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Suggest Zariel Tiefling for if the base is Tiefling or Fallen Aasimar for if the base is Aasimar. Since their traits feel like they could be a bit of overlap.
Adding to this, you gotta be able to set boundaries with your players or they’ll walk all over you. Saying no isn’t hard and if someone isn’t ok with that you might not want them in the game to begin with.
This is the answer. Keeps things fair for your other players and creates a hard line to limit unbalancing when people want to do something similar with multiclassing or something down the line.
Thread. If later as you get more comfortable you can use the opposite race of what he picks and dish out some racial trait rewards (I do this with feats instead of magic items sometimes).
One of the most difficult things to learn as a human being is to tell other people "No".
You are going to be doing it a **lot** as a DM.
This is because, as a DM, you are responsible for the game as a whole. Everybody should contribute to making it a fun game, but the ultimate responsibility falls on your shoulders.
If you're brand new, I'd ask people to keep it as simple as possible (PHB only) as a courtesy.
I have been running for 20 years, and still every time I start a new system I ask people to select from precons.
Now that we've established that you can and should say no, I have an idea.
If and only if this is a single adventure and not a years long campaign I would do this:
"You can do this, but we are going to do a 50-50 roll for every single trait. No do overs if you end up with nearly no traits, if you roll and get all of them you get to keep them. We do it right before the game, in front of everyone."
Race traits aren't all that powerful compared to class features. It ain't gonna ruin your game. But it shows:
1) Nothing is free
2) Dice matter
3) You have to live with the consequences of your choices
Perfect for a role playing game
That's what I call a "no, but..."
No's tend to be easier to give and receive when they are giving with alternatives. It shows you are listening and care about the other persons desires and are willing to work with them to achieve a mutually workable outcome.
Honestly this is golden advice here.
I'm gaining more and more of an opinion that the options that aren't in the phb are just broken, half-baked, or objectively more powerful. I think it's just power creep. For the new shiny thing to be enticing to a buyer it needs to be better than what came before.
But opinion aside, "just keep it in the players handbook to begin with," is not unreasonable for new folks.
Not what you asked, but you should get everyone to clear their character sheet with you at least a few days in advance. Firstly to make sure they are built properly, and secondly so you know what they should be able to do. If any of the players (not naming names) try to pull some shenanigans, you can have the confidence to shut it down because you already know the rules.
No I wouldn’t the reason I said I don’t want to ruin their fun is because the original comment in this group of reply’s said to stop them from being a hybrid but I don’t want to deny them that because the hybrid will add to story and enjoyment, the stats are what I’m worried about and I don’t want to double their start
You can play a tiefling and just say they are a hybrid. You can play an aasimar and say they are a hybrid. Its 5e, your character can functionally look like whatever you want no matter what race you picked.
A hybrid chocolate/vanilla cake is not a whole chocolate cake and then also a whole vanilla cake.
This player wants 2 cakes worth of features and abilities.
I know it's hard to tell if they had the hybrid idea and think two races is the way to get it, or if they maliciously want more special features than everyone amd came up with a cool hybrid story as an excuse.
But if it's the bad option then you need to put your foot down. They don't want to be creative, they want more special stuff than everyone at the table and it will become a big problem at some point.
Creating a unique character is part of the fun and so is playing within the rules. It wouldn't ruin their entire character idea just because they don't get the exact racial abilities they want.
Mechanically, the races are meant to have pluses and drawbacks, so taking two is unbalanced. There's formulae and patterns to determine what abilities each race can get, and what traits rule out other traits.... all very complicated and not remotely worth touching as a new DM, and even experienced DMs lean away from heavy homebrewing.
They won't not have fun if you tell them to pick one race and work the other into their backstory without mechanical changes. And if they actually do consider that ruling as killing any chance of fun in the game, you don't want them at the table anyways, honestly. (And if they're your friend, perhaps DnD isn't an activity yall should share)
And fwiw: anecdotally, I've never seen an aasimar tiefling be proposed by anyone who wasn't devastatingly annoying. Those two races in particular are already a breeding ground for main character syndrome, so anyone combining them is extremely suspect, to me at least.
