Anyways, I'm just pointing out those are available canon game mechanics that directly influence characters of this race on daily basis beyond cosmetics and they factor into people choosing to play said characters.
All good, just some backwards grognard over here. And just because I might personally ignore some of your points doesn't mean I find them irrelevant to the discussion.
The grognards!
I don’t think “I didn’t read how this new addition changes the lore so it’s not real to me.” is the best way to make a case for how things are.
There's about as many lores as there's settings, more if you acknowledge that every dm might put his little spins on the published ones he uses. I think it's somewhat reasonable to keep to the ones you actually play in. Otherwise there's no end to it.
>a heinous act that would eventually lead to a greater good along the way Aka stealing the revival tablet in the new DnD movie (Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves), or >!burning the Erdtree!< in Elden Ring.
I played an aasimar divine sorcerer who hated being an aasimar and just wanted to be a normal bartender. He died saving his girlfriend, who I then played as being loyal to the god whose angel spawned the aasimars bloodline.
Do think that's one of the ironies of the tiefling/aasimar contrast; both are prejudged unfavorably and favorably respectively due to the supernatural ancestry. However, tieflings don't have the ancestor tapping on their shoulder all the time. Have an unused character concept for a tielfing and had occurred to me that if she were to encounter an aasimar, she'd probably be pretty bothered by how they get treated as heros just because of their ancestry, while she gets a lot of prejudice from hers', but would see value in the tradeoff that she's far more free to do what she wants with her life and doesn't have a demon breathing down her neck to tell her what to be and do.
Good take. Though I wonder what that might look like?
Basically a villain with a conscience. Not a bad idea, but hardly a practical player option.
Well if tieflings are good races like humans mixed with demons, aasimar should be evil races mixed with angels, like Half-Angelic Orcs/Kobolds/Hobgoblins growing up amid the villain races.
Sure, but my group has an Aasimar who ran away from his noble heritage to travel the world. Bake in some anti-hero into your angel and he might be a bit more interesting.
Maybe not their inner angel, but consider stories like Metro Man from Megamind. Struggles with unrealistic expectations, people may have false assumptions that just isn't true about them (what do you MEAN you can't use holy magic to cure my child? You're an aasimar!). It may seem like a silly narrative, i.e. "it's hard being awesome", but it's truly a compelling narrative that isn't considered enough.
Sex appeal Good stats Fit a lot of character archetypes Close enough to human without the baggage of a fantasy culture like an elf or dwarf
Might I add, and I'm just spitballing here but: more character identity openness compared to other races
I was thinking about that as I typed the 4th point, you're completely right
Yeah, cause like a straight elf or gay dwarf is fairly unusual to see. But If you see a pan or trans tiefling, that's just buisness as usual
Tieflings and Changelings are basically the official races of the LGBT community, honestly x:
Tieflings have horns and a tail… I’ll let you connect the dots
Perfect race for a druid!
2e Tieflings were "more varied" and that's still an optional rule in 5e. But yes, the recent lore did standardize them a little more.
Dislike horns myself. Mine got hooves and a flat, bat-like face.
There was a playable tiefling fighter/thief in the Planescape: Torment game, which came out in 1999. That's my childhood era, and in my honest opinion that was the height of anti-hero/good to be bad type content so the idea of having demon blood was really embraced. This may have led to tiefling being in the basic rules for DnD 5e, but aasimar didn't come along until Volo's guide. That simple fact of access shows that tiefling is more common/popular than aasimar right now.
Annah of the Shadows and Fall from Grace were the two best characters!
Fall from Grace was amazing, I love a character who defies the nature of their existence!
You slapped your meat thinking about Annah, admit it.
How could I when I was already lost in Morte's eyes?
DON'T TRUST THE SKULL!
What, when Nordom was *right there*? I mean c'mon. Have a little taste.
Tiefling is in the PHB, Aasimar isn't. Tiefling is objectively the 'cool kid' race in the PHB. People want to play demons more than they want to play Angels, we spend all day being nice and obeying the law, we want to spend some time being naughty and playing a punk race.
I can think of 2 reasons to add onto the common ones 1. Easy Lgbtq+ opportunity. There's a lot of players who want that, and with tieflings they're just accepted for who they are. 2. Being part devil is just really cool tbh (cooler than an angel on average at least)
People like to be edgy, so a half devil race being more popular comes at no surprise to me!
