Yak Folk Are Cool

[silverwolfer]

Not Saying anything much , just thought something so obscure, deserved a shout out.

[Akal Saris]

I dunno, I thought the walrus folk are pretty chill too.

[Gotterdammerung]

I agree. They are probably the coolest race for a slaver arch.

I ran a one shot mod once based around them.


They lived in a paradise jungle hidden in the mountains. They spread rumors that the place was a Shangri La and anyone who found the place never returned because it was such a paradise no one would ever leave it.

When the occasional explorer wandered into Yak Folk territory looking for paradise, they would play the part. They acted like wisened welcoming spirits of the land or like mystic monks of enlightenment. They escorted the adventurers to a "welcoming room", and showered them with hospitality on the way there. Once in the room, they pulled a lever opening the floor and revealing a 20 foot deep pit with an antimagic field emanating from it. With the floor now gone the antimagic instantly encompasses the explorers. Yak Folk guards lay ready to bull rush anyone back into the pit, in case any more nimble explorers dodged over to solid ground. Once the trap had been sprung, the yak folk would take their time subduing the trapped explorers. Then strip them of gear and enslave them to work in the mines.

The idea for the adventure was to quickly capture the party and then let them organize a slave revolt from within. The yakfolks plan works fine for ordinary people, but these were supposed to be epic lvl adventurers.

In reality, the adventure tanked. The ninja was so resourceful and stubborn that he escaped the trap (which still would of worked if he would of later been ready to help the party escape, but he wasn't interested in helping the party at all). And the rest of the party was so upset with me for "unfairly" stealing all their equipment, that they didn't want to play the mod anymore.

In spite of all that, I still love the story of the mod, and have a soft spot for yak folk.

[Tytalus]

For those wondering: Yak Folk are from MM2. Somebody here made a rather complete writeup (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85318) and posted the picture.

[eggs]

I keep looking at them and saying "I should make these a big part of some campaign" then completely forgetting about it. At first glance, they look like another boring human+animal combination, but they have a lot of really neat stuff going on.

[sonofzeal]

And the rest of the party was so upset with me for "unfairly" stealing all their equipment, that they didn't want to play the mod anymore.
"Men more quickly forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony" - Nicolo Machiavelli


Applied to D&D - "Players more quickly forget the death of their characters than the loss of their WBL." You would do well to bear this in mind for the future. :smallwink:

[GenghisDon]

cool & nasty.

[willpell]

I didn't like them at all personally, and I could not even begin to wrap my brain around how their possession ability works. They describe it as being like a Magic Jar spell, but how can that be when there's no jar? Without a jar, the spell doesn't work at all, so something that works without a jar doesn't resemble Magic Jar very much; if the soul isn't stored in the jar then where is it? But mostly what I disliked about them was just calling them Yak Folk; I presume in the original Himalayan myth (assuming I'm correct that there is one), they had a Tibetan or Nepalese name, and it would have seemed that failure to look up and use that name constituted laziness on the writers' part. Perhaps I have misconstrued this.

[GenghisDon]

well, that's why I like them...the idea of a tibetan adventure, yak monastary & sinister & silly monsters all rolled up in some fun.

magic jar has a history of being abused in D&D...just call them possession attacks game designers!

there isn't enough possession in D&D (any ed) BTW.

[silverwolfer]

hmm their errata

Yak Folk: Monstrous Humanoid; 10 ft./10 ft.; Disguise +10, Heal +10,
Knowledge (arcana) +10, Use Magic Device +10; Improved Initiative, Power
Attack, Weapon Focus (quarterstaff); LA +2.

Does that overwirte their summoning dijinnn coolness or add on to it :S

[eggs]

Does that overwirte their summoning dijinnn coolness or add on to it :S
It's just the 3.5 update. It doesn't really change anything except the space they take up and a handful of their skill ranks.

[silverwolfer]

am just curious if it is updating the sample monster, or saying those feats are a given

[Urpriest]

am just curious if it is updating the sample monster, or saying those feats are a given

It's the same feats they had in 3.0. If they were bonus feats they'd have a (B) after them.

[Dark Elf Bard]

They look like minotaurs.

[Kelb_Panthera]

I didn't like them at all personally, and I could not even begin to wrap my brain around how their possession ability works. They describe it as being like a Magic Jar spell, but how can that be when there's no jar? Without a jar, the spell doesn't work at all, so something that works without a jar doesn't resemble Magic Jar very much; if the soul isn't stored in the jar then where is it? But mostly what I disliked about them was just calling them Yak Folk; I presume in the original Himalayan myth (assuming I'm correct that there is one), they had a Tibetan or Nepalese name, and it would have seemed that failure to look up and use that name constituted laziness on the writers' part. Perhaps I have misconstrued this.

The soul of the possessed creature remains in their body but is suppressed, not unlike fiendish possession's controller option which grants the user control over the body while suppressing the mind of the host at the possessing creature's option.

Those rules are from BoVD, which hadn't been published yet, and were later reprinted in FC1 with some minor tweaks.

[GenghisDon]

They look like minotaurs.

Which makes them winners! sorta minotaurs (yak vs bull) & asian trappings vs greek


The soul of the possessed creature remains in their body but is suppressed, not unlike fiendish possession's controller option which grants the user control over the body while suppressing the mind of the host at the possessing creature's option.

Those rules are from BoVD, which hadn't been published yet, and were later reprinted in FC1 with some minor tweaks.

Kelb has the d20 history perfect. Alternatively, see various horror movies & even christain occultist type information. Possession typically does NOT entail ejecting the victum's soul to some receptacle. It's just an old D&Dism, the magic jar explaination.

Don't worry, gamers have had the same confusion going way back to the beginning of D&D...with ghost magic jar (possession), among others. some things need the "jar", some don't.

[silverwolfer]

Well I am thinking of making it into a beguiler, and some stuff. My only problem is some good basic spy gear or magical things to enhance such behaviors.