Do you like the new gnolls?

>>50669760
Yes. More chaos, confused, and madness, that total edgelords. They laugh.

>>50669760
I fucking hate Gnolls, so yeah, I like being more justified in wasting them

>>50670176

Easy there Thom, we don't want no trouble.

>>50669760
No
Then again, I am a fan of Digger. Plus Always evil races are boring and near impossible for any race with actual free will and agency, so unless the gills are actually bio robots incapable of sapient thought, there is no reason for them as an entire ravenously be completely evil

Kinda disappointed there's no Gorellick or his own Gnolls.
Also that Flinds have fallen so far from grace and are now Chaotic savages.

File: Old_School_Skubbin.jpg (31KB, 470x196px) Image search: [Google]

31KB, 470x196px

>>50669760
I find them to be acceptable. I was never too attached to their previous incarnations and I feel the same about 5e's gnolls but having a horde of unambiguously evil demonic beings to smite with impunity feels good.

What I do like is the idea of people seeing gnolls acting in what appears to be an unusual manner and becoming paranoid as dread creeps in due to all actions made by gnolls, animalistic as they are, coming from believing they are acting on the commands of their god and people trying to learn the packs end goal before it is accomplished.

File: 1314163516697.jpg (669KB, 639x1280px) Image search: [Google]

669KB, 639x1280px

>>50669760
Hell no, and fuck the rest of 5es lore too. In fact, just fuck the whole system, its shit.

>>50670519
>I am a fan of Digger
Best anthro hyenas. Also Grandmother Boneclaw is best grandma.

And always evil humanoids is the shittiest thing ever.

>>50669760
>Do you like the new gnolls?
No, still gonna use my homebrewn fluff for them

>>50669760
Hell, no. Took 4e's new origin story for them and completely ignored all the cool new ideas that came with them. I hate Always Chaotic Evil mortal races - hells, I'm not even that fond of it for demons as a general rule of thumb - and I found a lot more interesting ideas in Playing Gnolls than I did in Volo's Guide.

File: playing gnolls.pdf (1B, 486x500px)

1B, 486x500px

4E Gnolls best Gnolls by far.

>tfw a cool thing gets destroyed

Not even a furry (yiff in hell) but the 4E gnolls were pretty neat. I will eventually convince my DM to use the old version some time (but he likes Gnolls as a "spooky evil thing you shouldn't feel too bad about slaughtering" option...)

>>50671646
I think this is the first and only time I prefer 4e's lore.

Gnolls a shit, so yeah, having them be demonic cannibal shitwolf hyenas instead of transnigger furbait sits just fine with me.

>>50672993

As long as you ignore FR 4e has pretty good lore sprinkled all through it.

>>50673430
But FR is the only non-homebrew setting people play in since 3rd

>>50672993
Memes aside, I really liked their article on Bane.

>>50673454

And that is why humanity isn't worth saving.

>>50673682
It was good, very balanced for an evil deity.

>>50673454
>not playing eberron
>not playing dark sun
What bumfuck yokel-ass neck of the woods do you come from where this is true?

>>50674444
>playing FR
>playing Eberron
>playing Dark-sun
What bumfuck yokel-ass neck of the woods do you come from where this is true?

>>50674444
>eberron

Which reminds me, there's a Gnoll singer in Sharn in one of the nightclubs putting the gnoll voice mimicry talent to good use.

The club is called Glitterdust
It's frequented by sailors
It's probably fruitier than a shipment of dried figs, but the setting draws no attention to this.

>>50673095

You seriously need to kill yourself. Your choice of words, ridiculous and inflammatory opinion, jesus. Go away.

>>50675270
Whoa, dude, you need to chillasaurus rex.

Yeah, that guy drank a little too much of the meme kool-aid, but not liking gnolls isn't some crime against humanity. They're hyena-headed dudes at their base, and there's plenty of room for opinion around that.

>>50669760
I like them. Between goblinoids and the new gnolls, I can finally live my dream of orc genocide by writing them out of my games for good.

>>50673682
Lotta loyalty for an evil PC

Yeah, since it buttblasted furries. Also, it made them more evil and fucked up, which is how I like monster races. Only downside is they removed their love of torture, which I think always helped convince the party of how fucking evil they were.

>>50671646
Best post.

4e gnolls were legit.

>>50675270
>your opinion is bad so kys
How about you do so? At least he's not shitting on other posters.

Someone tell me what exactly changed?

>>50677528
They've basically been stripped of any sense of culture aside from "murder everything until you die."

Essentially, the meeting for their design had one guy sitting in the back saying "but that's not metal enough" whenever someone suggested something.

>>50671471
I'll bite. how's your homebrew different?

>>50675224

Is that actually a thing?

Because that's kind of funny if it is.

>>50677528
They became edgy as fuck.

File: DeeSnider.jpg (22KB, 200x293px) Image search: [Google]

22KB, 200x293px

>>50677718

>not metal enough

Yeah, but metal has always been laced with a sense of humor, this is just straight take-me-seriously-dammit edgelord stuff.

File: 1481594317675.jpg (19KB, 186x232px) Image search: [Google]

19KB, 186x232px

>>50669760

Awwww....

>>50678009
Don't have the full write up with me right now but the basic gist of it is there's three groups
>EVIL AS FUCK demon worshiping assholes to the far south, who have gone from tribe, to kingdom, to borderline empire ALARMING QUICKLY, probably have the support of an actual full blown god and are quickly becoming a hub of slavery down south
>Tribal gnolls that live in the closer south, polytheistic but most worship is focused on a totem spirit, usually a demon but some are elementals or other things, not so much evil as "anyone not part of the tribe isn't technically people", though as long as you're not a threat the tribe nor would the tribe be helped by you dying they'll range from not giving a fuck to being actively helpful to strangers admittedly heavily inspired by Digger and younger me finding the sin-eater beliefs some tribes have cool
>Norther gnolls, a mix of refugees, immigrants, and converts, semi-nomadic and mostly ping-ponging between various seaside cities following seasonal work, a recent development due to the expanding empire to the south and the recent increased trade from 'civilized' races expanding down south they follow a hodgepodge mix of old tribal beliefs but with many of the northern gods taking the place of the spirits they used to worship and the teachings and morals interpreted through the lens of their old cultural beliefs, though on a whole they're slowly assimilating and a few true enclaves are starting to form in some of the larger cities

Also there's the standard gnoll femdomish stuff in there, like females being bigger, more muscular, and dominant, and gnoll courtship involving the female affectionately bullying a male into submission, no pseudopenis though, I have some standards

File: Gnoll_bard_by_Pachycrocuta.jpg (38KB, 480x514px) Image search: [Google]

38KB, 480x514px

>>50680189
>no pseudopenis though, I have some standards
Weak. Full spotted hyena or nothing.

Heres mine:
There are roughly three groups of gnolls: the northern civilized group who are a mix of kazakh and northern indian cultures with a matriarchal bent. They worship a large number of gods and spirits with O'Istidir She-is-fiercer in azerbaijani leading the pantheon.

The central culture which is more nomadic and mostly herders, with much more ancestor worship and sometimes are demon cults and worshippers of Odur He-is, Lamashtu, and Pazuzu Sweetgrass Voice.

