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Let's Read Threats to the Nentir Vale: Barrowhaunts
Copyright 2011 Wizards of the Coast. This post is part of a series! Click here to see the others.
This is an entirely original setting-specific entry. Now this is what I’m here for!
The Lore
The Gray Downs is a region of dreary fog-shrouded hills in the center-north of the Nentir Vale. It contains a great number of burial mounds built by ancient humans who lived here centuries before the arrival of the Nerathi. These hill clans are extinct, but their ruins remain as witnesses of their existence. The greatest of these mounds is the Sword Barrow, which sits prominently at the center of the Downs.
The Sword Barrow is exactly the sort of place that would be considered a prime delving spot: it reaches deep underground, its layout is complex, and it’s filled with traps and treasure belonging to the forgotten king or warlord that rests at its bottom. It’s also already “taken”. If you get too close to it, the Barrowhaunts will shank you for trying to move into their territory.
The Barrowhaunts are a group of undead revenants who used to be an adventuring party in life. They are themselves quite ancient, and no one knows why they became undead. The leading rumor is that they delved the Sword Barrow and attracted the ire of the warlord buried inside, whose spirit called out to the hill clans and told them to come take their revenge. They answered the call, and the Barrowhaunts preferred to slaughter them all rather than relinquish their loot. So yeah, according to this story they’re responsible for the final extinction of the hill clans. One of the hillfolk elders laid a dying curse upon the adventurers, binding them to the land for all eternity.
This didn’t have any obvious immediate effect, but the adventuring party did become more and more obsessed with the region as time went by. They kept coming back for more treasure, and attempted many delves into the Sword Barrow. Eventually their greed surpassed their skill. After the ensuing TPK, they got back up, now fully under the effects of the curse.
As undead, the Barrowhaunts effectively became eternal guardians of the Grey Downs barrows, but they frame this duty in terms of their original greedy mentality. They spend their existence delving the barrows and moving loot around to protect it from “rivals” and “claim-jumpers”, which means anyone wandering through their claimed territory. They savagely attack any intruders and add their loot to the pile. Somewhere in the Downs is a big stash of all the treasure they’ve gathered over the ages, but no one has been able to find it and live to tell the tale yet. It might be inside the Sword Barrow, it might be somewhere else.
The Barrowhaunts are aided in their duty by the spirits of the creatures and people they’ve killed over the ages. Many of these are hillfolk, but there are also newer ghosts. None of them want to see the Barrowhaunts’ curse end, so they fight hard to keep them from being destroyed.
The Numbers
The Barrowhaunts are all specific individuals! They share in common a set of generic undead traits: immune to fear and disease, resist 10 necrotic, vulnerable 5 radiant, Darkvision. All of their other traits come from training or from their respective racial powers.
The lingering spirits that accompany them are Shadow Humanoids and Beasts with undead traits. They’re all minions but they have high damage resistance, making them a lot more stubborn than most minions. Let’s look at them first.
Lingering Warrior Spirit
A humanoid spirit and a Level 7 Minion Soldier. It has immunity to disease and fear, and Resist 15 to all damage except radiant. Their Phantom Strikes deal a bit of damage and immobilize for a turn.
That damage resistance at level 7 means that fighting these things pretty much requires someone who can deal radiant damage on demand, like a cleric, paladin or even a star warlock with the right powers. A PC striker might be able to brute-force them, but not consistently.
Lingering Monster Spirit
The ghost of a non-humanoid monster. It’s a Large Level 9 Minion Brute, with a ground speed of 8 and a climb speed of 6. It attacks with Reach 2 Savage Strikes that do good damage for a minion. The thing that makes it special is Resist 20 to all non-radiant damage, which means they’re almost impossible to brute-force. Bring a cleric!
Uthelyn the Mad
This was the Barrowhaunts’ half-elf rogue. She’s a Level 8 Skirmisher with 86 HP. Her Maniacal Laughter acts like an aura (1) that inflicts a -2 attack penalty on enemies inside. She wields a short sword and can do Mad Slashes with it, which let her shift 2 squares before and after the attack as an effect, and deal bonus necrotic damage against targets that grant combat advantage to Uthelyn.
