Yuan Ti and allies thread (Ti-Khana critters)

[Cleon]

Yeah! My thinking was that the arcane magic had made their horns ooze venom. 10ft reach is great. Feel free to come up with a freaky description

Added a 10 foot reach to the Gore of the Ti-khana Triceratops.

Feel free to come up with a freaky description

How about:

A ti-khana triceratops is a mammoth quadruped that weighs as much as several normal-sized elephants. These reptiles are strikingly colored, the hue of its scales can range from gloss black, bone white, poisonous green, to the yellow-orange or red of a venomous wasp or snake. A few are a single colour, but most are patterned in stripes or spots. Heavily armored with crocodile-like scales, this dinosaur has an enormous head that looks like a naked skull backed by a huge bony crest over the nape of its neck and collar. Like a normal triceratops, a ti-khana triceratops has a short horn on its nose and a pair of long horns set above its eyes. However, its brow horns are needle-sharp, longer than pikes and drip venom, resembling the fangs of a colossal viper more than the horns of a herbivore.​

 The yuan-ti bred the ti-khana triceratops as a beast of war capable of smashing enemy formations to pieces. In battle, they either carry yuan-ti upon their backs (typically one abomination in a saddle or a howdah full of malison archers) or fight without riders. When shapechanged into a snake, a ki-khana triceratops is impossible to distinguish from a normal snake or a yuan-ti in snake form without using of truesight or similar means. As well as confusing opponents, this allows the monstrosity to infiltrate areas it could not enter in its true form.​

Doesn't look that "freaky" to me, but I think it'll do.

 

[Casimir Liber]

done

 

[Cleon]

done

Done what?

 

[Casimir Liber]

this

 

[Cleon]

this

Let's see…

The Innate Spellcasting has a "deinonychus" that ought to be a "triceratops".

The Bite and Gore should not end in "and poisoned (ignore on DC 15 CON save)" assuming we're matching the yuan-ti's no-save venom.

The Gore should be +10 to hit, not +9.

Incidentally, if we did change it to produce the poisoned condition on a failed save, that condition would need a duration.

Since the Description seems agreeable I'll add it to my Ti-khana Triceratops Draft.

I'm still thinking we could fancy up the Mindpunch, as per a few posts ago:

If it's a "punch" how about it being a telekinetic attack that does bludgeoning damage and if the target fails its save they are knocked back a certain distance and fall prone?

Maybe make it an area-of-effect attack with (Recharge #-#) instead of a single target standard action? I'm thinking a cone or a circular burst.

 

[Casimir Liber]

Ok - changes incorporated - I made it Mindburst and more like a psychic fireball.

"The ti-khana triceratops targets a point it can see within 100 feet of it. Each creature in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on that point must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or take 21 (6d6) force damage and be knocked prone and knocked back 10 feet. On a success, the target takes half damage and remains standing."

 

[Cleon]

Ok - changes incorporated - I made it Mindburst and more like a psychic fireball.

"The ti-khana triceratops targets a point it can see within 100 feet of it. Each creature in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on that point must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or take 21 (6d6) force damage and be knocked prone and knocked back 10 feet. On a success, the target takes half damage and remains standing."

Not sure about it doing force damage. That makes me think of magic missile and Mordenkainen's sword spells and similar effects I imagine having a penetrating effect while I was visualizing just a mighty shove so it does falling-type damage (i.e. bludgeoning).

Well, Bigby's hand (aka the SRD's arcane hand) does force damage and is a conceptually similar effect and is conceptually similar so I guess I can go along with it at least for now. Still seems a tad odd.

Also, I'd tweak the wording a bit. Instead of saying "knocked" twice I'd use "is pushed 10 feet away from the central point and knocked prone" instead. The "remains standing" in the final sentence could mean the target is knocked back but doesn't fall. I'd say it doesn't move.