The western border is pretty much filled with demon cults and every awful stereotype of gnolls from D&D, and is the border that leads towards notEurope. They tend to be prion diseased hillbillies and incestous rednecks and tribal people.

The southern border of their lands is a DMZ with the Dragonborn empire and is basically a 10 mile wide by several hundred mile wide wasteland that kills most anything that strays there. Its maintained by powerful Truenaming magic inscribed on giant obelisks created by an act of powerful divine magic during the last war.

Query: if gnolls had replaced orcs as the "bad guy humanoids of choice", with heroic gnoll/half-gnoll replacing half-orc as the "original/default edgy PC race choice" (until 4e made tieflings core, anyway), do you think that their 5e fluff would have come to be?

>>50682221
Probably not. If they fulfilled the same role as Orcs do now, their background would probably be similar. And if Gnolls/half-Gnolls were a PC race, that'd be very likely to prevent them from being retconned into "always chaotic evil and literally being controlled by a demon lord", since that would make them very unsuitable as PCs.

Likely what would happen is that since Orcs would now be "the other barbarian marauder race" they'd get the edgelord treatment to make them stand out.

Morbidly curious now; how would you make a half-gnoll, in terms of appearance & crunch? Hard mode: it's not a hideously malformed abomination (at least, no more so than PF half-orcs are) and nor is it mechanically gimped (like pureblood orcs traditionally are).

Lazy answer to the "appearance" in hard mode is, obviously, a hyena version of the kemonomimis who keep popping up around here - kitsunes and catgirls. Crunchwise... it'd kind of depend on what a gnoll PC writeup would look like.

Speaking of which, anyone interested in a Gnoll PC writeup for 5e D&D? I've got one I've been trying to tweak and make it more balanced.

>>50682734
Crunch wise, 5e has a common trait among most gnolls called Rampage, which lets them get a free move and attack whenever they drop someone below 0hp. That's not particularly overpowered for half-gnoll to have, and it also semi-functions as a way to group the weaker gnolls and gnoll-like beings, with creatures like Flinds checking for whether or not a creature has Rampage rather than whether or not it's a gnoll.

>>50682734

Nah, I'd make them look like someone tried to meld an ape together with a hyena and quit halfway through; there's a very good reason why Gnolls forgo the "rape" part of "rape, pillage, and burn", even if they have otherwise zero other moral considerations, because half-gnolls are absolutely terrifying to both parties.

>>50682734
>Appearance
Fur covered but short and possibly patchy, plantigrade feet like a human, claw like fingernails, short muzzle or no muzzle but dog like nose, large round ears like a mix between human and hyena, enlarged clitoris for women due to influence of gnoll genes, tall, well muscled.

>>50671646
The "Friendly Intimidation" bit reminds me of the Thri-kreen.

File: bryjaggh_wallesdottr_by_fenris49-dalidkq.jpg (710KB, 1378x1287px) Image search: [Google]

710KB, 1378x1287px

>>50682734
Aha, finally found the picture. Here's a pretty good half gnoll.

>>50669760
Eh, they're ok. I don't hate them.

Yes. so much yes.

They're not anthro-hyenas or hyenapeople. They're mutated hyenas in a twisted humanoid shape, from feasting on the flesh of the corrupted dead. Their numbers can be easily replenished, so long as there are hyenas and corpses.

They cackle in mockery as they drive at your heels, spreading madness and discord as they go.They are wicked and terrible, the children of Yeenoghu, a demon prince who desires only chaos, confusion, slaves, and slaughter.

All gnolls leave in their wake are ghoulish people, gore, and ransacked villages. Witches and cultists supplicate themselves before Yeenoghu, and are imbued with his power and madness. The Hyena mythologically is considered akin to the black cat for witches.

Some quick notes i've written on Yeenoghu and Gnolls:

Yeenoghu: Beast of Butchery, Gnoll Lord, The Laughing Hunter. Enemy of Baphomet. Wants only slaughter and bloodshed. Hyenas, gnolls, ghouls, ghasts, werehyenas, witches (same assocations as black cats), confusion, treachery, stupidity, cannibalism, thieves (children born during a hyena crying), hyenas can mesmerize victims with their eyes or pheromones, vampires, bodies of werewolves. slavery, Dig up and consume corpses.
"Fisi, the hyena, hermaphroditic self-eating devourer of the dead, trailer of calving cows, ham-stringer, potential biter-off of your face at night while you slept, sad yowler, camp-follower, stinking, foul, with jaws that crack the bones the lion leaves, belly dragging, loping away on the brown plain . . . "

>>50669760
Source?

>>50685614

That's Ribbon, from the /TG/ Explained comic, by a local drawfag. You can find all of the strips collected on 1d4chan.

>>50685564
This nigga gets it. Noble savage fags need to move to California and fucken stay there.

Demon murder gnolls are best gnolls

>>50685730

>it's either Noble Savage Furry Hippie Commune or DemonMurderFuckCannibal, because that's the only two things a beast race could possibly be

Thanks for confirming my suspicion that the only people who like this boring one-dimensional shit are folks with no imagination.

>>50685730
Im sorry but 30 years of lore being chucked out the window for horribly simplified demon spawn is utterly shit and should be aborted along with everything else about 5e.

File: IMG_0934.png (454KB, 800x2000px) Image search: [Google]

454KB, 800x2000px

>>50669760
Bumping.

>>50685827
A beast race is a wrong thing. It's animal mixed with human. Warhammer and Glorantha have beastmen right. The Minotaur isn't a race of seafaring bullmen. It's a flesh eating monster born from the womb of a mad queen who laid with a bull by the whim of a terrible god. Beastmen are perversions of nature.

>>50685879

>Johnny Bravo Gnoll

Heh.

>>50685932
>Warhammer and Glorantha have beastmen right

>My preferences aren't subjective

If you like the way they handle them, one would think you could just play in those settings, and D&D wouldn't have to throw out everything we knew about gnolls and replace it with nothing but "They're evil. Like all the time, dude. That's all. Go kill 'em I guess."

>>50685843
>30 years of lore.

Let's look at Gnolls in AD&D 1e shall we?

>Chaotic evil
>Low-Average intelligence
>Gnolls travel in rapacious bands of loose organization
>Will join with other groups to have a better change as fighting, raiding, or looting.
>Largely live underground, some live in abandoned/raided villages
>Have hyenas and hyenadons with them
>Also have slaves for food and labour

>>50685564
You see, you say all that, but they only things Pikeman Paul, Mercenary Mikey, and Nobleman Neddy are getting from that is "They're assholes, kill, burn and torture to your heart's content, possibly enslave And/or rape if ballsy enough."

The thing about people is that the more they can dehumanize their enemy, the more willing they are to do horrible things to them and the less willing they are to learn anything about them that doesn't help with killing them. If you make "Dickass McMurderKill: The Race" not only are the people who have to deal with them do so with less decency than they would treat a wild animal, but they're not going to bother giving shit beyond "shit to kill". Which, now that I think about it, would make for an interesting quirk to have a people that have lost their moral qualms when dealing with scary, evil, irredeemable, Gnolls and now act more horrifyingly monstrous and callously brutal towards Gnolls than Gnolls ever could to them.

But putting that aside, that's not even accounting for the effects on the PCs, whose actions are determined by people that know the world is fabricated and will only ever think of them as "Health bars and loot".

