Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse

Yuan-ti were originally humans who transformed themselves into serpent folk through ancient rituals. Most yuan-ti were corrupted into monsters by those rites, but some yuan-ti instead became a new people who mix characteristics of humans and snakes.

Blessed with resistance to magical and poisonous effects by the rituals that created them, each of these yuan-ti manifests their serpentine heritage in a variety of ways: a forked tongue, snake eyes, a snakelike nose, or some other ophidian characteristic. However a yuan-ti looks, they have the power to pursue great good or evil in the multiverse.

  • Ability Score Increase. When determining your character’s ability scores, increase one score by 2 and increase a different score by 1, or increase three different scores by 1. You can't raise any of your scores above 20.
  • Creature Type. You are a Humanoid.
  • Size. You are Medium or Small. You choose the size when you select this race.
  • Speed. Your walking speed is 30 feet.
  • Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light and in darkness as if it were dim light. You discern colors in that darkness only as shades of gray.
  • Magic Resistance. You have advantage on saving throws against spells.
  • Poison Resilience. You have advantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the poisoned condition on yourself. You also have resistance to poison damage.
  • Serpentine Spellcasting. You know the Poison Spray cantrip. You can cast Animal Friendship an unlimited number of times with this trait, but you can target only snakes with it. Starting at 3rd level, you can also cast Suggestion with this trait. Once you cast it, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest. You can also cast it using any spell slots you have of 2nd level or higher.
    • Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells when you cast them with this trait (choose when you select this race).
  • Languages. Your character can speak, read, and write Common and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for the character. The Player’s Handbook offers a list of languages to choose from. The DM is free to modify that list for a campaign.

Volo's Guide to Monsters

The serpent creatures known as yuan-ti are all that remains of an ancient, decadent human empire. Ages ago their dark gods taught them profane, cannibalistic rituals to mix their flesh with that of snakes, producing a caste-based society of hybrids in which the most snakelike are the leaders and the most humanlike are spies and agents in foreign lands.

  • Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 2, and your Intelligence score increases by 1.
  • Age. Purebloods mature at the same rate as humans and have lifespans similar in length to theirs.
  • Alignment. Purebloods are devoid of emotion and see others as tools to manipulate. They care little for law or chaos and are typically neutral evil.
  • Size. Purebloods match humans in average size and weight. Your size is Medium.
  • Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
  • Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
  • Innate Spellcasting. You know the Poison Spray cantrip. You can cast Animal Friendship an unlimited number of times with this trait, but you can target only snakes with it. Starting at 3rd level, you can also cast Suggestion with this trait. Once you cast it, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
  • Magic Resistance. You have advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
  • Poison Immunity. You are immune to poison damage and the poisoned condition.
  • Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common, Abyssal, and Draconic.