Yuan-ti abominations have traded away nearly all evidence of their humanity, coming to resemble giant, upright serpents with scaly arms and hands. In battle, they relish opportunities to crush foes in their powerful coils or strike with their venomous fangs. These abominations can also shape-shift into snakes. In these forms, abominations are indistinguishable from normal serpents.
The true threat of yuan-ti abominations stems not from their physical might but from their cunning. These masterminds often lead cult-like cells of other yuan-ti and direct them in enacting elaborate conspiracies. Abominations avoid jeopardizing themselves, typically scheming from hidden bastions where they’re protected by yuan-ti and serpent guardians. These cold-hearted leaders have a unique understanding of the supernatural forces that grant yuan-ti their powers, and they usually have insidious magical traps and contingencies at their disposal.
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.
Yuan-ti Transformations
dice: 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.
^yuan-ti-transformations
A quote from Last Message of Sorril Venil, Explorer of the Labyrinth of Madness
Great magic, twisted and corrupted… Malice beyond reckoning… Flesh reshaped, becoming serpentine horrors…
