Serpent Kingdoms
By Ed Greenwood, Eric L. Boyd, and Darrin Drader
Wizards of the Coast product number 965660000
192 pages, $29.95
Serpent Kingdoms is one of the many Forgotten Realms-based books looking at a particular area of the world of Faerûn, although this one has a definite racial cast to it, as it focuses on the scaled races like the yuan-ti, nagas, and lizardfolk. It even introduces a new "progenitor race" in the sarrukh, which is responsible (in the Forgotten Realms, at least) for the creation of many of the scaled races that populate many game worlds.
The cover carries on the "Forgotten Realms look" (one that I heartily approve of), combining the best aspects of both the "feature a painting on the cover" and "make the cover look like an actual tome" camps. While it has the typical leather-bound tome look of all Forgotten Realms books (including leather stitching along the edges), we also get a nice wrap-around painting of the subject matter at hand. On the front, a sarrukh is presented two captives - presumably a human male sorcerer and a female elf ranger, judging by their attire (and nice socks there, sorcerer!) - by a pair of lizardfolk. One the back we get a green-skinned, female yuan-ti holding a staff, with ruins behind her - and if you look closely, what appears to be a male halfling, presumably a companion to the two captives on the front, apparently thinking to himself "Crap! How am I going to rescue those two
now?" It's a very nicely done piece, with nice color schemes and great detail, and some of the absolutely best depictions of lizardfolk I've ever seen. Congratulations to cover artist Michael Sutfin on a job well done! The little details really help sell the work: the snakes slithering along the steps in front of the sarrukh, the serpent motif in the crumbling walls of the background, the excellent scale patterns on the reptilian figures. One thing worth pointing out, though, is that this painting differs from most of the other Forgotten Realms cover paintings in that it looks like a painted panel of a comic book rather than a "standard" painting. By that, I mean that the figures look to have all been penciled, inked, and then colored - there are black lines "outlining" all of the figures like you would find in a comic book panel. Not that this is a complaint by any means; the end result is still a striking piece of artwork.
As for the interior art, it consists of 54 full-color paintings (2 of them full-page works, like in the old AD&D 2nd Edition days!) 13 monochrome symbols as chapter headers, and 4 maps by 9 different artists. The artwork is for the most part very well done; I was especially pleased to see that all of the new monsters got an illustration, as did the prestige classes. Furthermore, the monster illustrations all matched well with their written descriptions, which is very high up my own personal list of importance. Not all of the pictures are real winners, though - I wish WotC would drop Dennis Crabapple from their roster of artists, for one, as his work here is at his typically low standard. However, excellent pieces like "the lizard king's feast" on page 43, "the Serpent Sibyl" on page 141, and "yuan-ti house interior" on page 17 (with the reclining yuan-ti bathing in the bowl) help to bring the overall average up. I also wanted to point out that the illustration of the city of Ss'kowlyn'raa on page 107 looks surprisingly modern, if not futuristic - in any case, it looks a bit out of place. Finally, it would have been nice to have the artists' names along the outer edges of the page (like was done with the core rulebooks) for those works that didn't include the artist's initials, so you could tell who did what.
Serpent Kingdoms is laid out as follows:
- Introduction: A short introduction to the material in this book, including helpful lists of abbreviations of other books referenced, as well as the different terms used to denote types of scaled creatures (and in which books to find them, using the abbreviations just mentioned).
- Yuan-ti: Details of the different types of yuan-ti (purebloods, halfbloods, abominations, anathemas, tainted ones, broodguards, mageslayers, and holy guardians), their racial history, outlook, society (including 7 different yuan-ti "Houses"), yuan-ti characters, magic, deities, relationships with other races, equipment, encounters, and 2 fully-statted NPCs ready for immediate use.
- Nagas: Details of the different types of naga (dark nagas, guardian nagas, iridescent nagas, spirit nagas, water nagas, banelar nagas, bone nagas, Faerûnian ha-nagas, and nagahydras), their racial history, outlook, society, naga characters, magic, deities, relationships with other races, equipment, encounters, and 3 fully-statted NPCs ready for immediate use.
