Pathfinder Player Companion: Blood of Fiends (PFRPG)

4.60/5 (based on 8 ratings)
Pathfinder Player Companion: Blood of Fiends (PFRPG)
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Born of mortal and fiendish blood intertwined, tieflings are tainted individuals thrust into a world that has learned to both fear and despise them. Whether they openly display their freakish ancestry in settlements known for their tiefling populations or hide such shameful attributes through either mundane or magical methods, all tieflings know that they are different.

Blood of Fiends presents a player-friendly overview of the tieflings of the Pathfinder campaign setting, as well as new rules and information to help players customize their own fiendish characters.

    Inside this book, you’ll find:
  • Detailed information on the origins, physiology, traditions, social interactions, and beliefs of tieflings—the accursed descendants of mortals and fiends.
  • A table of 100 variant tiefling abilities to further customize your fiendish characters.
  • An expansive look at the 10 most common types of tiefling heritages, each of which provides tiefling characters with alternate ability score modifiers, skills, and spell-like abilities.
  • New feats for battle-hardened tiefling characters.
  • New curses and inquisitions for fiendish oracles and inquisitors.
  • New subdomains for tiefling clerics, each reflective of a different fiendish realm.
  • New masterpieces for tiefling bards and a bloodline for daemontainted sorcerers.
  • Dozens of new traits to flesh out your tormented character and bodily features to help distinguish your tiefling.

This Pathfinder Player Companion is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, but can easily be incorporated into any fantasy world.

Written by Hal Maclean and Colin McComb

Each bimonthly 32-page Pathfinder Player Companion contains several player-focused articles exploring the volume’s theme as well as short articles with innovative new rules for social, magic, religious, and combat-focused characters, as well as traits to better anchor the player to the campaign.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-423-8

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Hero Lab Online
Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

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This product is non-mint. Refunds are not available for non-mint products. The standard version of this product can be found here.

Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at store@paizo.com.

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Average product rating:

4.60/5 (based on 8 ratings)

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5/5

I've reviewed this on RPGGeek.com.

You can read it here.


Fantastic Book

5/5

This is definitely my favorite player companion so far. It gives you more new rules than any other player companion, and it somehow manages to do that without getting rid of the flavor. The new tiefling heritages are great, and there are plenty of feats, traits, and other goodies to customize your tiefling characters. Well done, Paizo!


The tieflings get their due

5/5

As the title suggests, the Pathfinder Player Companion: Book of Fiends is a book for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, it is intended for players, and it is meant to give more options and ideas on how to play a character of the tiefling race. That is, someone descended from fiends of the Lower Planes (devils, demons, and whatnot). The book succeeds admirably in this, providing an overview of what a tiefling's family life and upbringing will probably be like which is to say unpleasant, and their likely views on everything from the gods to violence to society.

It also provides new subdomains for tiefling divine spellcasters, ten variants on the base tiefling depending on who and what your fiendish ancestor was, new spells, new feats, and a raft of traits that give minor bonuses while helping to both connect your tiefling to the campaign setting and to establish their character, and much more. This is an amazing piece of work for the price listed and a very worthy addition to any Pathfinder player's library, especially for fans who want to try something different from the usual elves and dwarves and halflings.


Link to Official ENWorld Review

5/5

I've posted my ENWorld review on Blood of Fiends HERE.


Excellent Start to the Blood Of X Series

5/5

Blood of Fiends is an invaluable resource for anyone playing tiefling characters. It expands on the tiefling article featured in Council of Thieves #1: Bastards of Erebus, providing no less than 12½ pages of fluff that brings great detail to tieflings in Golarion as opposed to the 3 pages of fluff presented in the aforementioned article (not counting the article's Random Features table which is also present in Blood of Fiends).

In addition to the expanded fluff, the book features a bunch of game mechanics, some of which were included in the Council of Thieves article as well. The variant tiefling heritages are more detailed in this book, providing descriptive text and awesome portraits showcasing a sample version of each heritage. One of the feats presented in the Council of Thieves article, Fiendish Heritage, has been ommitted from Blood of Fiends. So if you want a variant heritage for your tiefling character, just choose one. Don't bother with the feat.

Overall this is a great player resource with lots of useful fluff AND crunch. Some of the material has been presented before, sure, but that was as an article in a primarily GM-focused product. Blood of Fiends presents all the information players need to play tiefling characters without having to borrow their GM's book. Artwork is, for the most part, phenomenal.