Once per encounter she can react to an effect that would immobilize, slow, or restrain her with a Ghostly Escape, which lets her end the effect and gain insubstantial and phasing for a turn.
Adrian “Iceheart” Reginold
This was their human wizard, specializing in cold spells. He’s a Level 8 Controller with 86 HP, and is also resistant to cold and vulnerable to fire in addition to all the standard traits mentioned above.
Adrian uses a Frost Staff that does cold damage in melee, and shoots tricky Ice Bolts that do “cold and necrotic” damage and slow for a turn. As a reminder dual-typed damage uses the target’s smaller resistance value, so if a PC is only resistant to cold they’re going to take full damage from the bolts. The wizard can also cast Deep Freeze (close blast 3 vs. Fortitude, recharge 5+) to deal cold damage and restrain for a turn, and Vortex of Ice (area burst 1 within 10, encounter) to deal heavy cold damage, slide 3 squares, and knock prone. A miss here deals half damage and slides 1 square.
Joplin the Sly
The party’s second rogue, this one a halfling. She’s a level 8 Lurker with 68 HP. Joplin gets the halfling’s Nimble Reaction trait, gaining +2 AC vs. opportunity attacks.
Her basic attack is a Vanishing Strike with a short sword, which makes her invisible to the target for a turn on a hit, and deals increased damage when she has combat advantage. Once per encounter, when someone hits or misses her with a melee attack, she can use Swift Rebuke as an interrupt, making a free Vanishing Strike against the enemy with combat advantage. Since this is an interrupt, it can turn a hit into a miss with the full concealment bonus for being invisible!
Boldos Grimehammer
The party’s dwarf fighter is a Level 9 Brute with 122 HP. He gets the same resistance to forced movement and knockdowns given to PC dwarves, and fights with a battleaxe and shield. The axe can be used for basic strikes or for Mighty Swings that deal a little less damage and either push the target 1 square or knock it prone.
If Boldos is hit by an attack that would push, pull, or slide him, he can respond with the Soldier of Fortune interrupt, which gives him a free basic attack with a +5 damage bonus against the triggering enemy. He always hits you back before you push him, and since he’s a dwarf he might end up staying put anyway.
Cassian d’Cherevan
The party leader, this human warlord was probably some sort of noble in life. He’s a Level 9 Elite Soldier with the Leader keyword and 192 HP. He’s armored in plate and uses a greatsword to fight.
As an elite, he can make Double Attacks with the sword, and once per encounter he can make a Call to War, which lets him attack once and allow every ally within 5 squares to shift up to 2 squares and make a basic attack.
As a minor action he can use his Bolstering Presence (recharge 5+) to give every ally within 3 squares a +5 damage bonus for a turn. And if an adjacent enemy makes an attack that doesn’t target him, Cassian can use Relentless Assault to automatically deal 12 damage to that enemy.
Final Impression
I love the Barrowhaunts, because they’re a very specific group tied to a specific spot on the map. They have a history, and a concrete reason for doing what they do. This is the sort of entry you can write when you don’t have to be as generic as possible. I also really like that they’re a party of murderhobos, a kind of dark mirror held up to the PCs, saying “take care or you’ll end up like them”.
Mechanically they’re all set up to work like a typical adventuring party. Each member models a specific PC class or role, and their teamwork will take up a very smilar form. Any fight against the PCs is going to happen in the Gray Downs, an area full of obscuring mist and hilly, boulder-strewn terrain. The Barrowhaunts have been there for centuries, are intimately familiar with it, and will definitely set up traps and ambushes when attacking intruders.
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Let's Read Threats to the Nentir Vale: Abyssal Plague Demon
Copyright 2011 Wizards of the Coast. This post is part of a series! Click here to see the others.
