D&D General Identity of Monsters Post-Alignment (+)

[Faolyn]

What have folks done with Gnolls?

I'm working on a setting where the gnolls are the ones who take care of the dead and run the setting's mausoleum (it's an enclosed area). And I don't mean "take care of the dead" in the carrion-eater sense, either (although some do wonder about that); I mean in the "proper burial to avoid undead" sense.

 

[oreofox]

While at the moment I have a bit of "monoculture" for the various peoples that inhabit my world, I also have only focused on one continent. My biggest departures (I think?) are my gnomes, gnolls, and goblinoids.

My gnomes aren't the illusionist trickster fae wannabes of typical D&D. They used to be, but then began to change after one of the races of antiquity tried to wipe them out. They became more war-like (think of the depiction of the Spartans in the movie 300), lost their affinity for illusions and pranks, and focused more on technology. The ones in the country that pops in my head when I speak of these gnomes are my steampunk people. Though they've only made airships, no cars or such.

My gnolls are a matriarchic society of giant beekeepers on the central plains. Like the other animal peoples, their ancestors were basic animals that were changed into a more humanoid body. This progenitor of "modern" gnolls were like the typical D&D gnolls (minus the demonic part), but they changed their ways and became something different. They got hooked on the honey of giant bees (which has a stronger taste and sweetness compared to regular bees), and now have enormous bee farms, selling the honey for large sums of money and keeping thieves away.

My goblinoids are all one people (goblin, hobgoblin, bugbear), though separate, aka subraces. Bugbears didn't exist until about 500 or so years ago during the last major war, and can't reproduce. They are the product of goblins and hobgoblins and a ritual they perform. Come to think of it, I don't really have much on the culture of the goblinoids, but I am going to continue with this because I really like what I did with them. Anyway, a bugbear only exists when a group of 10 goblins and hobgoblins (typically 7 gobs and 3 hobs) perform a ritual, usually during a time of crisis such as a war. This ritual combines the life force of the 10 together, killing 9 of them and transforming the 10th (it's random which gets "blessed") into a bugbear.

These might not seem interesting to some, and I still have to expand a lot to get away from total monoculture, but for some reason my players really like my homebrew world.

 

[Faolyn]

My gnolls are a matriarchic society of giant beekeepers on the central plains. Like the other animal peoples, their ancestors were basic animals that were changed into a more humanoid body. This progenitor of "modern" gnolls were like the typical D&D gnolls (minus the demonic part), but they changed their ways and became something different. They got hooked on the honey of giant bees (which has a stronger taste and sweetness compared to regular bees), and now have enormous bee farms, selling the honey for large sums of money and keeping thieves away.

I would totally steal this for something except one of my players is a major apiphobe.

My goblinoids are all one people (goblin, hobgoblin, bugbear), though separate, aka subraces. Bugbears didn't exist until about 500 or so years ago during the last major war, and can't reproduce.

I'm having my goblins as a single species. Goblins have sort of a "larval" form where they all look the same, until they hit puberty when they differentiate into goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears--and even orcs. But they're all called goblins and the difference is merely for stat purposes.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

So orcs are an odd case for me, because I feel like Eberron has entirely solved the issue of what to do with them.

No orc culture relies on any geography of Eberron, and could trivially be transferred to pretty much any known D&D world, even the Ghaash'kala just need a harsh land to be on the frontline of protecting the rest of the world from. Hell, Underdark can work.

And there is a wide range of cultures, filling many different niches.

Ghaask’kala are holy warriors, Shadow Marches has both Gatekeepers and creepy swamp Cultists, Eldeen Reaches has classic druids, Mror Holds mountain range has native folk in conflict with the people who have driven them most of the way out of their home, and paint the orcs as savages to cover their guilt.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

This thread gave me an idea for another thread.

I don't know if the amount of ideas I'm having lately is a good sign or a sign of impending doom, but I'm enjoying it.

I'm also enjoying trying to not be a jerk.

 

[tetrasodium]

If you've been doing so for years, share your stories! If you have ideas or questions about specific monsters and what can set them apart from eachother without having monocultures or assumed moral natures, ask!

Most bandits are people who live in the area that turned to banditry due to some reason they can chase after for plot & adventure. Instead of a random group of goblins/ogre/etc they are local farmers/miners/etc out of work & on the brink of (or worse) financial ruin & solving this could be as simple as killing the undead/monstrosities in the mine/dealing with the port beastie/etc. The players might be reticent to proactively dig into & solve these kind of things without an NPC flagging them down offering pay them x to go do it but after the first time or two time they get to do things like sell a certificate of partial ownership in a mine to someone important they will be more eager


Monsters aren't human & many of them are scary enough to be above any twinge of murderhobo, maybe that shopkeep is a medusa & has a trained basilisk instead of a guard dog

Many beasts, oozes, fiends, monstrosities & so on are still fair game for murderhoboing but might be around being a problem for reasons too... if you can't think of a reason, "babies!"... oooops the party is covered in blood & gore & momma t-rex/winter wolf/etc looks very unhappy

 

[Vaalingrade]

So orcs, trolls, ogres, goblins and kobolds in my world are survivors of the last time the world ended. The common races are refugees who got dumped on a continent they thought was cursed by less than omnipotent gods trying to save them from dying worlds and got centuries to develop before first contact. The new dragons were assigned as guardians.