- Lizards: Details on the various lizardlike intelligent races (asabis, firenewts and their giant strider mounts, khaastas, lizard kings, troglodytes, and trens), each with further racial sections on each creature's outlook, history, society, characters, magic, deities, relations with other races, and equipment, plus a firenewt NPC.
- Hidden Folk: Details on those lizardlike intelligent races that fall outside of normal Serpent Kingdom society (ophidians and pterafolk), each with sections on racial history, outlook, society, characters, magic, deities, relations with other races, equipment, plus a pterafolk NPC.
- Sarrukh: Details on the sarrukh, including sections on racial history, outlook, society, characters, magic, deities, relations with other races, equipment, encounters, plus a sarrukh NPC.
- Monsters: 27 new monsters, one of them (the bone naga) a template.
- Realms: 42 pages of Forgotten Realms-specific campaign world information, separated by geographical area, each detailing life/society, major geographical features, important sites, regional history, and several plots and rumors.
- Yuan-ti Campaign: How to make the yuan-ti a central (but often behind-the-scenes) enemy in a campaign, with 3 ready-to-use NPCs.
- Feats: 28 new feats, most of them for monstrous races like yuan-ti and nagas.
- Equipment: 3 types of armor, a new weapon, a special substance, 15 poisons, a weapon quality, 3 magic weapons, 2 rings, 3 wondrous items, 3 major artifacts, and 5 yuan-ti grafts.
- Spells: 14 new spells, mostly used by the reptilian races in this book.
- Prestige Classes: 6 prestige classes, 5 for various Scaled Ones and one for those devoted to fighting them.
- Adventures: 4 short adventures, for PCs of levels 6, 7, 7 (again), and 13.
- Appendix: Historical Eras of Faerûn (which kingdoms were active when), Deities of the Scaled Ones (short descriptions of 10 reptilian deities), and 2 tables of racial traits (handy for the DM to see all of the various stat features of the main reptilian creatures in this book).
As far as the layout goes, I was overall impressed. Personally, I could have done without the 42-page "Realms" section (the section of the book that is of the least interest for those not running a Forgotten Realms campaign), and I was once again disappointed by the lack of a regional map anywhere in the book so those reading all of the geographical details would have something handy to reference so they could see where the authors were talking about. (I suppose the argument can be made that those interested in the "Realms" chapter would already have a map of the Forgotten Realms - probably from the
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book if nothing else - but I have both books and never bothered to pull out the map so I could visualize the locations. Perhaps laziness on my part, but more likely a lack of overall interest in the "world-specific geographical details" section of books of this type.) Anyway, getting back on the track of my main point here, I think the authors did a nice job of presenting the material in an organized fashion (good thing, too, as
Serpent Kingdoms lacks the detailed index in the back of the book that many of the other Forgotten Realms books I've seen have). The introduction of the sarrukh as the "master race" of sentient reptile species in Faerûn will probably be seen as unnecessary by some, but I don't begrudge it; it makes for a nice unified history of the Scaled Ones in the Forgotten Realms. I also appreciate the fact that the authors didn't try to herd
all of the reptilian monsters into the "created by the sarrukh" corral; the notable exceptions like the khaasta make for a more believable history. Also, there's evidence that the sarrukh have been a part of the Forgotten Realms long before
Serpent Kingdoms was created: way back in 1988, the AD&D undead accessory
Lords of Darkness featured an adventure with the crypt of a "lizard man greater mummy" who was buried with ancient "nether scrolls" detailing ways to permanently make changes to existing creatures. The mummy's name was "Hsssthak," and what do you know? - on page 96 of
Serpent Kingdoms, one of the "important sites" of Isstosseffifil (I know, stupid name) is the Crypt of Hsssthak, who's now a sarrukh mummy sorcerer 10/archmage 5. Pretty cool!
