Now for those of you that still belabor under the assumption that 5e is "easier" let me just say that Yuan-Ti under 5e are much deadlier and one Yuan-Ti Abomination and one Pure Blood nearly took out the entire party of seven. They are now hiding out and have no more potions of healing.
I have not even tricked out the Yuan-Ti at all. These are by-the-book deadly.
This adventure will introduce a bunch of new monsters to my players. If Order of Platinum Dragon/Come Endless Darkness game is about revisiting all the classics, this one is about the near classics. So a lot Fiend Folio and Monster Manual II monsters.
I also considering having there be a lot more involvement by Demogorgon. To that end, I am going to re-import some of my ideas from the time I used Demogorgon for the WitchCraft RPG.
This will include the Blood Apes.
One of the largest cults of Demogorgon is a cult of intelligent apes. They are often referred to as Blood Apes due to their habit of bathing in the blood of fallen enemies and comrades. These cultists actively worship Demogorgon as their god and attribute to him all spoils. The doctrines of the cult emphasize destruction and violence. All blood apes are voracious carnivores and keep human or (where appropriate) chimpanzee slaves. It is even whispered among the human populations that some humans are kept in an attempt by Demogorgon's Hierophants to breed true a race that features the most terrible qualities of both ape and man. Others claim they have already succeeded.
Every tribe of blood apres will have a CR 5-6 tribal leader and a CR 6 blood ape, fiendish-pact warlock.
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| Stat block from Statblock5e. |
Once they get out of the city then things will get REALLY dangerous.
I ran Dwellers of the Forbidden City pretty much "by the book" for my 5e group also. It is a frightening place to be. They made the mistake of entering the city via the giant tree, which the locals then burned down to prevent their escape so they had to spend the next week securing hiding spots to sleep by night and explore by day when they wouldn't be given away by their light sources.
ReplyDeleteThe Yuan-Ti are powerful, and dealing with large numbers of low hit die humanoids wears down on resources rapidly.