>>50675224
There is a place to hire changlings to play your family for a day.

Eberron is a weird place.

>>50673430
>As long as you ignore FR

Done and done.

>>50686056
That's the idea. Of course you're going to want to kill them, when you find the half-eaten dead in the streets, the enslaved mortals who toil in fear of being eaten next, or the panic and terror then incite in towns and villages when they come near.

You'd be a fool wanting to not want to kill them, for they will do the same to you without remorse, and if not kill you, enslave you and work you to the bone, and when your usefulness has ended, eat you.

The cultists of Yeenoghu and his witches sometimes manage to stave off the gnolls, but as Yeenoghu enjoys chaos, not even that will keep you safe from them. Still, many people think it's safer to be an ally than a victim.

File: IMG_0948.jpg (31KB, 360x720px) Image search: [Google]

31KB, 360x720px

>>50669760
As a specific interpretation of the gnoll, I like it. Purgin an' scourgin an always evil species is just good fun!

However, I take issue with the fact that Wizards are explicitly saying that gnolls can't be anything different, that they can't stop being complete edgelords, and that they can never become PCs. It shuts down player choice and it puts unnecessary restriction on worldbuilding.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but 4e did gnolls better. Much better.

File: IMG_0946.jpg (175KB, 998x800px) Image search: [Google]

175KB, 998x800px

>>50686353

File: IMG_0949.jpg (112KB, 550x701px) Image search: [Google]

112KB, 550x701px

>>50686371

File: IMG_0942.jpg (370KB, 580x754px) Image search: [Google]

370KB, 580x754px

>>50686386

File: IMG_0947.jpg (227KB, 1200x788px) Image search: [Google]

227KB, 1200x788px

>>50686404

File: IMG_0918.jpg (83KB, 800x969px) Image search: [Google]

83KB, 800x969px

>>50686417

File: IMG_0939.jpg (238KB, 800x964px) Image search: [Google]

238KB, 800x964px

>>50686435

File: Best minotaurs ever thought up.jpg (173KB, 600x1072px) Image search: [Google]

173KB, 600x1072px

>>50685932
>The Minotaur isn't a race of seafaring bullmen
Tracy Raye Hickman would like to have a word with you.

Also, sticking absolutely to old versions of singular monsters from myth is absolutely and utterly boring. Its the province of autists and uncreative and imaginationless people.

>>50686040
Listed as a player option in Complete Book of Humanoids and as possible of becoming good. Flinds are even moreso capable of becoming good. Also listed as possible race option in Skills and Powers with no mention of needing to be evil.
Orcs of Thar has them as a playable option with them being anywhere from evil to good.

In addition the gnolls had a non evil beginning with Gorellik, the god of hyenas and the hunt, who has been present in at least 3 editions before 5e.

They have always been an option in D&D to play as. There has always been a faction of good or at least neutral gnolls in every edition. With 5es lore, that option has now been nuked into nonexistence.

>>50686176
No but you don't understand, no one's going to look at any of that. Those names and histories and Lore peices literally won't matter to anyone in the world. Once the shock value wears off, it is logically going to be simplified to "Kill, burn corpses to stop spawning".

Do you think Rome pre-Caesar had a plethora of Information on the Gauls beyond "They're assholes who raided our shit once and have no state"? More importantly, do you think any of the soldiery would have cared if they did? No, because they thought of them as barbarians assholes that were going to die and didn't think of them beyond that. And the Gauls were humans with morals and culture, not Knockoff demonspawn. Making an irredeemably evil race would literally result in the entire world viewing them as murderhobos would: walking health bars with loot.

>>50686544
>Tracy Raye Hickman would like to have a word with you.

>Also, sticking absolutely to old versions of singular monsters from myth is absolutely and utterly boring. Its the province of autists and uncreative and imaginationless people.

She's shit and so are her minotaurs. Using something and not really relating it to anything previously established dilutes the concept into bland crap. I'd rather have something focused and evocative than general and bland.


>In addition the gnolls had a non evil beginning with Gorellik, the god of hyenas and the hunt, who has been present in at least 3 editions before 5e.

Makes no sense for Gorellik to have gnolls since he's the god of hyenas and the hunt, gnolls aren't hyenas. They're a perversion of hyenas.

I'm glad they did away with it. Again, rather have focused than general.

File: IMG_0929.jpg (56KB, 736x883px) Image search: [Google]

56KB, 736x883px

>>50686453

>>50686553
>No but you don't understand, no one's going to look at any of that. Those names and histories and Lore peices literally won't matter to anyone in the world. Once the shock value wears off, it is logically going to be simplified to "Kill, burn corpses to stop spawning".

You don't seem to understand. They won't have to go look for it, it will be forced onto them. It effects them and having to change themselves to deal with it. Even that will not be enough, because there are cultists of Yeenoghu too, who only need to descrate a corpse and feed it to a hyena to get the gnolls going again. You forget, chaos and madness are also favoured by Yeenoghu, no people can maintain a united front against the gnolls, when your neighbour could very well be a cultist.

The players will understand them through play. They will know they are cruel by what they do and leave behind, they will know they are slavers because they will have slaves. They will see how they reproduce by witnessing desecrated corpses feasted on by hyenas, who will writhe and yelp in pain as their bones shift and snap, reforming into a twisted humanoid shape.

File: 1401070908726.jpg (50KB, 625x626px) Image search: [Google]

50KB, 625x626px

>>50686704
Almost had me, but then you turned the autism dial too high up for the last point.

File: gnolls_in_the_woods_by_pachycrocuta-d4dxq9g.jpg (213KB, 1200x791px) Image search: [Google]

213KB, 1200x791px

>>50686704
>They're a perversion of hyenas.
No they aren't. They are quite literally made as humanoid versions of hyenas according to people who had the barest understanding of what a spotted hyena was like, basing their habits and intentions on stereotypes and folklore.

They are as natural as you or I in that world, at least before 5e.

You need to bring up some lore to justify your idiotic notion of them being a perversion of hyenas and not just hyenas made humanoid. And don't use 5es shitty lore.

>>50686822
No bait here, this opinion is absolutely sincere.

>>50686830
Let's go back to AD&D 1e.

>Monster Manual
They aren't literally humanoid versions of hyenas, there is a great resemblance between the two, but they aren't humanoid hyenas.

>Fiend Folio
Flinds are relatives of Gnolls, not Gnolls and hyenas.

They aren't hyenas. They're mockeries of hyenas.

I like my Beastmen as perversions anyways.

>>50670933
>that pic
fukken saved

>>50687040
>I like my Beastmen as perversions anyways.

That's cool, but what you're arguing for in this thread is basically:

>I like everyone else's Gnolls to be perversions, too

'Cause that's why folks don't like the change. There was room for vile monstrous gnolls in the previous D&D books, but no there's room for nothing but.

File: the_drunken_gnoll_by_badinspiration-d8zock0.jpg (261KB, 723x934px) Image search: [Google]

261KB, 723x934px

>>50686704
>Using something and not really relating it to anything previously established dilutes the concept into bland crap
Oh man, and I forgot to take this part to task as well.

What is a minotaur? A bullman from an island culture that did a lot of sailing and who worship capricious gods.

