Power-Hungry Serpentine Conspirators
Habitat: Desert, Forest, Swamp, Urban; Treasure: Relics
Malisons exhibit snakelike features that make them deadly in combat. Three general types exist:
Type 1. These malisons have human bodies and the heads of giant, venomous snakes.
Type 2. These malisons have human bodies, but they’ve replaced their arms with snakes.
Type 3. These malisons are human from the waist up, but below that extend the coils of a giant snake.
Malisons possesses deadly venom, which some manipulate into magical strikes. They can also shape-shift into snakes, helping them to position themselves for surprise attacks or to slither away with nary a trace.
Exploiting pacts with sinister supernatural forces, yuan-ti bargain away their humanity for the lethality and predatory deviousness of serpents. From hidden bastions, they manipulate rulers and the wealthy, seeking to control the world. Many yuan-ti possess venomous magic, which often manifests as fangs or striking serpents.
Yuan-ti have humanlike forms with a variety of horrifying serpentine transformations. Some have a scattering of reptilian scales, while others are giants that are more snake than human. Typically, the more snakelike yuan-ti are, the greater esteem they hold among their kind.
Yuan-ti might gain their reptilian features through dangerous supernatural rites. Roll on or choose a result from the Yuan-ti Transformations table to inspire how yuan-ti obtain their serpentine aspects.
| 1d6 | A Yuan-ti Gained Its Snake Features From … |
|---|---|
| 1 | Bargaining parts of its soul to a pantheon of serpentine demigods. |
| 2 | A curse laid on its people in the distant past. |
| 3 | The dream-venom of Merrshaulk, a slumbering snake god. |
| 4 | Experiments by spirit nagas or other yuan-ti. |
| 5 | A ritual involving the skin of a fiendish snake. |
| 6 | Trials to excise its “weak” human parts. |
Great magic, twisted and corrupted …
Malice beyond reckoning … Flesh reshaped, becoming serpentine horrors …—Last Message of Sorril Venil,
explorer of the Labyrinth of Madness
Magic Resistance. The yuan-ti has Advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Multiattack. The yuan-ti makes two Poison Burst attacks, and it can use Spellcasting to cast Suggestion if available.
Poison Burst (Yuan-ti Form Only). Melee or Ranged Attack Roll: +5, reach 5 ft. or range 120 ft. Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) Poison damage.
Constrict. Strength Saving Throw: DC 13, one Medium or smaller creature within 5 feet. Failure: 21 (4d8 + 3) Bludgeoning damage. The target has the Grappled condition (escape DC 13), and it has the Restrained condition until the grapple ends.
Spellcasting (Yuan-ti Form Only). The yuan-ti casts one of the following spells, requiring no Material components and using Wisdom as the spellcasting ability (spell save DC 13):
At Will: Animal Friendship (snakes only)
2/Day: Suggestion
Shape-Shift. The yuan-ti shape-shifts into a Medium snake or returns to its true form. If it dies, it stays in its current form. The yuan-ti’s game statistics are the same in each form, except where noted. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn’t transformed.
