yuan-ti pureblood

[krunchyfrogg]

I've heard about how OP this race is, and maybe I'm blind, but I don't see them as a player option in the Volo's Guide.

Can somebody point it out to me? I have a cool story but I want to see the actual stat block before committing to it.

[Quoxis]

Immediately after the chapter about pc races there's some paragraphs about monster pc races. Starts with bugbear iirc, ends with yuan-ti.

[JobsforFun]

Immediately after the chapter about pc races there's some paragraphs about monster pc races. Starts with bugbear iirc, ends with yuan-ti.

Yea, I've been wanting to try a bard and I am between the yuan-ti, foxfolk (with fear of people calling me a furry even though I am not), and a halfling.

[Naanomi]

They have one or two conditional but very strong abilities, but stats don't line up for much productive... I see them as strong, but not an outlier. Opinions may vary of course

[Waazraath]

They have one or two conditional but very strong abilities, but stats don't line up for much productive... I see them as strong, but not an outlier. Opinions may vary of course

But as opinions go, this is a decent one ;-) Good race, but nothing OP about it.

[ES Curse]

At the end of the race chapter, opposite to the bestiary introduction art.

YTPB isn't broken around one big thing like, say, the Aarakocra, but it has a combination of things that lead to outclassing other races. Going piece by piece:


Stats: Yuan-Ti have the same stat bonuses as a PHB Tiefling. Strongly geared toward arcane caster classes.
Innate Spellcasting: Poison Spray and Speak With Animals (snakes only) are kinda meh for an innate casting feature, but you at least get Suggestion 1/day at level 3. Not the best use of the feature, but it can help.
Magic Resistance: You know how the main thing Gnomes have going for them is advantage on mental saves vs spells (Unless you're using INT)? The Yuan-Ti have that, but with all 6 ability scores. Given that the three major save stats are DEX/CON/WIS, the pureblood gets all 3 while Gnomes only get WIS.
Poison Immunity: Not egregious by itself, but this is strong for 2 reasons. Poison is a really common damage type, more so than Fire, so it's going to come up more than the Tiefling's resistance. And it's not a resistance either, but outright immunity.


The YTPB is just outright better than the PHB races in too many situations. That said, they're not unkillable, as they get no defensive bonuses to being hit with a hammer or the like. A YTPB is just going to be unusually hard to kill in some encounters and the DM has to take extra care not to have parts of the game invalidated by racial features.

[Klorox]

At the end of the race chapter, opposite to the bestiary introduction art.

YTPB isn't broken around one big thing like, say, the Aarakocra, but it has a combination of things that lead to outclassing other races. Going piece by piece:


Stats: Yuan-Ti have the same stat bonuses as a PHB Tiefling. Strongly geared toward arcane caster classes.
Innate Spellcasting: Poison Spray and Speak With Animals (snakes only) are kinda meh for an innate casting feature, but you at least get Suggestion 1/day at level 3. Not the best use of the feature, but it can help.
Magic Resistance: You know how the main thing Gnomes have going for them is advantage on mental saves vs spells (Unless you're using INT)? The Yuan-Ti have that, but with all 6 ability scores. Given that the three major save stats are DEX/CON/WIS, the pureblood gets all 3 while Gnomes only get WIS.
Poison Immunity: Not egregious by itself, but this is strong for 2 reasons. Poison is a really common damage type, more so than Fire, so it's going to come up more than the Tiefling's resistance. And it's not a resistance either, but outright immunity.


The YTPB is just outright better than the PHB races in too many situations. That said, they're not unkillable, as they get no defensive bonuses to being hit with a hammer or the like. A YTPB is just going to be unusually hard to kill in some encounters and the DM has to take extra care not to have parts of the game invalidated by racial features.

Yuan-Ti Pureblood +20 CHA +paladin 6. :smallbiggrin:

[Consensus]

Yuan-Ti Pureblood +20 CHA +paladin 6. :smallbiggrin:

plus monk 16 for profs in all saves

edit monk 14

[Naanomi]

The non-synergistic stats really kill it for me (much like non-feral tieflings)... few situations (not none, but few) I'd give up the better stats and skills of a Half Elf or Feat of a Variant Human for the 'strong when they happen but not happening all the time' benefits of Magic resistance and poison immunity

[krunchyfrogg]

I'm at work and don't have access to my books.

