Yuan Ti and allies thread (Ti-Khana critters)

[Casimir Liber]

Ok - looks the same but "shapechanger" not in alphabetical order. Also pondered theur innate spellcasting and whether they should get something else (minor) as well.

Developing a description:

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Millennia ago the yuan-ti experimented on various scaly animals with dark magic and alchemy. The resulting awakened creatures had some degree of psionic ability and well as increased vigour and venom.

A deinonychus that has been infused with arcane yuan ti magic and potions. stands about 3-4 feet tall, with a total length of 11 feet and an average weight of 160 pounds. It has yellow-green feral snake-like eyes and its fangs and claws are larger and sharper. Its moves with hyper-awareness.

 

[Cleon]

Ok - looks the same but "shapechanger" not in alphabetical order. Also pondered theur innate spellcasting and whether they should get something else (minor) as well.

The Yuan-ti in the 5E Monster Manual have Shapechanger as their first trait despite it being unalphabetical, so I was following that precedent for the Ti-khana.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Ok so changes incorporated and looks like this:

 

[Casimir Liber]

As am running a yuan-ti dungeon, I made this (bringing the shan pachan lore into 5e):

(adapted some druid/circle of shepherd and priest powers)

 

[Cleon]

Ok so changes incorporated and looks like this:

Dang, still got the beast type of SRD Deinonychus in the Enworld version. Forgot to change it to monstrosity.

That's done, plus I moved the Keen Senses to be alphabetically correct (i.e. in front of Innate Spellcasting.

The Bite is wrong.

I matched the d4 + 2 damage of Frog God's SRD Deinonychus and added a no-save venom like the Monster Manual Yuan-ti with bite attacks. It seemed appropriate to have 2d4 poison damage like a 5E Poisonous Snake rather than the 2d6 poison of a Yuan-ti Malison, which is a higher CR than this ti-khana.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) piercing damage plus 5 (2d4) poison damage.​

If you want to increase the bite's piercing damage I'd be OK, but we'd need to reduce the poison damage to balance it with the talons. I was aiming to have the bite and talon do the same damage, so which option it picked with Multiattack didn't matter.

Hmm, upon reflection I think I prefer an average bite damage of 9 rather than 9.5 like it is above, which'd require a poison damage of 1d8 with 1d4 + 2 from the fangs.

Including increasing the piercing damage, the options are:

Bite #2. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4 + 2) piercing damage plus 3 (1d8) poison damage.
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Bite #3. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) piercing damage plus 3 (1d6) poison damage.​

​

Bite #4. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) piercing damage plus 5 (1d4) poison damage.​

Hmm… I prefer Bite #2 or Bite #3 but aren't really fussed. Which do you prefer?

The Claws damage is 1d8 + 2 not 1d8 + 3, although the 6 is correct.

That just leaves the Description.

 

[Casimir Liber]

I went with Bite #3 as I don't like rolling d4s if I can help it...

 

[Cleon]

Developing a description:

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Millennia ago the yuan-ti experimented on various scaly animals with dark magic and alchemy. The resulting awakened creatures had some degree of psionic ability and well as increased vigour and venom.

A deinonychus that has been infused with arcane yuan ti magic and potions. stands about 3-4 feet tall, with a total length of 11 feet and an average weight of 160 pounds. It has yellow-green feral snake-like eyes and its fangs and claws are larger and sharper. Its moves with hyper-awareness.

Don't much care for that.

Apart from some of the phrasing looking a bit clunky to me, shouldn't the first paragraph be the general description and the stuff about its origins be after it?

Let's see…

A lean bipedal dinosaur about the size of a large human. Clearly a predator, it is armed with long jaws lined with sharp teeth, clawed forelimbs and a great talon on each of its feet. When it opens its mouth, the reptile reveals it also has fangs and a forked tongue like a viper.
 The ti-khana deinonychus serves the yuan-ti in a manner similar to a trained dog: guarding the yuan-ti and their property or hunting their enemies. Some yuan-ti have these creatures turn into tiny vipers and carry them about, using the ti-khana as a powerful bodyguard they wear like jewelry.

Creatures of the Yuan-ti. Over millenia of experimentation, the yuan-ti have transformed various scaly reptilian animals into monstrosities that share some of their traits. Called ti-khana, these prized pets are carefully trained to serve their ophidian masters. All ti-khana are resistant to magic like yuan-ti and possess the innate ability to detect magic. The majority of ti-khana also have venomous fangs, the ability to transform into a poisonous snake, and some kind of supernatural or magical attack.
 Ti-khana require the dark magic and alchemy of the yuan-ti to breed and develop their powers. Ti-khana can survive in the wild, but it is unlikely they can reproduce properly without the yuan-ti's arcane treatments. It is possible some types of ti-khana can mate with their unaltered relatives or lay viable eggs with their own kind. However, feral offspring can not develop ti-khana abilities without yuan-ti intervention so, at best, would grow into beasts resembling the ti-khana's mundane ancestors.
 Breeding and training ti-khana is usually performed by specialist yuan-ti spellcasters, but an edifice can be enchanted to perform this task for one or more strains of ti-khana. This allows ancient yuan-ti sites to have a population of ti-khana "guarddogs" even if no yuan-ti has visited them for millenia.

Not sure about the last paragraphs. If you don't care for it I'd suggest using the following instead:

 Breeding and training ti-khana is usually performed by specialist yuan-ti spellcasters, but some important yuan-ti sites are guarded by permanent populations of ti-khana "guarddogs".

 

[Cleon]

I went with Bite #3 as I don't like rolling d4s if I can help it...

Updating Ti-khana Deinonychus.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Extra bits all good. So published here...now to make a ti khana triceratops and a pterosaur...

 

[Casimir Liber]

Couldn't help myself...