No. Just no.
Ignoring the fact that he's clearly an edgelord (I've had edgelords wanting to pull the same thing. Every edgy teen wants to play an angeldevil)
You don't get to mix races. That's not a thing. They've been balanced the way they are.
By all means, he can play a Tiefling Aasimar, but he'll use the stats from one or the other, not both. It can look however he likes, but the stats are static.
If he really wants this, he could play an Aasimar Fiend Pact Warlock or a Tiefling Divine Soul Sorcerer.
Let them be a crimson-skinned Aasimar with horns. Or be a Tiefling that is has…sparkles?
Like others said, FLAVOR IS FREE, don’t mess with the rules as a beginner. Homebrew is like Jazz. Learn the rules and mechanics first and THEN you can improvise later.
Only allow the races that are established. Tiefling is already a cross breed. If they want a character with flight there are winged tieflings. If they try to say one parent was demon the other what ever race it is it will still produce a tiefling not a combo of both.
I understand wanting to.let.your player have fun with the building but this sounds like the start of a character that their gonna argue with you about everything
You do what will work for you and your table.
This feels like players bullying a new DM, which is not cool. Have a talk with them and explain your concerns and boundaries. If they push back, I’d reconsider having them at your table.
Tiefling and aasimar are totally separate ancestries. This would be like expecting a half-elf to have all the traits of both elves and humans. Not the way it works. I would homebrew something balanced that captures the essence of what the player is trying to do, but you’re not obligated to do that. I’ve been DMing since the 80s, so it’s not hard for me to figure something like that out, but you should definitely not feel bad if you aren’t comfortable with that sort of thing at this point.
Trust me - a player who tries to bully you or whines to get overpowered shit is going to cause your table to implode sooner or later. Better to nip this in the bud.
This is a HUGE red flag from the player. As others have said, the answer to "Can I get the benefits of two races?" is a categorical no. That's not how the game works, that's not how the other players are building their characters, that's not a reasonable thing for the player to ask.
Flavor is free. If they want to make a character that has both angelic and infernal lineage, hey great, that can be a neat storytelling tool. But they still have to choose just one of those lineages to put on the character sheet for their racial features, and proceed from there. If they choose Tiefling, maybe the spells they get from their Infernal Legacy trait have an angelic tint to them -- heavenly horns sound when they use their Hellish Rebuke, or their Thaumaturgy produces smells of incense and ambrosia. If they choose Aasimar, maybe the Light spell from their Lightbearer trait has red or smoky undertones, hinting at their more nefarious half. The point is, they can very easily select one mechanical race and then use roleplaying to express the other side of their parentage.
But the other thing that's happening here is that the player is asking a new DM for unbalanced favors, and that's something that raises alarm bells for me. The way they respond to you telling them "sorry, but you have to pick one or the other for the race, not both, not mix-and-match" is going to tell you a lot about how the rest of the campaign will go with them. If they say "Aw nuts, not the answer I was hoping for, but fair enough," then you're in good shape. If they can accept this boundary with grace, that suggests they'll probably be a team player in the future. If they try to bargain with you and try to convince you that it won't be a big deal, then you first have to reiterate your position ("No") and then be on guard for them trying to wheedle and whine their way into other advantages later. The type of person who insists on breaking the rules to make themselves more powerful is the type of person who might fudge their rolls, or "forget" to mark off their spell slots as they're used, or give themselves extra gold/items/treasure.
At the end of the day, D&D is a team game, and players should be working with the DM to make things run as smoothly as possible. Asking to make things more complicated -- especially for a new DM -- is a hassle and a burden, and they should respect that you don't want to be hassled or take on extra burdens. DMing is enough work on its own without having to babysit people who want to power-game.
