I really need to get my thoughts sorted. I was trying to write an entry about the Tiefling-esque 3.5 race the Hellbred (which, contrary to its name, isn't bred) and the number of tangents and maybe-relevant rabbit holes I'm going down (or at least mentioning) are staggering. They include:
why having a bonus on Sense Motive (= Insight) is significantly more useful than on saves against Poison in a game premised on dungeon crawling and other adventuring
the utility of devil-touched feats (and bonus feats in general)
the difficulty of acquiring the See in Darkness and Telepathy special abilities
Blindsight, the Mindsight feat, and the Lords of Madness supplement (the source of said feat)
the oddity of a race that scales as you level (and, thus, Gith and Humans)
level adjustment mechanics vs. the Advanced Race Guide
the Diabolus race, the Dragon Compendium, and Mystara
how Tieflings changed between 2nd/3rd and 4th/5th editions and why they suck as Sorcerers
the myriad problems with an Int penalty for all players
Paladins
But the oddest yet most related tangent so far has been The Book of Vile Darkness, which has led to discussion of:
Vile damage, game balance, and how a broken game mechanic might not end up being broken in play;
3.0, 3.5, and WotC's market/publication strategy in the oughts;
the Willing Deformity feat chain and its implications about Hasbro/WotC/D&D's stance on deformity, ableism, body modification, and alignment (specifically hypocrisy in failing to differentiate between lawfulness [conformity] and goodness);
the Book of Exalted Deeds and the dissonance between mature content labels and content that is rather immature or at least handles topics immaturely;
the Book of Erotic Fantasy, how psionics is the most balanced magic system in third edition bar none, and how gossip-based reputation trumps analysis of mechanical balance;
overly niche content;
edginess and edgelords;
and Caleb Widogast, stealth puns, and how D&D's baseline assumptions and expectations put players in positions where they can and likely will commit war crimes, crimes against human(oid)ity, and violations of the Geneva Conventions.
Anyway, if you want to play a Tiefling Sorcerer in 3.5, play a Spirit Hellbred. It's the same thing, doesn't come with the difficulties people have with being evil by birth but still has problems with being evil at birth, and is stupidly powerful (more powerful than either the Tiefling or the Diabolus) without a commensurate penalty. And you can be both damned and Lawful Good at the same time, so you won't violate your alignment/class for using evil magic items or spells with the [Evil] descriptor -- meaning a Sorcerer/Paladin can raise an army of undead (so long as they're somehow LG) FOR THE GLORY OF HEIRONEOUS-PELOR!
Because nothing says third edition like throwing the alignment system in the dumpster and lighting it on fire.
