Serpent Men, Greater
- Armor Class
- 3 [16]
- Hit Dice
- 6
- Attacks
- Bite or weapon (1d6; poison on bite)
- Special
- shape shift, charm gaze, poison, sacrificial rituals
- Move
- 6
- HDE/XP
- 8/800
Description
Serpent men are vile creatures that once ruled the world and wish to do so again. Driven underground by humanity centuries ago, the serpent men plan their revenge and wait for the right moment to strike. They use their special abilities to infiltrate human societies, destroying what they cannot subjugate.
All serpent men can shape shift to human form, but they cannot change their chosen human appearance. They also have the ability to charm humans with their hypnotic gaze, which acts as the Charm Person spell.
Greater serpent men are the rulers, kings, queens, and high priests of serpent man clans. Clan leaders always have maximum hit points and are normally attended by 3-5 serpent men bodyguards, each also having maximum hit points.
Their bite is venomous: a victim bitten by a greater serpent man must make a saving throw against poison or die, unless the Referee is using a less lethal poison rule. They may also attack with weapons.
Only greater serpent men can serve as high priests. A high priest may conduct sacrificial rituals, usually preferring human victims, though other humanoids can be used. The total Hit Dice of the sacrificed victims determines the level of a Cleric spell produced by the ritual; creatures with less than 1 Hit Die count as one-half Hit Die, so two normal humans are needed for a 1st-level effect. Such rituals may heal, Animate Dead, create area effects, or summon otherworldly beings, as the Referee allows. High priests require sub-priests for the ritual work; 1-3 sub-priests are common, and these may be ordinary serpent men.
Serpent men cannot learn or cast spells in the manner of human spellcasters, and humans cannot reproduce serpent man rituals to gain spellcasting powers.
See Also
Other creatures grouped under Serpent Men: Serpent Men.
Source note: This creature is converted from The Basic Fantasy Field Guide of Creatures Malevolent and Benign – Omnibus Edition, 1st Edition Release 4, © 2010–2025 Chris Gonnerman, R. Kevin Smoot, James Lemon, Matt Sluis, and Contributors. The Basic Fantasy Field Guide textual material is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International; this page adapts that creature to White Box.