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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6007490" data-attributes="member: 2067"><a href="http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4wand/20120828" target="_blank">Here it is.</a>Normally, they're getting things mostly right (if going a little less far than I would) with these monster articles, but with THIS one, I think James Wyatt got it wrong.Specifically, I think he got it backwards.In Yuan-ti society as I see it, the most humanlike (the "purebloods") should be the leaders, the commanders, the most powerful. They are the elites, the chosen, the special. They are nobles. They are this way because they are the most human, yet their souls are sworn to their dark serpent gods. They are assassins and infiltrators, manipulators and poisoners, able to pass among other societies, and for that, they are special and chosen. Their psychic powers of emotional manipulation are at their best when manipulating the leaders and champions of other nations.See, to me, the yuan-ti aren't so much humans who want to become snake-like as they are snake-like beings that want to become more human. They are the alien who lives among us, the betrayal long plotted. Thus, abominations are not the elite of the race, they are the bodyguards, the grunts, the dumb muscle. They are failed experiments in humanity, rejects fit only for their physical powers. That's part of why their bodies are so variable: they are the mutant horrors born of failed experiments. The serpent is patient and cunning, not overwhelmingly powerful. Those sacks of scales and meat are not elites. To me, the multifaceted mutation of the species is part of its appeal and its variety: the fact that different appendages could be snakelike or humanlike gave weight to the archetype of a changable, variable enemy, whose body was unsettlingly mutant. The unsettling mish-mash of human and serpent parts implied that these creatures were not fully either, though they struggled in between them both.I think that each encounter with the yuan-ti should drive home that element of something hidden an alien. It should cause a sudden, visceral fear, like suddenly waking up covered in slithering snakes -- something you thought was safe suddenly is not. That person you've been trusting, they aren't who you think they are, they never have been, and what's more, everything they are seeks to undo you.I don't think "abomination" is a praise word and "pureblood" is a disdainful term. I think that yuan-ti WANT to be human-like. They seek that end. The mutations are what stand in their way. It is the best and most powerful manipulators who are the leaders of my yuan-ti, and those are invariably those most human-like, whose arts are subtle, and whose alien nature is well-concealed. I want my monsters monstrous, and in the case of the yuan-ti, less is more: the more human-like they are, the more unsettling they become, and thus the more powerful they should be. I don't think yuan-ti need to be RARG OBVIOUS MONSTER. They especially benefit from being first and foremost an Interaction challenge, and later, when the minions are called in, a combat challenge.That's me, though. What about you?</blockquote>

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