The
Yuan-Ti: Broodguard is a human changed into a vile guard monster by the Yuan-ti, and it is a simple but very usable minion statblock.
The art in the book goes for an interesting ‘tangle of limbs’ approach, with the Broodguard’s entirely normal set of two arms and two legs all overlapping in such a way that it seems more alien than it should. I’m not as convinced by the pose of the head, however, and this natural focal point seems almost an afterthought.
So the Yuan-ti like their slaves, and they also like tormenting humans, so obviously the best thing to do is use a ritual to turn humans into reptilian slaves. The Broodguard is a nearly mindless and utterly loyal creation, usually used to guard hatching chambers or patrol the outskirts of Yuan-ti settlements. We get a brief description of how the process is achieved, for once - it revolves around forcing the humans to drink a poison that makes them comatose and warps their body and mind over 1d6+6 days. It sounds deeply unpleasant. During the process, it is reasonably easy to stop by PC standards (
lesser restoration or
restore curse will do the trick), but once it is completed only
wish will do. It’s always interesting to see what the game categories as ‘wish only’ territory, since the spell is so underwhelming on first glance. Obviously this time period is perfectly suited to a rescue mission scenario, and would be a great way to introduce the Yuan-ti city to your players in a limited fashion, before they can return several sessions later, at the end of the storyline.
The Broodguard themselves are pretty unremarkable - they’re dumb, don’t like to speak, and follow commands that they are given. The intent here is clearly for them to be a brute minion sort of effort - they are tough and simple to use, making good additions to any Yuan-ti combat as a frontline fighter. It might be fun to let the Broodguard change back into humans on death, which would really evoke the dehumanising horror element of the concept, and also is likely to spark some kind of emotional response in the characters.
So the statblock here is a CR 2 bruiser which looks a lot like a barbarian. With AC 14 and 45 HP, they are pretty sturdy but easy to injure, and with the
Reckless ability the players are likely to cut them down relatively quickly. However, that same Reckless ability - granting advantage to attacks both by and against the Broodguard - means that its three attacks will be a consistent threat, and it is likely to pile on the pain relatively quickly. There is not a ‘one big attack’ here, which means you don’t need to worry about the Reckless causing a critical and gibbing a player instantly, instead just a relentless barrage of fairly accurate hits. The only other thing of real interest to note is that the Broodguard is hard to charm and paralyse, which is painfully ironic for the end result of a potion that incapacitates and transforms.
There is a lot to like about the Broodguard. It’s basically a Yuan-ti Ogre equivalent - the low-tier bruiser - and it seems to do that job pretty well. Volo’s really overuses the plot idea of ‘friends have been kidnapped and you have to rescue them before the transformation takes hold’, but the one here is probably among the best in the book. Overall, I suspect that you’ll use these guys a lot more than Purebreeds, if you’re doing a Yuan-ti adventure.