Tiefling (starting race)

The tiefling is a playable race of hero that appears in dNetHack and notdNetHack. Tieflings are humans with demonic ancestry.

Tieflings can be of any alignment, and can play as an Archeologist, Barbarian, Binder, Convict, Healer, Knight, Madman, Monk, Pirate, Priest, Ranger, Samurai, Bard, Undead Hunter, or Wizard. A tiefling Healer is automatically converted to a dark fey'ri at game start.

Racial benefits and restrictions

Tieflings are classified as both human and demon. They hate holy items and silver, and are visible via infravision. Unlike most demonic creatures, tieflings are not weldproof.

Tieflings have poison resistance innately from experience level 1. They have normal night vision, and their special spell is abjuration, with a -20 spellcasting bonus.

Humans are treated as the same race for canibalism and same-race-sacrifice purposes, while gnomes, orcs, and dwarves are always hostile.

Unlike true demons, tieflings are not prevented from praying to lawful or neutral gods.

Attributes

Character Race	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
Tiefling	16	18	18	20	16	20

A tiefling's attribute caps are primarily skewed towards mental and social ability: they have high intelligence and charisma, standard dexterity and constitution, and lower strength and wisdom.

HP gain	Starting HP	Pre-cutoff	Post-cutoff
Tiefling	2	1d4	1
Energy gain	Starting energy	Pre-cutoff	Post-cutoff
Tiefling	1	2	2

Tieflings have modest HP growth and steady energy growth.

Mutations

Tieflings gain demonic mutations as they gain experience levels. These mutations are selected randomly from a large pool of tiefling traits, with most traits associated with a specific body part or other feature. A tiefling can have at most one mutation from each body-part slot.

Tieflings receive eight total mutations. They manifest at experience levels 3, 6, 10, 14, 18, 22, 26, and 30. Mutations are selected three levels before they appear, giving the player a preview message before the trait fully develops.

At game start, the first mutation is selected and queued for level 3. At levels 3, 7, 11, 15, 19, 23, and 27 a new mutation is selected and queued for three levels later.

The first mutation cannot be any of the following:

• Tears of blood
• Blinding hair
• Any wing mutation
• Magic breathing

The fallen mutations—fallen aura, fallen heritage, and golden scars—are mutually exclusive. Once any one of these mutations is granted, the other two are removed from the pool for all later mutation picks.

Most mutation effects are suppressed while the hero is polymorphed. Exceptions are noted where relevant.

Mutation ability rules

Many active mutation abilities are used through the mutation ability menu. Opening this menu requires at least 20 energy, and most active mutation abilities are unavailable while polymorphed.

Blast and cloud abilities from smell and windpipe mutations use freeform coordinate targeting. They have a maximum effective range of 4 squares by Chebyshev distance; attempting to target farther away gives a "Too far!" message. These abilities cost 20 energy when activated.

Sound-trait active abilities use different rules:

• Deafening croak scans adjacent squares automatically and only costs 20 energy if a valid adjacent hostile monster is found.
• Siren song automatically affects visible hostile monsters within range and always costs 20 energy.

Gaze mutations use a separate activation path. They can appear as a "Gaze at something" ability, are blocked by blindness, use freeform targeting, and do not cost energy. Some gaze effects also fire automatically against visible hostile monsters.

Smell traits

Smell-trait mutations are active targeted abilities. All are suppressed while polymorphed.

Forming trait	Final mutation	Effect
Corpse stench	Stinking clouds	Allows the tiefling to emit poisonous stinking clouds.
Sulfurous smell	Fiery blasts	Allows the tiefling to emit fiery blasts.
Ashy smell	Fiery blasts	Allows the tiefling to emit fiery blasts.
Frosty smell	Icy blasts	Allows the tiefling to emit icy blasts.
Pungent smell	Acidic blasts	Allows the tiefling to emit acidic blasts.

Stinking clouds

Stinking clouds create a persistent radius-3 poisonous gas cloud centered on the targeted square.

