D&D General Tell Us About Your Gnolls! [+]

[bedir than]

All gnolls, tabaxi, centaurs, minotaurs, etc in my world are the Children of Chorl, a Transformation wizard who combined animals with their humanoid companions. Some did this voluntarily, in order to be more powerful and follow in Chorl's steps. Others were subjected to this procedure without choice.

The Children of Chorl do not share any faith or alignment. Some hate their creator. Others love him. In some communities they are welcomed, others they are pitied, others they are rivaled.

I guess it's all just complicated.

My regular campaign may play a group of Children of Chorl who are hunting down Chorl when this campaign wraps up.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Anyone whose read any of my products probably knows that I like Gnolls. I've never really liked or played them as spawn of a demon, but rather just another humanoid race, with all that complexity that that entails.

And I have incorporated them lot, including a recurring NPC in my books called Fleabag, the Gnoll Sage (including an actual zine by that name). Kind of my own version of Volo.

 

[bedir than]

Anyone whose read any of my products probably knows that I like Gnolls. I've never really liked or played them as spawn of a demon, but rather just another humanoid race, with all that complexity that that entails.

And I have incorporated them lot, including a recurring NPC in my books called Fleabag, the Gnoll Sage (including an actual zine by that name). Kind of my own version of Volo.


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I love that you lean into the dog factor rather than the wolf factor

 

[Charlaquin]

I love that you lean into the dog factor rather than the wolf factor

And hyenas are actually neither. They’re feliforms, they just ended up as endurance-based pack hunters with crushing jaws instead of solitary ambush hunters with retractable claws through convergent evolution.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

I love gnolls, but I'm definitely cool with them just being pure evil on two legs. It's useful to have a group you know are trouble on sight, and who you can just kill without worrying about their backstories or motivations - you cannot always use undead or nazis.

They should have their own culture, and be matriarchies, and have individual personalities, it's just... look, if I want a complex animal race, I have the lizardfolk for that. I just want gnolls to cause mayhem and giggle in the dark.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

It struck me that with all the mimicry and giggles, it could be cool to have Gnolls be somekind of carnival culture. Like, they could be living in great circus caravans and all that.

The good ones would be more Cirque du Soleil while the evil ones would be freak shows.

 

[billd91]

I went the other direction for my Gnolls, while the all male mobs are cruel and violent raiders and cannibals, the female clans are less so. Clans are made up of a group of sister-families each of which forms a smaller social unit within the wider clan.

Ooo, not me. I went with the spotted hyena matriarchy model and you do NOT want to mess with Meemaw. No, sir.

 

[Yora]

My gnolls are Baldur's Gate gnolls.

Baldur's Gate was the first non-children fantasy thing I experienced other than having read Lord of the Rings once several years earlier. (I thought it was neat, but didn't think about it any more at that time.) And gnolls are one of the coolest things in the game. And they are huge!

(Human getting pimp slapped for scale.)
Which is a pretty good interpretation of Tony Di'Terlizzi's gnoll in the Monstrous Manual.

These gnolls are mean. I see them as violent, brutal, and cruel, but not frenzied and maniacally cackling, They are selfish thieves and bullies who think it's fun to kick others around, but they are almost casual about it. They are having a good time when they pillage, not bloodthirsty mad.
Until they start getting actually threatened. Then they get fierce but also skittish. They are not brave.

 

[Tonguez]

so does any one use The Flind?
and how do you use it - are they just bigger gnolls, a different species/monster or maybe a unique individual?

 

[cbwjm]

I honestly forgot the flind existed.