Yuan-Ti Pureblood Race 5e
Yuan-Ti is a race filled with lore, roleplay potential, and powerful abilities. In this guide, we’ll review all the race’s benefits and more!
Released in Volo’s Guide to Monsters this is a race that should definitely be considered when building a character. Let’s begin.
Yuan-Ti Stats
Ability Score Increase
Your Charisma score increases by 2, and your Intelligence score increases by 1.
Charisma is useful for a lot of classes but mainly for spellcasters, Intelligence is also nice for artificers and wizards. Not bad at all.
Speed
Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Nothing insane and nothing bad. Completely Average.
Languages
You can speak, read, and write Common, Abyssal, and Draconic.
Nice selection. Three languages are better than the average 2 most other races get.
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.
Very useful ability. You don’t realize how good darkvision is until you lose it and you will love it. Nice addition.
Innate Spellcasting
You know the Poison Spray cantrip. You can cast Animal Friendship an unlimited number of times with this trait, but you can only target 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.
Free spells make any character more fun! Suggestion and animal friendship have a lot of roleplay synergy which works great with your +2 charisma. Definitely a reason to get into this race.
Magic Resistance
You have advantage on all saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Wow. This is huge! A huge boon to the race. To put this in another way you have to be a level 14 abjuration wizard to have this effect. Now you get this at level 0. That is insane.
Poison Immunity
You are immune to poison damage and the poisoned condition.
Poison is a popular damage type for low-level enemies or assassins so useful but not insane.
Yuan-Ti Names
Yuan-ti names are serpentine as well but mixed with Aztec elements. There are many hissing sounds, and some choose to add extra letters to accentuate the snake-like hissing. They don’t use surnames or epithets, however.
10 Male names for Yuan-Ti Pureblood
10 Female Names for Yuan-Ti Pureblood
- Ssulatul
- Thaztiyass
- Hoksu
- Huizhiess
- Szosiuh
- Zhutsuih
- Yutih
- Yuhtlah
- Thatsozuis
- Zsutzusash
- Hahluhlash
- Uzshohsil
- Heta
- Utstlas
- Tiksu
- Aztla
- Sshitah
- Szoasu
- Zsoalozish
- Multsohill
Appearances
Yuan-Ti Purebloods are Medium size, meaning that you can expect them to be anywhere from 4 ‘7-6’ 6 and weigh 90-280 lbs.
They have very subtle snake-like features due to their lore, so fangs, forked tongue, patches of scales, and snakelike eyes are all common among the Yuan-Ti race.
Those more in tune with their serpentine nature have been reported to look more snake-like either by cosmetics or rituals, so Yuan-Ti heavily influenced by their snake origins might have all these features and even a more pronounced scaly skin or even cobra hoods on their bodies.
To help you get an idea of some Yuan-Ti Pureblood looks, here is a carousel of pictures of them.
Lore
Origins
The yuan-ti are serpentine humans.
Over a millennia ago, they were created by the sarrukh, one of the creator races, who used dark arts and breeding experiments to blend snakes and humans into the Yuan-Ti as we know them.
The Sarrukh’s success varied and created three subspecies of Yuan-Ti, The Yuan-Ti pureblood, Yuan-Ti Halfbloods, and Yuan-ti abominations.
While halfbloods and abominations were more snake-like in both appearance and personality, the Yuan-Ti purebloods had more human aspects in them allowing for the ability to mingle with the other lesser species that constituted society, such as humans, elves and dwarves.
Due to their creation, Yuan-Ti worship snakes above all else. They even went so far as to make a vow to separate themselves from emotion by pledging themselves to the serpent gods. In doing so, they became notorious for performing terrible acts of human sacrifice and cannibalism in order to please their gods.
Personality
Despite removing most of the emotions to their gods, the majority of purebloods had magnetic personalities. Like all yuan-ti, they tend to be arrogant and self-centered, but are known to be very captivating when talking to others.
Moreover, Purebloods were the least likely of the true yuan-ti breeds to remain attached to their tribe, and as such had a more wanderlust personality since they could more easily disguise themselves. This allowed them the freedom to pursue their own interests wherever such things took them. That said, even with this freedom, most Yuan-Ti purebloods chose to be evil in nature as their desire for self-glorification runs strong in their bodies.
Relationships
While not common, Pure bloods were known to mate with half bloods or abominations for their offspring to attain more snake-like features or to please their gods in more breeding experiments. Like other yuan-ti, they hatched from eggs and reached adulthood by twelve years of age. An average lifespan for any yuan-ti was 80 years, but attaining an age as great as 120 years was possible.