The cloud deals poison gas damage each turn equal to (level × 3 + 5) / 6. This gives 2 damage at level 3, 5 damage at level 10, 10 damage at level 20, and 15 damage at level 30.

Fiery blasts

Both fiery blast mutations are mechanically identical once fully developed; only their forming appearances differ. Fiery blasts create a radius-1 fire explosion at the targeted square.

Damage is (level + 2) / 3d6. This gives 1d6 at level 3, 3d6 at level 7, 4d6 at level 10, 7d6 at level 20, and 10d6 at level 30.

Icy blasts

Icy blasts create a radius-1 cold explosion at the targeted square.

Damage is (level + 2) / 3d6, using the same scaling as fiery blasts: 1d6 at level 3, 3d6 at level 7, 4d6 at level 10, 7d6 at level 20, and 10d6 at level 30.

Acidic blasts

Acidic blasts create a radius-1 acid explosion at the targeted square.

Damage is (level + 2) / 3d6, using the same scaling as fiery and icy blasts: 1d6 at level 3, 3d6 at level 7, 4d6 at level 10, 7d6 at level 20, and 10d6 at level 30.

Body skin

Body-skin mutations are passive and suppressed while polymorphed. They do not grant active abilities.

Forming trait	Final mutation	Effect
Small scales	Brittle scales	Grants an AC bonus.
Small scales	Durable scales	Grants a DR bonus.
Small scales	Metallic scales	Grants both AC and DR.
Small chitin plates	Chitinous plating	Grants both AC and DR.
Clammy skin	Slippery skin	Helps the tiefling escape grapples, tight spaces, and entangling effects.
Blotchy skin	Deadly spores	Adds an automatic disease counterattack during melee.

Brittle scales

Brittle scales grant an AC bonus, but no DR bonus:

• Levels 1-13: AC -1
• Levels 14-29: AC -3
• Level 30: AC -6

Durable scales

Durable scales grant a DR bonus, but no AC bonus:

• Levels 1-13: DR +3
• Levels 14-29: DR +6
• Level 30: DR +9

Metallic scales

Metallic scales grant both AC and DR:

• Levels 1-13: AC -1, DR +1
• Levels 14-29: AC -2, DR +3
• Level 30: AC -3, DR +6

Chitinous plating

Chitinous plating is mechanically identical to metallic scales, but has different flavor:

• Levels 1-13: AC -1, DR +1
• Levels 14-29: AC -2, DR +3
• Level 30: AC -3, DR +6

Slippery skin

Slippery skin has three passive effects:

• Grapple and wrap attacks slip off automatically instead of holding the tiefling.
• The tiefling can squeeze through tight spaces while over-encumbered.
• Entangling items, such as a rope of entangling, bands, or razor wire, automatically slip free without requiring an escape roll.

Deadly spores

Deadly spores are a passive counterattack. When the tiefling is struck in melee, deadly spores can be released against the attacker, dealing disease damage equal to the tiefling's experience level.

Mouth traits

Mouth-trait mutations are suppressed while polymorphed. They can grant bite attacks, special venom attacks, or a secondary jaw strike.

Forming trait	Final mutation	Effect
Elongated canines	Venomous fangs	Adds a poisonous bite attack.
Elongated canines	Vampiric fangs	Adds a blood-draining bite attack.
Bulging cheeks	Poisonous chelicerae	Adds a poisonous spider-like bite attack.
Bulging cheeks	Serpentine tongue	Adds a secondary serpent-jaw strike after successful melee hits.
Bulging cheeks	Blinding venom	Allows the tiefling to spit blinding venom.

Venomous fangs

Venomous fangs add a 1d6 bite attack. On hit, there is a 1-in-8 chance to poison the target. Nine times out of ten the poison deals 6–15 damage, otherwise it deals 80 damage.