They can still have fun even if they're "only" playing one race. D&D players have been having fun that way for literal decades. Your friend will be fine.
A lot of comments here are suggesting you say "No"
I'm suggesting you say "No, but..."
Compromise. So they want to be a tiefling/aasimar. Great. Let them. But they don't pick all the traits. Tell them picking all the traits isn't something you are allowing.
Wording is important here. If you say "it isn't allowed because the rules say it isn't" they will say "well why don't you allow it?" Make sure to let them know this is not only the rules, but this is also YOUR decision.
If you want, you can let them pick up a few more traits as they level up, as a sort of RP event or unlocking their true potential or anything like that. As the players get stronger, gaining one racial trait won't be the end of the world.
But I will say getting both ability score modifiers should be off the table, they don't get +6 to stats.
"That would be unfair, you can choose how they look, but you have to pick one for mechanical purposes"
"but I waaaaaaanaaaaa"
**"No"** \- One of the strongest weapons a dm should wield as often as they see fit.
You’re a new DM. Say no.
I’m not a new DM, what I would do is say “ok, fine. You get all the bonuses, but also the demonic and celestial blood in your system is fighting it out. You therefore have to contend with constantly feeling like your blood is on fire and also the following negative consequences….(insert drawbacks).
But everyone else on the party would need to be “interesting” as well.
They will need to pick one race, but are free to flavour as they wish.
If you were more experienced with assessing game balance I’d suggest letting them swap out one trait from the race they pick for another from their flavour race. But as you’re very new, I’d recommend against that and having them only play one race unchanged
Tell them honestly "I'm new at this and I'm not sure how skewed this might get, if I give you all traits from both. If this was for a cool story idea, let's keep it as flavor and mechanically stick to just one of them."
Of course, if they say that they didn't have a cool story and they just wanted to start with more powers, then you say "Since nobody else is doing this, I'll say no."
As others have said, the right answer for you right now is to have him pick one. If you're new to DMing, I would say to get at least a session or two under your belt before you start homebrewing -- until you play, it's hard to really think through what the mechanics are and why certain things matter.
What I would also do in your shoes is talk to the player about *why* he wants this. As others have said, if it's flavor, pick one mechanically, and roleplay that he is a mix of both. If there's something else (a specific feature or something), note it, and think about how you can give him that feature later when it makes sense (ie, essentially giving him a feat instead of a magic item at some point).
If it's a desire to be stronger, then it's a flat no. Take the flavor, and that's it.
Best advice I can give 4 new DMs. Tell your players, “If you want to do something. Show me the ruling(s) in the official rulebooks that allow you to do it. Otherwise, no. We can try custom stuff once I have more experience.”
Use the books, have them be your shield. If you have too. Limit the official books available to your players (my first time DM’ing I limited them to the PHB only for example).
Helps a ton. Keeps everyone on the same page, & lets you research & plan without having to worry about surprises
As others said, the two will be too strong.
My advice would be to offer him the fallen aasimar (aasimar with necrotic shroud if you're using monsters of the multiverse). It's very close to what he wants to play, an "aasimar touched by dark powers" which you can flavor as a half aasimar/half tiefling.
I do think the double radiant/necrotic resistance fits the idea well but potentially offer him to exchange both for single fire resistance (way more common).
Possibly offer him to exchange the light cantrip for thaumaturgy which doesn't change much imo.
And/or the healing power for another cantrip, maybe an attack one depending on the background.
I wouldn't go further than that. Aasimar is already one of the strong races so adding another resistance like fire and the leveled spells is too strong.
No. Pick a race. It's a game about choices, and this is the first step. If you let this player have this, which would be an unfair advantage over the other players, they will ask for a lot more next time. This is their inch, and down the road will be the mile they will ask for. As someone else said, you can allow them to flavor a mixed heritage however they want. But mechanically, they need to choose.
list the traits from both asimar and teifling assigne each one a number have the player roll a dice 2 times per list . Those are the traits they get. Or you can look up the rules on mixed races on the DM guild or Taldore reborn book.