What is a Krynn minotaur? A bullman from an island culture that do a lot of sailing and who worship capricious gods. Oh, and they were made as a curse, something they have in common with the original myth. They also like mazes and maze like architecture. No they aren't exactly the same as the original minotaur, but that's the fun of making a species based on an old myth, the ways in which you can evoke the myth without repeating it wholesale.

It's very much like metaphors in riddles. Another thing autists are not able to understand.

>>50687040
Just looked at AD&D1e monster manual. It only says they resemble a hyena and no actual leaning towards perversion or not. Dragon 63 hints at being related on a much deeper level.
Of course they are only going to say whether they are related to gnolls, that just establishing their relationship to other humanoids.
Monstrous Compendium explicitly says they are hyena men in appearance. Orcs of Thar says explicitly that they are literally hyena people and directly related to hyenas, though they get the scientific nomenclature deeply wrong. Dragon 173 comes out and says they are hyena people and directly related to them, and not perversions of hyenas.

>I like my Beastmen as perversions anyways.
Cool, too bad they have never been that in any edition till 5e. Also Warhammer and Gloranthan beastmen are shit from shit settings.

I think ive also argued about this exact problem of beastmen as perversions of humanity in at least two other threads with you or at least someone who argues very much like you

>>50686815
Again, once the shock value of "oh they're so ebil" wears off, dealing with them will become simple. They can killed through common means, and can be stopped from spawning through destroying corpses. Making them some existential threat for the civilized world would actually expedite that acclimation process, as the world would be forced to raise an actually army and deal with the through war, which would increase exposure to them.

And thinking that Cultists would be the big game changer is stupid. For one, You can't hide giant uncontrollable hyena men in populated centers Long enough to create a population for a meaningful outbreak without one of the edgy dipshits getting discovered. And for another, who would be a cultist of this God, there is literally nothing to gain? No favors or meaningful power, just summon shit and get fucked over by hyenas. The only way you could have a meaningful number of cultists is if this god could could corrupt people into madness, and at that point you might as well just call him Tzeench and slap some demon horns on those Gnolls.

>They will know they are cruel by what they do and leave behind
Gore and violence for the purpose of shock value telling them "hey they're assholes, go kill them"

>they will know they are slavers because they will have slaves.
Just re-affirming that Gnolls are assholes. The Slaves might be a game changer turning it into a hostage situation, but most people can rationalize that as "ehh they were going to die anyways, better an arrow than torture"

>They will see how they reproduce by witnessing desecrated corpses feasted on by hyenas,
Again, all this does is reaffirm that Gnolls are assholes, and lather on the shock value gore

They're like something out of a shitty horror movie franchise. Kinda scary and threatening at first, but progressively lamer every time you see it, leaving you halfway through the third movie yelling at the characters for not growing a pair of learning and dying stupidly.

File: Crocuta_by_ExitStageLeft[1].jpg (51KB, 476x843px) Image search: [Google]

51KB, 476x843px

>>50687040
>I like my Beastmen as perversions anyways.
Just out of curiosity, do you apply that logic to ALL creatures that blend human and animal parts, even ones that were neutral or good in their original myths? Fauns? Centaur? Huldra? Egyptian and fantasy!egyptian gods? Ganesh? Because it seems to me you're not throwing the baby out with the bathwater so much as chucking an orphanage down a waterfall.

>>50687371
I don't know what to tell you, that's exactly their purpose. They're an enemy for the PCs.

You're overthinking how society react to gnolls. Those that become desensitized aren't right in the mind anymore. They exist as the major enemy force of a region that is gripped in terror by them, only safe behind the walls of a city, and hardly even then.

Why is that? Because that's a more interesting scenario to play in instead of the one you're describing. That's literally the only reason I need to have things the way they are. They player's won't care so neither will I.

What's the point of splitting hairs over the "rulebook" cultures of any D&D race? The average DM is running a homebrew setting anyway, and most of the more popular pre-written settings have their own lore that overrides the lore of the published books anyway.

What does this really effect beyond like, Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance?

>>50687443
No, actually, not always. Things like Fauns, Centaur, and Huldra, have animal traits because they're fey things associated with nature.

Gods are however their followers express them as. I normally don't like actual gods that you know the appearance and description of them. I like them to be more subjective. If a god is depicted with animal traits, it's usually for some symbolic reason. False gods are another thing entirely. Those are the gods you can kill.

>>50687327
is that one of the hyenas from The Lion King in gnoll form

File: IMG_1900.jpg (63KB, 1024x512px) Image search: [Google]

63KB, 1024x512px

>>50687488
>I'm so unimaginative and inept that I can't even come up plothooks to motivate my Murderhobo Players to go commit genocide on an established race.
>What? Just use demons, to go to creatures for no remorse, or homebrew up some DOOM demon knockoffs? Nah! That's crazy talk!
>I'll just support the destruction of the Lore and Culture of an existing race into C+ Horror Movie monsters so that they can fulfill a role that replaces substance and options with edge and Gore and blame it on a God that vaguely sips off the 40k version of Chaos Gods.

How could you not contrive a reason for Murder Hobos to be Murderhobos!? That is like being unable to lead a fish to water!

>>50687707
Are you reading some kind of context to my posts that i'm not putting in?

Of course they have plothooks, that's a given. Plothook doesn't equal = friendly race though. Plothooks regarding gnolls are the terrible things they do and have done, not to get to know them on a friendly basis. Something being Good doesn't give it substance. I prefer to play in a Grey and Black world.

Do you bitch this much about Orcs too?

>>50673430
>As long as you ignore FR
But it was the best incarnation of FR.

>>50682996
>That's not particularly overpowered for half-gnoll to have
Great Weapon Mastery + Rampage + large group of trash monster = Solo XP for a hard encounter.

File: even_speed_wagon_is_afraid_by_bahg_nahk.png (29KB, 186x470px) Image search: [Google]

29KB, 186x470px

>>50686435

>>50687823
0/10, too obvious.

File: IMG_0958.jpg (105KB, 600x847px) Image search: [Google]

105KB, 600x847px

>>50687985

>>50687810
You can have literally anyone do terrible things on a consistent basis. Hell, Drow do that as an intelligent race and they still have substance.

It's funny you mention substance because these Gnolls literally have none. The only Plothooks they have is "Hey these guys did stuff, to kill them" or "Hey these guys enslaved some people, go kill them and check if the people are still alive, even though they probably aren't". And these roles can be done with literally anyone else, Raiding Drow, Orcs, Goblins, Bandit Humans, regular Gnolls, Demons. The difference is that all of those guys can be other things too. Your Favored Gnolls have all the depth of a puddle.

And no, before you say it being "terrible vicious and cruel and bloodthirsty" is not depth, it's shock value that only serves to hide the fact that Gnolls are waking health bars.

>>50685843

Hey, fuck you, we don't want them.

That said, I'm reading the 4e write up on Gnolls, and I'm not seeing that much difference.

File: Gorellik.png (108KB, 429x838px) Image search: [Google]

108KB, 429x838px

>>50687040
Flinds were also lawful evil, which is a bit of a divergence.

>>50686544
As much as I like Gorellik, he was Chaotic Evil god of savagery.