Vampiric fangs

Vampiric fangs add a 1d6 vampiric bite attack. The bite drains blood from targets that have blood. Unlike a vampire hero, a tiefling does not gain nutrition from this blood drain; it only applies blood impurity.

Poisonous chelicerae

Poisonous chelicerae add a 1d6 poisonous bite attack. Mechanically, this is identical to venomous fangs.

Serpentine tongue

After each melee attack, the tongue-snake makes one additional 1d6 poisonous strike against a random hostile monster in the 3x3 area around the primary target. This may or may not be the same monster as the original target. The player may force-fight an empty square to trigger the tounge attack vs. otherwise out-of-reach targets.

The serpent strike poison effect is the same as venomous fangs.

Blinding venom

Blinding venom is an active ability. It spits a blinding venom projectile in a chosen cardinal or diagonal direction. It has a range of 8 squares and costs no energy. It uses directional targeting rather than freeform coordinate targeting. On hit, it blinds the target but deals no damage.

Windpipe

Windpipe mutations are active cloud abilities. Both are suppressed while polymorphed. They use the same targeting framework as smell-trait abilities: freeform coordinate targeting, a 4-square maximum range, and a 20 energy cost.

Both windpipe mutations create a persistent radius-3 cloud that lasts 4-6 turns. Creatures inside the cloud are affected each turn.

Forming trait	Final mutation	Effect
Cloudy breath	Smoke breath	Allows the tiefling to exhale a noxious smoke cloud.
Cloudy breath	Cold breath	Allows the tiefling to exhale a freezing mist.

Smoke breath

Smoke breath creates a noxious smoke cloud.

Smoke breath deals 2 + level damage per turn. It also blinds affected creatures for 1 turn, even if they resist the damage. A towel blocks all smoke effects. Breathless monsters or monsters with poison resistance take half damage; fire-resistant monsters also take half damage. A creature with both protections takes no damage.

Cold breath

Cold breath creates a freezing cloud. It counts as solid fog and reduces movement speed inside the cloud to at most one-third normal speed.

Cold breath deals 2 + (level + 5) / 6 cold damage per turn. Cold-resistant creatures are immune to the damage. A towel blocks all cold cloud effects. Standard cold effects apply, including potion destruction and special effects against golems.

Eyes

Eye mutations are the largest mutation category. All are suppressed while polymorphed. Many eye mutations interact with gaze attacks.

Forming trait	Final mutation	Effect
Black writing	Hateful vision	Reveals cursed items and allows the tiefling to gaze at holy or angelic foes to expose their weaknesses.
Black writing	Odd eyes	The tiefling's gaze can demoralize foes.
Blank white eyes	Infravision	Grants permanent infravision.
Blank white eyes	Extramission	Allows the tiefling to see in darkness and bright light.
Blank white eyes	Odd eyes	The tiefling's blank gaze can demoralize foes.
Extra eyes	Beholder eyes	Grants extra eyes that emit baleful rays.
Extra eyes	Vigilant eyes	Allows the tiefling to spot hidden things.
Extra eyes	Odd eyes	The tiefling's many-eyed gaze can demoralize foes.
Glowing eyes	Light emission	The tiefling's eyes emit light.
Glowing eyes	Extramission	Allows the tiefling to see in darkness and bright light.
Glowing eyes	Keen eyes	Allows the tiefling to spot hidden things.
Glowing eyes	Odd eyes	The tiefling's burning gaze can demoralize foes.
Large eye	Paralysis gaze	Adds a chance to paralyze foes during combat.
Large eye	Cancellation gaze	Allows the tiefling to cancel foes with a gaze.
Large eye	Probing gaze	Allows the tiefling to examine monsters in detail.
Swirling irises	Mesmerizing gaze	Allows the tiefling to pull foes closer with a gaze.
Clockwork eyes	Foresight	Improves the tiefling's attacks and defenses against visible attackers.
Bleeding eyes	Tears of blood	Damages sighted, blood-bearing foes that can see the tiefling.