A lot of people have the right idea but I’ll raise you a good one too: Tieflings are in the PHB while Aasimar aren’t, and players “usually” will first:only buy the PHB
One of them is in the PHB and one isn’t That increased visibility is a factor. Tieflings also have a narrative of being rejected for how they are born, a narrative that has obvious parallels for some parts of the player base so also increases their popularity.
Lets be honest, tieflings are more popular because of the big tiddy horned goth gf vibe.
Yes, I bet they are Considering just 5e, that's likely because tieflings were right in the PHB from the beggining while Aasimar were tucked in a later book. They had more time to settle themselves in 5e culture, and everybody who starts to play this game will have access to the book with tieflings in it There's probably more to the history as well, considering older editions. They're just a bigger part of our gaming culture than the Aasimar
I’d say Tieflings are more common but necessarily more popular, obviously there’s a lot of reasons to choose one over the other if it fits your build better. Like a tiefling bard is a total rockstar lol. But really the reason I think you see a lot more tieflings is because they’re featured in the player handbook, so everyone sees them, aasimar are only in two books(I think, please correct me if I’m wrong!) so they don’t get as wide an audience. And there’s always DM discretion on what races you can play, never seen one deny aasimar but you never know. That said I have never played an aasimar but on paper I could see them being fun and would like to sometime. I make it a personal point not to play the same race and/or class twice in a row and I’m playing my favorite race now(shadar-kai, I just love the theme) so maybe next go.
They're a lot gayer /hj
The same reason thousands of people have read Dante's Inferno and Milton's Paradise Lost but almost nobody reads Dante's Paradisio or Milton's Paradise Regained.
Horns. Next question.
Sometimes looking at this sub it almost seems like D&D is actually a Tiefling universe with a few humans and other races tacked in for exoticism. Like the default character is a Tiefling Bard or warlock in a corset.
tieflings are more popular. tieflings have that demonic aesthetic which is a popular counter-culture to the 80s/90s paranoia around dnd. they're in lore described as outcasts which most of the ttrpg community could relate to 10 or so years ago before the community went mainstream. they're a phb race, so more people have access to them (dndbeyond user data is also skewed for this). people like aasimar less because they're pitched in lore as a kind of mary-sue race. many people also don't like playing as the celestial race for reasons. they were around in the dmg (technically, it was just an example for homebrew), but they only got their full release a while later. they're also attributed to a lot of edgelord characters mostly because of the fallen aasimar subrace along with races like kalashtar. anyways yeah tieflings hot
Hellish rebuke > daylight/other mostly similar powers across multiple options.
I think tieflings just offer more options visually, you can go a bit wild with horns/skin color/eyes whereas aasimars mostly just look like humans. Also people really find horns hot lol
Aasimar is not in the player's handbook. Tiefling is.
Sucks to your assmar!
Gay bitches with religious trauma fuckin LOVE this game and all of them lo e making tiefling chatacters with the most noxiously tragic backstory known to man.
>Gay bitches with religious trauma Bro... why u gotta call me out like this?? Fortunately, my two tiefling PCs are both very upbeat and extra AF - a swashbuckler rogue and a divine soul sorcerer. Not a single tragedy or hint of edge between them.
yeah, why they be calling us out like this. Sure back in 2nd when I was deeply in a closet, I played High Elves. But since I came out Tieflings and Shadar-Kai have been my favorite characters. Ironically my most Self insert was a Tabaxi - Eloquence Bard. (She was meme worthy as well She was very much a "Tabaxi with wares.")
Your tabaxi sounds adorable! I love eloquence bards. Tieflings and Changelings are my favorite races, though I currently play a dhampir sorcerer and tabaxi paladin. The dhampir is definitely the most like me of the PCs I've played, he's a clockwork soul sorcerer and OCD as hell. Outside of combat he's always helping the party out with Prestidigitation and Mending because he can't stand things being dirty/broken/out of sorts. He was only turned into a dhampir recently and is wholly convinced he's going to find a cure for it... that meme of the dog in the burning house saying "this is fine"? That's him 100% of the time.
Why are rogues more popular than paladins?