There are many other things in this book that have been "updated" since the early days of the Forgotten Realms. I notice that the main naga-god, Shekinester, now has
five aspects, upgraded from "her" original three. (This is because there are now five main naga races, the four from the
Monster Manual and the iridescent naga featured in this book. That surprised me: I had been sure that the "coral naga" from the Wizards of the Coast website would have made an appearance in this book.) I put "her" in quotes a few sentences ago because now
all nagas are hermaphroditic; that used to be a feature of just the dark nagas. They also threw out a few incidental facts about the names of groups of creatures, which I found amusing. You know how you have a school of fish, a pride of lions, and a herd of cows? Well, apparently, a group of stirges is called a "thirst," and a group of galeb duhrs (the "rock" equivalent of a treant) is called a "tumble." I found that to be highly amusing.
As for the editing and proofreading, once again the jobs done here could have been much better. It wasn't terrible, just disappointing in a book from the leading RPG company in the world. There were numerous examples of words not being capitalized when they should have been (size categories, the first word in a sentence), spell names not being italicized, missing words in a sentence, extraneous words in a sentence, incorrect pluralization ("naga" is now pluralized normally, as "nagas"), incorrectly attributing items from other books (
arms of the naga is from
Savage Species, not
Magic of Faerûn), incorrect hyphenation of words broken between two sentences, misspelled words and typos ("locothah" instead of "locathah," "the" instead of "they," "striderx" instead of "strider," "theri" instead of "their," "hte" instead of "the" - those last two in the same sentence!), improper comma usage, missing spaces causing unintentional compound words ("magesemploying"), incorrect verb tenses, incorrect apostrophe usage (sadly, this seems like it's becoming a lost skill), one in a set of quotation marks conspicuous in its absence, a five-digit number lost one of its zeroes ("-31,00"), and a couple of places where a title heading was not in bold. Also, for no apparent reason, halfway through the book "yuan-ti" starts to get capitalized in mid-sentence for no reason as many times as not. Again, in most cases it wasn't difficult to figure out what was meant, but I imagine any English teachers reading through
Serpent Kingdoms would have been sorely tempted to whip out their red pens!
Then there are the monster stats. I know that many people read my reviews specifically to grab up the "instant errata." I'll do them one better this time, since WotC has already posted
Serpent Kingdoms errata on their website. Here's what they already found wrong with their book:
- p. 31, Terpenzi's Stat Block: Terpenzi, the Guardian of Najara, should have a Constitution score of -. This change affects Terpenzi's hit points (221 hp instead of 595 hp), Fortitude save modifier (+13 instead of +24), and Concentration check modifier (+27 instead of +38).
- p. 48, Chassan's Stat Block: Chassan, as written, has both immunity to cold and vulnerability to cold. Delete the reference to "vulnerability to cold" in Chassan's stat block.
- p. 141, The Serpent Sibyl's Stat Block: The Serpent Sibyl's stat block contains an error. Under Full Atk, the bite damage should be 2d6+4, not 1d8+4.
- p. 158, Venomfire Spell: The venomfire spell has two Saving Throw lines. Delete the second line that says "Saving Throw: None."
- p. 162, Fang of Sseth Prestige Class: The fang of Sseth prestige class should gain a number of skill points each level equal to 8 + Int modifier (not 2 + Int modifier, as indicated).
To this rather short, "official" errata list, I would like to add the following "unofficial" inputs of my own:
- p. 29, Maharishi, Seer of Procalith, guardian naga sorcerer 6/loremaster 9: Base Attack Bonus should be +15, not +18 (+8 as a guardian naga, +3 as a Sorcerer 6, +4 as a Loremaster 9). Grapple attacks should be at +25, not +27 (+15 BAB, +4 size, +5 Str, +1 loremaster weapon trick). Bite attacks should be at +20 melee, not +23 (+15 BAB, -1 size, +5 Str, +1 loremaster weapon trick). Poison spit attacks should be at +16 ranged touch, not +19 (+15 BAB, -1 size, +2 Dex). Fortitude save modifier should be +14, not +17 (+7 as a guardian naga, +2 as a Sorcerer 6, +3 as a Loremaster 9, +2 from lore of true stamina). Reflex save modifier should be +16, not +17 (+7 as a guardian naga, +2 as a Sorcerer 6, +3 as a Loremaster 9, +2 from secret knowledge of avoidance, +2 from Lightning Reflexes). Will save modifier should be +22, not +25 (+11 as a guardian naga, +5 as a Sorcerer 6, +6 as a Loremaster 9). Finally, under "Spells," Maharishi should cast spells as a 15th-level sorcerer, not 9th (9th for being a guardian naga, plus 6 more levels as a sorcerer).