Orcs were the rulers of an empire on the eastern continent. The dragons noticed them and figured an advanced society across the pond was a threat. They ended up taking over the world because... dragon.

End result is that the 'monstrous' races and the common races both got their society and cultures jacked for a few hundred years and so now everyone is living with the rebuilt versions. The orcs ended up being all but wiped out, surviving as tiny populations that eventually interbred with locals or by transforming into minotaurs. The minotaurs now uphold the Old Ways of appreciating that one has a strong body and wanting to balance it with improving mind and soul through art, service, or combat acumen. How they channel this depends on the local culture.

Having lived through Armageddon and the hell that followed, most non-orcs had turned to some form of 'worship' of death.

Goblins believed in death was an all-consuming maw, devouring everything in its path. They conspired to choke it to death by breeding with ferocity. Observant goblins of sexual maturity see it as their duty to have as many children as possible. This means that their society is run essentially by teens who have not reached the age of maturity who aren't making and caring for babies. These teens either develop iron bonds of responsibility or strike out to have experiences before they have to settle down and 'choke the maw' as it were.

Due to having a unique spacial awareness, goblins are also really good at physics, expressing untapped engineering talent they're only just now discovering as goblin teens spread out and visit distant lands. This is causing a lot of them to abandon their 'duty' to the maw and take up in cities as apprentices and laymen.

I'll do kobolds, trolls and orges later.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

So orcs, trolls, ogres, goblins and kobolds in my world are survivors of the last time the world ended. The common races are refugees who got dumped on a continent they thought was cursed by less than omnipotent gods trying to save them from dying worlds and got centuries to develop before first contact. The new dragons were assigned as guardians.

Orcs were the rulers of an empire on the eastern continent. The dragons noticed them and figured an advanced society across the pond was a threat. They ended up taking over the world because... dragon.

End result is that the 'monstrous' races and the common races both got their society and cultures jacked for a few hundred years and so now everyone is living with the rebuilt versions. The orcs ended up being all but wiped out, surviving as tiny populations that eventually interbred with locals or by transforming into minotaurs. The minotaurs now uphold the Old Ways of appreciating that one has a strong body and wanting to balance it with improving mind and soul through art, service, or combat acumen. How they channel this depends on the local culture.

Having lived through Armageddon and the hell that followed, most non-orcs had turned to some form of 'worship' of death.

Goblins believed in death was an all-consuming maw, devouring everything in its path. They conspired to choke it to death by breeding with ferocity. Observant goblins of sexual maturity see it as their duty to have as many children as possible. This means that their society is run essentially by teens who have not reached the age of maturity who aren't making and caring for babies. These teens either develop iron bonds of responsibility or strike out to have experiences before they have to settle down and 'choke the maw' as it were.

Due to having a unique spacial awareness, goblins are also really good at physics, expressing untapped engineering talent they're only just now discovering as goblin teens spread out and visit distant lands. This is causing a lot of them to abandon their 'duty' to the maw and take up in cities as apprentices and laymen.

I'll do kobolds, trolls and orges later.

That goblin society could be a really fun way to use the goblinoid race from the Acquisitions Inc, which goes from small to medium over the course of its life, along with other changes.

 

[jmartkdr2]

For a more literal post-alignment society: it used to be true that the races associated with evil gods were forced to do evil acts by their nature - orcs couldn't help being murderous, goblins couldn't help being deceptive, and so on. But about ten years ago, that changed, and free will was granted to all intelligent races. It's even possible that some had-to-be-good races lost their own blocks, so evil (or at least selfish) aasimar are now also possible, and elves no longer change color when they change worldview.

I say ten year because that's long enough for word to have gotten out, but not long enough for people to be used to the new way of things. Everyone is uncomfortably trying to navigate this new, less structured but more fair world.

(If I'm running this, I'd work with players to flesh out how each races was and how they are now, rather than try to pre-culture-ize every possible option. The recurring theme, however, is that different people will react differently. No two villages are quite the same, and the old stereotypes, once reliable truths, just don't hold.

 

[Puddles]

I changed Tieflings in my world as I found their existing background to be both unfun and problematic. Instead Tieflings were once part of the Egyptian-analogue civilisation. This civilisation was created and ruled by Tyrannical Devils who created the Tieflings to be in their servitude as a lower class. The Tieflings eventually threw off those shackles of oppression and liberated themselves.

Therefore there is nothing "evil" in their bloodline, nor is there any ancient pact or sin that they made. I also removed the distrust the PHB suggests they face, because me having to roleplay all NPCs being prejudiced towards the Tiefling character did not sound fun at all.