I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
So, we're soon to start a Dragonlance game using 5e. I'm pretty ignorant about Dragonlance and all it's assorted whatsits, so I was looking for the kind of character one could only do in Dragonlance. So I thought: what's a thing that DL has that no other setting has?
Seafaring minotaurs pinged pretty high up there for me (especially as 5e halflings and 5e gnomes borrow a lot from their DL kin).
And because I like to play against type for my characters, I immediately thought: If I'm going to be a Minotaur, I'm going to pump up Charisma or Dexterity. Screw the hulking dude with an axe, I will be a bovine butterfly, a steer with grace, a bull in a china shop not making a sound. Or I will be charismatic and beautiful and I will woo men's wives out from under their noses and make the ladies feel all safe in my strong arms and put the horns back in horny with all the masculine machismo of a romance novel. This is also because I can play a big beefy doofus big axe beefcake in almost any setting, but a graceful, charming, bovine sailor in only one.
So I've got four possible routes I'm looking at...and I'm not sure where to go with it. They all look kind of awesome in different ways. So I've come to ENWorld to help me decide!
Here's the DM's whipped-up minotaur stats...
[sblock=here's the beef!]
Minotaur
Ability Score Adjustment: Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Constitution increases by 1.
Age: A Minotaur reaches adulthood at around the age of 17 and can live to be over 150 years old.
Alignment: Minotaurs are highly honorable, tending to be lawful. However, due to their selfish nature and the worship of their bull-headed fire god, they tend to lean toward evil.
Size: Minotaurs stand between 6 ½ and 7 ½ feet tall and weigh between 300 and 450 lbs. They are considered medium creatures.
Speed: A Minotaur’s base speed is 30 feet.
Goring Attack: A Minotaur may use his horns as natural weapons to make a gore attack. He is considered to be proficient with his horns. As an attack action, he can headbutt a target, doing 1d6 plus Strength modifier damage to the target. If the Minotaur moves at least 10 feet in a straight line prior to making this attack, he can instead gore the target for 2d6 plus Strength modifier damage.
Menacing: A Minotaur gains proficiency in Intimidation.
Heightened Smell: A Minotaur can add his proficiency bonus to Wisdom (Perception) checks to detect hidden or invisible creatures, even if he does not have proficiency in Perception. If the Minotaur is trained in Perception, he can double his proficiency bonus to detect hidden or invisible creatures.
Languages: Minotaurs can speak, read, and write Kothian and Common.
[/sblock]
My prime choices are...
"I've got a FEVER. And the only perscription is MORE COWBELL."
Minotaur Bard (eventually, College of Valour)
Mechanical Concept: Charisma-monkey. Charms and Diplomacies and maxxing out the ability to make people his willing servants. A lover AND a fighter, he mixes it up in melee as well, using Dex and Str to support his allies. He's a good wingman.
Character Concept: His True Love was lost to him when he lost an honor duel in the Circus for her hand to a stronger man. It wasn't the first time he had lost...and not the first time he had lost to that particular guy, either. He fills the void left by Ms. Right with Ms. Right Now, and avoids his homeland, and the painful memories it brings. He's affable and encouraging, everyone's best friend at his watering holes, and quite loyal to his friends. Even the ladies he leaves seem to bear him little ill will (and their husbands never understand what they're smiling about these days...). Charming and carefree, though with a forlorn heart. Tries to do right by his homeland, but doesn't really fit in there...so he doesn't go there. And he misses it.
"I know kung moo."
Minotaur Monk (eventually, Way of Shadow)
Mechanical Concept: Stealth + ninja swords. Agile, sneaky, and ever-unseen, this guy is an observer, a watcher of others, one who waits for the right opening. He's an excellent scout, but he's the quiet, stern-eyed sort.
Character Concept: Honor. Honor is a funny concept. Murder a minotaur in his bed, and you're a vile murderer. Kill an ogre or a dwarf or a kyrie, and you're the bravest hero in the land. This one never wanted fame, though. He was content to make his community safe against the horrors that lurked just out of sight, the creatures in the darkness at the edge of the village. Kill them before they see you. Feel their blood on your horns, on your hands. They never had a chance to scream. This one is intense, brooding, silent, strictly honorable. He has a code. It keeps him from using his abilities against anyone that provokes his ire. He is disciplined. He is silent. He knows things he will not reveal. He is like a high-strung wire, straining against his tensions, and you don't want to be there if he snaps.
"Oh, the huge manatee."
Minotaur Ranger (eventually, Hunter)
Mechanical Concept: Two-weapon monster-slayer. Dex + Str + a buzzsaw noise as he cuts down the enemies.
Character Concept: Harpoon? Lad, I AM the harpoon. This one is a hunter of great sea beasts. He is a master of lore on whales and sea serpents and krakens and other terrors of the deep. He's a great swimmer -- he would have to be. He's lept into the churning waters to personally disembowl giant sea creatures himself, with his trusted blades. An old sea salt who is light on his feet and with an intuitive sense of the winds and tides. A trophy-hunter of the most colossal game. Perhaps his reckless thrill-seeking will be his early undoing...or perhaps he will have an even bigger skeleton adorning his ship than he does now by the time he dies in his bed of old age.
"The only thing in this world that gives orders...is bulls."
Minotaur Rogue (eventually, Thief)
Mechanical Concept: Thug. Intimidation. Trickery. Gangster tactics. He's clever and smooth, but heartless and ruthless.
Character Concept: A high-seas Tony Montana, this one did not go quietly from his homeland. He was run out, with swords and spells, and he's still on the run. He always keeps his word. He never lies. He doesn't hurt those who ain't got it comin' to 'em. He knows what honor is. But he was betrayed by a friend, and now he's out of work, out on his tail, and lookin' to live it large before those goons track him down.
Seafaring minotaurs pinged pretty high up there for me (especially as 5e halflings and 5e gnomes borrow a lot from their DL kin).
And because I like to play against type for my characters, I immediately thought: If I'm going to be a Minotaur, I'm going to pump up Charisma or Dexterity. Screw the hulking dude with an axe, I will be a bovine butterfly, a steer with grace, a bull in a china shop not making a sound. Or I will be charismatic and beautiful and I will woo men's wives out from under their noses and make the ladies feel all safe in my strong arms and put the horns back in horny with all the masculine machismo of a romance novel. This is also because I can play a big beefy doofus big axe beefcake in almost any setting, but a graceful, charming, bovine sailor in only one.
So I've got four possible routes I'm looking at...and I'm not sure where to go with it. They all look kind of awesome in different ways. So I've come to ENWorld to help me decide!
Here's the DM's whipped-up minotaur stats...
[sblock=here's the beef!]
Minotaur
Ability Score Adjustment: Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Constitution increases by 1.
Age: A Minotaur reaches adulthood at around the age of 17 and can live to be over 150 years old.
Alignment: Minotaurs are highly honorable, tending to be lawful. However, due to their selfish nature and the worship of their bull-headed fire god, they tend to lean toward evil.
Size: Minotaurs stand between 6 ½ and 7 ½ feet tall and weigh between 300 and 450 lbs. They are considered medium creatures.
Speed: A Minotaur’s base speed is 30 feet.
Goring Attack: A Minotaur may use his horns as natural weapons to make a gore attack. He is considered to be proficient with his horns. As an attack action, he can headbutt a target, doing 1d6 plus Strength modifier damage to the target. If the Minotaur moves at least 10 feet in a straight line prior to making this attack, he can instead gore the target for 2d6 plus Strength modifier damage.
Menacing: A Minotaur gains proficiency in Intimidation.
Heightened Smell: A Minotaur can add his proficiency bonus to Wisdom (Perception) checks to detect hidden or invisible creatures, even if he does not have proficiency in Perception. If the Minotaur is trained in Perception, he can double his proficiency bonus to detect hidden or invisible creatures.
Languages: Minotaurs can speak, read, and write Kothian and Common.
[/sblock]
My prime choices are...
"I've got a FEVER. And the only perscription is MORE COWBELL."
Minotaur Bard (eventually, College of Valour)
Mechanical Concept: Charisma-monkey. Charms and Diplomacies and maxxing out the ability to make people his willing servants. A lover AND a fighter, he mixes it up in melee as well, using Dex and Str to support his allies. He's a good wingman.
Character Concept: His True Love was lost to him when he lost an honor duel in the Circus for her hand to a stronger man. It wasn't the first time he had lost...and not the first time he had lost to that particular guy, either. He fills the void left by Ms. Right with Ms. Right Now, and avoids his homeland, and the painful memories it brings. He's affable and encouraging, everyone's best friend at his watering holes, and quite loyal to his friends. Even the ladies he leaves seem to bear him little ill will (and their husbands never understand what they're smiling about these days...). Charming and carefree, though with a forlorn heart. Tries to do right by his homeland, but doesn't really fit in there...so he doesn't go there. And he misses it.
"I know kung moo."
Minotaur Monk (eventually, Way of Shadow)
Mechanical Concept: Stealth + ninja swords. Agile, sneaky, and ever-unseen, this guy is an observer, a watcher of others, one who waits for the right opening. He's an excellent scout, but he's the quiet, stern-eyed sort.
Character Concept: Honor. Honor is a funny concept. Murder a minotaur in his bed, and you're a vile murderer. Kill an ogre or a dwarf or a kyrie, and you're the bravest hero in the land. This one never wanted fame, though. He was content to make his community safe against the horrors that lurked just out of sight, the creatures in the darkness at the edge of the village. Kill them before they see you. Feel their blood on your horns, on your hands. They never had a chance to scream. This one is intense, brooding, silent, strictly honorable. He has a code. It keeps him from using his abilities against anyone that provokes his ire. He is disciplined. He is silent. He knows things he will not reveal. He is like a high-strung wire, straining against his tensions, and you don't want to be there if he snaps.
"Oh, the huge manatee."
Minotaur Ranger (eventually, Hunter)
Mechanical Concept: Two-weapon monster-slayer. Dex + Str + a buzzsaw noise as he cuts down the enemies.
Character Concept: Harpoon? Lad, I AM the harpoon. This one is a hunter of great sea beasts. He is a master of lore on whales and sea serpents and krakens and other terrors of the deep. He's a great swimmer -- he would have to be. He's lept into the churning waters to personally disembowl giant sea creatures himself, with his trusted blades. An old sea salt who is light on his feet and with an intuitive sense of the winds and tides. A trophy-hunter of the most colossal game. Perhaps his reckless thrill-seeking will be his early undoing...or perhaps he will have an even bigger skeleton adorning his ship than he does now by the time he dies in his bed of old age.
"The only thing in this world that gives orders...is bulls."
Minotaur Rogue (eventually, Thief)
Mechanical Concept: Thug. Intimidation. Trickery. Gangster tactics. He's clever and smooth, but heartless and ruthless.
Character Concept: A high-seas Tony Montana, this one did not go quietly from his homeland. He was run out, with swords and spells, and he's still on the run. He always keeps his word. He never lies. He doesn't hurt those who ain't got it comin' to 'em. He knows what honor is. But he was betrayed by a friend, and now he's out of work, out on his tail, and lookin' to live it large before those goons track him down.
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