- p. 30, Ebarnaje, King of Najara, advanced dark naga sorcerer 3/naga overlord 5: Base Attack Bonus should be +22, not +28 (+18 as a 24-HD aberration, +1 for sorcerer 3, +3 for naga overlord 5). Grapple attacks should be at +36, not +32 (+22 BAB, +8 size, +6 Str). Bastard sword attacks should be at +29/+24/+19/+14 melee, not +25/+20/+15/+10 (+22 BAB, -2 size, +6 Str, +3 magic weapon bonus). Eschew Materials should be annotated as a bonus feat.
- p. 31, Terpenzi, the Guardian of Najara, bone Faerûnian ha-naga naga overlord 10:Base Attack Bonus should be +25, not +23 (+18 as a ha-naga, +7 as a naga overlord 10). Grapple attacks should be at +49, not +47 (+25 BAB, +16 size, +8 Str). Coil whip attacks should be at +36 melee, not +34 (+25 BAB, -8 size, +14 Dex due to Weapon Finesse, +5 from +5 amulet of mighty fists). Sting attacks should be at +34 melee, not +32 (same as previous, but with a -2 penalty due to being a secondary attack with Multiattack). Sting damage should not include poison (ha-nagas have poisonous stings, but the bone naga template removes sting poison and adds a poison bite). Bite attacks should be at +34 melee, not +32. There's no Full Atk entry; the Full Atk should be what's listed as the Atk (and the Atk should just be the coil whip attack). SQ shouldn't include chameleon ability, as that comes from a ha-naga's scales, and a bone naga has no scales.
- p. 53, K'rr'zaalt, male pterrafolk cleric 8 of Shekinester: With 12 HD, he should have 5 feats, not 6 - one should be annotated as a bonus feat.
- p. 53, Vassk, male ophidian barbarian 10: Flat-footed AC should be 22, not 18 (he keeps his Dex modifier even when flat-footed as a result of his uncanny dodge). With 13 HD, he should have 5 feats, not just 4.
- p. 61, Pil'it'ith, male sarrukh cleric 15 of Set: Base Attack Bonus should be +25, not +18 (+14 as a 14-HD monstrous humanoid, +11 as a 15th-level cleric). Grapple attacks should be at +30, not +23 (+25 BAB, +5 Str). Claw attacks should be at +30 melee, not +28 (+25 BAB, +5 Str). Longspear attacks should be at +34 melee, not +28 (+25 BAB, +5 Str, +4 magic weapon bonus). He shouldn't get a secondary bite attack under "Atk." However, under "Full Atk," bite attacks should be at +25 melee, not +23 (+25 BAB, +5 Str, -5 for secondary attack), and longspear attacks should be at +34/+29/+24/+19 melee, not +28/+23/+18/+13. Also, the illustration of Pil'it'ith on page 60 is inaccurate, as the creature should be depicted as an albino; those green scales definitely do not belong.
- p. 65, Pteranodon: It has 3 HD, yet Advancement is "6-10 HD (Large)." What happened to 4-5 HD?
