What They Don't Tell You About Yetis - D&D

the abominable snowman one of the most famous mythical creatures of the snowy biomes before we break it down let's see what the fifth edition entry in the monster manual says about it the entry in the monster manual is actually really good it covers a lot of lore and gives us a lot of flavor for the creature in fact it's actually quite interesting how much we got it's quite rare to see seven paragraphs they to get it to a single creature when it comes to snowy and icy biomes the yetis are kind of a big deal there's a lot in here so we're gonna have to skim for the important stuff it says a yetis wind-borne howl sounds out across remote mountains striking fear into the hearts of the scattered miners and herders that dwell there these hulking creatures stalk alpine peaks in a ceaseless hunt for food there's no white fur lets them move like ghosts against a frozen landscape a yetis icy Semien eyes can freeze its prey in place further down it says the yetis can smell living flesh from miles away continuing down it says that even in a blizzard the scent of its quarry draws the yeti through the cold and snow that's very impressive then it says that multiple different families of yetis can catch the same scent when that happens you get territorial fights between them the winner gets to eat the spoils including the defeated yetis so they have no qualms but even eating their own species before an avalanche a blizzard or a deadly Frost the yetis howls sweep down the mountain slopes on the icy wind some people of the alpine peaks believe that the voices of loved ones killed in avalanches and blizzards sound out in the wails of the yetis crying warnings of ill omen down here it tells us that generally speaking yetis don't attack settlements if there is an abundance of food in the mountains but when the yetis go hungry they will devious mountain folks sometimes use the yetis as unwitting weapons a warlord my laydown slaughtered sheep or go to draw yetis into an enemy's camp so in chaos and thinning the ranks before battle mountain clan chiefs might also over to diminish the food sources so as to force yetis to attack settlements they wish to conquer lastly down here we get an entry into the abominable yetis a larger form than the normal one standing three times as tall as a human they typically hunt alone though you might see a pair that lived together just enough to raise young they are savage and territorial but that's basically all the description that we get now we get a stat sheet for the normal Yeti we can see that they got strong claws so an ability to climb does not come as a surprise but what does is how fast they are the entry doesn't really explain why they are so fast and we can also see here that they're very strong they're very durable and their intelligence is actually quite high for a monstrous beast very wise too which is cool their perception is high though we're not really told how they can see so well in the snow their stealth is great which makes sense considering that their fur is white so they have the camouflage ability so it makes sense they're dark trician on the other hand is not really explained but we do have what appears to be a form of magical eyesight based on their chilling gaze ability so maybe that's part of it down here we see that they're afraid of fire we don't really need an explanation for that it would make sense for a creature of snow to be afraid of fire though there actually is an explanation to which we will cover in a little bit lastly we got here is the chilling gaze which is very interesting that the creature otherwise looks pretty mundane but this here speaks of magic the Yeti can using its eyesight paralyze a person and deal cold damage it doesn't really explain how it works or how it's supposed to look but it is very powerful the abominable Yeti form here is basically the same except just considerably stronger the main difference is just the added ability to breathe a cone of frigid air that deals massive cold damage that's almost as much damage as an adult white dragons breath very strong but that's it that's the yeti entry in the fifth edition Monster Manual so now let's go ahead and see what the Monster Manual does not tell you about this creature the first thing that I do want to cover is the actual description of the creature I know that I blabber around a lot about not having descriptions for the creatures but it's real is important because we don't get a description of the creature in fifth edition' many people don't actually know that they actually walk around in all fours they can stand in two legs and they do so often especially in battle but most of the time they actually walk around like gorillas that's because they kind of are quote an adult Yeti stands eight feet tall and is covered in long white fur their feet and hands are wide and flat which helped to disperse their great weight on treacherous snow fields they travel on all fours like the Apes but fight very comfortable standing erect unlike most Apes and gorillas the Yeti does not have an opposable toe on its feet they wear no clothing or ornamentation this poor or smell of a Yeti is very subtle in cold climates but in confined or warm areas they have a strong musky odor the eyes of the Yeti are icy blue or almost colorless their claws and flesh are ivory white unlike many Arctic creatures the Yeti does not have a thick layer of body fat to keep it warm instead it relies upon these special properties of a thick warm fur it has a transparent second eyelid which allows the creature to see in blowing snow and prevents its eyes from freezing in extreme temperatures and quote the reason the creature is so fast boasting 40 speed of movement is because it can run on all fours and the reason it can see so well even in the snow is because he has a transparent second eyelid that protects his eyes from snow and general debris that's why descriptions are very important if you don't get