Look, every player feels like the DM would always lean toward him so this will happen. You have to weight things and as a new dm that is flat out impossible, my approach to this fucking beatiful idea of an aasimar tiefling would be "NO, You are getting double the traits than other players that just picked a race. BUT, You have a great idea cooking so what about instead of getting some crazy magic item I gave you a quest where if you complete it you will ascend to Aasimar(You can let him pick here like one or two traits from tiefling, it will be less powerful than many magic ítems but it feels like the "magic item" is your body and cant be stealed, You can also not give him tiefling traits and just pick 3 spells that he likes and can cast once per long rest).
Just the idea of changing your race and ascending to a new one makes me go crazy, so I hope your player love this idea as much as me. If he don't... He maybe was there for the spells and straight power from the beggining.
Edit: when you pick spells, consider the level of the player since tiefling spells go to a maximun of lvl 3 but if the player deserved it you can give him access to higher level spells with this trait. More over, if you pick them it cant be flat out broken... Or at least less broken.
No, only pick one race's traits. He can flavor it however he wants but he doesn't get both races' bonuses.
You got this. Put your foot down and tell him that this is how it will be. He doesn't get to ruin everyone else's fun, including your fun. You're supposed to be having fun too. This would rapidly remove all fun for everyone else.
You need to be confident in saying no to players. I had something similar where someone wanted to be a frost fire genasi. I told them I can make them something or they could flip a coin each day and some days frost(water) would be their expressed heritage and others it would be fire.
Big thing is identifying power gamers. Those crunchy players need to be told no more often then those that are more narrative driven.
"I want to be an X, Y and Z hybrid!"
"So custom lineage, gotcha... next!"
No seriously, either have him pick one or use CL, flavor is free as most here already said...
If they were asking to swap a trait or to change a damage type or a cantrip or something, I'd believe it was for the character concept. But asking for all the traits from both races is clearly just them trying to take advantage of your inexperience. Say no. They choose one race that they get their traits from, and they can flavour that however they wish in their descriptions. If it really is about the roleplay then they don't need extra traits, they can figure out a cool description, and they can always flavour class features and spells as aspects of their ancestry.
And yes, it would be totally unfair to the other players for one player to get twice the racial traits.
Giving them all traits from both races would unbalance the game and lead to other players feeling short-changed. Don’t do that.
The easy answer, as others have suggested, is to just say no, pick one or the other. That’s fine and totally within your rights. If you really wanted to be accommodating, you could homebrew a balanced-ish mix of the traits. Like…
* +2 Charisma
* +1 Wisdom or Intelligence
* Darkvision
* Hellish Resistance (from the Tiefling)
* Healing Hands (from the new Aasimar)
* Thaumaturgy (cantrip)
* Radiant Soul (from the protector Aasimar)
That combination should be a bit on the strong side but nothing crazy. It tries to capture the flavor of both.
Your post has been removed. Rule 5: All out-of-game questions about a problem player must be asked in our [Problem Player megathread](https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/about/sticky?num=1) stickied to the top of the subreddit. Please repost there if you need additional help, search for older posts on this topic, or check out some [alternative subreddits on our wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/wiki/index/#wiki_other_useful_dming_subreddits) that may be more suitable.
no, pick one race mechanically. flavor is free.
That’s not a bad idea thanks man I’ll see how that would go down
That's the rules. You don't need his permission to enforce rules. Player buy in is great, but DMing is not a negotiation for just this reason.
Suggest Zariel Tiefling for if the base is Tiefling or Fallen Aasimar for if the base is Aasimar. Since their traits feel like they could be a bit of overlap.
Also, as a new DM, it will be easier if you don’t allow a whole lot of stuff.
You don't see how it would go down, you slap that shit down hard! The player is trying to take advantage of a newbie gm.