- p. 66, Stegosaurus: Hit Dice should be 18d8+183, not 18d10+183 (Animals have d8s as Hit Dice; oddly enough, the average hit points are correct as listed at 264, though). No Level Adjustment given; should be "-"
- p. 66, Jaculi: Under "Speed," 30 ft. does not equal 4 squares; it should either be "30 ft. (6 squares)" or "20 ft. (4 squares)" - take your pick. (I'd recommend 20 ft., the same as a Medium viper as listed in the Monster Manual.) Flat-footed AC should be 13, not 16 (+3 natural - it doesn't get the +3 Dex modifier when flat-footed). Finally, if the animal trance special ability keeps prey motionless (as described), how can it be used to "lure small birds or furred forest creatures into a nest or den" as listed in the "Combat" section?
- p. 74, 6th-level Dark Naga Sorcerer Bone Naga: With HD 9d12+6d12, average hit points should be 90, not 58. Sting attacks should be at +10 melee, not +12 (+9 BAB, -1 size, +2 Str). Bite attacks should be at +5 melee, not +7 (+9 BAB, -1 size, +2 Str, -5 for secondary attack). Poison Fortitude save should be DC 18 (using only racial HD) or DC 21 (using both racial and class level), not DC 17. Spell Resistance should be 26, not 25 (CR+11, or in this case 15+11).
- p. 77, Nagahydra: Hit Dice should be 18d8+93, not 18d8+90 (+3 hp from the Toughness feat). Full Atk should list 5 bites, not 7 - one for each of the creature's five heads.
- p. 79, Nifern: With HD 2d8+4, average hit points should be 13, not 10. Also, the illustration shows the creature with eyes, even though the description of the nifern says it's eyeless.
- p. 81, Serpentflesh Golem: Hit Dice should be 11d10+30, not just 11d10 (Large constructs get 30 bonus hit points).
- p. 84, Glacier Snake: Grapple attacks should be at +4, not +0 (+1 BAB, +3 Str).
- p. 86, Tree Python: Flat-footed AC should be 13, not 16 (+3 natural - it doesn't get the +3 Dex bonus when flat-footed).
- pp. 88-89, Yuan-ti Holy Guardian: Masterwork scimitar attacks should be at +13 melee (+13/+8 melee under "Full Atk"), not +12 (or +12/+7) (+8 BAB, +4 Str, +1 masterwork bonus). Masterwork scimitar damage should be 1d6+4, not 1d6+2 (+4 Str bonus). Masterwork composite bow attacks should be at +10 melee (or +10/+5 under "Full Atk"), not +9 (or +9/+4) (+8 BAB, +1 Dex, +1 masterwork bonus).
- p. 90, Yuan-ti Mageslayer: With HD 8d8+16, average hit points should be 52, not 40. Bite attacks should be at +7 melee, not +5 (+8 BAB, +4 Str, -5 for secondary attack).
- p. 143, Nhyris D'Hothek, male pureblood yuan-ti fighter 3/horned harbinger 1: Scimitar attacks should be at +14 melee, not +12 (+9 BAB, +2 Str, +2 magic weapon bonus, +1 Weapon Focus). Longbow attacks should be at +13/+8 ranged, not +11/+6 (+9 BAB, +2 Dex, +2 magic weapon bonus). Longbow damage should be 1d8+4/x3, not 1d8+2/x3 (+2 Str bonus, +2 magic longbow).
- p. 152, Scourge of Fangs Serpent Lash: Serpent lash damage should be 1d2, not 1d2-2 (-2 Str, +2 magic weapon bonus).
- p. 172, Duskar Flamehaern, male human adept 7: Initiative should be +2, not +4 (+2 Dex).
- p. 172, Esvele, Lhareene, and Rowan Flamehaern, female human tainted one Rogue 5: Short sword attacks should be at +6 melee, not +3 (+3 BAB, +1 magic weapon bonus, +2 Dex due to Weapon Finesse). Alertness should be annotated as a bonus feat (as per the "tainted one" template).
- p. 174, Hendar "Swordshatter" Lhorghin, male Vaasan human fighter 5: As a 5th-level human fighter, Hendar should have 6 feats, not just 4 (one as a human, 2 more as a 5th-level character, and 3 bonus fighter feats).