I look forward to reading up on this.

Klorox is right: a high charisma and 6 levels of paladin is pretty powerful as it is. Add advantage to each of those saves? Damn.

[Willie the Duck]

Klorox is right: a high charisma and 6 levels of paladin is pretty powerful as it is. Add advantage to each of those saves? Damn.

Adding advantage to saves you were going to make anyway is wasted overkill. If I were going to get a YT paladin, it'd be on the guy I couldn't afford to spend my ASIs on Cha, and had to rely on the advantage to survive. Focusing too much on defense just leaves you with a character who survives long enough to see their friends die before them.

[SharkForce]

Adding advantage to saves you were going to make anyway is wasted overkill. If I were going to get a YT paladin, it'd be on the guy I couldn't afford to spend my ASIs on Cha, and had to rely on the advantage to survive. Focusing too much on defense just leaves you with a character who survives long enough to see their friends die before them.

20 cha with the right builds can give you surprisingly good offensive power; paladin + tome lock or bard for shillelagh, for example, or paladin X/sorcerer 20 - X.

anyways, poison immunity isn't just good when someone is attacking you (although depending on enemy it can certainly be anywhere from "pretty good" to "absolutely amazing", like vs a green dragon), it can combine very nicely with other things. for example, stinking cloud dropped onto your own party members who are immune to poison, or doing the same with cloudkill. poison immunity just gives you lots of little bonuses when you're facing various enemies, and then some really big ones from time to time as well. i'd say it's pretty valuable.

[Klorox]

Adding advantage to saves you were going to make anyway is wasted overkill. If I were going to get a YT paladin, it'd be on the guy I couldn't afford to spend my ASIs on Cha, and had to rely on the advantage to survive. Focusing too much on defense just leaves you with a character who survives long enough to see their friends die before them.

You can't guarantee you are going to make any saving throw. Giving yourself an excellent chance of doing so doesn't hinder you offensively.

I don't see how this makes you too focused on defense. The paladin is still an offensive force to be reckoned with at any level (even if s/he starts with "only" a 15 STR).

Consider this idea:

Yuan ti paladin 1
15/8/14/9/10/17

Level 4:
16/8/14/9/10/18

After level 6 comes along, you can either choose to stay paladin, or go into bard/sorcerer/warlock for even more power.

BTW, it's on page 120, if you still haven't found it.

[Dr. Cliché]

Yea, I've been wanting to try a bard and I am between the yuan-ti, foxfolk (with fear of people calling me a furry even though I am not), and a halfling.

Foxfolk? Which book are they in?

[Willie the Duck]

You can't guarantee you are going to make any saving throw. Giving yourself an excellent chance of doing so doesn't hinder you offensively.

If there's no opportunity cost to maximizing yourself defensively, then I would say the system has some balance issues.

I'm deliberately painting in broad strokes of course. But the point is if you already have the +5 to all saves, you probably don't need the advantage on saves as well, and could choose something else and focus on the possibilities that this opens up (such as half-elf skilled paladin, or vHuman feat paladin with a GWF build or PAM build or shield-bash build or whatever).

You're right, you can't guarantee you are going to make any saving throw. But if you build yourself around that you end up with the YTPB paladin/monk/diviner with the lucky feat who absolutely never fails a save, but also never does anything (or at least doesn't open up the opportunities available by not focusing on stacking an 80-95% success rate on top of an 80-95%.

All of this is IMO, YMMV of course.

[Quoxis]

Foxfolk? Which book are they in?

Furry spotted.

[Dr. Cliché]

Furry spotted.

In Soviet Russia, furry spots you. :smallwink:

[Arenabait]

Foxfolk? Which book are they in?

There are none, at least not in 5e. He might be thinking of Tabaxi in Volo's, which is basically a catfolk.

[Dr. Cliché]

There are none, at least not in 5e. He might be thinking of Tabaxi in Volo's, which is basically a catfolk.

Ah, I wondered if that was the case. Thanks for clarifying that.