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Contributor

Azure_Zero wrote:
Will this product get a teaser in the paizo blog?

Quite possibly!


James Sutter wrote:
Azure_Zero wrote:
Will this product get a teaser in the paizo blog?
Quite possibly!

Sweet,

but now I am going to expect a teaser in the paizo blog during either March or April.


Are we there yet?

Contributor

Mikaze wrote:
Colin McComb wrote:
yes, there is some discussion of non-human variants.

YASE.

Hoping the same follows for the aasimar book!

I haven't seen the book for months, so I can't speak to what's happening with it in house, but I want to stress that I am not sure how in-depth this discussion goes, nor how mechanical it becomes. Because of the powers of tieflings, and because of the powers of non-humans, the non-humans might see their natural abilities subsumed under the fiendish blood.

On the other hand, multiple fiendish bloodlines! Wow!


so by heritag does it mean like the feat that was in bastards of whomever back in COT is going to get refitted into this book??

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

I've updated the cover image and product description to match the finished product.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Vic Wertz wrote:
I've updated the cover image and product description to match the finished product.

Looks sweet Vic.

Hope Blood of Angels gets one just as sweet or sweeter.

Silver Crusade

Cool image, but it would have been more appropriate to have the paladin be a tiefling as well, what with this being the tiefling player's companion and all...

Hoping there's interior art for heroic tiefling types.


VERY sweet cover! Any chance you can reveal who the artist for this one is?


Nice cover and sweet Daemon sorcerer bloodline.

Variant stat mods and abilities like the article from council of thieves.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Heine Stick wrote:
VERY sweet cover! Any chance you can reveal who the artist for this one is?

Michal Ivan.

Sczarni

My archetype character has always been a tiefling rogue. Can't wait for this to come out. And, yeah, the cover rocks.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Vic Wertz wrote:
I've updated the cover image and product description to match the finished product.

I didn't think that this could get any cooler... I was so wrong!


I would very much appreciate a teaser in the blog in March


Mikaze wrote:

Cool image, but it would have been more appropriate to have the paladin be a tiefling as well, what with this being the tiefling player's companion and all...

Hoping there's interior art for heroic tiefling types.

There's nothing that say that the tiefling we see fighting Seelah has to be evil. Sometimes good guys end up fighting each other.


James Jacobs wrote:
And since we're reprinting the big list of variant abilities and variant appearances

When I first heard about this book, just as I was coming off the disappointing reprint-fest of "Humans of Golarion," I thought "I sure hope this isn't just a reprint/retread of content I already have in Bastards of Erebus." Now I'm worried that's just what this product will be. It sounds like there is some new art and fluff, but the never-before-seen crunch seems limited: some feats and traits, and some limited class-specific stuff for just five classes. But the actual tiefling variants sound like reprint of earlier content.

I'll be watching the reviews carefully on this, but right now I plan to pass on this product and let the Bastards of Erebus tiefling article suffice.

If anyone finds this filled with awesome and substantially *new* material, shout out!

Silver Crusade

Eric Hinkle wrote:
Mikaze wrote:

Cool image, but it would have been more appropriate to have the paladin be a tiefling as well, what with this being the tiefling player's companion and all...

Hoping there's interior art for heroic tiefling types.

There's nothing that say that the tiefling we see fighting Seelah has to be evil. Sometimes good guys end up fighting each other.

I'd like for that to be the case*(and it would actually fit the tiefling scene) but the context clues like the burning church don't have me too hopeful there.

*like perhaps some Iomedaean holy symbols hidden amongst all of that teifling's doodads and Seelah apparently derping and jumping the gun, but that doesn't exactly paint Seelah(and paladins) in a positive light either...

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Mikaze - let's be frank, the only way this cover would see you fully happy would be if it featured two tiefling paladins, one of them of Shelyn and the other of Iomeadae, one of the bug-eyed with mandibles and the other with a purple worm's head, making sweet sweet love.

And you would complain about lack of Good orcs there, anyway.

:P

Dark Archive

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Mikaze's consternation that Paizo keeps putting out 'player' companions that discourage *players* from using that content seems reasonable, to me.