descriptions then you don't know why this creature gets so many of these abilities that it has now yetis English and Dragons are distant relatives of apes and bears specifically gorillas and carnivorous Apes if you actually look at the official art for the second edition of thorns and Dragons you will see what the original idea for the creature was though this particular Yeti does not possess the typical level of fur that the creature would normally possess this here rendition of the Yeti in first edition does show it so you can still see that it is supposed to be an ape but with a lot of fur third edition has a more clear idea for this concept the fifth edition art showing horns is more of a burrowed attribute from the fourth edition art of the Yeti it is actually very very rare for fifth edition to borrow art and lore from fourth vision so this is actually quite unique fourth edition was just really really weird they generally made up their own lore or change things up for no reason it's like they were purposefully trying to invent a new form of dummies and Dragons and arrays what it was you typically see fifth edition resume where third edition left off but this is just one of those interesting exceptions where the art picked up after the fourth edition renditions in the lord yetis don't actually have horns so I have no lore to give you on them now yetis have two things that make them special and interesting their fur and their eyes but let's cover the latter first the coat of the Yeti is powerful and interesting for many many reasons but one of the reasons is that it allows the Yeti - perfectly camouflage in the snow the monster manual didn't tell you but during heavy snow or during any kind of icy storm the Yeti is actually meant to be completely invisible unless it is very very close to you they don't really have to do anything to get this benefit either their code just perfectly camouflages them with the snow and if it is generally hard to see like in a blizzard you will simply not see the Yeti until it is right in front of you and this is why the preferred way of attacking for yetis is to ambush because yetis are so good at smelling their prey in spite of the conditions they will go ahead of their prey and dig themselves down under a thin layer of snow so when the prey eventually finds his way over they will jump out of snow and surprise them this tactic is really important to them that's because their gaze ability actually used to only work when they had a surprise around so ambushes to them were crucial outside of allowing for a perfect camouflage their fur was special in that it absorbed heat extraordinarily well keeping the getti warm while simultaneously dealing cold damage to enemies see the coat of fur had the supernatural ability of absorbing so much heat from its surroundings that all around it would be devoid of any heat whatsoever if you touch the fur of a living Yeti you could literally die of cold the heat of your body would be absorbed by the fur this is why a yetis favourite way of killing humans and other prey was to crush them to death by hugging them and smothering them in their fur this ability however was a double-edged sword on the plus side it kept the getting warmed regardless of how cold it got which granted it an immunity to cold the amateur but on the negative side it gives them a weakness to fire see if a Yeti absorbed too much heat from its surroundings by the fur the creature could actually develop a fever this could happen if they say attacked an adventuring camp with a strong enough pit fire or if they were attacked by multiple fire attacks or if they simply crashed too many living beings with their body and absorbed too much of their body heat if this happened that we start to feel feverish and their metabolism would slow down if this continued that would eventually pass out and even die if it continued long enough yet he had to keep their body temperature very low in order to survive now this supernatural ability of its code would eventually vanish when the creature died quote this called radiation fitted away gradually after a Yeti dies the internal biological and chemical functions which maintained such an extremely low body temperature eventually seized within a dead Yeti and the body then began to approach the temperature of its surroundings thus decreasing the effect of the radiation of cold end quote this means that if you waited long enough you could safely skin the coat of the Yeti and maybe even use it for yourself the fur of the Yeti is its most valuable treasure and it is extremely good at keeping you warm through even the coldest of temperatures the coat is so good in fact that it is worth around 300 gold pieces in the open market regardless yetis know of their weakness and their propensity to sickness if they get too hot and this is why they have an aversion to fire and maybe even fear of it but now on to the eyes quote additionally they have a special talent for inducing great fright in their opponents more than a few have survived Yeti encounters have testified to an unnatural sense of horror upon gazing into a snowman's pale eyes the majority agreed to the description of it as a mind sensation living the blood as water and the skeleton as jelly though not everyone is affected in exactly the same manner the most experienced of fighting men seem to have some resistance to this power however this effect does not take place against creatures which are normally immune to fear of any sort including Cavaliers most undead and generally mindless creatures it is believed that the unusual crystalline coloring together with a strange and faint pulsating of light within the creatures eyes is responsible for this effect such pulses die when the yeti does thus ending any more fear striking cases from the creature and quote based on the description given not just on this quote but also based on the 5th edition entry we can see that there does appear to be some strange magic at