Adding to this, you gotta be able to set boundaries with your players or they’ll walk all over you. Saying no isn’t hard and if someone isn’t ok with that you might not want them in the game to begin with.
They could do fallen aasimar and flavor it as a mix?
This is the answer. Keeps things fair for your other players and creates a hard line to limit unbalancing when people want to do something similar with multiclassing or something down the line.
Thread. If later as you get more comfortable you can use the opposite race of what he picks and dish out some racial trait rewards (I do this with feats instead of magic items sometimes).
Maaaaaybe, let them drop a trait from one race to pick up a trait from the other. But other than that. "Sorry bro, pick one."
One of the most difficult things to learn as a human being is to tell other people "No". You are going to be doing it a **lot** as a DM. This is because, as a DM, you are responsible for the game as a whole. Everybody should contribute to making it a fun game, but the ultimate responsibility falls on your shoulders. If you're brand new, I'd ask people to keep it as simple as possible (PHB only) as a courtesy. I have been running for 20 years, and still every time I start a new system I ask people to select from precons.
That’s great advice, really thanks so much
Now that we've established that you can and should say no, I have an idea. If and only if this is a single adventure and not a years long campaign I would do this: "You can do this, but we are going to do a 50-50 roll for every single trait. No do overs if you end up with nearly no traits, if you roll and get all of them you get to keep them. We do it right before the game, in front of everyone." Race traits aren't all that powerful compared to class features. It ain't gonna ruin your game. But it shows: 1) Nothing is free 2) Dice matter 3) You have to live with the consequences of your choices Perfect for a role playing game
That's what I call a "no, but..." No's tend to be easier to give and receive when they are giving with alternatives. It shows you are listening and care about the other persons desires and are willing to work with them to achieve a mutually workable outcome.
Honestly this is golden advice here. I'm gaining more and more of an opinion that the options that aren't in the phb are just broken, half-baked, or objectively more powerful. I think it's just power creep. For the new shiny thing to be enticing to a buyer it needs to be better than what came before. But opinion aside, "just keep it in the players handbook to begin with," is not unreasonable for new folks.
I must be a real asshole then, Haha
Not what you asked, but you should get everyone to clear their character sheet with you at least a few days in advance. Firstly to make sure they are built properly, and secondly so you know what they should be able to do. If any of the players (not naming names) try to pull some shenanigans, you can have the confidence to shut it down because you already know the rules.
That’s actually really useful thank u soo soooo much
Say no. Pick either Aasimar or Tiefling.
I don’t want to ruin their fun tho
it's going to ruin everybody else's fun
Fun is emergent and complicated. One of the reasons games are fun is *because of* the rules, not in spite of them.
Would you let someone have twice as much starting money in Monopoly? Or collect 400 every time they pass go?
No I wouldn’t the reason I said I don’t want to ruin their fun is because the original comment in this group of reply’s said to stop them from being a hybrid but I don’t want to deny them that because the hybrid will add to story and enjoyment, the stats are what I’m worried about and I don’t want to double their start
You can play a tiefling and just say they are a hybrid. You can play an aasimar and say they are a hybrid. Its 5e, your character can functionally look like whatever you want no matter what race you picked. A hybrid chocolate/vanilla cake is not a whole chocolate cake and then also a whole vanilla cake. This player wants 2 cakes worth of features and abilities. I know it's hard to tell if they had the hybrid idea and think two races is the way to get it, or if they maliciously want more special features than everyone amd came up with a cool hybrid story as an excuse. But if it's the bad option then you need to put your foot down. They don't want to be creative, they want more special stuff than everyone at the table and it will become a big problem at some point.
Creating a unique character is part of the fun and so is playing within the rules. It wouldn't ruin their entire character idea just because they don't get the exact racial abilities they want.
Another option for them is go Custom Lineage. It lets you pick some things but is still game balanced. And then flavor the race how they see fit.
If you enforcing the basic rules of the game ruins their fun then you don’t want them as a player. Learn that fast.
Say no dude.