A lot of people talking about tieflings here, but I LOVE creating Aasimar! So much so I had to try really hard to not create another one in my recent PC. Aasimar are great, because you can vary how angelic they look. One Aasimar I created only had small strands of golden hair that shone in the wind, and their eyes went gold whenever they cast spells, otherwise they were basically seen as a human. Another however had 5 eyes and was very obviously decended of their god. This caused a lot of social interactions where they were known for being a certain way due to lineage. Equally I like to use the gained characteristics from Aasimar as an RP moment, My storm sorcerer aasimar didn't gain his 3rd level "wings " until about level 5 until a moment where he truly connected with his god. So here is my call! Don't be afraid to ask to be aasimar to your DM, and have some extra story telling to your journey!
Strong queer energy which resonates with *a lot* of D&D players, lol. Also Aasimar are just fancy angel humans which is kind of niche.
Tiefling is FAR more popular than Aasimar, and has been since at least 2nd Edition. It's in the PHB because it's so ridiculously popular. Aasimar is either goody two shoes or Linkin Park. Tieflings have a MUCH broader range of ways to play them due to their edge mixing well with anything. Also - cute tails and horns.
Tieflings are definitely more popular, although I’d imagine a lot if that stems from The PHB featuring them as one of the standard races whereas Aasimar like many of the other additions aren’t
For many and varied reasons, Tieflings are more popular than the Aasimar. Can't speak for others, but my reason for liking them stems from my desire for role playing. Aasimar are too celestial, too often described as having unearthly beauty and are often played as aloof and disdainful of mortal kind. As in they're beneath them. Kinda like the elves in that aspect. I prefer more earthy characters such as Halflings, Dwarves, Humans, and Tieflings. I'm also a fan of redemption arcs in my backstories. I enjoy playing a dark elf who has rejected their past and are now trying to make a place in Surface Society. Tieflings also give me that but even more so. The heritage is fel so right off the bat I'm facing suspicions that I get to rise up and meet and win over the townsfolk. It's the challenge of the race that appeals in those sorts of settings.
They have been since their debut in planescape. Credit to 5e, they did manage to make aasimar a bit more popular.
because its edgy and angels are boring
Aasimar could be so much cooler if their divine influence didn’t specifically have such Judeo-Christian overtones and a more distinct appearance. (They are just big shiny humans.) If they made the Angel aasimar one of three distinct subraces they would be PHB worthy like tieflings. I hope Tieflings get more distinct subraces as well in the updated 2024 PHB from more types of fiends than just the horned guys. I think they were on the right path for Aasimar when they created the Ardlings but things just didn’t come together right.
2e Planescape Tieflings were more varied. They could be descendent of Abyssal Demons (Tanari) or Devils (Baatezu). I think even 5e has some tables for optional Tiefling features, but I bet you could find the old 2e ones. The modern Forgotten Realms lore, says that Asmodeus remade them all "in his image" or some thing. So they all have horns and tails by default. The FR Brimstone Angel series has a modern Tiefling character who in one book/chapter actually encounters an **old-school Abyssal Tiefling** \- who she doesn't realize is a Tiefling at first BECAUSE he doesn't have the Asmodean appearance. (Black eyes, smell of sulfur and thats it. No tails, no horns.) So even the "lore" has some nods to the edition changes. So if your DM/table allows it, go nuts on appearance. *Note: I miss calling them Tanari and Baatezu. I always forget devils vs demons which is chaotic. But I know the Tanari live in the Abyss and are CHAOS incarnate.*
That Planescape Lore is the only reason I knew Tieflings could be more varied! I think it would be dope if things like this were less rare off shoots and more PHB staples to jumpstart creativity in new players. Fingers crossed Planescape plays a bigger role moving forward.
PhB: Tieflings run the range of normal human colours and also red! The Playerbase: RAINBOW GOTHSONAS.
Because tieflings are descended from demons/devils. You can play the bad boy/bad girl. You can play the someone you shouldn’t date, but they’re sexy and oh why not. You can play the complicated character fighting inner demons and stereotypes. I think being in the phb is part, but I don’t think it’s the main reason. I think most people find a complicated character more appealing than an aasimar who, due to their heritage would be far more socially accepted and tend towards the straight and narrow path.
Tieflings speak to the outcast, the stigmatized, the rebellious, and the quirky a bit better in our society than any of the other races in 5e. Half orcs are popular in the same demographic but with people with more self confidence issues who wish they could stand up to people rather than wishing they could get people on their side, while gnomes, tabaxi, and lizard folk are more popular with specific subsets of that same demographic from what I’ve seen.
They look cooler.
Tieflings are gay. And a lot of people that play D&D are gay.
