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<blockquote data-quote="Charles Rampant" data-source="post: 7028376" data-attributes="member: 32659"><p>The penultimate entry in our series, the <strong>Yuan-Ti: Pit Master</strong> is the third of the Yuan-ti Warlocks, and one that serve as the cautious custodians of tradition.</p><p></p><p><img src="https://img.fireden.net/tg/image/1463/23/1463237974927.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>The art in the book is very Aztec in feel, and that isn’t a bad thing! The use of turquoise paint to give the male figure’s bare chest some colour is also quite interesting, and gives it a surprisingly debauched feel. Meanwhile, the snake arms are not as detailed as they could be - they look more like ribbons than anything - and I’d have loved to see an action pose here, which demonstrated how a creature with snakes for hands actually functions.</p><p></p><p>Devotees of Merrshaulk, these guys seek to rouse their god from his slumber by sacrificing humanoids. It’s definitely the most overtly blood-and-pyramids Aztec feel that we get from the Yuan-ti, and it’s a shame that chapter one didn’t go into a little more detail on that front. The other theme for the Pit Master is that they apparently ted to lead the espionage and counter-espionage efforts of their race, so you might expect to meet them fairly often, since those are the roles in which player characters will most likely fall into the view of a Yuan-ti settlement. That is kind of all the information that we get on these guys, and it definitely feels like we could have had a bit more. Other than the obvious role for these guys as leading the infiltration ring in a human city, the Pit Masters seem most likely to be part of a civil strife among the Yuan-ti, fighting the other Warlock factions to protect traditions and rouse their god. </p><p></p><p>The idea of Merrshaulk being awoken and drowning the world in poison is a compelling one for a campaign, now that I think about it. It could definitely lend itself to an Indiana Jones style globe-trotting tale of adventure, with the players hopping from jungle to desert as they try to beat the Yuan-ti to the macguffin of awakening. It’s a fairly elemental idea - the plot is the same as virtually all Call of Cthulhu adventures - but having Yuan-ti as the bad guys might be enough to give it a distinct theme.</p><p></p><p>We covered virtually all of this profile yesterday, while discussing the Nightmare Speaker; you should look to that for the majority of the information. The unique element here is <em>Merrshaulk’s Slumber</em>, an action that will let it try and put five creatures to sleep. It’s a very interesting effect - working like the <em>sleep</em> spell, it isn’t hard to undo, but it is a bit of a problem for the party in action economy terms. In addition, you don’t get immunity to the effect if you pass, so only Elves will be able to feel happy about multiple Pit Masters spamming this effect at them. On the other hand, the saving throw is fairly easy, so you’ll likely not see the Fighter or Barbarian fail - instead the back line are vulnerable, the group who are also more likely to be Elf-blooded in the first place. </p><p></p><p>Finally, we have some spellcasting. Again, a solid version of <em>Eldritch Blast</em> makes its appearance, along with an interesting mix of spells that lets the Pit Master try to control enemy combatants with <em>command</em>, stop enemy spellcasters or melee fighters with <em>counterspell</em> and <em>hellish rebuke</em>, and straight up flee combat with <em>invisibility</em> and <em>misty step</em>. This is another fairly mixed bag, and like the other two Warlocks I think that we should see these guys as multipurpose; their spell lists are designed to give them the flexibility to fight, flee, or infiltrate. Counterspell is usually a hilarious spell to use against PCs, especially since you don’t care about conserving spell slots while they very much do, so even if the party counterspell the counterspell, you’re still draining them of valuable spell slots.</p><p></p><p>Overall, the Pit Master is another fine but subtle statblock. The Yuan-ti warlocks all seem to have complex bags of tools, and I think that this subtle approach is deliberate by the designers, to ensure that while Orc Clerics are obvious, and Hobgoblin Wizards are blunt objects, the Yuan-ti Warlocks are a very different kettle of snakes entirely. I’m interested to see how they fare in actual play, but likely won’t get a chance until my players reach the Tomb of Diderius in <em>Rise of Tiamat</em>, so that’ll be a while yet.