The Slayer's Guide To Yuan-Ti

The Slayer's Guide to... #MGP0015

by Christina Jones, David Griffith

This book kicks off with a look at Yuan-Ti Physiology, taking a comprehensive view of purebloods, halfbloods, abominations and ash-skinned. However, the entry in the Monster Manual has been greatly expanded, including rules for heat sense and tremor sense, making this race a deadly adversary in the right environment. This chapter also covers the typical Yuan-Ti diet, mating habits and the shedding of their skin, a valuable commodity for many reasons if players can get hold of it intact. Habitat takes a look at the kind of villages Yuan-Ti are apt to construct, though within their empires they can build giant temples and cities, places of absolute horror to outsiders. This leads nicely into Yuan-Ti Society, which details the kind of Imperial structure this race is likely to follow, and is readily adaptable to either Oriental or more western settings, as befits your own campaign. The Art of War chapter devotes itself to studying the way Yuan-Ti fight, developing their martial skill over long years of tradition. While warriors are held in very little regard by the rest of Yuan-Ti society, they also seek to remove themselves from the political machinations of their fellows, making them an enemy that will soon earn your players' respect. New weapons and armour are detail, as are their tactics in battle. Quickly following this is advice on how to portray Yuan-Ti to your players in a manner they will never forget and two pages of Scenario Hooks are designed to put this advice into practice, with a series of jump-off points that Games Masters can readily use to insert a few Yuan-Ti encounters directly into their campaigns. Po-Jian is a complete Yuan-Ti lair, situated in any port-side city, its inhabitants working to infiltrate civilized society for their own ends. This 'shadow nest;' can be dropped into any campaign, with Games Masters scaling encounters to suit their party's level. The Slayer's Guide to Yuan-Ti winds up with a complete Reference List, giving details of soldiers, infiltrators, Imperial bodyguards, clansmen and many more.

32 pages, Paperback

First published December 16, 2003

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[James Bowman · Rating 2 out of 5]

A third-party sourcebook on yuan-ti for D&D 3rd Edition. This breaks from the formula of the other Slayer's Guides somewhat, with the bulk of the book focusing on an original take on the yuan-ti and their culture that draws heavily on Chinese myth and legend. The author clearly put a lot of thought into this new yuan-ti culture, to the point that the detail might be a little excessive at times. Meanwhile, there's comparatively little rules content, and some of what is provided seems overly detailed even by D&D 3E standards. The book also has one major issue... there's a section missing! There are references to a section detailing "penitents" and the "Ritual of Contrition" that's nowhere to be found. In short, the author's enthusiasm can't be questioned, but there are structural issues that set this product back. (C)

[John Somers · Rating 3 out of 5]

12/20.