Automatic and manual gazes

If the tiefling has a gaze mutation, automatic gaze attacks can trigger after movement or attacks. The gaze checks the first visible hostile monster in the direction the tiefling is facing, up to 8 squares away. Gazes that only fire when the tiefling attacks still fire if the target is killed, targetting the first surviving enemy in the chosen direction.

The many odd eyes mutation is an exception: the eyes can apply gaze effects to every visible hostile monster within 8 squares each turn.

Manual gaze activation uses freeform targeting, is blocked by blindness, and costs no energy. When activated manually, all applicable gaze effects fire.

Hateful vision

Hateful vision passively lets the tiefling always know when an item is cursed. Cursed items are treated as known when picked up or displayed; uncursed and blessed status must still be learned normally.

Its gaze effect works against holy or angelic creatures that hate unholy beings. It exposes the target's weakness, increasing damage from later attacks. The stored weakness damage halves each time it is used.

Odd eyes

The three ordinary odd-eye mutations are mechanically identical, though they have different appearances: curse-graven, blank, and burning. Their gaze demoralizes non-mindless targets, making the monster less effective in combat. The effect can stack down to a minimum encouragement value of -6. These gazes can trigger automatically during movement.

Many odd eyes

Many odd eyes use the same demoralizing gaze as ordinary odd eyes, but affect every visible hostile monster within 8 squares each turn rather than only the first hostile in the tiefling's facing direction.

Infravision

Infravision grants permanent infravision.

Extramission

Extramission allows the tiefling to see in both darkness and bright light, and prevents light-blinding. The two extramission mutations are mechanically identical and differ only in appearance.

Beholder eyes

Beholder eyes fire three random gaze rays when the tiefling attacks a target. Each ray deals 4d6 with a random beholder-style gaze effect.

Light emission

Light emission causes the tiefling to emit light in a radius of 2 and grants low-light sight. This mutation is excluded for dark fey'ri, since their darksight would cause them to be blinded by their own emitted light.

Vigilant eyes and keen eyes

Vigilant eyes and keen eyes are mechanically identical. Each turn, while the tiefling is not blind or light-blinded, they automatically search for hidden doors, traps, and similar hidden features.

Paralysis gaze

Paralysis gaze adds a paralysis gaze counter-attack. It only fires when the tiefling is not blind, and its chance scales with level:

• Level 1: approximately 0%
• Level 10: approximately 33%
• Level 22 and above: approximately 67%

Cancellation gaze

Cancellation gaze allows the tiefling to cancel targets with a gaze. It can trigger automatically during movement.

Probing gaze

Probing gaze passively probes monsters when the tiefling looks at them. This reveals monster HP, DR information, and inventory.

Mesmerizing gaze

Mesmerizing gaze pulls the target 1 step toward the tiefling if the monster can see the tiefling and fails its resistance check. It does not deal damage, and only fires when the tiefling attacks a target.

Foresight

Foresight from clockwork eyes modifies weapon attacks made by or against visible combatants. When the tiefling attacks, it grants a to-hit bonus; when a visible attacker attacks the tiefling, it applies a to-hit penalty to the attacker.

The modifier depends on the attacker's alignment:

• Chaotic: rnd(4)
• Neutral: rnd(10)
• Lawful: rnd(20)

Tears of blood

Tears of blood is a passive aura and is blacklisted from the initial first mutation. Each turn, it damages every visible monster within 8 squares that:

• can see the tiefling,
• has blood,
• has at least one eye.

Damage is (level + 9) / 10 per turn. The effect cannot kill; it leaves the target at a minimum of 1 HP. Floating eyes take double damage.

Fingers

Finger mutations are mutually exclusive and are suppressed while polymorphed.