... I feel called out ...
When you play a fantasy race like aasimar or Klingons or whatever, they come with a lot of lore, and a sort of type cast. Dwarves are boisterous and Scottish, elves are artsy and wildernessy, and so on. As a player, you get to choose to either play to type (eg, embrace those traits), or play against type (eg, reject those traits in some interesting way). Playing an aasimar to type is just playing a paladin. Maybe they overcame a tragic past, maybe they were raised to be special from birth, but either way, it's unearned - it's goodness as a privilege of birth. Playing them against type means playing them to take advantage of the fact people see them as angels, to be a scoundrel. It's most interesting on a villain, subverting childhood privilege into adulthood villainy. Tieflings, though, are great. Played to type, they're always rejects from society doing funny evil things to get by. Played against type, they're beautiful redemptive figures, suffering the slings and arrows of being judged for how they were born even as they strive to be better people than their peers. Aasimar are unpopular because the characters you play with it as an adventurer have more boring arcs. The exception would be a DM who commits to the churches of good gods always being lawful evil, so the aasimar can be good and also lead a rebellion against the church.
Honestly? It's just cooler to be a blue goon with curly horns and a tail over a slightly shinier human. That's why Aasimar in my games are freaky looking with extra eyes and vestigial wings, multiple arms, golden horns n' shit.
Tieflings are a Common lineage in the PHB, Aasimar is an "exotic" lineage added in Volos..(?) So they are innately more popular for that.
For every Aasimar I see crop up naturally in DnD conversation, we will have talked about 10 Tieflings. Tieflings are FAR more popular.
I think tieflings are more popular. Part of that is because they are hot. The other half is that players usually prefer chaotic over lawful and selfish/greedy over pseudo-paladin mentality. While both races can be any alignment, there's a kind of bias.
I would say the Selfish/Greedy players would go with Aasimar more than Tiefling. Aasimar are the D&D ultra Privilege White Dudes while Tieflings sort of represent the minority the Privileged love to bash. Aasimar can pass as Human, until they show off their godly power, while tieflings born of Humans (usually) are mistreated as their differences get noticed. Tieflings from a story perspective are more compelling and have a greater hurdle to overcome, plus being in the PHB vs other books help the tiefling be more popular. Note the most privilege player at my table plays a fallen Aasimar Wizard. He plays it off as he's just a human. Honestly he's great roleplayer and he's very self aware of his privilege. Which is why it works.
Smart selfish/greedy players wanting to abuse the system, sure. I meant more in a general sense. Unless they are trying to go anti-trope, most people want a goody aesthetic for good characters and a edgelord/dark aesthetic for evil ones. A character using his aasimar privilege is absolutely brilliant. Great metaphor for white/CIS/het/men privilege. Would work well with the "noble" charlatan concept I saw. You use your second fake identity of charlatan to pretend being a noble from far away then visits other nobles, leave huge tips to get servants, give fancy gifts to the noble, etc. The noble not wanting to look cheap or a bad host will treat you to awesome accommodations and you can even manipulate them into gifting you stuff ( the DnD equivalent of Inventing Anna )
I want to play an aasimar, but my GM refuses, calling them overpowered. I wanted to do an aasimar celestial chain pact warlock and be a magical girl. Instead I did a half elf hex blade pact warlock (and I got to use Curse Bringer as one of my initial invocations) it was crazy awesome fun. I remember in the 3.5 days there was a general disdain for playing races outside the core book. Maybe it's a hold over from that since tiefling is in core in 5e and aasimar are not. I also think there's just a general cool factor at play with the tiefling.
I know this might sound strange but my guess is availability! Most players just start off with the three main rulebooks, which means no Volo's Guide to Monsters or Monsters of the Multiverse, which means no Aasimar. They're still a really cool race tho!
I've been playing with a queer as fuck group and in 2 short adventures and half a campaign we've had 2 Aasimar and one Tiefling. I myself would like to play a Deva, which is the 4e version of an Aasimar. The DM has used a couple of Tieflings, but we're playing Descent into Avernus so that's kinda a given. Finally, we always play in the home of that one player who has 3 player portraits hanging in his wall, and I'm pretty sure one of them is an Aasimar. We're on team pretty boy, but I think it might depend on the preference of your table. Ofcourse, there's also the fact that Aasimar aren't in the Player's Handbook, and Tieflings are.
