Viper-form yuan-ti vampire wizard conundrum

[Vandertic]

Hello everybody,

this is my very first post, I have read the rules and I think my question is okay, but if I am misunderstanding please be patient, I mean no harm! :smallsmile:

I am motivated by a very complicated situation in which I really don't know what the rules would say, an -more importantly- I am excited to hear what good alternative outcomes other DM's would suggest.

I have this old recurring villain, which is a vampire based on a yuan-ti 11th level wizard by the name of Ossirion.

We are in combat, and Ossirion is badly wounded and tried to escape attention by turning invisible, morphing into a small viper with his yuan-ti psionics power and hiding. The alternate form power of yuan-ti's is based on the Shapechange spell and hence I would say it should change the creature type to animal.

While in this form, he is struck by a very powerful evil artifact sword, with a critical hit. This should have the effect of killing a living victim by huge negative energy emission.

So what should happen? The viper is slain, and the body morphs back to a vampire which is wounded but not destroyed and hence cannot be dead? Maybe the excess of negative energy even heals him?

Or is this a new and interesting way to kill a vampire? Have him shapechange to some living form and then kill him normally?

Thank you in advance for any comment or suggestion!

[Blackhawk748]

Well even when shape changed its still a Vampire and therefore undead. So he should get healed by the Negative Energy blast

[The Viscount]

In the errata for monster manual, they altered Yuan-ti's alternate form slightly. It is no longer based off polymorph, so we refer to the alternate form ability as in the srd, which states

The creature retains the type and subtype of its original form.
Thus he should act just like any vampire hit with the sword.

If a vampire is under the effect of a shapechange spell, they do change type and thus gain vulnerabilities. However, they retain their (Ex) fast healing, which automatically triggers gaseous form at 0 hp.

[Vandertic]

Thank you for the answers!

I kind of liked the idea of having the vampire morphed into a living viper, because the narrative of shapechange for me is to become inconspicuous or mingle between similar creatures, and a vampire animal would have a peculiar physical appearance that would be kind of a giveway. But you are right, there is no reason for Yuan-ti's alternate form to completely substitute the creature's body. It makes much more sense for it to gently change its features in accordance with its snake blood.

In this way the viper stays undead and is healed by the strike. Thank you again :smallsmile: