Charm person... whats a humanoid

[Olive]

ok, i should know this, but what counts as a humanoid. do monsterous humanoids count? ie can you charm an orc?

where does it specifically say this one way or another?

 

[Berk]

the monster manual will tell you which type of monster is what. if you don't own one look in the back of the PHB, think they left in the little amount of monster stuff in the back of it in the newer prints.

a humanoid is a humanoid, i.e. human, elf, orc, half-orc, dwarf...etc....

a monsterous humanoid is a different type of creature all together so a charm person wouldn't work on them, but charm monster would

 

[Dr_Rictus]

By the way, an orc is not a monstrous humanoid, as you suggest. It's a humanoid. "Humanoid" and "Monstrous Humanoid" are distinct creature types, and the fact that a humanoid is considered a monster (like an orc) doesn't matter.

 

[Olive]

ok, thanks for that guys...

this is one of these pay attention to the details things in 3e, like making sure like bonuses dont stack.

 

[Li Shenron]

I think they should have written a bit more in the PHB about creature types, at least because of the Ranger's Favored Enemy ability.

Anyway, "humanoid" are creatures with physical and mental features very close to humans', that is a torso, two arms, two legs, a head, and a comparable size; they are also basically without any spell-like or supernatural ability (although Gnomes' cantrips for example seems to be an exception).

Your DM can tell you the whole list of humanoids (they're about a dozen in MM), which is basically made up of Humans, demi-humans (the other PC races from PHB), Goblinoids and Repltilian humanoids, plus some relevant extras (Orcs, Gnolls...).

Also note that Giants are Feys are NOT humanoid, although they may seem at the sight.