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<blockquote data-quote="Charles Rampant" data-source="post: 7027281" data-attributes="member: 32659"><p>Thanks for providing overviews of the basic Yuan-ti types, [MENTION=53176]Leatherhead[/MENTION] - it's a useful thing to do, and I don't want to make my posts too huge by trying to cover all that material. The variability of the Yuan-ti is kind of their unique selling point, in a lot of ways, but it is presented somewhat confusingly I think.</p><p></p><p>------</p><p></p><p>The <strong>Yuan-Ti: Nightmare Speaker</strong> are the torturers of the race, who delight in feeding their fell deity the fears and nightmares of their victims.</p><p></p><p><img src="http://orig00.deviantart.net/bdbb/f/2014/339/b/0/projest__conan____creature_design___the_yuan_ti_by_elindiriel-d86hztr.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>The art in the book is really interestingly posed, with the Nightmare Speaker writhing around so much that no one part of her body is in a straight line. It’s a clever way of communicating the alien nature of a Yuan-ti, as well as suggesting the mindset of one of these. </p><p></p><p>Among the Yuan-ti, already a very cruel race, the Nightmare Speaker is the cruelest, as she offers the suffering of her victims to her god. She feels very much like the kind of person that the players meet inside a Yuan-ti settlement, the one in charge of the slave pens and whatnot, and less like one that they’ll just meet in the wild or as part of an infiltration party. Of course, she can be lurking in the sewers or the nearby swamp along with a bunch of other Yuan-ti, but the basic idea here is the same as the ‘evil doctor in charge of the patients’ from WW2 films; Armin Zola from <em>Captain America</em>, for example. Their purpose might be very different, but their narrative role - to be the horrible monster that the players defeat to free the captives - is the same. I’d definitely be tempted to have a whole scene revolve around this madam and her servants, with heavy use of illusions and unsettling imagery in her lair, elevating her from just another Yuan-ti, and into a very particular kind of horror. If you’ve played <em>Arkham Asylum</em>, and remember the Morgue level, then you’ll know what I mean.</p><p></p><p>It seems that Wizards developed a ‘Yuan-ti Warlock’ package, and the Mind Whisperer, Nightmare Speaker, and Pit Master all share it, something that I did not notice yesterday when writing about the Mind Whisperer. This package includes the standard Yuan-ti traits - speak with snakes, turn into a snake - as well: as a Paladinesque ability to add 3d10 damage to a hit, twice a day; <em>magic resistance</em>; spellcasting as a 6th level Warlock; two melee attacks; training in Deception and Stealth; <em>Devil Sight</em> to see through magical darkness; AC 14 and 71 or 88 HP. It’s a fairly complete package, to be honest, and had I noticed in advance I would probably have done all three statblocks in one post. </p><p></p><p>Anyway, let’s look more at the Nightmare Speaker. She gets an ability to <em>Invoke Nightmare</em> as an action, which appears to be a customised version of <em>Phantasmal Killer</em>, albeit one that does half as much damage and is much less debilitating, which feels a bit unfair to the Yuan-ti. The Nightmare Speaker can only do this once per rest, in other words only once, and it feels a little unduly weak compared to the spell in question, so you could just bump her up to a 7th level Warlock and give her the spell directly if you wanted to make her more impressive. Another, more interesting, approach might be to let her do it multiple times - it feels like the signature ability of this creature should be usable more than once. Speaking of the spellcasting, she gets a selection of Warlock spells that provide a lot of control and damage: <em>eldritch blast</em> with +3 damage and increased range, <em>arms of hadar</em> and <em>hunger of hadar</em>, <em>witch bolt</em>, and <em>hold person</em>. I can say that Hunger of Hadar is totally horrific, and a really strong way to control the battlefield, especially considering that the Nightmare Speaker - and the other two Yuan-ti Warlocks - can still see into the area. So what we have here is a caster that could get into melee, but has the spells to not need to; she can use Hold Person and Hunger of Hadar to lock characters down, before using Eldritch Blast to punish the party at range. I’ve seen a PC Warlock follow this model, and it was devastatingly effective. </p><p></p><p>Though not a Yuan-ti that the players are likely to meet very often, the Nightmare Speaker has the tools to really make an impact, especially if you play up her themes of fear and loss of control. However, her combat ability feels a little too neutered, and she seems likely to focus heavily on basic spellcasting instead, which is perhaps a sign of an overly-cautious creature design.