It's just he would care more about hunting for food, not intelligent beings, and in 4e terms he'd be a primal spirit.

File: gnolltypes.png (776KB, 1500x1100px) Image search: [Google]

776KB, 1500x1100px

I've been brewing some gnolls and I want to talk about it to someone, so here. Forgive this scribble sketch, it was only to help me keep track of the ideas.

So, in this setting, you have your elves/men/etc who some gods made, and you have a bunch of other "wild gods", including some animal-master types who are basically gods of a particular kind of creature, who see this and go "hands and stuff are really useful we should make servants like that" and that's how you get beastfolk. I know, furry.

Anyway, so at a certain point this arch-demon busts out of hell and he goes after the hyena god, fights them, kills them and eats them to become a demon god. He summons the hyena people, curses them with eternal hunger and says only through him can they be sated. So THEY fight him, and drag him down and since they can't kill him without him just respawning in hell, they eat him alive. And because they do this, the demon blood and the demon's soul passes into their collective race and they get transformed into gnolls, which are basically tiefling hyenafolk.

You have different subraces of gnolls based on what body part of the demon their ancestors ate. They all suffer the hunger curse and also have their own lines of demonic blessings/mutations/madness. The ones that ate the muscle in the limbs become huge warriors, super strength, sometimes go perma-berserk. The ones that ate the brain and face parts are greedy scheming types who can have magic senses and can hear voices whispering to them, sometimes helpful usually evil. The ones that ate the demon's guts got more of the power of their god that the demon consumed, and are the least demonic and have a talent for divine magic of the druid/shaman type, but their hunger makes them especially want to eat from still-living intelligent beings. The ones that ate the other soft organs got super vitality and endurance but have increased appetites beyond just hunger, general slaanesh-type shenanigans.

Sound interesting so far?

>>50688390
>remorselessly declined
>more feral and animalistic

I do not like the way this is written. No sir.

>>50688248
There's outs for non-dickish Gnolls in the Soul of the Hyena bit, and allows for PC Gnolls.

And of course it lacks the whole "Gnoll minds are so demonic that joining your mind to theirs will turn you into a slave" thing.

>>50688452
As someone who hates the demon gnolls thing, that is at least 10x better than the way 5es devs did it.

>>50688090
>>50688090

You and me have entirely different ways of playing this game and what we regard as interesting and having depth.

For example, Gnolls belong in a sort of FantasyAfrica, with the droughts, blights, scavengers, and flies. Other things like Orcs and Goblins don't suit the atmosphere there. Gnolls just fit there, they help set the tone of blazing maddening sun over a hopeless land, people starved and ghoulish.

>>50688452
Why would a Hyena-god make Hyenafolk. Would it not want to preserve the sancticy of the hyena mind and shape?

File: Flind.png (428KB, 501x915px) Image search: [Google]

428KB, 501x915px

>>50688465
Well, it's the earliest mention I can find of him.

It's also interesting how, if you keep the idea of him being their original god, how much the propaganda of Yeenoghu has taken over, with him taking credit for creating them.

Also, Flinds for comparison.
Flinds are noted in 2e as the most likely form of Gnoll to "go heroic," in part due to the reverence Gnolls have for them, with some even ending up as Lawful Good.

>>50688570
Maybe the humanoid form is just something that gods love. Why would the dwarfish gods and the elvish gods make things roughly analogous to each other?

>>50688590
The Flind totally looks like a lion man. Sweet.

>>50688452

[cont.] To add some more details I've considered, the demon's spirit drives them to change their traditional tribal lifestyle, upgrading to various primitive kingdoms. Generally the big Limbsnapper gnolls become conquering warlords at the top, with Gutrenders as a sort of priest caste, Skullbreakers as merchants and arcane-magic types, and Chestrippers as the lower classes doing brute labour en masse. The "bonechewers" like the one on the side of that picture are the result of bad rolls on the genetic dice that pop out twisted little imp-gnolls who generally have bad mutations, but sometimes get cool unique or combo powers.

The gnolls are heavily disposed to evil by the infernal power in their blood, and most of them are evil, but they're not unconcerned about it. Gutrender gnolls have an easier time of it, using rituals and druidic-type prayer and so on to cleanse their souls, which allows them to reincarnate instead of going to hell. Other gnolls send their bodies to the Gutrenders after death, to be eaten, so that the Gutrender gnoll can take their soul; they then go back to do their cleansing rituals again so that then their passenger souls become free again. It's a big industry with lots of interesting supernatural shenanigans that can go wrong.

The gnolls are very superstitious, believing they have to be careful not to "wake up" the archdemon-god spirit living inside their species, which (again, they believe) is responsible for the madnesses that can strike them. Skullbreaker gnolls, for example, refer to themselves solely in the third person so that the voices they hear don't become more aware who they are.

>>50688570

The animal gods aren't really into sanctity. They're concerned with survival and being fed, which for them means ensuring their animal is very populous. So long as they can say "this creature belongs to me because it is sufficiently like my animal", it counts, which their servant races do. And then they have servants with hands.

>>50688570
Human forms were winning too much so he wanted a fighting chance would be my guess.

>>50688639
His grace is wasted in his face, his boldness stands alone among the wreck.

>>50688701
wut

>>50688737
Now, learn from your mother, or else spend your days biting your own neck.

>>50688737
He's paraphrasing Little Lion Man.

>>50688639
Yeah, they're still meant to look like hyenas/normal gnolls though, but with more rounded ears.

In either case, Flinds are probably what you'd have for "PC gnolls," like Half-Orcs for Orcs.
They're medium sized, they're more likely to follow the group, and would make excellent Barbarians, Druids, and you could make a case for Monks following the Way of the Long Death.

>>50688639
That's just a mediocre artist who isn't able to make it look sufficiently different from a vaguely catlike face (think underworld werewolves which look like a cross between dogs and cats). And you're confusing his braided hair for a mane. Yes, they have head hair like humans, apparently.

File: 0e1df54933ea9e1d8c70ac7987b5065e.jpg (100KB, 736x490px) Image search: [Google]

100KB, 736x490px

>>50688809
>>50689035
Too late! The PCs are going to encounter a Gnoll warband. The Gnoll's leader is a Flind named Scar.

Thanks for this thread, really.

5E gnolls bugged the hell out of me but I'm reasonably new to D&D and was having problems finding ways to fix em to have more depth than this deathdemonspawn B.S.

Glad this exists, it's giving me some places to go and ideas to use.

>>50689081
Make him part catfolk, at least. Or blessed by some cat spirit or he just has a bit of hellcat (demon lions that look like animated cat skeletons covered in glowing smoke like flesh) in his ancestry.

File: 1481690021455.png (116KB, 759x706px) Image search: [Google]

116KB, 759x706px

>>50689125
Sure part cat, letting him tap into the Speedforce.

>>50689152
>that build
>goes about Mach 1.3
So, anons, what would you say if one of your players pulls out a supersonic kitty in your games?

>>50680184
I want to give dog treats to this gnoll

>>50679674
It absolutely is. Eberron is a magical place.

>>50686353

Yeah, 4e gnolls were pretty fucking metal already, what with all the cannibalism and necromancy shenanigans.

However it was made clear gnolls as a race and culture had been corrupted when their new demon god usurped control of them from their original deity.