Forming trait	Final mutation	Effect
Cold fingers	Cold touch	Adds a cold touch attack.
Cold fingers	Drain touch	Adds a life-draining touch attack.
Warm fingers	Fire touch	Adds a fire touch attack.
Tingling fingers	Shock touch	Adds an electric touch attack.
Extra fingers	Enhanced spellcasting	Improves spellcasting.
Webbed fingers	Swimming webs	Grants swimming.
Small claws	Razor claws	Improves unarmed attacks with slashing claws.
Small claws	Hard claws	Improves unarmed attacks with hard blunt claws.
Small claws	Hooked claws	Improves unarmed attacks with slashing and piercing claws.
Small claws	Talons	Improves unarmed attacks with piercing talons.

Elemental and draining touch

Cold touch, fire touch, shock touch, and drain touch add touch attacks. These attacks are suppressed while using a shield or two-weapon fighting.

Cold touch, fire touch, and shock touch deal (level + 5) / 6d6 damage of their respective element. Drain touch deals a flat 1d6 life-drain damage.

Enhanced spellcasting

Enhanced spellcasting from extra fingers improves spellcasting in two ways:

• It adds the robe bonus to spellcasting.
• It treats all spells as 3 points (3/4 of a spell level) easier for success-rate calculation.

Swimming webs

Swimming webs grant permanent swimming. They do not allow the tiefling to spin webs; that ability belongs to silk spinners.

Claws and talons

Razor claws, hard claws, hooked claws, and talons improve unarmed attacks. Having any claw or talon mutation adds six faces to the unarmed damage die, raising normal unarmed damage from d2 to d8 before martial-arts or other special scaling.

Each claw type changes the attack's damage type:

• Razor claws add slashing damage.
• Hard claws retain blunt damage.
• Hooked claws use slashing and piercing damage instead of blunt.
• Talons add piercing damage.

Shadow traits

Shadow-trait mutations are suppressed while polymorphed. They grant automatic shadow attacks, shadow magic, or the ability to summon a shade.

Forming trait	Final mutation	Effect
Tortured shadow	Pain shadow	The tiefling's shadow inflicts pain on nearby foes.
Tortured shadow	Shredding shadow	The tiefling's shadow shreds nearby foes and their armor.
Wandering shadow	Summon shade	Allows the tiefling to summon a pet shade.
Gesticulating shadow	Shadow casting	Allows the tiefling's shadow to cast hostile spells.

Pain shadow

Pain shadow automatically attacks adjacent hostile monsters each turn. It can strike up to 8 adjacent hostiles, with each adjacent square having a 1-in-2 chance to be skipped. Damage is 1d(1 + level / 6) pain damage.

Shredding shadow

Shredding shadow uses the same automatic attack framework as pain shadow, but deals shredding damage instead.

Summon shade

Summon shade is an active ability that summons a pet shade adjacent to the tiefling. The shade is leveled up to match the tiefling's level. The ability costs energy equal to the tiefling's level.

The shade lasts for Charisma + level turns, plus an additional Charisma turns if the tiefling has at least 20 insight.

Shadow casting

Shadow casting gives the tiefling's shadow a 10% chance each turn to cast a hostile spell at a random visible hostile monster within 8 squares. The possible spells are:

• Paralyze
• Destroy weapon
• Destroy armor
• Open wounds
• Psi bolt

Only one spell can be cast per turn.

Blood

Blood mutations are mutually exclusive retaliatory passives. They are suppressed while polymorphed and trigger when the tiefling is struck in melee.

All four blood mutations use the same damage scaling: (level + 5) / 6d6.

Forming trait	Final mutation	Effect
Warm body	Fiery blood	Burns melee attackers.
Cool body	Icy blood	Chills melee attackers.
Bilious veins	Acidic blood	Burns melee attackers with acid.
Sickly pallor	Poisonous blood	Poisons melee attackers.

Sound traits

Sound-trait mutations are mutually exclusive.

Forming trait	Final mutation	Effect
Baggy throat	Deafening croak	Allows the tiefling to emit a sonic blast.
Bat-like ears	Echolocation	Grants permanent echolocation.
Musical voice	Siren song	Allows the tiefling to sing a hypnotic song.

