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Let's Read: Volo's Monsters
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<blockquote data-quote="Charles Rampant" data-source="post: 7023344" data-attributes="member: 32659"><p>The final Fey in <em>Volo’s Guide to Monsters</em>, the <strong>Yeth Hound</strong> is kind of like the Shadow Mastiff but on steroids. </p><p></p><p><img src="http://orig10.deviantart.net/dc30/f/2015/049/0/a/some_proper_yeth_hounds_by_plangkye-d8im5sh.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p></p><p>The art for these guys makes them surprisingly endearing. The intended effect is that of an evil humanoid face on a shaggy dog’s body, with a flexible neck between; yet the face here is kind of dopey, not angry, and gives the Yeth Hound an aura of vague frustration. </p><p></p><p>The Yeth Hounds can be summoned into being by a powerful Fey to serve someone, and they can only exist in the context of this servile bond; if their master is slain, they will seek out a new one, with preferred options including Vampires, Hags, and Necromancers. Basically all of the unpleasant types liable to hide in dark places. The main difference between these and the Shadow Mastiffs - other than physical traits - is that the Shadow Mastiffs breed, while these are created. They are both dog-like creatures used to hunt or guard, that make a very distinctive and magical bark, and which hate sunlight. </p><p></p><p>These are <em>Large</em> lads, five feet at the shoulder and weighing 181 kilograms. An average light horse, according to Google, weights about 450 kilograms, so clearly the Yeth Hounds are scrawny for their size. There is no mention here of Vampiric Yeth Hound Cavalry, which is a real shame; I’d definitely keep that in mind as an option for a more humorous Halloween adventure! Otherwise, we get basically a really big dog which serves very bad people, so I’d think of these guys mainly as minions of a more powerful threat.</p><p></p><p>At CR 4, however, these are pretty potent minions, so let’s have a look at them. First up, we should note that they are immune to non-magical and non-silvered weapons, while also being immune to charm, fright, and exhaustion. They can fly 40ft, as well as hover, though we don’t hear whether they use their tails like a helicopter rotor to achieve that. They do have an odd weakness, however; if they are caught in sunlight, they are transported to the Ethereal Plane until the sunlight goes away, at which point they will enter the Border Ethereal and try to track their master down. That’s pretty odd, and the best option for making use of it that I can think of right now is as a way of following the Yeth Hound back to their master; it could be a fun way for the party to find their nemesis. </p><p></p><p>The Yeth Hound gets a couple of traits to explain how they help their masters; <em>Telepathic Bond</em> makes it easy for the two to communicate, and is a way for your BBEG to gather information on the players or targets, though with an untrained Stealth score of +3 the Hounds won’t be all that covert about it. In addition, they get the standard dog <em>Keen Hearing and Smelling</em> trait. More canine action is provided by a <em>Baleful Baying</em>, which is a lot of fun to say, but which is, sadly, a fairly boring save-or-be-frightened effect, of the ‘run away for your whole turn’ variety, not the ‘disadvantage on attacks’ variety. It’s got an enormous range though, so definitely the sort of thing that could make an impact if a pack of hounds chases the players through city streets, causing crowds of people to flee in all directions. After all of this, it is almost an afterthought to mention that the Yeth Hound gets one <em>Bite</em> attack, which causes more damage if the target is frightened, which is a fun effect but not likely to come up all that often I suspect. </p><p></p><p>Overall, the Yeth Hounds are an entertaining option. They won’t drive plots by themselves, but they have a lot of character, and can serve as excellent goons for the players to encounter while hunting a Vampire. I’m loving the mental imagery of the players being chased by flying giant dogs through city streets, for example. They’re easy to justify using, and are relatively simple to use, while having some really fun ways for the players to make use of their weaknesses in ways that advance the plot. Definitely worth using.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Charles Rampant, post: 7023344, member: 32659"] The final Fey in [i]Volo’s Guide to Monsters[/i], the [b]Yeth Hound[/b] is kind of like the Shadow Mastiff but on steroids. [img]http://orig10.deviantart.net/dc30/f/2015/049/0/a/some_proper_yeth_hounds_by_plangkye-d8im5sh.png[/img] The art for these guys makes them surprisingly endearing. The intended effect is that of an evil humanoid face on a shaggy dog’s body, with a flexible neck between; yet the face here is kind of dopey, not angry, and gives the Yeth Hound an aura of vague frustration. The Yeth Hounds can be summoned into being by a powerful Fey to serve someone, and they can only exist in the context of this servile bond; if their master is slain, they will seek out a new one, with preferred options including Vampires, Hags, and Necromancers. Basically all of the unpleasant types liable to hide in dark places. The main difference between these and the Shadow Mastiffs - other than physical traits - is that the Shadow Mastiffs breed, while these are created. They are both dog-like creatures used to hunt or guard, that make a very distinctive and magical bark, and which hate sunlight. These are [i]Large[/i] lads, five feet at the shoulder and weighing 181 kilograms. An average light horse, according to Google, weights about 450 kilograms, so clearly the Yeth Hounds are scrawny for their size. There is no mention here of Vampiric Yeth Hound Cavalry, which is a real shame; I’d definitely keep that in mind as an option for a more humorous Halloween adventure! Otherwise, we get basically a really big dog which serves very bad people, so I’d think of these guys mainly as minions of a more powerful threat. At CR 4, however, these are pretty potent minions, so let’s have a look at them. First up, we should note that they are immune to non-magical and non-silvered weapons, while also being immune to charm, fright, and exhaustion. They can fly 40ft, as well as hover, though we don’t hear whether they use their tails like a helicopter rotor to achieve that. They do have an odd weakness, however; if they are caught in sunlight, they are transported to the Ethereal Plane until the sunlight goes away, at which point they will enter the Border Ethereal and try to track their master down. That’s pretty odd, and the best option for making use of it that I can think of right now is as a way of following the Yeth Hound back to their master; it could be a fun way for the party to find their nemesis. The Yeth Hound gets a couple of traits to explain how they help their masters; [i]Telepathic Bond[/i] makes it easy for the two to communicate, and is a way for your BBEG to gather information on the players or targets, though with an untrained Stealth score of +3 the Hounds won’t be all that covert about it. In addition, they get the standard dog [i]Keen Hearing and Smelling[/i] trait. More canine action is provided by a [i]Baleful Baying[/i], which is a lot of fun to say, but which is, sadly, a fairly boring save-or-be-frightened effect, of the ‘run away for your whole turn’ variety, not the ‘disadvantage on attacks’ variety. It’s got an enormous range though, so definitely the sort of thing that could make an impact if a pack of hounds chases the players through city streets, causing crowds of people to flee in all directions. After all of this, it is almost an afterthought to mention that the Yeth Hound gets one [i]Bite[/i] attack, which causes more damage if the target is frightened, which is a fun effect but not likely to come up all that often I suspect. Overall, the Yeth Hounds are an entertaining option. They won’t drive plots by themselves, but they have a lot of character, and can serve as excellent goons for the players to encounter while hunting a Vampire. I’m loving the mental imagery of the players being chased by flying giant dogs through city streets, for example. They’re easy to justify using, and are relatively simple to use, while having some really fun ways for the players to make use of their weaknesses in ways that advance the plot. Definitely worth using. [/QUOTE]
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