SOCIETY
Purebloods served a special role in yuan-ti society by being the liaisons, agents, spies, or assassins, as they could usually readily hide their serpentine features. They also oversaw the “lesser” yuan-ti servitor subraces, the broodguards and tainted ones.
That said, the general hierarchical structure of Yuan-Ti is very much based on survival of the fittest with the strongest and most deceptive being leaders, often adding more serpentine aspects to them to show that they were closer to the power of their gods.
RELIGION
Most often, Purebloods, like the majority of yuan-ti, worshiped the god Sseth and sought them for guidance on how to behave, but free-wandering purebloods sometimes worshiped the god Varae or even certain demons if they believed them to be more in line with their beliefs.
Purebloods were the most human-seeming of all true yuan-ti and one of three main breeds—the other two being the halfbloods and the abominations
Best Classes With Yuan-ti Purebloods?
Yuan-ti Purebloods are best in classes that are reliant on Charisma or Intelligence. Combine this with magical resistance and poison immunity and this class can work with just about any class out there. But, let’s go over which have the best synergy.
Artificer: A +1 intelligence is not bad with only gnomes being better, but Magic Resistance is such a solid upgrade over gnomes resitance that it is well worth it. Then when you are at 7th level, you can add your Intelligence modifier to any saving throw with the Flash of Genius trait, ensuring that you will hardly ever succumb to negative magical effects.
Barbarians are reliant on Strength and Constitution to be viable, but a build of bear totem barbarian with Yuan-ti Magical resistance can be scary for anyone to deal with.
Bards are Charisma spellcasters so definitely worth it. Add more spells, damage immunity, and adv on magical saves and your bard is going to have a ton of fun.
Clerics are the worst option for Yuan-Ti, while it makes sense for lore, they need Wisdom to be effective and usually gain the Yuan-ti race attributes through their subclass.
Druids already have a ton of spells and aren’t usually very charismatic. Not a great choice.
More noteworthy than barbarians but still are way to MAD for a charisma and intelligence boost. Use this race only if you want a more defensive build for your fighter.
Monks need Wisdom, Dexterity, and Constitution to survive. Nothing your race provides so not worth it.
Paladins are MAD needing Strength, Constitution, and Charisma, to be viable but some subclasses rely on Charisma more than strength. So a Yuan-ti Paladin of Conquest is potentially one of the strongest choices for your race.
Rangers don’t like most things the Yuan-Ti provides so not a great choice.
Rogues like intelligence boosts in general and a swashbuckler rogue will love the +2 to Charisma. Still a niche choice but powerful.
Best choice. Sorcerers love Charisma boosts, better ways to survive, and more spells to choose from. Which Yuan-Ti purebloods provide. No better choice except Warlocks.
Same as Sorcerer except maybe more thematic as a warlock of Sseth sounds so sweet.
+1 Intelligence and defensive boosts are what wizards desire. Not as good as a +2 Intelligence but still noteworthy.
Character Ideas
Want some character Ideas? Here are 10 character ideas that can get you thinking.
- A yuan-ti is betrayed by their tribe’s leader and wants vengeance.
- Maybe you were a spy for your clan to infiltrate a city to learn the weaknesses of lesser races.
- Your god Sseth sent you to find the perfect offering to sacrifice for the solstice that is a year away.
- You committed terrible atrocities for your people and are now on a path of redemption to make up for what you did.
- All of a sudden you find you are on the run due to a kidnapping that went wrong and are trying to lay low as a vagabond or adventurer.
- You are the last of your tribe that survived slave traders taking your people away, you are looking to exact vengeance
- After cheating your way to riches gambling only for the local kingpin to find out and put a bounty on your head.
- You had a happy life with your wife but she was deemed a subject for the breeding experiments and you were kicked out of the group for trying to stop it.
- Abandoned at a young age you wrestle with your evil side as you try to be a better person like your adopted parents taught you.
- You discovered you had magic at an early age and were sent off to find your own path… you can’t wait to come back to your village as king of a nation.
Conclusion
In Conclusion, the Yuan-ti Pureblood are a strong race to choose for most spellcasters.
While Druids and Clerics do not benefit from this, Bards, Wizards, Sorcerers, Warlocks, and even Artificers all would love this race.
Moreover, Yuan-Ti even have benefits for martial classes that wish to be extra tanky due to to their innate magical resistance and poison immunity.
Their lore is also deeply evil by nature with tons of roleplay in both redemption arcs and nefarious campaigns making them a lot of fun for your backstory.
Combine this with your own personal quirks for the character and you have a character filled with details from race alone.
I hope you have a wonderful day and be sure to check out my other race reviews such as Warforged and Tritons.
This is fantastic! Love the part that this can be a Tanky Build with Totem of the Bear. Definitely one to consider for my next character.