I made a big deal about how there were few “newer and weirder” monsters in this book, and now it turns out that the very first entry is one of those. Abyssal Plague Demons are a monster new to 4e.
The Lore
Despite devoting a lot of text to the lore for abyssal plague demons, the entry is irritatingly vague. That’s because these monsters are actually the main featured threats of a series of novels published between 2010 and 2012. MV:TNV was published in 2011, right in the middle of the event.
The Abyssal Plague novels were planned as a big multimedia, multi-world metaplot event. The novels would take place across multiple published settings, with the main action taking place in the implied one, and side stories taking place in Dark Sun and the Forgotten Realms.
The entry here is very vague and avoids naming names, probably out of a fear of spoiling the event’s plot. There’s a demon lord who escaped into our universe from another one he destroyed. He was stopped by “the heroes of the age” and imprisoned, but recently one of his exarchs managed to escape and it “found a vessel in the world”. This entity is responsible for spreading the Abyssal Plague, a disease that covers its victim’s bodies in growths of alien crystal and either kills them or transforms them into Abyssal Plague Demons.
With a decade of hindsight, I can give you those spoilers: the “demon lord” is actually Tharizdun and the thing that came from a another universe that was destroyed by demons is the Shard of Evil that he used to make the Abyss. In the novels, one of his worshipers manages to pierce the walls of Tharizdun’s prison with a shard of the Living Gate (an entity described in the Shardmind post for the MM3), freeing one of his exarchs. This exarch is an entity known as the Voidharrow and it is the thing responsible for spreading the Abyssal Plague.
The entry presents the Plague as a rising threat that only recently began to spread, but doesn’t make an effort to connect it to other plot hooks in MV:TNV or to the wider cosmic stuff at its root. I guess you’re supposed to read the novels to find out about that.
The Numbers
Copyright 2011 Wizards of the Coast. Abyssal Plague Demons are creatures mutated by the plague. Some used to be animals, some used to be humanoids. Aside from a general “demonic” look, they have a common aesthetic element: red crystal, flecked with gold and silver. This is present as either visible veins of liquid crystal, or as solid plates of the stuff that might act as armor or weaponry.
Stat-wise, they’re demons: Elemental Beasts or Elemental Humanoids with the Demon keyword, Darkvision and Variable Resistance (5, switchable twice per encounter). All of them are also carriers of the Abyssal Plague, which they can spread via bites or via their natural crystal weaponry. They’re all mid-Heroic tier, making them appropriate for encounters in the middle world as your home grounds start to suffer from the Plague.
The Abyssal Plague is a Level 8 Disease that follows the standard rules for this. At the end of any fight where you’re exposed to it, you make a saving throw. If you fail, you contract the disease at Stage 1. At the end of every extended rest, you make an Endurance test. If you beat the disease’s Maintain DC of 12, you stay as you are. If you beat its Improve DC of 16 your stage decreases by 1 (Stage 0 means you’re cured). If you beat neither you progress to the next stage. Effects from each stage are cumulative. If you reach Stage 3, natural recovery is no longer possible and only a Remove Affliction ritual might save you.
Stage 1 is usually just a nuisance. In this case, 10% of your body is covered in alien growths and you lose a healing surge. Stage 2 is a major hindrance: here, it means a -2 to AC, Fortitude and Reflex plus a permanent Slowed condition as 50% of your body is taken over by growths.
Stage 3 is often incapacitating or fatal. Unlike most other diseases, Abyssal Plague still makes you roll Endurance daily when you’re here, but the roll is not for recovery. If your total roll fails to beat a DC of 12, you die. If you roll between 12 and 23, you live another day in incredible pain. If you roll a 24 or more, you turn into an Abyssal Plague Demon. So yeah, this plague kills the weak and turns the strong into demons. You need to apply Remove Affliction before either happens.
