Yuan Ti and allies thread (Ti-Khana critters)

[Cleon]

So now ruinous shriek - something like:

The war pterosaur emits a deafening shriek in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 16 Constitution saving throw, taking 18 (4d8) thunder damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one....?

I was thinking something a bit different, namely a broadcast mental attack along these lines:

Ruinous Shriek (Recharge 5-6). The ti-khana war pterosaur screams an appallingly discordant cry. Every creature within 300 [or 120?] feet of the pterosaur that can hear the song and is not a yuan-ti or ti-khana must succeed on a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw or take ## {#d#) psychic damage and become frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. A target that successfully saves is resistant to this war pterosaur's Ruinous Shriek for the next 24 hours; they cannot become frightened by the shriek and take half as much damage from it.​

Was thinking of setting the damage relatively low, like 13 (2d12), as I want this to be more of a "just for colour" special attack than its "kill the enemy" one.

The current version has a 300 foot range like the Luring Song of a Harpy, allowing the Warptero to Shriek and inconvenience enemies outside its Venomflame range so it can close to attack distance with less opposition.

Also mused about making the range 120 feet like the Frightful Presence of a Dragon, which was the original inspiration for the ability.

 

[Casimir Liber]

ooh that sounds better. ok sold! part of me likes 300 ft range..but then is that so far that it is difficult to manage in combat. maybe 120 feet is easier

 

[Cleon]

ooh that sounds better. ok sold! part of me likes 300 ft range..but then is that so far that it is difficult to manage in combat. maybe 120 feet is easier

Care to pick a range then?

Was the proposed damage of 2d12 enough for you. I didn't want it to be very lethal, more a weak but wide area attack to deal with low-level nuisances.

Felt idle this evening, so whipped up the following:

Description

A ti-khana war pterosaur is a titanic reptile taller than a giraffe with vast membranous wings that could cover a house. Its dagger-beaked head is longer than a human's height, in some cases twice as long if the pterosaur has a long head crest, and ornamented with colorful scales and plates of horn. The rest of its body may be a dull grey, brown or green in color or as gloriously hued as a tropical bird, depending on the tastes and skill of the yuan-ti who bred the beast. A war pterosaur is frighteningly fast and agile for a creature its size, both on the ground and in the air. It walks and runs on all fours, using the "hands" where its wings fold back as its forefeet.
 Death From Above. War pterosaurs were originally intended to serve as aerial cavalry mounts for elite yuan-ti forces, although they are intelligent enough to fight effectively by themselves or alongside allied monsters. A ti-khana war pterosaur can carry a single Large rider, such as a Yuan-ti abomination, or three or four Medium riders in a lightweight howdah, typically a group of yuan-ti malison archers.
 Flying Spitfires. All ti-khana are venomous, but a war pterosaur is unusual in having two sets of venom glands. One set produces a relatively normal deadly venom it delivers with its bite, the other set produces a strange glutinous liquid that spontaneously explodes when mixed with its venom and exposed to air. Called Venomflame, a war pterosaur can use special ducts and grooves in its fangs and palate to spit this mixture with impressive range and accuracy. War pterosaur handlers routinely "milk" their charges of Venomflame, which the yuan-ti use in traps, incendiary weapons and works of alchemy.

Creatures of the Yuan-ti. [standard text]​

 

[Casimir Liber]

ok - description looks fine, and adopted.

going with 150 ft and 2d12 damage (150 ft seems to be a good range for battlemaps and battles we've been doing)

 

[Cleon]

ok - description looks fine, and adopted.

going with 150 ft and 2d12 damage (150 ft seems to be a good range for battlemaps and battles we've been doing)

Updating the Ti-khana War Pterosaur.

So I guess we're done with this one.

Shall we shift focus to finishing off one of the part-completed conversions or start a Marine Assault Ti-khana?

Which 5E conversions are still ongoing? Apart from the War Pterosaur we've just nailed down, I think it's the Amiraspian Hybrids, Baalphegor, Black Locust, Efreeti Firelord and Troglo-wight.

Off those, I'd pick the Amiraspian since we've already done the Amiraspian Cyclops.

Hold on, we haven't even completed the Cyclopes! The Young Cyclops is still unfinished.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Ti-Khana Pterosaur, War published

will look at young cyclops next

 

[Cleon]

Ti-Khana Pterosaur, War published

Let's see…

Missing (shapechanger) tag as is practically tradition now.

It needs the ", +4 to hit with spell attacks" removed from Innate Spellcasting.

The damage in Plummeting Doom doesn't match the Enworld version. Which I've also just noticed an error in: 15d6+5 is 57 average, not 60.

The plummet's first paragraph should be:

Plummeting Doom. If the ti-khana war pterosaur has a creature of Large size or smaller restrained in its claws, it can use its action to fly up into the sky and then dives while releasing its grip, smashing the grappled victim into the ground. This does 15 (3d6 + 5) bludgeoning damage plus an additional 21 (6d6) bludgeoning damage for every Plummeting Doom action the pterosaur took while it had its victim restrained, up to a maximum of 78 (21d6 + 5) bludgeoning damage for three rounds spent preparing the plummet. For example, if the pterosaur takes two rounds to build up height and speed, the victim takes 57 (15d6 + 5) bludgeoning damage. The victim can make a DC 15 Athletics (Dexterity) check to roll with the impact, which reduces the damage by 10 (3d6) bludgeoning damage.​

The Ruinous Shriek damage is 13 (2d12). For it to be 7 it'd need to do 2d6 damage not 2d12.

Apart from that, there's just some spacing issues. It'd look better with linespaces before Plummeting Doom, Venomflame, Ruinous Shriek, Creatures of the Yuan-ti and the "(Based on a monster from the Fiend Folio (2003).)" credit.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Oops

Ti-Khana Pterosaur, War

 

[Cleon]

Oops

Ti-Khana Pterosaur, War

It's a minor quibble, but the Enworld version has italicized Plummeting Doom in its explanatory text while the D&D Beyond version doesn't use italics.

Since the references to Ruinous Shriek and Venomflame are italicized in both versions the Dooms should too, assuming you wish the formatting to be consistent.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Ti-Khana Pterosaur, War formatting fixed