Anthropomorphic Animals in Greyhawk
Darth Shoju
First Post
Alzrius said:
"From Mud to Man to Madness...This Time He's Gone Too Far!"
(sorry for the Hijack). To get back on topic, the Great Kingdom under the rule of the Ivids could have produced a number of bizarre experiments. Even better would be the breeding experiments of the Scarlet Brotherhood if you placed them in Hepmonaland. Or perhaps a land created as a result of the Invoke Devastation spell of antiquity. You could say that in a specific hidden valley it created a magical area that merged the mortal inhabitants with nature spirits eg) dwarven/gnome badgers and moles and gophers; elven mountain lions and foxes; halfling rabbits; orcish wolves...etc.
Banshee16 said:
Dungeon Magazine #143.
Greyhawk - and D&D in general - is full of furries. There were sapient beavers in the 1st edition Monster Manual, and lots of other anthropomorphic animals like gnolls, chitines, ettercaps, quaggoths, bullywugs, balingors, tabaxi, dakons, minotaurs, wererats, wemics, kuo-toa, losels, thri-kreen, aarakocras, and so on. The MMIII has anthropomorphic goats and armadillos. Races of the Wild has catfolk and gnolls.
Even orcs, hobgoblins, and kobolds were originally presented as anthropomorphic animals (pigs, mandrils, and scaly dogs, respectively).
You can pretty much name any animal, and D&D has an anthropomorphic version of it. Most of them exist in Greyhawk somewhere. Horses? Centaurs and equinal guardinals. Cows? That's what a minotaur is. Dogs? Lupinals, wolfweres, moon dogs, arcanaloths, barghests (and lupins from the Mystara setting, which were based on specific breeds of domestic dogs in many cases, could fit in without too much trouble). Cats? There are catfolk, rakastas, tabaxi, wemics, and more. Goats? You've got satyrs, bariaurs, and ibixians. Octopi? There are tako from Oriental Adventures, and zoveri from the Planescape setting. It's a great big buffet.
Blind Azathoth
Explorer
Ripzerai said:
And let's not forget the Planar Handbook's wildren--anthropomorphic beasts resulting from the mating between dead dwarves and celestial badgers!
Er...on second thought, let's forget all about the wildren...
Lest you think I'm being too facile, I completely understand someone saying, "I don't want to play a hound archon or a werewolf, I want to play a human with a dog's head and furry body." Or, "I don't want to play a minotaur, I want to play a human with horns and oversized breasts."
In such cases, I think the best solution is to make your character a related species. For example, there could be a group of hyena-people related to gnolls, but smaller, smarter, and ECL +0. Your cowgirl could be an aasimar with cervidal blood or a tiefling, or a human with distant minotaur ancestry. A racoon-person could be a halfling-phanaton crossbreed.
But a lot of animal-people with low or no ECL adjustment already exist. Kenku are humanoid crows with a +0 ECL, for example. And you do want to play a giff. Oh, yes you do.
The only thing I can think of that D&D doesn't have is fox-people (although certain arcanaloths have vulpine features). But what you really want, based on your nickname, is a wolf guy, right? Wolves are easy. Wolf-people are as common as dirt. Almost as common as spiders and frogs.
Also, the Scarlet Brotherhood commonly experiments in human-animal crossbreeds, as detailed in the Greyhawk supplement of the same name.
In such cases, I think the best solution is to make your character a related species. For example, there could be a group of hyena-people related to gnolls, but smaller, smarter, and ECL +0. Your cowgirl could be an aasimar with cervidal blood or a tiefling, or a human with distant minotaur ancestry. A racoon-person could be a halfling-phanaton crossbreed.
But a lot of animal-people with low or no ECL adjustment already exist. Kenku are humanoid crows with a +0 ECL, for example. And you do want to play a giff. Oh, yes you do.
The only thing I can think of that D&D doesn't have is fox-people (although certain arcanaloths have vulpine features). But what you really want, based on your nickname, is a wolf guy, right? Wolves are easy. Wolf-people are as common as dirt. Almost as common as spiders and frogs.
Also, the Scarlet Brotherhood commonly experiments in human-animal crossbreeds, as detailed in the Greyhawk supplement of the same name.
Last edited:
GwydapLlew
First Post
Hrm. Off the top of my head, I know that lupin are listed as living in the Gnarley Forest.
AdmundfortGeographer
Getting lost in fantasy maps
Off the top of my head, I've never seen that.GwydapLlew said:
I would say, though, that the best way to introduce furry-beings to Greyhawk might be to use pocket dimensions... or the Fading Lands concept. Look at the Alice in Wonderland parody adventures. Lots of talking animals (which differ from anthropromorphic animals). Say that the dimension's occupants underwent changes to make them anthropomorphic, and then got expelled into the Flanaess. Or just make up your own dimension with its own history.