Therefore while your average gnolls are zombie raising baby eating demon groupies; it wasn't impossible to have throwbacks, converts, or remnant uncorrupted tribes.

>>50680018
It's how 13 year old people percieve metal.

>>50691547

Well yeah, it's made of space dragons that turned into rocks, it doesn't get much more magical.

>>50677718
You forgot, whenever Yeenoghu isn't on screen everyone keeps asking, 'Where's Yeenoghu?'.

>>50684504
Huh, that's actually a pretty good half-gnoll pic. Really makes me wonder how a setting where gnolls (maybe using their 4e fluff) and half-gnolls replacing pure/half-orcs would thrive or not.

>>50686544
Bull. Shit. No pun intended. Krynn's Minotaurs may be the one race, aside from perhaps the Draconians, to come out of those books and not be absolute garbage.

Kender are fucking nuisances, Tinker Gnomes are stupidly obnoxious, Gully Dwarves are just disgusting and lame, and the elves manage to be even bigger Mary Sue assholes than the elves in Forgotten Realms do!

And yet, somehow, this trash-heap of a world managed to take what had at that point been a random brainless dungeon-dwelling brute and give it a badass culture as Greco-Roman conquerers and naval masters, making them not only fun, but a fully realized race. It wouldn't be until 4th edition until they got similar treatment again, this time in a setting that wasn't a Mormon-preaching shithole.

>>50688452
Reminds me of a setting I toyed with once where all of the beastman races were the result of ancient elven perverts using magic to assume the form of and interbreed with animals for various reasons (cattle for strength, foxes for cunning, hyenas & wolves for predatory skill) only to realize too late that the price of their degeneracy was to produce bastard anthro animals who have gone on to make their own cultures, something the elves are really ashamed of.

>>50688452
Are we gonna see a finished drawing? Cause I'd really like to see a finished drawing.

>>50688090
Maybe Anon craves the escapism of an obvious, irredeemable enemy, since his world is filled with corruption and ambiguity, m8

File: sad guts.png (92KB, 283x343px) Image search: [Google]

92KB, 283x343px

How would you go about creating a Gnoll Monk?

>>50677718
why the fuck does every d&d monster have to have a fucking culture though

like what ever happened to "monsters exist because the world has gone to shit" like every fucking monster has to have a fucking functioning parliament system and kama sutra or else they're not worth even looking at

like be real with me you're not writing a fucking literary masterpiece here, they're evil monsters who your PCs kill because they're heroes

>>50669760
Never liked gnolls. I find they attract furfag edgelords and PvP scum

I haven't played with any gnoll that actually enriched the game. All gnoll NPCs I hated in-character and didn't care much for ooc.

>>50692102
this is literally the reason why they changed them. fluffing their culture didnt make people care about them or use them more, the most they got used for was making an occasional joke about pseudopenises among grogs

>>50687707
>That is like being unable to lead a fish to water!
what? don't you mean a horse

>>50692067
Because it makes no sense at all for a sapient race to exist for more than a few generations without developing some traditions, culture, and other factors.
Even the most primitive tribals in Africa or NA develop some basic culture, traditions, and theology to help them understand the world they live in, the purpose of life, and their place in it. Even people like the Crows and Apache, who were considered to be the biggest murderhobos in North America had some basic culture, traditions, and tried to ask questions of their purpose for living.

tldr, you are a lazy murderhobo Timmy, and you can't worldbuild for shit

File: black white supremicist.jpg (16KB, 480x360px) Image search: [Google]

16KB, 480x360px

>>50692044
make him blind raised by monks who never told him that he was a gnoll

>>50692067
Because giving monsters background makes it easier to come up with scenarios involving them. If gnolls usually raid merchant caravans but have suddenly started attacking villages for their corn, the players should realize that something strange is going on behind the scenes and should investigate, things like that.

>>50692182
This and Charlie Murphy's Hollywood adventures is probably the best Chapelle has made.

>>50692200
>Charlie Murphy
now thats a name i havent heard in a long time

>>50692172
first of all
>and you can't worldbuild for shit
using an existing race with a vague culture created for the sole purpose of "people werent using these monsters enough" (if you know their history) isn't worldbuilding. putting them in vaguely fantasy not!africa as seen from a european fantasy lens in a kitchen sink setting is barely worldbuilding. and the fact that thinking of ~clever and subversive~ interpretations of that shit passes for "worldbuilding" on /tg/ still dumbfounds me to this day

second of all, they don't have to be sapient. the lizard dudes in zelda didnt have a fucking functioning parliament, they just appeared in dungeons and you fought them, and theyre some of the most memorable fights in the game. monsters in rpgs in the days of yore were monsters, the ones that, in their design, called for some kind of culture got a culture, and the rest were monsters. it's fantasy, there are malevolent death gods, symbolic manifestations of fears and anxieties of various cultures, and literal magic. everybody seems to forget that these sorts of things can just like, -exist-.

third of all, plenty of real world cultures had monsters, evil spirits, boogeymen that existed in large numbers or congregated with each other for no other reason than "theyre evil spirits", or "they werent baptised before they died" or whatever the fuck. sure they can have personalities ascribed to them and shit, and sure, some of them have cultures in some stories, but fuck, they're supernatural man. they don't have to think about the world like we do.

i mean hell, ask any european immigrant who didnt read tolkien as a kid to explain like, goblins or dwarves to you. theyll just look at you and go "they're mischevious spirits who like to fuck with people" or "they're weird bearded dudes who just kind of appear to coal miners and tell them the mine is about to collapse." rusalkas exist in groups but they dont have a fucking culture

>>50692172
>>50692250

like it's pure fucking autism to me this trend that every fucking monster has to have their history explained in great detail, their culture worked down to the details of the nuanced systematic persecutions, or that like, every bit of magic has to have some sort of minute, mechanical law of explanation and i swear to god the only reason for it is because grogs want to feel smart in terms of making magic like science or wanting to feel like they understand nuanced intricacies of real world cultures or have deep weapons grade philosophical insights about grey morality that will like, totally blow your mind man.

like where the fuck did fantasy change from weird unexplainable shit happening to people who feel so very alone in this world to "WE HAVE TO UNDERSTAND EVERY DETAIL ABOUT EVERYTHING FOREVER OR ELSE BABY CANT SUSPEND HIS DISBELIEF"

>>50692272
I blame postmodernism.

>>50692272
I blame laziness on your part.

Providing more detail is fun, and adds more plot hooks.

>>50692404
providing more detail is fun, but can be a superficial substitute for actually understanding the intentions of the creators of the monster

come call me lazy once you've done in detail research on the symbolism and cultural notions that gave rise to certain monsters and then mentally cross referenced that with the way they're protrayed in rpgs in order to figure out both the intentions of the creator and how you could incorporate them in a way which both creates an atmosphere based off the fundamental fears, concepts, and symbols that creature represents as well as addressing how that creature is intertwined with the progression, history, and mechanics of the game

>>50692442
>>50692404

really you only start thinking about this sort of "rediscover the roots" type thing when you've played rpgs for so long you've seen so many reinterpretations of the same things they all seem to blend together

mongolian orcs? good stuff, original. aztec elves? you're on a roll.

>>50689109
It's nice when /tg/ remembers that it knows a thing or two about games.

