Gnolls, gnolls, glorious gnolls

[Thanael]

Here's Blackdyrge's great Myrgle, Adept of Yeenoghu (Gnoll NPC adept throughout his life and beyond) thread.

 

[Kwalish Kid]

The old 2nd Ed product "Castle Sites" has a good setting based around fighting off gnolls.

 

[Korgoth]

There's where it was! I vaguely remembered hearing that origin for them somewhere, but could never remember where! Now I know!

But am left with the question of when I saw Brown Book DnD... how I remember something from books I have never seen. Eerie.

The obvious course of action is to go to RPGnow or whatever its called and purchase the PDF of OD&D. It's only like 5 or 6 bucks.

 

[dmccoy1693]

Gnolls are definitely in Classic Monsters Revisited. Paizo did a bang-up job with them. Great flavor and background, and the art is simply the best gnoll art I've ever seen. I'm actually enthused about gnolls again.

I second the Classic Monsters Revisited. Excellent read. And a WHOLE lot of fun. Quality 6 pages on Gnolls and since Kobolds are a close 2nd for you, there is also a 6 mapge write up on Kobolds.

I love Kobold TV (p30).

 

[diaglo]

I am planning on building a campaign wherein the main baddies are gnolls.

What background, history, etc do we have on gnolls from all the various editions, books and manuals?

Anyone are to chip in? I'm at work at the moment and my books are all at home, and my mind is working overtime on ideas that I'd like to write down.

Any input welcome.

for OD&D(1974) gnolls are troll/gnome hybrids.

 

[Korgoth]

for OD&D(1974) gnolls are troll/gnome hybrids.

Did I somehow end up on Diaglo's Ignore List? This was covered in post #17 you johnny-come-lately!

 

[Rauol_Duke]

Did I somehow end up on Diaglo's Ignore List?

It's a feat to stay off of diaglo's ignore list...

 

[diaglo]

Did I somehow end up on Diaglo's Ignore List? This was covered in post #17 you johnny-come-lately!

that's what i get for reading the thread title only and responding. :doh:

 

[Korgoth]

that's what i get for reading the thread title only and responding. :doh:

Incidentally, you should hang out on Finarvyn's OD&D board more often. We've got some cool stuff floating around over there.

Granted, you need to spread the word about The One True Game here on EN World, too.

 

[Barastrondo]

I've loved gnolls since I first picked up the game, but I've never used them as written — I got as far as the "hyena-people who treat their females as chattel" and suffered a fatal disconnect. So instead they became a faintly savage, matriarchal group of clans, the brutal pragmatists without actually being full-bore evil.

Among the tricks I've used:

- Strong ties to natural magic. Gnolls might not have much by way of wizards, but they have some very dangerous druids. Shifting, calling down natural cataclysms, the whole nine yards.

- Assuming a hyena-ish anatomy with a long torso and long arms (and high Strength), they would probably favor weapons that take advantage of that leverage: axes, hammers and flails. Gnollish longbows are built for a powerful, seven-foot archer with disproportionate arms, and would be hard for a human to use; they have a base damage of 1d10.

- Man-eaters. Gnolls will eat any humanoid they catch and kill, as well as other animals. Some clans hunt ogres as if they were hunting large, dangerous prey like Cape buffalo. It's always fun to have players find gnoll-made trade goods like minotaur-horn vessels, trollbone chariots or ogre-skin leather.

- Cunning. I once stymied my players by having some gnolls just hang up a sheet across a defensible entry into a ruined city wall. The players wound up going the long way around, reasoning that the gnolls were probably up to something they didn't feel like dealing with.

- Hyena motifs. Here I pulled out the strong matriarchal influence, but also little touches like them being effective and brutal killers as well as scavengers; not the biggest beastie on the block, but among the most dangerous. They'll pack up and move rather than get into a fight that might exterminate the whole clan, but if they need to fight, it's no-holds-barred.