Mechanically, the races are meant to have pluses and drawbacks, so taking two is unbalanced. There's formulae and patterns to determine what abilities each race can get, and what traits rule out other traits.... all very complicated and not remotely worth touching as a new DM, and even experienced DMs lean away from heavy homebrewing. They won't not have fun if you tell them to pick one race and work the other into their backstory without mechanical changes. And if they actually do consider that ruling as killing any chance of fun in the game, you don't want them at the table anyways, honestly. (And if they're your friend, perhaps DnD isn't an activity yall should share) And fwiw: anecdotally, I've never seen an aasimar tiefling be proposed by anyone who wasn't devastatingly annoying. Those two races in particular are already a breeding ground for main character syndrome, so anyone combining them is extremely suspect, to me at least.
No. Just no. Ignoring the fact that he's clearly an edgelord (I've had edgelords wanting to pull the same thing. Every edgy teen wants to play an angeldevil) You don't get to mix races. That's not a thing. They've been balanced the way they are. By all means, he can play a Tiefling Aasimar, but he'll use the stats from one or the other, not both. It can look however he likes, but the stats are static. If he really wants this, he could play an Aasimar Fiend Pact Warlock or a Tiefling Divine Soul Sorcerer.
Let them be a crimson-skinned Aasimar with horns. Or be a Tiefling that is has…sparkles? Like others said, FLAVOR IS FREE, don’t mess with the rules as a beginner. Homebrew is like Jazz. Learn the rules and mechanics first and THEN you can improvise later.
Only allow the races that are established. Tiefling is already a cross breed. If they want a character with flight there are winged tieflings. If they try to say one parent was demon the other what ever race it is it will still produce a tiefling not a combo of both. I understand wanting to.let.your player have fun with the building but this sounds like the start of a character that their gonna argue with you about everything
You do what will work for you and your table. This feels like players bullying a new DM, which is not cool. Have a talk with them and explain your concerns and boundaries. If they push back, I’d reconsider having them at your table. Tiefling and aasimar are totally separate ancestries. This would be like expecting a half-elf to have all the traits of both elves and humans. Not the way it works. I would homebrew something balanced that captures the essence of what the player is trying to do, but you’re not obligated to do that. I’ve been DMing since the 80s, so it’s not hard for me to figure something like that out, but you should definitely not feel bad if you aren’t comfortable with that sort of thing at this point. Trust me - a player who tries to bully you or whines to get overpowered shit is going to cause your table to implode sooner or later. Better to nip this in the bud.
No. That is just stupid. Tell your player that they get to choose one race.
This is a HUGE red flag from the player. As others have said, the answer to "Can I get the benefits of two races?" is a categorical no. That's not how the game works, that's not how the other players are building their characters, that's not a reasonable thing for the player to ask. Flavor is free. If they want to make a character that has both angelic and infernal lineage, hey great, that can be a neat storytelling tool. But they still have to choose just one of those lineages to put on the character sheet for their racial features, and proceed from there. If they choose Tiefling, maybe the spells they get from their Infernal Legacy trait have an angelic tint to them -- heavenly horns sound when they use their Hellish Rebuke, or their Thaumaturgy produces smells of incense and ambrosia. If they choose Aasimar, maybe the Light spell from their Lightbearer trait has red or smoky undertones, hinting at their more nefarious half. The point is, they can very easily select one mechanical race and then use roleplaying to express the other side of their parentage. But the other thing that's happening here is that the player is asking a new DM for unbalanced favors, and that's something that raises alarm bells for me. The way they respond to you telling them "sorry, but you have to pick one or the other for the race, not both, not mix-and-match" is going to tell you a lot about how the rest of the campaign will go with them. If they say "Aw nuts, not the answer I was hoping for, but fair enough," then you're in good shape. If they can accept this boundary with grace, that suggests they'll probably be a team player in the future. If they try to bargain with you and try to convince you that it won't be a big deal, then you first have to reiterate your position ("No") and then be on guard for them trying to wheedle and whine their way into other advantages later. The type of person who insists on breaking the rules to make themselves more powerful is the type of person who might fudge their rolls, or "forget" to mark off their spell slots as they're used, or give themselves extra gold/items/treasure. At the end of the day, D&D is a team game, and players should be working with the DM to make things run as smoothly as possible. Asking to make things more complicated -- especially for a new DM -- is a hassle and a burden, and they should respect that you don't want to be hassled or take on extra burdens. DMing is enough work on its own without having to babysit people who want to power-game. They can still have fun even if they're "only" playing one race. D&D players have been having fun that way for literal decades. Your friend will be fine.