Thankfully, multiple exposures during a fight still mean you only roll the save once, and if you’ve already contracted the disease further exposures do nothing to worsen your condition. So if your PC is tough and your party is on a tight time-table, you can gamble that you’ll be able to recover naturally from Stage 1. Remove Affliction is a big resource drain if you don’t have time for a long rest.
Plague Demon Chaos Hound
A Medium Beast demon, this quadruped is a Level 5 Minion Skirmisher with Speed 8 and darkvision. Its Pack Attack trait gives it a small damage boost for each other plague demon that’s adjacent to their target.
Their sole attack is a bite that allows them to shift 1 square on a hit and exposes the target to Abyssal Plague. As a minion, it lacks Variable Resistance.
Plague Demon Chaos Footsoldier
A Medium Humanoid with Speed 6. It’s a Level 5 Minion Soldier without Variable Resistance. Its basic attack is a Grabbing Claw that does light damage and grabs on a hit. Once it has a grabbed victim, the footsoldier can bite for a bit more damage and exposure to the Plague.
Plague Demon Chaos Beast
The non-minion version of the Chaos Hound is a Level 6 Skirmisher with Speed 8 and 76 HP. Its Chaotic Growl acts as an aura (1) that inflicts a -2 attack penalty to enemies inside. Its basic bite damages and exposes to the Plague, while its Claws allow it to shift 1 square on a hit.
Plague Demon Chaos Bender
A Large Beast demon, this Level 6 Controller has 72 HP and some reality-warping powers. It projects a Chaotic Field as an aura (2) that allows the demon to shift 2 squares if any enemy ends their turn inside. Its basic attack is a plague-infected bite, and it can also use a Flurry of Claws that attacks a Close Burst 1, slows, and inflicts ongoing physical damage (save ends).
Plague Demon Chaos Knight
This sapient Medium Humanoid is a Level 6 Soldier with 78 HP. It projects an aura of Crimson Retribution (1) that automatically deals 5 damage to anyone inside who makes an attack that doesn’t target the chaos knight. Its slams damage and knock prone on a hit, and its extruded Crystal Blade (recharge 4+) deals heavy damage and exposes to the Plague. Since it’s a recharge power, I’m guessing the blade shatters when used as a weapon.
Plague Demon Chaos Vanguard
This sapient Large Humanoid is a Level 9 Soldier with speed 6 and 100 HP. It’s a powered-up version of the Knight, with nearly identical traits. Its aura is wider and deals 10 damage instead of 5; its slam pushes 2 squares instead of knocking prone; and its Sweeping Crystal Blade (recharge 4+) is a Close Burst 3 attack instead of a single-target melee power.
Final Impressions
Would you believe that I even forgot these things were here? The combination of epic-sounding but vague lore and mid-Heroic mechanics smells very metaplotty to me, particularly after I learned about these novels. This is the outer edge of the plot and you’re not allowed to dig deeper, that’s what the novel heroes do. I don’t know if they ever released a book that allowed the PCs to be more central in eliminating the Plague.
The mechanics are functional, but pretty simplistic since the demons’ main gimmick is being carriers for the Abyssal Plague. There’s tons of more interesting opposition in MV:TNV. So, overall, my inclination is to give these monsters a pass. The next entries are better, I promise!
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Let's Read Threats to the Nentir Vale: Introduction
Copyright 2011 Wizards of the Coast. This post is part of a series! Click here to see the others.
The full name of this book is Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale. It was published in 2011 for Dungeons & Dragons 4e, and as far as I know it’s the last “proper” monster book for that edition. It would still get a few more player-focused books over the rest of 2011 and 2012, but after that Wizards of the Coast would begin focusing all of its efforts on 5th Edition.
I really love Threats to the Nentir Vale, and I’ve been looking forward to “Let’s Read”-ing it since I started writing the first Monster Manual/Monster Vault post, in the far-off past of 2019, before the Plague Years. It’s as much a setting book as a list of creatures.