play this ability combined with the supernatural effects of the fur explained why the creature is a monstrosity and not a beast since clearly there's some magical modifications here done on the creature even though the creature is basically just a winter carnivorous ape there is certainly more to it than that I should say though because the magic of the ID windle's out and expires after the yeti dies there doesn't appear to be any real value in the market for the eyes unfortunately now something that you will find interesting is I found this quote in on Dragon Magazine number one 2700 page 57 it says quote the physical strength of the average Yeti is comparable to that of a hill giant which is greater than that of any human alive and the quote that is insane but now that we're basically done talking about abilities and powers let's talk about habits and ecology what do these creatures do even though the Yeti is of basically average intelligence they have no civilization they do have the ability to wield and use simple tools but they will never create them themselves if they find a weapon they can use it and you would see them use it but they will never craft one themselves the most common weapon that you will see them use are actually rocks which they are quite adept at throwing now they live in ice caves in hills and mountains and most of their caves tend to be natural but sometimes again we'll excavate them themselves especially if they need to accommodate a very large family this is when you might see them using tools in order to dig themselves the largest of caves now yetis are very defensive of their families in fact it will literally eat anything that is alive except for a family member though their favorite diet consists of herd creatures such as caribou they can also be seen eating a lot of bears in wolves it is believed though that human flesh is their favourite the no surprises there in any case as much as they will devour anything the one exception is the family life is rough in the Arctic friends and food are very difficult to find and because of this yetis have evolved to care about survival and reproduction the most males typically have one to three females with them and they will generally stick together and hunt together if you see a group of Yeti the biggest one will always be the male of the group quote Yeti are actually biological relatives of both the lower primates and the Bears they are most closely related to the mountain gorillas - which of the yetis typical habits and instincts might be compared Yeti mate and bear young much as do the other lower primates after that the young stay with the parents for only two years after birth they don't stay dependent on their parents as long as do most other primates any young encountered with a group of Yeti will typically be just old enough to fight effectively on their own this early separation and independence from the parents causes them to hunt for food at a relatively early age limits their population growth to those strong enough to survive and accounts for a part of the racial ferocity and quote because the babies leave so early many of them end up simply dying this actually helps keep the population low in the area so that it is easier for those strong enough to actually find food now even though baby yetis leave the family after two years of age the yetis actually considered an adult after he has reached 5 years of age the power to frighten opponents using their eyes their gaze ability comes at around this time now what's really interesting and this is something that you probably didn't see coming certainly not something that the Monster Manual will tell you is that because yetis have such an instinctual care their families and it is the one thing in the whole wide world that they would never hurt or eat if you were to somehow find a baby Yeti you could actually race it effectively and domesticated yeah I bet you weren't expecting that one if you capture a Yeti at an early age and you care for it appropriately by giving it ample food and keeping it in an Arctic climate you could tame it and raise it just how you would any normal animal for the first two years of doing this day would be lovely but then after they reach around their second year of age their instincts would start telling them that it is time to leave home and go into the icy wilderness to make their own family as baby yetis would do normally based on previous attempts at domestication there seems to be a 30% chance that the two-year-old Yeti will actually instead stay with a human master if that happens you will have a very loyal and less ferocious Yeti who will stay with you forever furthermore an incredibly powerful monster that will protect you with its life it's good to that domesticated yetis are less ferocious because wild ones are unapologetically aggressive if you ever meet a wild Yeti it doesn't matter what you do it'll always end up in combat there's typically no checks and you can make or any knowledge that you can have that will prevent the beast from fighting you they might not want to fight to the death but they will fight you in an attempt to ward you off quote they beat on their chests hurl stones strut about flail their arms and hoot loudly any matter which echoes for great distances if the intruders do not leave they are soon surrounded and attacked if they do leave they are stalked and attacked soon enough any meeting with these creatures is bound to lead to conflict and a quote that's one thing that you have to remember too about yetis like I described them before they are basically Apes so they do beat on their chest like gorillas do you should also know that you can actually extract a form of oil from a Yeti oil that is actually considered a poison injecting Yeti oil will make you sluggish and I would like to personally thank my patron supporters Walker motley sack bowel ricotta fan berry 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Published: Wed Jun 17 2020