Homebrew Half Lizardfolk, Half Yuan-ti Pureblood Species Details

If you’re considering taking a scaled one along on an adventure, remember this important fact. The strange, inhuman glint in its eyes as it looks you over is the same look you might give a freshly grilled steak.

— Tordek, dwarf fighter and adventurer

Half lizardfolk, half yuan-ti pureblood look slightly more humanoid than their lizardfolk counterparts. They possess an alien mindset, but there are sometimes human desires that slip through from their Yuan-ti heritage. Their dismal swamp homes might lie hundreds of miles from the nearest human settlement, but the gap between their way of thinking and that of the smooth-skins is far greater.

Despite their alien outlook, some half lizardfolk make an effort to understand and, in their own manner, befriend people of other races. Suchhalf lizardfolk make faithful and skilled allies.

Alien Minds

The half lizardfolk’s reptilian nature comes through not only in their appearance, but also in how they think and act. Like most reptiles, their feelings largely revolve around fear, aggression, and pleasure.

Lizardfolk experience most feelings as detached descriptions of creatures and situations. For example, humans confronted by an angry troll experience fear on a basic level. Their limbs shake, their thinking becomes panicked and jumbled, and they react by instinct. The emotion of fear takes hold and controls their actions. In contrast, lizardfolk see emotions as traits assigned to other creatures, objects, and situations. A lizardfolk doesn’t think, “I’m scared.” Instead, aggressive, stronger creatures register to the lizardfolk as fearsome beings to be avoided if possible. If such creatures attack, lizardfolk flee, fighting only if cornered. Lizardfolk aren’t scared of a troll; instead, they understand that a troll is a fearsome, dangerous creature and react accordingly.

Lizardfolk never become angry in the way others do, but they act with aggression toward creatures that they could defeat in a fight and that can’t be dealt with in some other manner. They are aggressive toward prey they want to eat, creatures that want to harm them, and so on.

Pleasurable people and things make life easier for lizardfolk. Pleasurable things should be preserved and protected, sometimes at the cost of the lizardfolk’s own safety. The most pleasurable creatures and things are ones that allow lizardfolk to assess more situations as benign rather than fearsome.

Transformation

There are rituals that can make half lizardfolk more powerful by turning them into a more of a Yuan-ti pureblood. The cost and time required to perform the ritual is prohibitive. Every use of the ritual must be modified to suit the individual undergoing transformation, and requires rare herbs, exotic magical substances, snakes, and one or more humans to be sacrificed and eaten as part of the procedure.

Cold and Calculating

Most humanoids describe cold-blooded people as lacking in emotion and empathy. The same label serves as an apt depiction of half lizardfolk.

Lacking any internal emotional reactions, they view the world from a pragmatic and dispassionate perspective.. They don’t mourn fallen comrades or rage against their enemies. They simply observe and react as a situation warrants.

Lizardfolk lack meaningful emotional ties to the past. They assess situations based on their current and future utility and importance. Nowhere does this come through as strongly as when lizardfolk deal with the dead. To a lizardfolk, a comrade who dies becomes a potential source of food. That companion might have once been a warrior or hunter, but now the body is just freshly killed meat.

The lizardfolk doesn’t share those feelings, but instead assesses them in the same clinical manner. They understand emotional connections in a detached, intellectual way, and recognize that these feelings in others can be exploited through bribes, favors, or threats. Yes, the fallen dwarf might be most useful as a meal, but hacking the body into steaks provokes aggression in the other humanoids and makes them less helpful in battle.

Utility and Survival

The half lizardfolk mindset might seem unnecessarily cruel, but it helps them survive in a hostile environment. The swamps they inhabit are filled with a staggering variety of threats. Lizardfolk focus on survival above all, without sentiment.

Half lizardfolk assess everyone and everything in terms of utility. Art and beauty have little meaning for them. A sharp sword serves a useful and good purpose, while a dull sword is a dead weight without a whetstone.

Half lizardfolk are likely to retreat or flee from conflict if they don’t believe they have a reasonable chance of success. This reaction isn’t out of cowardice, but practicality—they value their own lives much too highly to risk them when the odds aren’t in their favor. A short retreat might be just the thing to reach a better tactical position, find allies, or to allow them the opportunity to study their opponents and implement better tactics. Any enemy who chases a half lizardfolk might be on the victorious side of a rout or could be heading into a trap; if the enemy has been encountered before, it is likely that the yuan-ti have prepared a special ambush at the end of the pursuit.

Hapless Soft Ones

At their core, half lizardfolk view other humanoids with indifference. Born into the world lacking stout scales and sharp teeth, it’s a wonder they have managed to survive for so long.

Still, if other creatures prove useful to lizardfolk, those creatures can trigger a protective response made all the stronger by their apparent weakness. The lizardfolk assess such beings as hatchlings, young ones incapable of protecting themselves but who might prove useful in the future if they receive care.

Half Lizardfolk Personality

You can use the Half Lizardfolk Quirks table to determine a personality quirk for a lizardfolk character or to inspire a unique mannerism.

Half Lizardfolk Quirks

d8	Quirk
1	You hate waste and see no reason not to scavenge fallen enemies. Fingers are tasty and portable!
2	You sleep best while mostly submerged in water.
3	You are interested in modern human culture.
4	You are enamored with the culture and trappings of other societies and wish to be part of it.
5	You are driven by wanderlust and want to explore lands far from your swamp.
6	You display wealth as a sign of power and prosperity.
7	You appreciate the soft humanoids who realize they need chain mail and swords to match the gifts you were born with.
8	You frequently overindulge in food and wine, and are impaired and lethargic for days afterward.

 

Half Lizardfolk, Half Yuan-ti Pureblood Traits

Your half lizardfolk, half yuan-ti pureblood character has the following racial traits.

Ability Score Increase

Your Charisma score increases by 1, your Wisdom score increases by 1, and your Intelligence score increases by 1.

Age

Half Lizardfolk, half Yuan-ti Purebloods mature at the same rate as humans and have lifespans similar in length to theirs.

Alignment

They see the world as a place of predators and prey, where life and death are natural processes. They wish only to survive, and prefer to leave other creatures to their own devices. They care little for law or chaos and are typically neutral evil.

Size

Half Lizardfolk, half Yuan-ti Purbloods are a little taller than humans. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet, and you have a swimming speed of 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.

Poison Immunity

You are immune to poison damage and the poisoned condition.

Magic Resistance

You have advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Hold Breath

You can hold your breath for up to 15 minutes at a time.

Hunter’s Lore

You gain proficiency with two of the following skills of your choice: Animal Handling, Nature, Perception, Stealth, and Survival.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Draconic.