Threats to the Nentir Vale sits at a point in the “generic to specific” scale I hadn’t seen before. Monster Manuals are the most generic, presenting monsters for any setting and campaign. Adventures with custom enemies are the most specific, presenting creatures built to support a single scenario. This Monster Vault is just a step more general than that, with monsters built to fit a single region. You can run multiple campaigns there, and this book will make sure the opposition you face always has that cool regional flavor. It does include a few more general entries, but even then it tries to tie them to the Vale in some way.
A Brief History of the Nentir Vale
Before we get into the monsters, we get another summary of the Vale at the start of the book. This is a bit more detailed than the one in the DMG and it focuses on what threats live in many of its sub regions.
Interestingly enough, the Nentir Vale bears some resemblance to Skyrim in its physical characteristics. It’s a roughly rectangular region delimited by mountain ranges and containing plains, forests, hills and marshes within its borders. Its northernmost areas are frosty, and most of the rest is in the colder end of temperate with well-defined seasons. Unlike Skyrim it does not border the sea, and at 150km x 225km it’s also smaller than Skyrim’s “real” size1. The Vale is crisscrossed by a small network of rivers that join together to form the Nentir River, which flows southwest and out of the map.
Like the rest of 4e’s implied setting, the Vale is a layer cake of ruins from ancient fallen empires. The most recent one was the majority human empire of Nerath, whose settlers arrived here from the south 300 years before our narrative present. The Nerathi settled the valley and lived in relative peace for 200 years. Right about then, an enormous orcish army led by Clan Bloodspear invaded from the neighboring region Stonemarch, crossing over the mountains. The local military was unable to stand up to them, and Nerath was too busy dealing with its own multiple crises to send reinforcements. The Bloodspear wrecked the valley’s infrastructure and razed many of its settlements until internal conflicts caused them to retreat back home.
The largest communities of the time managed to survive in an extremely diminished state, and it’s been only a few years since they managed to re-establish contact with each other. Travel between them is extremely dangerous, and not just because of hostile fauna. The ruins of Nerath and at least three other ancient empires still cast their shadows over the Vale. No less than three dragons count parts of it as their territory, sharing space with hostile sapient communities that filled the void left by the Nerathi. Foreign conquerors are starting to set their sights here as well, including the Bloodspear Clan.. Even within our nominal points of light, internal threats are rising in power.
Heroes of the Vale have their work cut out for them!
Introduction to the Monsters
As a late-edition book, the monster math here is entirely in sync with the latest advances from the Monster Manual 3 and the Monster Vault. The Nentir Vale started out as a setting meant for Heroic-tier characters, which would be expected to leave it behind when they hit the Paragon levels. However, this book includes monsters ranging up to the late Paragon tier, doubling the region’s potential “lifespan” as a campaign setting. Of course GMs could have done this on their own already, but it’s neat to see it done in a book.
It also helps that the monsters are set up in such a way as to allow a sandbox campaign in the Vale, which makes this a setting very in keeping with the spirit of old D&D. If your players arrive at one of the locations described here, you’ll know who lives there and how powerful they are. Carefree players might run into things they can’t handle.
There are few weird new monsters here - most of them are specific groups or individuals belonging to fairly “basic” species covered in the first Monster Vault, but with added twists that make them unique denizens of the Nentir Vale. Each monster gets more room for lore than was possible in the MM3 and on the MV, and that extra space is used to detail their unique circumstances and to tie them to specific regions within the Vale.
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What's Next for Octopus Carnival
Oh hey, turns out I’ve posted the last entry in my Monster Manual 3 Let’s Read! It’s officially finished! Yay!
I’m not done reading monster books yet, though. Next up on my list is Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale, the last “proper” monster book for D&D 4th Edition. I really like it, and I hope you do to!
This one’s going to be a bit different from the other projects. Entries for those were posted first to the RPG.net forum, and then here after a delay. Since I was, er, less than optimally organized in updating this blog, some times that delay was considerable.
I’ve gotten better about updating both the forum and the blog, though, and now that the MM3 reading is finished, the Threats one will be posted in sync between the two starting a couple of days from now.