>>50687040

I like their origin in Golarion, Lamashtu mated with a hyena and afterwards came the gnolls.

>>50692536
Desna > Lamashtu

File: 49361863_p0.png (1MB, 963x1000px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 963x1000px

Sigh. It was inevitable.

When they destroyed orcs as a universally evil race, somebody had to replace them. Innocent cannibalism lovers suffer in the meantime, as always.

>>50685730
>Noble savage fags need to move to California and fucken stay there

Well the new Gnolls are fine until someone wants to play one... then it's just playing Nurse Verity.

>>50692067

Then you travel around a kill them, blissfully unconcerned for their culture.

Why do you need the world to be black and white?

>>50692442
>Thinking Symbolism and implied notions are more important than fleshed out cultures that can do a wide variety of roles and scenarions beyond "ebil monster"

Go back to high school English class and never leave. Symbolism and references are a basis, not the endgame, for engaging story and characters. Your view of "well ackseully, it's about the evils of X" is the Cancer that kills good story because Writers are too busy trying to pretend to be clever rather than actually trying to make it entertaining.

>>50693661
Having Black and White does not mean everything is Black and White.

Why do you need the world to be a muddled mix of dull grays, with no striking contrasts?

>>50693945
But there WERE contrasts. You had the solidly Black Yeenoghu-worshipping gnolls, and the more gray Soul of the Hyena gnolls. Now there's just monotone Black, no variety at all.

>>50692067
>why the fuck does every d&d monster have to have a fucking culture though

Because RPG players are scheming pieces of pedantic "clever"ness who go "oh the gnolls can understand language, have basic reasoning abilities and want to eat the flesh of sentient beings", and after some shenanigans involving a rope and a ten foot pole and a few cheap spell scrolls or some shit you end up with the gnolls being convinced that they can achieve their ends better by becoming citizens of their empire, joining the army and eating the dead after every battle, or some other convoluted bullshit plan where every objection the GM raises can be shut down.

So then you have to come up with things like "the gnoll's god demands a certain lifestyle" or "they really hate X race because Y reason", and you know what that sort of thing is?? THAT'S A FUCKING CULTURE.

>>50692250

Mythological creatures from real-life mythology don't have to make sense because they're never tested to the degree that they have to make sense. You can enjoy a story without asking "but why" all the time, because it's a story. But if you're in something interactive, something where the answers to "but why" might be the solutions to puzzles or your characters' survival, THEN people will ask "but why" all the time. Because they want to take advantage of it. And that's a legitimate desire! The point of the game is for the characters to solve problems with the tools available to them, and the setting itself and its details are tools.

"Where do monsters come from" "monster kids" "do they care for their kids" "no" "but they raid and war and shit all the time, they need to restock their numbers, and an intelligent species has to spend a lot of time being helpless while their brains and language develop, and blah blah blah" "OK SHEESH they care about their kids" "excellent ok we have some hostages to grab"

>>50686544
>Tracy Raye Hickman would like to have a word with you.
I fucking knew that Midgard had to have taken that idea from somewhere, it smacked too much of cute lit reference to have been otherwise, but I didn't know where. I only read one Dragonlance book ever back in like, middle school. It didn't do it for me as much as other stuff did.

>>50686056
>people that have lost their moral qualms when dealing with scary, evil, irredeemable, Gnolls and now act more horrifyingly monstrous and callously brutal towards Gnolls than Gnolls ever could to them.

Gnoll Slayer?

>>50694136
That's what the other races are for.

The problem with monsters is that the less evil they are, the more evil it is to kill them. And without much opportunity to go through the due process, it's good to have more "absolutely evil" options for lower level adventurers.

File: cute gnoll.jpg (96KB, 800x800px) Image search: [Google]

96KB, 800x800px

The new ones aren't really much different. All the 5e evil races have evil compulsions put in them by their gods, Gnolls just have it a bit worse.
Really, I just attribute this to the fact that 5e Gnolls aren't playable, as yet. I mean, of course the 4e dragon article devoted to making Gnolls playable goes into detail about non-evil Gnolls. There's no reason for the monster manual, or Volo's Guide, to do that. There's no reason to detail non-evil member of a race until you're providing rules for them to be playable. Non-player races can just be evil, because they literally exist solely to be fought. Monsters are for slaying, not for playing, and until a monstrous race becomes playable there's no reason to mention anything other than how evil they are.
This is how it has pretty much always worked. Monster races are introduced as wholly evil, because they're monsters, and then later supplemental material gives them greater detail, and when they become playable they get a sympathetic portrayal or non-evil variant. It's not very surprising that this process resets and repeats when a new edition comes out.

>>50688452
This is decent. Actually, I've seen something similar before, but with orcs, where they were created by an evil god, but because they are made to love fighting strong opponents they end up fighting and killing their own god, eat him, and doing so simultaneously grants them free will, and therefore the capacity for good, and a variety of magic powers that passed down to their descendants.
Having an evil god who is now dead is a reasonable way of explaining a race that isn't wholly evil, but has an evil reputation or greater propensity for evil.

>>50694600
But anon, it's going to be blindingly obvious to the players which type of gnoll they've encountered, because either they'll be attacked on sight by horrible murdermonsters, or they'll just see some gruff hyena people. The Yeenoghu-gnolls were still very much "absolutely evil", so it's not like there's any room for confusion.

>>50694600
Why do you need to have a complete moral high ground when being adventurers? What, is it so hard to rationalize your own actions that you need invent a race of cardboard cutouts to be able to kill them. If the concept that the creature your killing may a have a family is too much for you to be able to do so, then maybe you should play something less intense, like chutes and ladders.>

>>50694833
>the edgelord ascends

Go back.

>>50694950
>Not being a pussy faggot and acknowledging that your actions can be viewed differently by different peoples, and that sometimes there is no easy "everybody wins" solution and someone has to get the short end of the stick.
>that's now edgelord
Oh, but making a race of unabashedly pure evil murder-rape machines is okay?

>>50695026
I wrote up a bunch of murderous raiding thieves and rapacious looters who don't care if they kill everyone in the settlement as long as they get their supplies and needs.

The reason they do this is because in order to defeat their enemy they live in a place that prolongs life but has absolutely zero natural resources except that you don't age, eat, sleep, or breathe their. That way they can plan and commit all out war against their ancient enemy for as long as they have to.

Doesn't stop them from being evil murdering thieves who destroy entire strongholds in order to collect the things they need. But it gives them - and this is the important part - a REASON to be evil, rapacious, murdering assholes.

That is the difference between edgelordy gnolls and the aforementioned raiders. The gnolls are edgelords because "no reason."

I'm not saying you're wrong, mind you, I'm just saying the gnolls needed a better writer.

>>50695026
>being a dumb cunt who wants to ruin everyone's fun by hamfisting their "violence is wrong" and "good and evil are illusions" freshman philosophies into a monster killing game

Quit being dumb. Nothing's worse than enjoying a battle, and then the DM pulls a "but here's why you should feel bad" at the end just so that the players have to say "Okay, we're not noble heroes but murder hobos, good for you."

File: IMG_0930.png (2MB, 1540x1260px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1540x1260px

>>50686751

>>50686751
I won't lie anon, but I think that's rather hot, especially for a middle eastern, islamic gnoll campaign.