Let's see, that'd be:

Mindpunch #2 (Recharge 5-6). The ti-khana triceratops targets a point it can see within 100 feet of it. Each creature in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on that point must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or takes 21 (6d6) force damage and is pushed 10 feet away from the central point and falls prone. On a success, the target takes half damage and is not pushed or knocked prone.​

Hmm, if we're making this analogous to fireball should we increase the range? A fireball is 150 feet. Contrariwise I'm thinking these "living tanks" might have an attack range comparable to a siege engine such as a ballista which is what, 100/400 feet, or maybe 300 feet like icestorm or 200 feet like the Tail Spike of a Manticore?

Also, is DC 14 high enough for the save? The standard DC of a Challenge 9 critter is 16, which is achievable if we assume it is Double Proficiency and spell-equivalent (Base 8 + 0 for Cha + 4×2 for Proficiency).

Finally, I'm tempted to make the "pushing distance" 20 feet rather than 10 feet after noticing that the Aboleth in the Monster Manual has a Lair Actions which push creatures 20 feet and the Kraken one that pushes 60 feet, or 10 feet on a success.

So either one of the following:

Mindpunch #3 (Recharge 5-6). The ti-khana triceratops targets a point it can see within 150 feet [or 200/300/400/500/600 feet?] of it. Each creature in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on that point must succeed on a DC 16 Strength saving throw or takes 21 (6d6) force damage and is pushed 20 feet away from the central point and falls prone. On a success, the target takes half damage and is not pushed or knocked prone.​

​

Mindpunch #4 (Recharge 5-6). The ti-khana triceratops targets a point it can see within 150 feet [or 200/300/400/500/600 feet?] of it. Each creature in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on that point must succeed on a DC 16 Strength saving throw or takes 21 (6d6) force damage and is pushed 20 feet away from the central point and falls prone. On a success, the target takes half damage and is pushed 5 feet but remains standing.​

 

[Cleon]

Oh, and with these changes the name "Mindpunch" seems less appropriate.

Should we change it? How about Telekinetic Bomb or Forceburst?

 

[Casimir Liber]

Went with:

Telekinetic Bomb (Recharge 5-6). The ti-khana triceratops targets a point it can see within 300 feet of it. Each creature in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on that point must succeed on a DC 16 Strength saving throw or takes 21 (6d6) bludgeoning damage and is pushed 20 feet away from the central point and falls prone. On a success, the target takes half damage and is not pushed or knocked prone.


(this name preserves alphabetical order if comes last)

 

[Cleon]

Went with:

Telekinetic Bomb (Recharge 5-6). The ti-khana triceratops targets a point it can see within 300 feet of it. Each creature in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on that point must succeed on a DC 16 Strength saving throw or takes 21 (6d6) bludgeoning damage and is pushed 20 feet away from the central point and falls prone. On a success, the target takes half damage and is not pushed or knocked prone.


(this name preserves alphabetical order if comes last)

Works for me.

Updating the Ti-khana Triceratops.

I'm wondering about expanding the Description a tad, as follows:

A ti-khana triceratops is a mammoth quadruped that weighs as much as several normal-sized elephants. These reptiles are strikingly colored, the hue of its scales can range from gloss black, bone white, poisonous green, to the yellow-orange or red of a venomous wasp or snake. A few are a single colour, but most are patterned in stripes or spots. Heavily armored with crocodile-like scales, this dinosaur has an enormous head that looks like a naked skull backed by a huge bony crest over the nape of its neck and collar.​

 Like a regular triceratops, a ti-khana triceratops has a short horn on its nose and a pair of long horns set above its eyes. However, its brow horns are needle-sharp, longer than pikes and drip venom, resembling the fangs of a colossal viper more than the horns of a herbivore, while its nose horn is a massive crystal rather than being grown from bone and keratin. Smaller crystals hornlets jut from the creature's face and the rim of its head crest.
 The crystals that stud the skull of a ti-khana triceratops allow it to produce powerful arcane blasts, turning the dinosaur into walking siege artillery. The standard type projects a bubble of psionic force that smashes away everything within a 40-foot sphere. Other variants are possible, such as crystal arrays that hurl fireballs, streams of acid, or mind-bursting psionic attacks. These crystals are implanted into the ti-khana by its yuan-ti creators and fuse with its flesh and bone, so they regrow if damaged like a natural horn.
 The yuan-ti…​

What do you think?