I’ll also keep posting about other subjects, though those posts might be a little more spaced out since I don’t have a buffer of them. I’ll write as the muse strikes, as always.
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Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual 3: Yuan-ti
This post is part of a series! Click here to see the others.
In a situation that’s familiar to us by now, Yuan-ti would get a revamp and a lore infusion in the upcoming Monster Vault (and you can see how that looks like here), and this entry presents stat blocks that complement the ones that would come out in the MV.
The Lore
The lore section of this page lacks the nifty creation myth from the MV entry, sticking to a more generic “perfidious infiltrators” profile for the yuan-ti. It does add a new bit, however: the snake god Zehir doesn’t just want to see his favorite people thrive in the world. His true goal is to become the supreme authority in the cosmos. Zehir is convinced that the universe can only withstand the return of the primordials if it’s led by the strong hand of a single absolute ruler.
So this means we have at least two authoritarian assholes in our current pantheon: Asmodeus and Zehir. Big Z’s goals are not widely known in the world - only his most powerful and trusted servants are privy to this mystery. There are other gods who are aware of this but they’re content to merely keep an eye on the snake god as long as his machinations continue to hurt their enemies. Things might get more heated should Zehir explicitly turn against his fellow deities.
The Numbers
Yuan-ti are Medium Natural Humanoids with the Reptile keyword. They have a ground speed of 7, and 5/tier poison resistance.
While the MM1 and Monster Vault gave us heroic and paragon stat blocks for snaketongue cultists and yuan-ti, the MM3 gives a bunch of high-epic stat blocks that apparently represent those individuals who are closest to Zehir and actively working towards his goal of complete world domination.
There’s plenty here for all sorts of all-yuan-ti encounters, but they also employ various sapient humanoid cultists, and make pets or allies of any creature who is even remotely similar to a snake.
The individual stat blocks are relatively simple, making me think PCs are supposed to face them in large numbers. It would certainly be possible to downscale them to lower levels without changing much else about their stat blocks.
Coil of Zehir
A Large yuan-ti who’s almost completely snaky, its arms almost vestigial. It’s a Level 26 Controller with 235 HP.
The Coil’s basic attack is a Reach 3 Slam that does light physical damage, pulls the target 2 squares, and grabs it on a hit. The Coil can only have one victim grabbed at a time, and it can hit them with Crushing Coils for an automatic 40 damage that also dazes them for a turn. As a minor action, it can use a Close Burst 3 Tail Sweep that does no damage and knocks targets prone.
The Coil wants to grab hold of someone and squeeze them to death, using tail sweeps to keep would-be rescuers away. Dazed victims can still try to get away (Athletics DC 38 or Acrobatics DC 39), but their other options are sharply limited.
Yuan-ti Abomination Berserker
Abominations are those ‘snakier’ yuan-ti with humanoid torsos but the lower body of a giant snake. Another Large variant, Berserkers know how to fight and know they shouldn’t attack other yuan-ti or cultists. That’s about it. The others treat them nicely to avoid accidents, and then point them at whoever they want dead. Berserkers are Level 27 Brutes with 293 HP.
These creatures fight with Reach 2 Slams that do heavy physical damage. Every so often they’ll spin and do a Roundhouse Slam (recharge 4+), making a basic attack against every adjacent enemy. If you hit them while they’re bloodied, they can make a free slam against you as a reaction. Simple but effective.
Yuan-ti Malison Guard
Copyright 2010 Wizards of the Coast. Malisons are the more humanoid yuan-ti, still covered in scales and with snake heads, but otherwise humanoid. This is an elite front-line fighter who serves Zehir proudly despite the shame of having legs. It’s a Level 27 Soldier (Leader) with 242 HP. It knows how to fight in formation and its Overlapping Scales aura (1) gives a +2 bonus to AC to all allies inside.
Guards fight with scimitars and longbows, both of which deal decent damage and inflict ongoing poison damage (save ends). The scimitar marks for a turn on a hit.