But hey, as long as mocking the preferences of other posters is what gets you off, splooge away.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Set wrote:

Mikaze's consternation that Paizo keeps putting out 'player' companions that discourage *players* from using that content seems reasonable, to me.

But hey, as long as mocking the preferences of other posters is what gets you off, splooge away.

My long history of sparring with Mikaze (and my deep love for his Bestiary review posts) hopefully will lead to that being read as a friendly jab and nothing more.


Wait, wait. Mr. Jacobs, did you say qlipploth tiefling?

You just made a sale.


Golden-Esque wrote:

Wait, wait. Mr. Jacobs, did you say qlipploth tiefling?

You just made a sale.

I wonder how damned high the Qlippoth was.

Silver Crusade

Gorbacz wrote:
Mikaze - let's be frank, the only way this cover would see you fully happy

Actually...

Some possibilities:

Spoiler:
Tiefling paladin/divine-champion-type facing off against a devil or demon - Demonstrates rising above the expectations others force on tieflings because of their blood and rejection of the same

Heroic tiefling vs villainous tiefling - Demonstrates that tieflings are not some homogenous group and are capable of choosing their own destiny, for good or ill

Tiefling underdog-type hero bailing out a surprised looking iconic by using his/her inherited powers against whatever danger is present - Demonstrates that tieflings can use their heritage for heroics and demonstrates how they're socially on the outs for the most part

Cunning tiefling rogue-type engaging in cunning lovable rogue-type behavior - Demonstrates a bit of the tiefling stereotype in a non-horribly negative fashion

All of which could offer a powerful, inspiring image for those wanting to play tiefling heroes when they pick up the tiefling Player Companion so that they can have material for their heroic tieflings that they'd like to play, which is why they're picking up a Player Companion.

That said, that ship's sailed(kinda like the Orcs player companion), but hopefully there will still be stuff for heroic tiefling types inside the book(unlike the Orc player companion).

It's a cool cover on its own merits. It just doesn't exactly sell it as a player companion for tieflings, IMO and all that.

Grand Lodge

I got to see a preview of this book just recently, and it's pretty great. Though I have to say, I'm not a big fan of taking all of the different heritage options and placing them in one big percentile chart to roll for. I don't think I'll ever require that for my players, personally.


I will be happy to check my FLGS for this when it comes out.


Waiting... taking... too... long....


A question of extreme importance.

the variant tieflings.

to choose one of them instead of the generic beastiart 1 tiefling/ possible advanced races teifling, is it going to be thesame as bastards of erebus where we must take it as a lvl 1 feat?

I hope thats not the case

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Steelfiredragon wrote:

A question of extreme importance.

the variant tieflings.

to choose one of them instead of the generic beastiart 1 tiefling/ possible advanced races teifling, is it going to be thesame as bastards of erebus where we must take it as a lvl 1 feat?

I hope thats not the case

That's entirely up to your GM. We put that feat into Bastards of Erebus to give GMs who were worried that a tiefling was too powerful an option to reign them in a bit.

In fact, with the coming of the Advanced Race Guide... there'll be other ways to "balance" tieflings with other races.


I really wanna see a teaser in the Paizo blog,
but that is a up to the Paizo staff.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Steelfiredragon wrote:

A question of extreme importance.

the variant tieflings.

to choose one of them instead of the generic beastiart 1 tiefling/ possible advanced races teifling, is it going to be thesame as bastards of erebus where we must take it as a lvl 1 feat?

I hope thats not the case

It is, literally, the only rule in the Paizo books that I liberally ignore, and so does my GM. If I want to play a kyton spawn tief, I don't want to take a feat to do so, or rely on the luck of the dice. I do, however, rely on the luck o' the draw for the variant "replace darkness with one of these abilities". After all, some of them increase your stats further! My demon spawned tiefling bard got very lucky when I rolled that extra +2 Charisma instead of the SLA!

That being said, I hope that the book expands the options beyond just the stat layout. Different set abilities and skills would be a nice addition as well.


Just to be obnoxious...

Let's say, hypothetically, if I were a CN tiefling inquisitor of Calistria OR an oracle convinced he was blessed by Calistria specifically, and I opened this book, would I find something to make me smile or would I eat the pages in rage?

...And if it's the latter, I'll probably just get the pdf for now so as to not eat the book. :(


or a redeamed devil spawned tiefiling of Serenrae or a redeamed tiefling of anyone....