GwydapLlew
First Post
Eric Anondson said:Off the top of my head, I've never seen that.
IIRC, the Dragon Compendium lists the Gnarley as a location that the lupins reside within. *shrug* I don't own the book myself, but we had a lupin in a Greyhawk campaign, and he based his decision to come from that area from information in the book. Makes no difference t me.
Mystaros
First Post
If you want them to be fairly common, say, along the lines of Castle Waiting style, do the following:
1) Back in the days when the Oerid and and Suel first invaded the Flanaess (cs. late 1st and early 2nd centuries O.R.), the Flan developed spells that created animal-men guardians, transforming mighty warriors (or even simply any volunteers) into animal-headed and partially-bodied beings. This gave them greater strength, stamina, stealth, etc., based on the animal type (bear, bull, cat, whatever).
2) The animal-headed guardians didn't stop the invasions, but still survived. They were still essentially humans, and could breed back into the population. Their descendants, though animal-headed and with fur and tail, did not necessarily inherit the additional strength, stamina, stealth, or other abilities... just the appearance.
3) Today, wherever the Flan once were, can be found villages descended from these animal guardians (I've always used the term Therians for these races, myself). They are to all intents and purposes human, statistically speaking, but with animal heads, fur, tails, and so forth.
4) If a player wants his bear-therian to have some more bear-like characteristics, create a feat for bear-therians. Perhaps "Ursus Might" allows the bear-therian to use an effect like bull's strength, once per day, with the effects based on his character level. If he wants to be able to use his hands like claws, the feat "Ursus Strike" allows him to do so, attacking with two claws per round at no penalty, normal damage 1d4 plus Strength bonus, for a numebr of rounds equal to his character level. And so forth. At higher levels, and with several bear-therian feats, perhaps he can wildshape into a bear, as per a druid. Ther eare Therian-oriented feats that meld well with ranger and druid abilities. And etc...
5) The Therians are as rare as, say, elves in general, and do not have their own state (now). They are given a modicum of respect in Flan-dominated areas, and may be high-up in Flan state hierarchies. The followers of Obad-Hai might be dominated by Therians. Elves and gnomes find them intriguing, halflings are ambivalent generally, and dwarves too often mistake them for evil humanoids (perhaps the gnolls are a tribe descended from hyena-therians mixed with orcs).
Anyhoo, there are a few ideas for ya...
1) Back in the days when the Oerid and and Suel first invaded the Flanaess (cs. late 1st and early 2nd centuries O.R.), the Flan developed spells that created animal-men guardians, transforming mighty warriors (or even simply any volunteers) into animal-headed and partially-bodied beings. This gave them greater strength, stamina, stealth, etc., based on the animal type (bear, bull, cat, whatever).
2) The animal-headed guardians didn't stop the invasions, but still survived. They were still essentially humans, and could breed back into the population. Their descendants, though animal-headed and with fur and tail, did not necessarily inherit the additional strength, stamina, stealth, or other abilities... just the appearance.
3) Today, wherever the Flan once were, can be found villages descended from these animal guardians (I've always used the term Therians for these races, myself). They are to all intents and purposes human, statistically speaking, but with animal heads, fur, tails, and so forth.
4) If a player wants his bear-therian to have some more bear-like characteristics, create a feat for bear-therians. Perhaps "Ursus Might" allows the bear-therian to use an effect like bull's strength, once per day, with the effects based on his character level. If he wants to be able to use his hands like claws, the feat "Ursus Strike" allows him to do so, attacking with two claws per round at no penalty, normal damage 1d4 plus Strength bonus, for a numebr of rounds equal to his character level. And so forth. At higher levels, and with several bear-therian feats, perhaps he can wildshape into a bear, as per a druid. Ther eare Therian-oriented feats that meld well with ranger and druid abilities. And etc...
5) The Therians are as rare as, say, elves in general, and do not have their own state (now). They are given a modicum of respect in Flan-dominated areas, and may be high-up in Flan state hierarchies. The followers of Obad-Hai might be dominated by Therians. Elves and gnomes find them intriguing, halflings are ambivalent generally, and dwarves too often mistake them for evil humanoids (perhaps the gnolls are a tribe descended from hyena-therians mixed with orcs).
Anyhoo, there are a few ideas for ya...
The_Gneech
Explorer
I had an NPC who was the progeny of the Cat Lord back in 1986 or so, you could do something like that with the Animal Lord of your choice. And Greyhawk in particular has lots of weird little enclaves all over the place ... just say your people live on an isolated mountain in the Barrier Peaks and you're good to go.
-The Gneech
-The Gneech
Similar Threads
