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or with any other of the playable native outsiders (no, not that kind of fun, get your minds out of the gutter!
Am I correct in the assumption that, being native outsiders, rather than humanoids, a tiefling...
- comes with proficiency in all simple and martial weapons (as per definition of the outsider type
- are merrily unaffected by spells like Charm / Enlarge / Reduce / Hold / Dominate Person, as these spells target a humanoid creature?
- are subject to the +4 to the save on Spells like Hideous Laughter which is cast by a humanoid (of course, this works both ways...)
- is subject to taking damage (or extra damage) from holy/unholy water, as well as getting extra blasted by spells like (Un)holy word, Order's Wrath and the like?
Now, prize question: Can a Tiefling use Alter Self on himself, and if so, what happens? Changing into a humanoid (as per RAW) would allow him to cross the boundaries of type, while restricting him to his own type would enable him to change into about every other type of native outsider...
Do remember that tieflings are technically no more 'playable' than any other 0-hd race in the bestiary. As a bestiary creature, they are not primarily intended to be available for player characters. Discuss with your GM first.
A tiefling cannot be affected by anything that does not work on outsiders. That includes all of the humanoid only effects. Their type is outsider. Alter self can make one look like a humanoid and gain some abilities, but type does not change. Polymorph spells are best considered as magical disguises. They don't change who you truly are beneath the new shape.
Tieflings have actually gotten a decent bit of rules/fluff support outside of the Bestiary. There's a good sized section on them in the Council of Thieves AP, with racial feats, alternate racial traits, some racial backgrounds, traits, etc.
That said, I haven't seen any mention of special rules based on their type. Whether they're not intended to have the standard native outsider abilities, or it was simply an oversight that was never mentioned, I'm not sure.
I'm currently playing a tiefling bard, so I just wanted to dot this and see what came of it.
a very "by the rules" DM would probably say yes to all your questions, and say no to the question whether you may play a Tiefling or not.
This being said, there is the Ultimate, ehm Advanced Race Guide coming, it will probably downsize outsider races so that they are more playable.
As a personal houserule I would say no to all those above, because Tiefling get other goodies that are equally good than other races (if not better).
However in 3.5, with 1 level adjustment, I would have accepted all of the above.
Hmm... the more I think about it, the more the solution "Tiefling/Aasimar/Sylph/Undine/Oread/Ifrit gets the Humanoid (planetouched) type instead of Outsider (native)" appeals to me...
Given that the Bestiary information on Outsiders specifically calls out when rules are different for Native Outsiders (basically, they breathe, eat, sleep, and can be resurrected) I'd say the intention was that aasimars and tieflings do fall under those rules... but class skills, skill points per level, etc. are a function of hit dice and so they don't get those. Same with proficiencies.
Which ultimately means the only outsider traits they get are the darkvision of 60 feet (already listed) and not being counted as a humanoid (for better AND worse).
EDIT: Sorry for the thread necromancy, btw, but I have an aasimar player encountering some unholy water later this afternoon and was doing a search to see if someone had already covered the info I wanted.
Same issue here... Wherein do the native outsiders get affected by (Un)Holy Blight/Word? Is a Tiefling Paladin a 'good outsider' for the purposes of these spells?
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According to this thread, yes, any outsider of a good alignment is considered a "good outsider" for purposes of unholy blight, unholy water, etc.
Hmm... the more I think about it, the more the solution "Tiefling/Aasimar/Sylph/Undine/Oread/Ifrit gets the Humanoid (planetouched) type instead of Outsider (native)" appeals to me...
Yeah, I mentioned the baggage that comes with the Outsider (native) type to a friend of mine when I wanted to play a Suli in his game and he decided to house-rule a type change to Humanoid (planetouched) - and I decided to do the same thing in my next game (he's playing an Aasimar). The loss of immunity to Charm Person and Hold Person is balanced out by the loss of vulnerability to effects targeting "outsiders of alignment X" and the ability to benefit from Enlarge Person.