Deafening croak

Deafening croak is an active ability and is suppressed while polymorphed. It scans the 3x3 area around the tiefling for a valid adjacent hostile monster. If one is found, it emits a sonic blast that affects all 8 surrounding squares.

Damage is (level + 2) / 3d6 sonic damage. The ability costs 20 energy only if a valid adjacent hostile is found.

Echolocation

Echolocation grants permanent echolocation.

Siren song

Siren song is an active ability and is suppressed while polymorphed. It costs 20 energy and has two effects:

• Visible hostile monsters within 8 squares that are not deaf are pulled 1 step toward the tiefling if they fail a resistance check.
• The tiefling gains a bladesong buff that increases weapon damage from compatible weapons while it lasts.

The bladesong duration depends on Charisma:

• Charisma 25: 13 turns
• Otherwise: (Charisma - 10) / 2 + 5 turns, giving 5 turns at Charisma 10 and 9 turns at Charisma 18.

Hair

Hair mutations are mutually exclusive and suppressed while polymorphed.

Forming trait	Final mutation	Effect
Spiky hair	Thorny hair	Retaliates against melee attackers.
Fiery hair	Fiery aura	Burns nearby foes.
Frosty hair	Icy aura	Freezes nearby foes.
Shimmering hair	Blinding aura	Blinds attackers that attempt gaze attacks.
Writhing hair	Biting hair	Automatically bites nearby foes.

Thorny hair

Thorny hair retaliates when the tiefling is struck in melee. It deals (level + 9) / 10d(2 + level / 3) damage.

Fiery aura

Fiery aura damages visible hostile monsters that lack fire resistance. Damage is d(level / 10 + 1),4 fire damage per turn.

The aura is distance-scaled: nearby monsters take damage, while more distant monsters are outside the effective range. While swallowed, the aura deals 8 times its normal damage to the engulfing monster.

Icy aura

Icy aura is mechanically identical to fiery aura, but deals cold damage. Monsters with cold resistance are immune. While swallowed, the aura deals 8 times its normal damage to the engulfing monster.

Blinding aura

Blinding aura is blacklisted from the initial first mutation. When a sighted attacker makes a gaze-type attack against the tiefling, the attack is cancelled and the attacker is blinded for 2d6 turns. The attacker must have eyes and must not already be blind.

Biting hair

Biting hair automatically attacks adjacent monsters each turn. It uses a vampiric 1d4 bite. Each pass scans the 8 surrounding squares, with a 1-in-2 chance to skip each square.

The number of attacks scales by level:

• Levels 1-10: one pass, up to 8 possible adjacent attacks
• Levels 11-20: two passes, up to 16 possible adjacent attacks
• Levels 21-30: three passes, up to 24 possible adjacent attacks

As with vampiric fangs, tieflings gain no nutrition from the blood drain.

Horns

Horn mutations are mutually exclusive. They are suppressed while polymorphed and add gore attacks. When a horn mutation is granted, the tiefling's worn helmet is forcibly removed if it no longer fits the horn shape.

Forming trait	Final mutation	Effect
Small horns	Ram's horns	Adds a sturdy physical gore attack.
Small horns	Demon horns	Adds a demonic gore attack.
Small horn	Diseased unicorn horn	Adds a cursed unicorn-horn gore attack.
Budding antlers	Antlers	Adds antler gore attacks that scale with level.
Small horns	Bull horns	Adds a powerful physical gore attack.

Ram's horns

Ram's horns add a physical gore attack:

• Levels 1-13: 2d3
• Levels 14-29: 2d4
• Level 30: 4d4

Bull horns

Bull horns add a physical gore attack:

• Levels 1-13: 2d4
• Levels 14-29: 2d6
• Level 30: 2d8

Antlers

Antlers add a physical gore attack that scales smoothly with level: 2d(2 + level / 3). This ranges from 2d2 at level 1 to 2d12 at level 30.