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Charles Rampant, post: 7027281, member: 32659"] Thanks for providing overviews of the basic Yuan-ti types, [MENTION=53176]Leatherhead[/MENTION] - it's a useful thing to do, and I don't want to make my posts too huge by trying to cover all that material. The variability of the Yuan-ti is kind of their unique selling point, in a lot of ways, but it is presented somewhat confusingly I think. ------ The [b]Yuan-Ti: Nightmare Speaker[/b] are the torturers of the race, who delight in feeding their fell deity the fears and nightmares of their victims. [img]http://orig00.deviantart.net/bdbb/f/2014/339/b/0/projest__conan____creature_design___the_yuan_ti_by_elindiriel-d86hztr.jpg[/img] The art in the book is really interestingly posed, with the Nightmare Speaker writhing around so much that no one part of her body is in a straight line. It’s a clever way of communicating the alien nature of a Yuan-ti, as well as suggesting the mindset of one of these. Among the Yuan-ti, already a very cruel race, the Nightmare Speaker is the cruelest, as she offers the suffering of her victims to her god. She feels very much like the kind of person that the players meet inside a Yuan-ti settlement, the one in charge of the slave pens and whatnot, and less like one that they’ll just meet in the wild or as part of an infiltration party. Of course, she can be lurking in the sewers or the nearby swamp along with a bunch of other Yuan-ti, but the basic idea here is the same as the ‘evil doctor in charge of the patients’ from WW2 films; Armin Zola from [i]Captain America[/i], for example. Their purpose might be very different, but their narrative role - to be the horrible monster that the players defeat to free the captives - is the same. I’d definitely be tempted to have a whole scene revolve around this madam and her servants, with heavy use of illusions and unsettling imagery in her lair, elevating her from just another Yuan-ti, and into a very particular kind of horror. If you’ve played [i]Arkham Asylum[/i], and remember the Morgue level, then you’ll know what I mean. It seems that Wizards developed a ‘Yuan-ti Warlock’ package, and the Mind Whisperer, Nightmare Speaker, and Pit Master all share it, something that I did not notice yesterday when writing about the Mind Whisperer. This package includes the standard Yuan-ti traits - speak with snakes, turn into a snake - as well: as a Paladinesque ability to add 3d10 damage to a hit, twice a day; [i]magic resistance[/i]; spellcasting as a 6th level Warlock; two melee attacks; training in Deception and Stealth; [i]Devil Sight[/i] to see through magical darkness; AC 14 and 71 or 88 HP. It’s a fairly complete package, to be honest, and had I noticed in advance I would probably have done all three statblocks in one post. Anyway, let’s look more at the Nightmare Speaker. She gets an ability to [i]Invoke Nightmare[/i] as an action, which appears to be a customised version of [i]Phantasmal Killer[/i], albeit one that does half as much damage and is much less debilitating, which feels a bit unfair to the Yuan-ti. The Nightmare Speaker can only do this once per rest, in other words only once, and it feels a little unduly weak compared to the spell in question, so you could just bump her up to a 7th level Warlock and give her the spell directly if you wanted to make her more impressive. Another, more interesting, approach might be to let her do it multiple times - it feels like the signature ability of this creature should be usable more than once. Speaking of the spellcasting, she gets a selection of Warlock spells that provide a lot of control and damage: [i]eldritch blast[/i] with +3 damage and increased range, [i]arms of hadar[/i] and [i]hunger of hadar[/i], [i]witch bolt[/i], and [i]hold person[/i]. I can say that Hunger of Hadar is totally horrific, and a really strong way to control the battlefield, especially considering that the Nightmare Speaker - and the other two Yuan-ti Warlocks - can still see into the area. So what we have here is a caster that could get into melee, but has the spells to not need to; she can use Hold Person and Hunger of Hadar to lock characters down, before using Eldritch Blast to punish the party at range. I’ve seen a PC Warlock follow this model, and it was devastatingly effective. Though not a Yuan-ti that the players are likely to meet very often, the Nightmare Speaker has the tools to really make an impact, especially if you play up her themes of fear and loss of control. However, her combat ability feels a little too neutered, and she seems likely to focus heavily on basic spellcasting instead, which is perhaps a sign of an overly-cautious creature design. [/QUOTE]
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