Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Sword & Sorcery (Serpent-man)

[Eibon of Mhu-Thulan]

Greetings,
I would like to play using 5th in a Conan, Kull, and CAS Hyperborea style, and I am seeking advice from those that I am sure know a hell of a lot more about this stuff than I do (adapting, converting, and the like). Below is my Serpent-man to get started. I probably have the challenge rating wrong, and I attempted this Mongoose-Conan, poison damage-over-time sort of thing. What do you think? Ok? Need more work? Stupid as all get-out?
I'll hack down the spell lists, dial down the spell slots per day, and perhaps add in some good old fashioned human (of elf) sacrifice to Zothoqqua, not to mention horrible, eldritch serpent magic!





Serpent-man

Medium Humanoid, Lawful Evil

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Armor Class 18 (Dexterity, Natural Armor)

Hit Points 32 (5d8+10)

Proficiency Bonus +2

Speed 30



STR 15 (+2) INT 16 (+3)

DEX 15 (+2) WIS 16 (+3)

CON 14 (+2) CHA 15 (+2)

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Saving Throw Bonus: advantage vs. Charm and

sleep

Skills Arcana +5, Deception +4, Insight +5,

Perception +5, Stealth +4

Senses Darkvision 60, Passive Perception 15

Languages Serpent-man Tongue and Aklo (the Human adaptation of the language)

Challenge 2 (450 XP)

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Unwholesome Disguise

A Serpent-man can disguise himself as any humanoid whose flesh it has consumed.

He may swallow a medium-sized humanoid in 1 minute. It takes around 8 hours for digestion

(usually the victim lives through most of the process and struggles inside: something

the Serpent-men find pleasurable). During digestion, the Serpent-man will usually choose to

enter a torpid state (unconscious). If attacked, it will wake but have disadvantage on all skill checks,

saves, and attacks until the meal is digested.

Once digested, it takes the Serpent-man 1 minute to assume the new form

(bone crunching and painful, as werewolves). The transformation lasts until dispelled by magic,

the Serpent-man takes damage and fails a Save (DC 10 Concentration or 1/2 damage taken, whichever is higher),

or it takes 1 minute to drop the disguise.

A mirror or a shadow may give away a Serpent-man's true form.

NOTE: no Serpent-man can speak the words, "Ka nama kaa Lajerama".

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Actions



Bite



+4 (1d4 damage + 1d4 poison damage)

The victim makes an immediate Save (DC 15). If failed, the victim is subjected

to further Saves at these intervals: 2 rounds/ 1round/ 1 round.

1st failed save 1d6 damage, 2nd failed save 1d8 damage, and 3rd failed save 1d10 damage

and the victim is paralyzed for 1 minute.

The poison is overcome with two consecutive successful Saves or the imbibing of anti-venom.

During this ordeal, the character has the "Poisoned" Condition (p.292 D&D 5th PHB).



Scimitar



+4 (1d6+2 damage, finesse, light)





"The seat of their great, swampy kingdom was named S'lithik Hhai, a forest of serpentine towers whose pinnacles rose to heights beyond

the cloying clouds, into the uppermost air of the world, where unknown beasts out of the starry void sometimes alighted on fluted spire, gazing down upon the massive works of those who dwelt below."



"The Devouring of S'lithik Hhai: The History of X'hyl the Apothecary"

by John R. Fultz

The Book of Eibon, Selected by Robert M.Price,

Published by Chaosium

[tkdco2]

Good job! I wrote up Serpent Men for my campaign as well, although the write-up was for B/X or AD&D. They were also shape-shifters, but mine didn't have to consume anyone in order to change their appearance.

[ravenheart87]

I would've used the already existing DnD snakemen (yuan-ti) and expand shapeshifting. Still, this is a nice variant for those, who want a different kind of serpent-man.

[Eibon of Mhu-Thulan]

Thanks for your comments, folks. It is in the Kull comics and such that the Serpent-man can change form. They were trying to rebuild their empire by masquerading as human kings. In Call of Cthulhu, there is a spell that humans may use to shape shift , but the corpse of the person whose form is to be assumed must be eaten. I put them together. It is cool to note that in the Mythos timeline given in the 6th edition of Call of Cthulhu, the Serpent-man empire is given a preceding the advent of the Dinosaurs, and the Hyborean Age of Conan is given to be around 12,000 B.C.. I just reread a story (the one quoted at the end of the stats that I gave) in which the Serpent-man empire (at least one out of three, I think.) was destroyed by the Great Old One Tsathoggua (called "Zothoqqua" in the story).

[llenlleawg]

Yeah, you need either to tone this down or increase the Challenge rating. Note that this has a bonus in every single ability score, which is rare (unheard of) for a CR of 2. Also, an AC of 18 is quite high in general, and all the more for CR 2. To be sure, CR is a little more fluid in 5th edition that was the equivalent for 3rd and 4th. Still, you want to bear in mind bounded accuracy. This means lots of things, but one of the things it means is the clear need to resist bumping up the stats, especially armor class. Take a look at the MM or even the DM Basic rules and note the armor class of various monsters, as well as their ability scores. You'll see quickly how your serpent-man is really quite powerful and thus would outclass characters when built as a CR 2.

I would second the motion above to start with the Yuan-Ti and then make small adjustments (e.g. for the shapechanging power).

[tkdco2]

Yuan-ti are pretty cool, but I found them a bit too powerful for my campaign, since the characters are around 4th level. My campaign uses common serpent men and noble serpent men. The latter have a poisonous bite and often know sorcerous rituals. I hadn't detailed that last one, but I can use the rituals from Geoffrey's Carcosa setting.

[Eibon of Mhu-Thulan]

Dec 9, 2014 15:22:10 GMT -6 llenlleawg said:

Yeah, you need either to tone this down or increase the Challenge rating. Note that this has a bonus in every single ability score, which is rare (unheard of) for a CR of 2. Also, an AC of 18 is quite high in general, and all the more for CR 2. To be sure, CR is a little more fluid in 5th edition that was the equivalent for 3rd and 4th. Still, you want to bear in mind bounded accuracy. This means lots of things, but one of the things it means is the clear need to resist bumping up the stats, especially armor class. Take a look at the MM or even the DM Basic rules and note the armor class of various monsters, as well as their ability scores. You'll see quickly how your serpent-man is really quite powerful and thus would outclass characters when built as a CR 2.

I would second the motion above to start with the Yuan-Ti and then make small adjustments (e.g. for the shapechanging power).

What CR would you suggest to keep it as-is. I thought of changing the AC to 15, like Lizard-men, I think.

[Vile Traveller]

I always thought of lizard men as more crocodilian, so I would treat AC15 as the high end of natural AC. In BLUEHOLME™ I treat snake men as pretty thin-skinned, so about AC11 or AC12.