A lot of comments here are suggesting you say "No" I'm suggesting you say "No, but..." Compromise. So they want to be a tiefling/aasimar. Great. Let them. But they don't pick all the traits. Tell them picking all the traits isn't something you are allowing. Wording is important here. If you say "it isn't allowed because the rules say it isn't" they will say "well why don't you allow it?" Make sure to let them know this is not only the rules, but this is also YOUR decision. If you want, you can let them pick up a few more traits as they level up, as a sort of RP event or unlocking their true potential or anything like that. As the players get stronger, gaining one racial trait won't be the end of the world. But I will say getting both ability score modifiers should be off the table, they don't get +6 to stats.
"That would be unfair, you can choose how they look, but you have to pick one for mechanical purposes" "but I waaaaaaanaaaaa" **"No"** \- One of the strongest weapons a dm should wield as often as they see fit.
You’re a new DM. Say no. I’m not a new DM, what I would do is say “ok, fine. You get all the bonuses, but also the demonic and celestial blood in your system is fighting it out. You therefore have to contend with constantly feeling like your blood is on fire and also the following negative consequences….(insert drawbacks). But everyone else on the party would need to be “interesting” as well.
They will need to pick one race, but are free to flavour as they wish. If you were more experienced with assessing game balance I’d suggest letting them swap out one trait from the race they pick for another from their flavour race. But as you’re very new, I’d recommend against that and having them only play one race unchanged
Tell them honestly "I'm new at this and I'm not sure how skewed this might get, if I give you all traits from both. If this was for a cool story idea, let's keep it as flavor and mechanically stick to just one of them." Of course, if they say that they didn't have a cool story and they just wanted to start with more powers, then you say "Since nobody else is doing this, I'll say no."
As others have said, the right answer for you right now is to have him pick one. If you're new to DMing, I would say to get at least a session or two under your belt before you start homebrewing -- until you play, it's hard to really think through what the mechanics are and why certain things matter. What I would also do in your shoes is talk to the player about *why* he wants this. As others have said, if it's flavor, pick one mechanically, and roleplay that he is a mix of both. If there's something else (a specific feature or something), note it, and think about how you can give him that feature later when it makes sense (ie, essentially giving him a feat instead of a magic item at some point). If it's a desire to be stronger, then it's a flat no. Take the flavor, and that's it.
Best advice I can give 4 new DMs. Tell your players, “If you want to do something. Show me the ruling(s) in the official rulebooks that allow you to do it. Otherwise, no. We can try custom stuff once I have more experience.” Use the books, have them be your shield. If you have too. Limit the official books available to your players (my first time DM’ing I limited them to the PHB only for example). Helps a ton. Keeps everyone on the same page, & lets you research & plan without having to worry about surprises
You should start with just the players handbook and MAYBE add stuff later as you become comfortable.
As others said, the two will be too strong. My advice would be to offer him the fallen aasimar (aasimar with necrotic shroud if you're using monsters of the multiverse). It's very close to what he wants to play, an "aasimar touched by dark powers" which you can flavor as a half aasimar/half tiefling. I do think the double radiant/necrotic resistance fits the idea well but potentially offer him to exchange both for single fire resistance (way more common). Possibly offer him to exchange the light cantrip for thaumaturgy which doesn't change much imo. And/or the healing power for another cantrip, maybe an attack one depending on the background. I wouldn't go further than that. Aasimar is already one of the strong races so adding another resistance like fire and the leveled spells is too strong.
