Yuan-ti

[MartialIX]

Races are supposed to be Talents, correct?

So a Weakblood Yuan-ti might look something like this...

Weakblood Yuan-ti
The blood of the ancient snake gods runs through your veins.  While your brothers may look down on you because your heritage has been diluted, at least you don't scare the bejeezus out of passers-by.  Somebody has to be a go between.

• Near-human: The error range of each Medicine check targeting a near-human character increases by 1. Further, a near-human character suffers a –2 penalty with all skill checks made to disguise himself as a human or blend in with humans.

[.5] NPC Quality: Night Vision.  Like pit vipers, you have the ability to sense objects by their heat.

[3] Poison.  You produce 3 doses of poison (improved lethal poison or improved dementia poison) each scene. These doses cannot be saved or stockpiled from scene to scene, but may be used with your bite attack or be applied to items or weapons during the current scene. You again a +4 bonus on all saves to resist your own poison.

[2] Initiative.  You gain a +1 bonus to Initiative. This bonus increases by a further +1 at career level 4, 8, 12, 16 & 20.

[?] Unnerving.  You gain the unnerving NPC quality.  You deal 1d4 stress damage whenever you deal at least 1 point of damage from an unarmed or melee attack.

I'm writing this up for a modern urban fantasy campaign, with a new gang of punk Yuan-ti attempting to elbow out their more established mafioso parents and the agents caught in the middle.  Verdict?

[Krensky]

Actually, augmented (thermal imaging goggles) works better for the pit viper thing and has the same cost as low light vision. I'm not sure what Unnerving would cost, but I'd think it would be at least 2 since the other +3 XP qualities seem to start there. Reviled or Deeply Reviled would probably be appropriate.

You might also want to give them a more generic name, that one being WotC's PI. Not that it matters all that much for a home game.

[Crafty_Alex]

The way we've been handling "half-RACE" type characters is actually to make them feats. So in the case of a weaker Yuan-Ti, you might just want to make it a species feat for humans, such as:

Snake-Blooded
You are inheritor to the ancient snake-races of the East, which grant you deadly powers.
Requirements: Career level 1 only.
Benefit: You gain the low-light vision NPC quality. Further, you produce 3 doses of poison (improved lethal poison or improved dementia poison - choose at the time you gain this feat) each scene. These doses cannot be saved or stockpiled from scene to scene, but may be used with any attacks with the INJ quality or be applied to items or weapons during the current scene. You again a +4 bonus on all saves to resist your own poison.

[MartialIX]

Hahaha... I managed to gank a tease!

Thanks, Alex, that'll help a lot.  I'm assigning it to NPCs at this point, anyway.  Appreciate the help.

[Crafty_Alex]

That's no real tease, my friend - I just wrote you a feat gratis

[Mister Andersen]

As a matter of curiosity, the feat of that name from WotC's Forgotten Realms sourcebook gives +2 on Fort saves vs. poison, and +1 on all Reflex saves.

The description however matches with that of the Tainted Ones, who are human agents of the yuan-ti who have willingly undergone a ritual of transformation to make themselves yuan-ti, gaining a venomous bite and slight psionic ability. They retain their human appearance but often develop reptilian mannerisms, such as frequently licking their lips or drawing out sibilant sounds as they speak.