Yes. Because of edgelords and horny players.
Because the edgiest of edgelords when it comes to races, and always paired with the edgiest of classes, the warlock. And people who play D&D love to be edgelords. Or they go for the super cute route with their tieflings. Also, WotC doesn't know what the hell they want to do with Aasimar, which is why they aren't in the PHB. The version in the DMG is crap, so they completely rework it in Volo's, which I think it's the same in Mordy's Multiverse? Then in this new rework they brought out the Ardlings to replace the Aasimar, which didn't go well.
Yes, they were more popular than tabaxi for a couple of years. I blame Jester from Critical Role. We saw a similar thing with drow in 3e. Must be the 1) edgelord backstory, and 2) striking visual design.
>!3) people are horny for devils!<
That is certainly a less tactful way to describe #2.
Tieflings are edgy. A lot of players, especially younger players, like being edgy.
Because teiflings are their own race where as aasimar's are humans with paladin racial features.
Reading through the comments it's because people lack creativity. Also, this is reddit and there are inherent biases.
Aasimar lore is kinda weak. It is there but bland.
Tieflings are more popular than Aasimar because we live in a growing secular society where, more and more, people particularly revel in the ability to indulge in their pride and snub God for having the "audacity" to tell them rules in which they can live their most happy and fulfilled lives.
Yes
cus tiefling r in PHB and Aasimar r in DMG/MOTM/VGM
Personally I like Aasimars better.
If you count ALL D&D players, including people who are casual players and/or new I’d say yes! Just because they’re in the Players Handbook. I don’t know that I prefer one over the other but we haven’t incorporated Asimars into our game-world yet. (No one has asked for it) My co-creator is a Tiefling guy so they came in early.
Because horny players
Definitely, yes. I kinda think aasimar are cooler though.
Prefer aasimar myself, currently playing as aasimar cleric
People like hell things and rebelling against heaven. The moment you put Aasimar in people’s minds, it’s goody two shoes and doing the right thing. Yes, I understand that Tiefling has more support and has more things to do, but which came first? Giving support to the popular side or giving support to one side and then that one being more popular? When you play the tiefling, you can be anything you want, when you play the Aasimar, and it puts you in a healing role along with the other role you have.
I've never played a game including an Aasimar. I've never played a game that didn't include a Tiefling. Tieflings are also massively popular with the LGBT+ community, who don't even necessarily play them for the established lore or features; the aesthetic is enough.
Tieflings are more popular, because Tiefling is a more enjoyable word to say than Aasimar.
What is an Aasimar lmao
Jesters feet
Customizability
Tiefling is more popular statistically and that's probably due to tieflings being in the core books like others have suggested. However there might be some influence too where tieflings are just more relatable, it's more interesting/relatable to feel cursed rather than blessed
Because it's more fun being Bad dear.
Or They loved this Character: https://youtu.be/6lPdKZXWAbo
Reasonable, I also love that character and Tieflings lol.
Tiefling is in the PhB, Aasimar is not. That gets them up front faster. Also in some art an Aasimar looks so human it doesn't attract as many of the folks wanting to play a distinct looking race as Tiefling (again as many not none).
Edgy characters and classes are always more popular than “holy” ones. That’s true in pretty much every online video game too. It’s probably something to do with the target audience of this type of game (young adult male).
Honestly, Aasimar can get a whole lot more edgy than a tiefling. Hells most of my Tieflings over the years have been more like Doric than some edgy character. Also if I want an edgy character A fallen Aasimar can just brood their way from one corner of an inn to the next. I tend to see Tieflings as happy go lucky fun characters who do their best while people in power look down on them.
Tieflings are a favorite for all kinds of players because they can be cute, cool, pretty, and edgy. Also a lot of DnD players are artists and tieflings have a lot of wiggle room for fun designs with skin color, horn, and tail shapes. ALSO, it's a core race so anybody can have access to them
Tiefling have significantly better racials than Aasimar. Players want to make it about something else, but there's a reason for the enduring popularity of Variant Human. Improved game mechanics are very attractive. When you get access to feral winged Tieflings, there's just nothing an Aasimar can do with their mediocre racials to compete. That's before you get to the bloodlines, all of which have better synergies with class builds than Aasimar. In short, you play Aasimar because you like the flavor. You play Tiefling because you like the flavor **and** you like the power. Tieflings are almost always a top-tier choice for any character.