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Charles Rampant, post: 7028376, member: 32659"] The penultimate entry in our series, the [b]Yuan-Ti: Pit Master[/b] is the third of the Yuan-ti Warlocks, and one that serve as the cautious custodians of tradition. [img]https://img.fireden.net/tg/image/1463/23/1463237974927.jpg[/img] The art in the book is very Aztec in feel, and that isn’t a bad thing! The use of turquoise paint to give the male figure’s bare chest some colour is also quite interesting, and gives it a surprisingly debauched feel. Meanwhile, the snake arms are not as detailed as they could be - they look more like ribbons than anything - and I’d have loved to see an action pose here, which demonstrated how a creature with snakes for hands actually functions. Devotees of Merrshaulk, these guys seek to rouse their god from his slumber by sacrificing humanoids. It’s definitely the most overtly blood-and-pyramids Aztec feel that we get from the Yuan-ti, and it’s a shame that chapter one didn’t go into a little more detail on that front. The other theme for the Pit Master is that they apparently ted to lead the espionage and counter-espionage efforts of their race, so you might expect to meet them fairly often, since those are the roles in which player characters will most likely fall into the view of a Yuan-ti settlement. That is kind of all the information that we get on these guys, and it definitely feels like we could have had a bit more. Other than the obvious role for these guys as leading the infiltration ring in a human city, the Pit Masters seem most likely to be part of a civil strife among the Yuan-ti, fighting the other Warlock factions to protect traditions and rouse their god. The idea of Merrshaulk being awoken and drowning the world in poison is a compelling one for a campaign, now that I think about it. It could definitely lend itself to an Indiana Jones style globe-trotting tale of adventure, with the players hopping from jungle to desert as they try to beat the Yuan-ti to the macguffin of awakening. It’s a fairly elemental idea - the plot is the same as virtually all Call of Cthulhu adventures - but having Yuan-ti as the bad guys might be enough to give it a distinct theme. We covered virtually all of this profile yesterday, while discussing the Nightmare Speaker; you should look to that for the majority of the information. The unique element here is [i]Merrshaulk’s Slumber[/i], an action that will let it try and put five creatures to sleep. It’s a very interesting effect - working like the [i]sleep[/i] spell, it isn’t hard to undo, but it is a bit of a problem for the party in action economy terms. In addition, you don’t get immunity to the effect if you pass, so only Elves will be able to feel happy about multiple Pit Masters spamming this effect at them. On the other hand, the saving throw is fairly easy, so you’ll likely not see the Fighter or Barbarian fail - instead the back line are vulnerable, the group who are also more likely to be Elf-blooded in the first place. Finally, we have some spellcasting. Again, a solid version of [i]Eldritch Blast[/i] makes its appearance, along with an interesting mix of spells that lets the Pit Master try to control enemy combatants with [i]command[/i], stop enemy spellcasters or melee fighters with [i]counterspell[/i] and [i]hellish rebuke[/i], and straight up flee combat with [i]invisibility[/i] and [i]misty step[/i]. This is another fairly mixed bag, and like the other two Warlocks I think that we should see these guys as multipurpose; their spell lists are designed to give them the flexibility to fight, flee, or infiltrate. Counterspell is usually a hilarious spell to use against PCs, especially since you don’t care about conserving spell slots while they very much do, so even if the party counterspell the counterspell, you’re still draining them of valuable spell slots. Overall, the Pit Master is another fine but subtle statblock. The Yuan-ti warlocks all seem to have complex bags of tools, and I think that this subtle approach is deliberate by the designers, to ensure that while Orc Clerics are obvious, and Hobgoblin Wizards are blunt objects, the Yuan-ti Warlocks are a very different kettle of snakes entirely. I’m interested to see how they fare in actual play, but likely won’t get a chance until my players reach the Tomb of Diderius in [i]Rise of Tiamat[/i], so that’ll be a while yet. [/QUOTE]
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