- p. 183, Prisoners, human Commoner 5: As 5th-level human commoners, these guys should have 3 feats, not 4 (one for being a human, and 2 more for being a 5th-level character).
- pp. 184-185, Kha'ghassta, male lizard king barbarian 2: AC should be 27, not 25 (+5 Dex, +6 natural, +6 +1 breastplate). The same goes for flat-footed AC, since he gets to keep his Dex modifier when flat-footed thanks to his uncanny dodge. Touch AC should be 15, not 13 (+5 Dex). When raging, his normal and flat-footed AC should be 25, not 23, and his touch AC should be 13, not 11.
Again, I'm surprised that so many mistakes like these were made by Wizards of the Coast, the industry leader. And this despite the fact that there were three authors (neither of which is a newcomer to 3.5), an editor, a managing editor, a design manager, a development manager, two production managers, and a director of RPG R&D. Maybe everybody thought it was the other guy's job to double-check the stats.
A few final things bothered me about
Serpent Kingdoms. To start with, much of the material was taken from uncredited sources. I know I'd seen the
scent spell somewhere before; after some digging, I found it in
Magic of Faerûn. However, repeating information in a Forgotten Realms book that originally appeared in a different Forgotten Realms book is one thing, taking material from
Dragon magazine "Ecology" articles is another. Paul Culotta's "Ecology of the Firenewt and Giant Strider" first introduced the "hammer and anvil" attack strategy employed by firenewt raiders, as well as the
lava splash spell (and probably the
erupt and
lava missile spells as well, although I don't have that issue handy to double-check; I do recall there being three spells in his article, though). Jonathan Richards' "Ecology of the Amphisbaena" is where the two-headed snake first got its pit viper horns (to aid in molting) and first moved by sidewinding. I'm sure these two are pleased that their material is now "official," and would have been thrilled to have their work mentioned on the credits page. There were also a few things that were mentioned with no reference as to where to find further details. Yurians are mentioned in passing on page 117; despite owning the
Fiend Folio, I had no recollection of these lobster-men (and looking over their
FF entry, it's no wonder - they're eminently forgettable creatures). The "Deities of the Scaled Ones" has entries on the table, but no paragraphs of description, for Laogzed, Sebek, or Sess'inek. My final gripe (and this one is just personal): names like "Ss'dath'in'ssatath," "Ss'that'tiss'ssun," "Ss'kowlyn'raa," "sssartisss," "ts'ous," and "osssra" really started to get on my nerves after awhile. Yes, I get it that serpent races would have many sibilant sounds in their language, but enough's enough already!
Still, despite my rather intimidating list of nit-picks, I still overall liked
Serpent Kingdoms. Of course, it helps that I'm a monster fan, and the new monsters appearing in the book are for the most part pretty impressive. (It's kind of a shame that dinosaur fans only get new dinosaur stats in small doses in WotC books, though! The pteranodon made sense here, since pterafolk can polymorph into pteranodons, but the ceratosaur and stegosaurus seemed a bit like non-related filler.) The discussions on the various scaled races were very well done, and made a lot of sense. The feats, spells, equipment, and prestige classes were all logical and for the most part very well thought out, and I really liked the four adventures presented; unlike many adventures that come across as "filler," these are all relevant and look like fun "Side Trek"-length short scenarios each good for a night's game session. (One slight disappointment: I would have liked to have seen a wider spread of party level; as it is, three of the four fall into the 6th-7th level range.) And while I already mentioned my feelings on the 42 pages of "Realms" material, I really can't fault a Forgotten Realms book for going into so much detail about the Forgotten Realms - in fact, despite my own personal preference on the matter, as a reviewer I'd have to fault a Forgotten Realms book for
not going into so much detail!
All together, I put
Serpent Kingdoms in the high "3 (Average)"/low "4 (Good)." Despite its problems, I think the book is a valuable enough tool that I'm going to bump it into the higher category. While primarily of use to DMs whose campaigns are set in the Forgotten Realms,
Serpent Kingdoms would be a valuable addition to any DM looking to focus on the Scaled Ones.