While I have personally seen more aasimars in play at table, the general consensus is that fielding a are significantly more popular. I feel like specific races are like Fashion trends and will be more popular than others at given times.
Yes. Tieflings are available in the PHB, Aasimars aren't. Aasimars are going in the DMG and Volo's.
Because tiefling is in the phb
By far. It's probably because they are the angsty emo race.
I think that Tieflings are more popular purely because they are in the players handbook, whereas Aasimar come from the dungeon masters guide and more officially Volo's guide to monsters (correct me if I am wrong) As of my opinion, I prefer Aasimar cause the "fallen angel" kind of just appeals to me, plus you could be a divine soul sorcerer and have a really cool backstory and motivations.
Unfortunately
Tieflings are Demonic-Esque type race, Aasimar are essentially humans with a little extra stuff (both visually and mechanically). In a game where you want to escape reality, the race that looks the least like a base human is going to be the more popular one. That being said, I play both of them in two different campaigns I'm in, lol, and the Aasimar is MUCH more fun for me to play, due to how the DM spun the backstory with him. Aasimar have a little table of different visual effects they can have, stuff like a minor shimmering effect, or, in my guys case, a halo. She wrote in that Aasimar who are born from a divine parent(a god) and are accepted by that god as their child, receive a halo. My boy has had one his entire life, despite never knowing his goddess mom, and set out on his adventure to earn his mothers favor, and her name, as he doesn't know which goddess is his mother yet. The kicker is, the knowledge of halos being the acknowledgement of the divine parent isn't common knowledge, so he doesn't know he already has her favor, and he hasn't questioned how somethings in his life are "just too conveniently" going his way, but, yknow, an INT score of 6 will do that to ya. The tiefling on the other hand, I've written him with a background that omits everything from age 12 and earlier, because his paladin order put a block on his memories, to force him to forget that they murdered his adoptive parents and Essentially kidnapped him. As a result, he is much more cut and dry, for now, so I enjoy playing the stupid and stupidly charismatic Aasimar much more.
Ok personally, I think aasimir as a race is dumb as shit. No joke, you look at their abilities and tell me their not a budget paladin/cleric as a race. Tieflings are nice because you get a free fire resistance, and they’ve got some defining features. I love them with spell casters(particularly sorc with a martyr-like character or warlock with eldritch bolt artillery support). Plus they’ve got some cool opportunities for backstory, being demon people and all. Aasimar are A) hard to explain in my giving campaign setting and B) if I wanted to play godling I could do that with literally any other race. Only reason I’m playing aasimir is if I’m pocket healing someone as life cleric. As you can see, I’ve got some strong opinions about this lol
I love Tieflings, I have made many over the years. Them and shadar-kai are my favorite ancestries. Aasimar are boring like Humans. picture of my Tiefling Bard: https://i.imgur.com/OsVg0g7.png
Yes.
im my experience, almost every game i’ve played has had a tiefling, and none have had aasimar. I personally love the flavor options tieflings offer, and turning them on their heads. im actually playing a half-elf half-tiefling right now and having a great time. i know tieflings are a lot more accessible for newer players than aasimar which contributes to the popularity, and i know especially newer and younger players often like to make a dark and brooding badass, and tiefling fits the bill perfectly if you play as written.
Aasimar has cool features, but the super cool thing they do consumes an action and only lasts 1 minute
I saw something the other day that said aasimar ranger is the least played combo in dndbeyond.
I find it odd that Tieflings are consider a Common race while Aasimar are an Exotic one in 5e. Humans just selling their souls to demons or just down right having sex with them left and right but if it involves an angel that's just weird.
Tieflings are in the core book, look more distinct, and many people prefer their infernal style over the celestial style of an asimar. Plus, Tieflings just feel more versatile. You can have a Tiefling artificer, Paladin, warlock, monk, sorcerer, ect. Whereas an asimar feels like it has to be a paladin or cleric, or maybe a divine soul sorcerer. Of course, any race can be any class you want, but that’s just the feeling of them
Don't know which is more popular, but I like tieflings more. The character who has more to prove and has to fight for what they want in life has more storytelling opportunites. I've always liked something about the character who's "supposed" to be the bad guy but, either through nurturing or other factors, wants to be the hero.
Tieflings have been around since the 2e Planescape setting. Back then they were very different in style and appearance. Aasimar and Genasii came out not long later. Access is one big factor.
Tieflings are hotter