ThatEvilGuy wrote:
Steelfiredragon wrote:

A question of extreme importance.

the variant tieflings.

to choose one of them instead of the generic beastiart 1 tiefling/ possible advanced races teifling, is it going to be thesame as bastards of erebus where we must take it as a lvl 1 feat?

I hope thats not the case

It is, literally, the only rule in the Paizo books that I liberally ignore, and so does my GM. If I want to play a kyton spawn tief, I don't want to take a feat to do so, or rely on the luck of the dice. I do, however, rely on the luck o' the draw for the variant "replace darkness with one of these abilities". After all, some of them increase your stats further! My demon spawned tiefling bard got very lucky when I rolled that extra +2 Charisma instead of the SLA!

That being said, I hope that the book expands the options beyond just the stat layout. Different set abilities and skills would be a nice addition as well.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that was a stupid idea.

having it as a blood heirtage racial feature would do better.

the aasimar variants would work better this way too....... but then then the aasimar are already underbalanced...


Considering one of the variant Tieflings has to deal with the Succubus heritage, my next character is officially on hold in anticipation of this release. The only question now is Sorcerer or Oracle...


Shasazar wrote:
Considering one of the variant Tieflings has to deal with the Succubus heritage, my next character is officially on hold in anticipation of this release. The only question now is Sorcerer or Oracle...

I hope they did make a variant Tiefling that does deal with Succubus heritage.


Azure_Zero wrote:
Shasazar wrote:
Considering one of the variant Tieflings has to deal with the Succubus heritage, my next character is officially on hold in anticipation of this release. The only question now is Sorcerer or Oracle...
I hope they did make a variant Tiefling that does deal with Succubus heritage.

The variant Tieflings from the Council of Thieves article were based on the classes of fiends rather than specific fiends like succubi. You weren't given a choice between Pit fiend tiefling, Succubus tiefling, Quasit Tiefling and the like, but you could be a Infernal Tiefling, Div Tiefling, Demon Tiefling, Daemon, Kyton, Oni, Asura and probably a few more that I'm missing.

I suspect that we'll get a similar presentation, with maybe a few suggestions for what fiendish relatives might cause what visual effects.


With 'an expansive look at the 10 most common types of Tiefling heritage each providing x, y & z', assuming that's not old copy, I can't really imagine at least the succubus heritage not getting a treatment. Particularly with James Jacobs as Creative Director, he knows how to put books on fiends together.

While I have Bastards of Erebus, the demon heritage there is ok but doesn't really fit the Succubus. Which is fine, the Succubus is the mavrick non-monstrous looking subrace after all and you can't expect an article dealing with all fiends to focus in on the exceptions to the rule. And yes, I can use another heritage and call it something else but it's just not neat.

Anyway, fingers crossed.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Tieflings can't really trace fiendish lineage back to a specific father or mother of a specific fiendish race, actually. They're usually at least a few generations removed from specific fiends—that's what a half-fiend is for. (If there were room, I'd definitely love to publish rules for what the differences are between half-succubi, half-hezrous, half-piscodaemons, half-pit fiends, and so on...)...

What Blood of Fiends gives are rules for tieflings whose fiendish ancestry is more infused with one TYPE of fiendish outsider.

So... tieflings who are associated with demons, or devils, or oni, or kytons, and so on. Those who know their Pathfinder fiend races can now likely deduce what all the variant tiefling heritages are... so I'll just list them here:

asura
devil
div
demodand
demon
daemon
qlippoth
rakshasa
kyton
oni

In the meantime, if you want a SPECIFICALLY half-succubus creature, there's always the alu-demon from Tome of Horrors Complete.


Well... darn.

Yeah, I know about the Alu-Fiend from ToHC. I was hoping for something a bit more reasonable to lay out in front of the DM. Alas, back to homebrew...

Silver Crusade

Excited to see a blog preview....soon?

Hype still rising.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Shasazar wrote:

Well... darn.

Yeah, I know about the Alu-Fiend from ToHC. I was hoping for something a bit more reasonable to lay out in front of the DM. Alas, back to homebrew...

Well... wait until you see the demon-spawn tiefling first! She DOES happen to look kind of succubusy...


James Jacobs wrote:
Shasazar wrote:

Well... darn.

Yeah, I know about the Alu-Fiend from ToHC. I was hoping for something a bit more reasonable to lay out in front of the DM. Alas, back to homebrew...