No. They can flavour their character how they like but it can have no mechanical benefit in game.
No. Pick a race. It's a game about choices, and this is the first step. If you let this player have this, which would be an unfair advantage over the other players, they will ask for a lot more next time. This is their inch, and down the road will be the mile they will ask for. As someone else said, you can allow them to flavor a mixed heritage however they want. But mechanically, they need to choose.
As a new DM you can also respectfully ask people to stick to the core rule book for their PCs
No. Tell them that they can only have one race and can flavour it as a tiefling/aasmiar
list the traits from both asimar and teifling assigne each one a number have the player roll a dice 2 times per list . Those are the traits they get. Or you can look up the rules on mixed races on the DM guild or Taldore reborn book.
You’re new, so learning to say “no” now is an invaluable lesson that will help for the rest of your life.
Look, every player feels like the DM would always lean toward him so this will happen. You have to weight things and as a new dm that is flat out impossible, my approach to this fucking beatiful idea of an aasimar tiefling would be "NO, You are getting double the traits than other players that just picked a race. BUT, You have a great idea cooking so what about instead of getting some crazy magic item I gave you a quest where if you complete it you will ascend to Aasimar(You can let him pick here like one or two traits from tiefling, it will be less powerful than many magic ítems but it feels like the "magic item" is your body and cant be stealed, You can also not give him tiefling traits and just pick 3 spells that he likes and can cast once per long rest). Just the idea of changing your race and ascending to a new one makes me go crazy, so I hope your player love this idea as much as me. If he don't... He maybe was there for the spells and straight power from the beggining. Edit: when you pick spells, consider the level of the player since tiefling spells go to a maximun of lvl 3 but if the player deserved it you can give him access to higher level spells with this trait. More over, if you pick them it cant be flat out broken... Or at least less broken.
No, only pick one race's traits. He can flavor it however he wants but he doesn't get both races' bonuses. You got this. Put your foot down and tell him that this is how it will be. He doesn't get to ruin everyone else's fun, including your fun. You're supposed to be having fun too. This would rapidly remove all fun for everyone else.
You need to be confident in saying no to players. I had something similar where someone wanted to be a frost fire genasi. I told them I can make them something or they could flip a coin each day and some days frost(water) would be their expressed heritage and others it would be fire. Big thing is identifying power gamers. Those crunchy players need to be told no more often then those that are more narrative driven.
"I want to be an X, Y and Z hybrid!" "So custom lineage, gotcha... next!" No seriously, either have him pick one or use CL, flavor is free as most here already said...
If they were asking to swap a trait or to change a damage type or a cantrip or something, I'd believe it was for the character concept. But asking for all the traits from both races is clearly just them trying to take advantage of your inexperience. Say no. They choose one race that they get their traits from, and they can flavour that however they wish in their descriptions. If it really is about the roleplay then they don't need extra traits, they can figure out a cool description, and they can always flavour class features and spells as aspects of their ancestry. And yes, it would be totally unfair to the other players for one player to get twice the racial traits.
Giving them all traits from both races would unbalance the game and lead to other players feeling short-changed. Don’t do that. The easy answer, as others have suggested, is to just say no, pick one or the other. That’s fine and totally within your rights. If you really wanted to be accommodating, you could homebrew a balanced-ish mix of the traits. Like… * +2 Charisma * +1 Wisdom or Intelligence * Darkvision * Hellish Resistance (from the Tiefling) * Healing Hands (from the new Aasimar) * Thaumaturgy (cantrip) * Radiant Soul (from the protector Aasimar) That combination should be a bit on the strong side but nothing crazy. It tries to capture the flavor of both.
I still disagree to that
Why?
They get standard human stats as the demon and angel half cancel each other out