These creatures want to be in a tight formation with either other melee allies, or with an artillery detachment.
Yuan-ti Abomination Spitter
An abomination with well-developed venom glands that produce a “blessed” venom far deadlier than that of a mundane snake. It’s Level 27 Artillery with 186 HP. It can Spit Venom out to Range 20, dealing immediate and ongoing poison damage on a hit. It can also Spray Venom (recharge 4+) on a close burst 5, dealing poison damage and dazing (save ends). If someone closes to melee, it can bite to deal physical damage and inflict ongoing poison damage.
If an attack hits the spitter, it can flare its Cobra Hood as a reaction to gain +4 to AC for a turn.
Yuan-ti Malison Blessed
An epic priest of Zehir, receiving blessings directly from the deity. It’s a Level 28 Controller (Leader) with 250 HP.
Most of the blessed’s controllery effects are passive and always on. It projects an aura (3) of Zehir’s Favor that allows allies inside to reroll failed recharge rolls. It also projects an aura (5) of Zehir’s Agony that deals 15 poison damage to any enemy starting their turn inside. While bloodied, the blessed can Slither Away, gaining a +2 bonus to speed and a +5 to all defenses.
The blessed’s active actions are few, but powerful. It fights with a scimitar whose strikes damage, strip poison resistance, and inflict a -2 penalty to saves vs. poison effects (save ends both). And yes, about 90% of all attacks described in this MM3 entry are poison effects. Including this one.
The blessed can also use Zehir’s Command as a minor action, allowing two allies within 5 squares to either make a basic attack or shift their speed as a free action. If an enemy within 5 squares shifts, the blessed can use Shifting Feet as a reaction to slide them 2 squares.
While these creatures are technically regulars, they have the action efficiency you’d expect from an elite.
Yuan-ti Malison Assassin
Copyright 2010 Wizards of the Coast. This one has a sword and it very much wants to stab you with it so you can sample the many substances it put on the blade. It’s sent after people who anger Zehir directly. It’s a Level 28 Lurker with 194 HP.
The assassin’s basic Longsword deals very light damage and blinds for a turn on a hit. A victim who cannot see the assassin for any reason is subject to a Death Strike that deals standard physical damage, inflicts ongoing 15 poison damage, and imposes a -2 penalty to saves (save ends both). After the first failed save, the damage worsens by 5 and the save penalty by 1. Someone also targetted by the Blessed could be looking at a total -5 save penalty here!
If a ranged or melee attack hits the assassin it can use Shield of Zehir to make sure a blind victim adjacent to it also suffers the attack’s damage.
Yuan-ti Malison Stalker
A relentless pursuer sent after victims who steal from Zehir’s temples or commit other crimes against the yuan-ti people. They’re Level 28 Skirmishers wtih 254 HP. They’re more or less equivalen to PC avengers.
Stalkers use greataxes and have 5e advantage on their attacks if the target is the only creature adjacent to them. They can also teleport 3 squares as a minor action, which means they can move up to 13 squares a turn without spending their standard action, and they can charge someone from 20 squares away. It’s impossible to outrun a stalker.
Molt of Zehir
Literally a person-shaped bag of snakes, made from the cast-off skin of a yuan-ti. This apparently just happens when an epic yuan-ti molts, it’s not a conscious ritual or anything. The snakes just appear from somewhere and crawl inside the skin.
Molts are Level 26 Minion Skirmishers. They have a basic bite attack and when they die the dispersing Horde of Snakes acts as a Close Burst 1 attack that damages and inflicts ongoing poison damage (save ends).
Final Impressions
I’m not overly fond of classic yuan-ti lore these days, because it has too strong a whiff of “yellow peril” about it. I’d probably come up with something different for them if I had to.
Mechanically, these creatures are kind of interesting, though each one is very simple. Mechanically, I think you can knock 10 or even 20 levels off them if you don’t want your PCs to wait until the campaign’s endgame to fight the snek people.
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