Well... wait until you see the demon-spawn tiefling first! She DOES happen to look kind of succubusy...

Oh, I'll still buy the book because I'm a sucker for all things fiendish (quippoth and kyton heritages, bonus). Also new art and more fluff, always good.

Dark Archive

Rakshasa, Kyton and Oni derived Tieflings sound totally awesome!

Silver Crusade

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Set wrote:

Rakshasa, Kyton and Oni derived Tieflings sound totally awesome!

"And that's Sister Throxia, of the Dawnflower's Penitent Flaggelant order. Don't be alarmed, she's just a tiefling...you know how it is. And there's Brother Feldin..."


"Wait a second, this church has an order of flaggelants?"

"Well, just the one really."

"..."

"She was very insistent."


Shasazar wrote:

Well... darn.

Yeah, I know about the Alu-Fiend from ToHC. I was hoping for something a bit more reasonable to lay out in front of the DM. Alas, back to homebrew...

In the ARG playtest, I did make succubus tiefling and a half-succubus.


Azure_Zero wrote:
Shasazar wrote:

Well... darn.

Yeah, I know about the Alu-Fiend from ToHC. I was hoping for something a bit more reasonable to lay out in front of the DM. Alas, back to homebrew...

In the ARG playtest, I did make succubus tiefling and a half-succubus.

Man, I cannot, CANNOT, wait to get my hands on the ARG.


Shasazar wrote:
Azure_Zero wrote:
Shasazar wrote:

Well... darn.

Yeah, I know about the Alu-Fiend from ToHC. I was hoping for something a bit more reasonable to lay out in front of the DM. Alas, back to homebrew...

In the ARG playtest, I did make succubus tiefling and a half-succubus.

Man, I cannot, CANNOT, wait to get my hands on the ARG.

Did you like succubus tiefling, and half-succubus, I made?


I am very interested to see the kyton tiefling.


Azure_Zero wrote:
Did you like succubus tiefling, and half-succubus, I made?

I like it, though I think it might be a little on the powerful side. The Tiefling entry is a little confusing but this is probably because I don't know the ARG. For example, I'm assuming that the 'Racial Base' section are alternatives balanced against other races.

On the Tiefling, in my option, buffing Dex, Int and Cha without a negative is a little excessive when you compare it to the base Tiefling. After all, we don't want to make a 'super-tiefling', just tweak the original to more accurately represent the concept... even if the munchkin on my shoulder is drooling at the possibilities for bards or arcane tricksters.

Fiendish resistances good, that's on par. Change Shape vs. Darkness 1/day... I'm conflicted. I think it's a fair enough trade, Darkness can be incredibly useful, though part of playing a Tiefling is roleplaying the conflict with a distrustful society. Natural Armour doesn't sit well with me, I know the Succubus has NA but thematically it doesn't sit right, Succubi are also the most human-seeming of the demons and natural armour seems more suited to a scaly or chitinous race.

Personally, once I get ARG, I'd be looking to use the Tiefling as a base, switch it to -2Wis, +4Cha (the hot blood of their ancestor makes them charming but impulsive), switch Stealth bonus to Perception bonus, switch Darkness for Unnatural Lust (Charm Person would be my other selection but might be a bit too good...). Then swap out Fiendish Sorcery for something else... immunity to level drain or a gift for languages perhaps?

The half-succubus is great, the only thing I could nit pick is the str bonus, I think there's a good case for dropping that in favour of a more even distribution of bonuses across Dex, Con and Int. Once I get my hands on ARG, I'd be looking more towards a +4Dex, Con & Int; +2 Wis; +6 or 8 Cha before looking to balance that in the rest of the build.


Shasazar wrote:
Azure_Zero wrote:
Did you like succubus tiefling, and half-succubus, I made?

I like it, though I think it might be a little on the powerful side. The Tiefling entry is a little confusing but this is probably because I don't know the ARG. For example, I'm assuming that the 'Racial Base' section are alternatives balanced against other races.

....

The racial base is for choosing your non-fiendish heritage,

And I know that Succubus touched Rev 2.2 is on the powerful side as it is a 20 RP build and most standard races are 10 RP build, with aasimar and tiefling at 12 RP build, so it is likely a CR 1 race, not CR1/2 like other tieflings

ARG playtest Here

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