Demon horns

Demon horns add a gore attack:

• Levels 1-13: 2d2 physical damage
• Levels 14-29: 2d3 physical damage
• Level 30: 2d9 unholy-cold damage

At level 30, demon horns become a triple-component attack:

• Physical damage
• Cold damage, unless the target has cold resistance
• Unholy shard damage against creatures that hate unholy beings

Diseased unicorn horn

Diseased unicorn horn adds a cursed unicorn-horn gore attack:

• Levels 1-13: 1d1
• Levels 14-29: 1d4
• Level 30: 1d12

Each hit applies one of six random effects. Against the player, these are sickness, blindness, confusion, stunning, random stat drain, or hallucination. Against monsters, the effects correspond to disease, blindness, confusion, stunning, physical damage, or hallucination.

Tails

Tail mutations are mutually exclusive and suppressed while polymorphed.

Forming trait	Final mutation	Effect
Tail bud	Prehensile tail	Allows two-handed weapons to be treated as one-handed.
Tail bud	Lashing tail	Adds an automatic tail attack.
Tail bud	Stinger tail	Adds a poisonous stinger attack.
Tail bud	Snake-headed tail	Adds an automatic poisonous tail attack.
Tail bud	Thieving tail	Automatically steals from nearby hostile monsters.
Tail bud	Regeneration	Grants lizard-tail regeneration.
Tail bud	Silk spinners	Allows the tiefling to spin webs and ignore web traps.

Prehensile tail

Prehensile tail allows the tiefling to treat two-handed weapons as one-handed, using the tail as an extra grip. It does not grant a combat attack.

Lashing tail

Lashing tail makes one automatic adjacent tail attack each turn, with a 1-in-2 chance to skip the eligible adjacent target. Damage is 1d(2 + level / 3) physical damage.

Stinger tail

Stinger tail adds a 1d4 poisonous sting attack. It uses the same 1-in-8 strength-draining poison chance as venomous fangs.

Snake-headed tail

Snake-headed tail makes one automatic adjacent poisonous attack each turn, with a 1-in-2 chance to skip the eligible adjacent target. It deals 1d6 damage and uses the same 1-in-8 strength-draining poison chance as venomous fangs.

Thieving tail

Thieving tail automatically scans nearby squares each turn. If an adjacent hostile monster has a stealable item, the tail attempts to steal one item. There is a 7-in-8 chance to attempt the theft and a 1-in-8 chance to skip. The effect stops after the first successful theft attempt.

Regeneration

Regeneration from lizard tail increases the tiefling's per-turn HP regeneration rate by the same amount as the regeneration intrinsic. It is suppressed by effects that block regeneration, such as bleeding or extreme encumbrance.

Silk spinners

Silk spinners allow the tiefling to spin webs. The mutation also makes the tiefling immune to being trapped in web traps.

Wings

Wing mutations are mutually exclusive. They are blacklisted from the initial first mutation.

All wing mutations are mechanically identical: they grant permanent flying. They differ only in appearance.

Forming trait	Final mutation	Effect
Vestigial wings	Flying	Grants flight on bat-like wings.
Vestigial wings	Flying	Grants flight on black-feathered wings.
Vestigial wings	Flying	Grants flight on white-feathered wings.
Vestigial wings	Flying	Grants flight on red-feathered wings.
Vestigial wings	Flying	Grants flight on giant fly's wings.

Auras

Aura mutations are mutually exclusive and suppressed while polymorphed.

Forming trait	Final mutation	Effect
Unsettling aura	Unsettling aura	Grants an AC bonus.
Unsettling aura	Resistant aura	Grants a DR bonus.
Unsettling aura	Fallen aura	Sears both holy and unholy beings.

Unsettling aura

Unsettling aura grants an AC bonus:

• Levels 1-13: AC -1
• Levels 14-29: AC -2
• Level 30: AC -3

Resistant aura

Resistant aura grants a DR bonus:

• Levels 1-13: DR +1
• Levels 14-29: DR +3
• Level 30: DR +6

Fallen aura

Fallen aura is one of the three mutually exclusive fallen mutations. While active, the tiefling's aura counts as both holy and unholy, searing both types of vulnerable creatures.

Against unholy creatures that hate holy beings, the tiefling is treated as a holy attacker and deals 3d7 searing damage on melee contact and when striking with a holy weapon.

Against holy creatures that hate unholy beings, the tiefling is treated as an unholy attacker and deals 4d9 searing damage on melee contact and when striking with an unholy weapon.

If the fallen mutation is golden scars, the attack attribution message refers to the tiefling's golden scars instead of their aura.

Appearance

Appearance mutations are mutually exclusive and suppressed while polymorphed.

Forming trait	Final mutation	Effect
Attractive appearance	Charming appearance	Allows the tiefling to charm monsters into giving gifts.
Attractive appearance	Disarming appearance	Allows the tiefling to seduce monsters into disarming.
Attractive appearance	Fallen heritage	Grants the fallen searing effect.
Chain-scars	Golden scars	Grants the fallen searing effect, attributed to golden scars.

Charming appearance

Charming appearance functions while the tiefling is unarmed. It can charm a target into giving up an item. It works on both same-gender and opposite-gender targets in the same general style as nymph seduction.

The effect is blocked by Chastity or an engagement ring. If the target has no inventory the attack proceeds as a normal unarmed hit.

Disarming appearance

Disarming appearance functions while the tiefling is unarmed. It can seduce an opposite-gender target into disarming. On success, the target removes its wielded weapon, swap weapon, and worn armor.

The effect is blocked by Chastity or an engagement ring. If the seduction check fails, the attack proceeds as a normal unarmed hit.

Fallen heritage

Fallen heritage is one of the three mutually exclusive fallen mutations. It grants the same holy-and-unholy searing effect described under fallen aura, with no additional unique mechanics.

Golden scars

Golden scars are one of the three mutually exclusive fallen mutations. They grant the same holy-and-unholy searing effect described under fallen aura. When this effect deals damage, the attribution message refers to the tiefling's golden scars.

Magic breathing

Magic breathing has no body-part slot and does not compete with any other mutation. It is blacklisted from the initial first mutation, but can be granted later.

Forming trait	Final mutation	Effect
Drowned appearance	Magic breathing	Grants magical breathing.

Magic breathing grants the magical breathing intrinsic. This lets the tiefling breathe and survive underwater, and makes them breathless for purposes such as suffocation immunity. The effect is suppressed while polymorphed.

Starting equipment

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Dark fey'ri

Dark fey'ri are a tiefling subtype representing tieflings with drow ancestry. A tiefling who chooses the Healer role is automatically converted into a dark fey'ri at game start.

Dark fey'ri are classified as elves, drow, and demons, rather than as humans and demons. They are chaotic only, and can be male or female.

Dark fey'ri hate holy items, silver, and iron. They have darksight instead of normal night vision or infravision, and are trackers. Their special spell is sleep, with a -5 spellcasting penalty. Fey, other elf factions, and orcs are treated as enemies.

Dark fey'ri have poison resistance from level 1 and gain sleep resistance at level 4. They also gain an elvish regeneration bonus, though it is weaker than that of full elves or drow.

Dark fey'ri use the same mutation system as tieflings, with one exception: they cannot receive the light emission mutation, since emitted light would blind them due to their darksight.

Dark fey'ri attributes

Character Race	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
Dark fey'ri	15	20	16	20	16	20

HP gain	Starting HP	Pre-cutoff	Post-cutoff
Dark fey'ri	6	1d6	1
Energy gain	Starting energy	Pre-cutoff	Post-cutoff
Dark fey'ri	6	1d6	1d4

Dark fey'ri have lower strength and constitution caps than ordinary tieflings, but have higher dexterity, as well as much stronger starting HP, starting energy, and pre-cutoff HP and energy growth.

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