Post more female gnolls.

File: IMG_0959.jpg (140KB, 900x675px) Image search: [Google]

140KB, 900x675px

>>50696231
>>50696231

File: IMG_0925.png (221KB, 675x900px) Image search: [Google]

221KB, 675x900px

>>50696526

>>50692250
>>50692272

Holy fuck preach it brother.

>>50695114
>"no reason."

Because fucking Yeenoghu. They are his influence in the world. As Yeenoghu wills, they do.

>>50686830
What would a well thought out race based on real life hyenas be like?

>>50669760
has anyone ever thought of putting a Mos Eisley-esque area into their games?

Where all of the evil and good races alike hang out, making brawls and theft frequent and hard to track down?

Might go a long way to unite a party that has both good and evil players.

>>50684504
>fatthicc half-gnolls
Hey, it's the artist's interpretation but aren't gnolls generally cut af? Maybe the human metabolism can't keep up with the gnoll's appetite but I feel like it'd be like having a beanpole dwarf here.

>>50686056
okay, yeah.

But this wasn't written by Pikeman Paul, it was written by the creators of this universe with omnipotent knowledge of the beings within as defined by the ruleset.

>>50692182
"They're a bunch of worthless cacklin' scavengers! And I personally am gonna collar n' kennel ev'ry last one of 'em!"

File: 2008-07-16-wombat508-contracts.gif (151KB, 600x800px) Image search: [Google]

151KB, 600x800px

>>50698180
Real life spotted hyenas are actually very competent hunters, better than wolves even, being the second best animal behind Painted dogs (who are fucking crazy good hunters with a 95% kill to hunt ratio).
They aren't lazy, but engage in play and plenty of non hunting activity when not out getting food.
They live in large social groups, and their social grouping would be very much like a humans if given human level of intelligence.
They are incredibly cooperative, doing far better cooperation puzzles than even chimps.
Their social hierarchy is based on females over males due to reverse gender dimorphism.
They are freakishly smart for a pack based hunter.
Their hunting technique is based on bleeding out by small bites while running the animal to death.

So bumping them up to human intelligence with its expected alterations to behavior results in something frighteningly human but not.

After a quick look at wikipedia, they would probably be very much like the Zaghawa people of Chad but with a matriarchal bent. Nomadic pastoralists with a strong caste system: the upper strata has been of nobles and warriors (females with prized males), below them have been the traders and merchants (mixed gender but leaning heavily female), below whom have been the artisan castes (more male than female), with the lowest strata being the slaves (males and other races). If kept strictly carnivorous, their food is based on blood, milk, and cooked meats, probably with very little seasoning or being strongly spiced to counter the weak sense of taste carnivores have. Would probably have cannibalistic funeral rites often seen in many human tribes.

Basically just go read Digger for realistic gnolls.

>>50698311
Gnolls tend to be portrayed as scavengers and half starved raiders, if they had reliable food, they would probably put on a bit of weight. They would more than likely have the potbellies often seen on real life hyenas.

>>50687327
>>50687614
I thought the same thing.

File: gnoll_family_photo_by_benwootten-d7ytx65.jpg (217KB, 1600x480px) Image search: [Google]

217KB, 1600x480px

>>50701853
No. It just has an expressive face and you're associating that with the hyenas, probably Ed, from the Lion King, due to the very limited media involving spotted hyenas.

File: maxresdefault.jpg (45KB, 1280x720px) Image search: [Google]

45KB, 1280x720px

>>50702124
I just google searched to check.
Holy fuck is there a lot of autistic fan art.

File: gnoll_scout_by_benwootten-d7ytxi0.jpg (386KB, 900x600px) Image search: [Google]

386KB, 900x600px

>>50702199
As a furry, yes, yes there is. Trying to find good art for hyenas and gnolls is a slog through so much awful.

File: mama_shenzi_by_madarao123-d9qzx7b.jpg (54KB, 1024x713px) Image search: [Google]

54KB, 1024x713px

>>50702281
I can't even pretend to understand half of these fetishes.

>>50702331
my fucking eyes

>>50694632
>The new ones aren't really much different. All the 5e evil races have evil compulsions put in them by their gods, Gnolls just have it a bit worse

And that's why I like this thread. I'm relatively new to the game but I'm already ridiculously burnt out on "because their god makes them do it".

I personally don't need a giant tome of lore for em. Just some basic things about their culture and how they do that isn't some edgy "because Yongyahoo sez so we murderdeathkill" B.S.

>>50684504
Fenris is great. I like their porn AND their normal stuff!

>>50673095
I agree with >>50675270
Not even because of any transrights kinda shit but because your typing is not only hateful in general but it is almost a complete word salad of memes. Should be screencapped for one of /b/'s cringe threads it's so bad.

>>50693632
I just want to play my tribal paladin who follows a mix of old sin-eater beliefs and the dogma of their new god as they hunt down evil (and eat it, can't forget about eating all that tasty evil)

>liking Gnolls in the first place

File: Frog and Toad on 4chan.jpg (36KB, 356x334px) Image search: [Google]

36KB, 356x334px

>>50705955

>[your opinion]
TOP LEL :^)

>>50705993
Thanks for the (you), friend

File: Untitled.png (13KB, 115x118px) Image search: [Google]

13KB, 115x118px

>>50684504
HNNNNNG

>>50692464
>mongolian orcs? good stuff, original. aztec elves? you're on a roll.

>Unironically thinking the "Random culture + conventional race" meme is good

>>50706244
We need more original cultures that aren't just rip-offs of real world earth cultures.

>>50706344
Try to make one

>>50706231
>thisIsMyReligion.png
>animeGirlThighSockMuffintop.png

>>50669760
>New gnolls

Has the person who decided to put out this book as "Volo's Guide" been sacked yet?
Realms nerds hated how the book ignored pre-existing Realmslore, and treated the entire idea of Realmslore as an afterthought.
People who disliked the Realms are now blaming its generic as shit entries on the Realms.
People who were just looking for a monster book got a book that spends far too much time describing fluff that doesn't stick to a particular setting.
And the turbonerds now have an agreed upon "Worst Volo's Guide."

>>50706540
Fuck em. It was an interesting way of doing a monster book. I was iteration, not repetition. If I want old lore I'll read it in old books.

>>50706231
>YFW you will never get to use fuzzy gnoll waifu hips as a pillow

>>50688570
The Gnoll god lost a bet with the god that created humans.

As a last "fuck you, buddy!" to the human god, it gave Gnolls a religion based on eating and enslaving humans.

My pantheon is a disruptive co-ed frat house, and intelligent species are their neighbors who for various reasons must still invite them to barbecues and put up with their noisy shenanigans.

File: simegnoles1.jpg (98KB, 552x769px) Image search: [Google]

98KB, 552x769px

>>50669760

By "new gnolls", I assume you mean Gygax's hynea-people, as opposed to Dunsany's gnoles (forest-dwelling nightmares-that-go-bump-in-the-night)?

No, I do not.

>>50705776
Nigger
Nigger
Nigger
Nigger
Coon
Coon
Spic
(not the cunt you're replying to, but you are a fucking cunt)

>>50698311
>fatthicc
that's bretty medium though
not sticks-thin like space elves but still

>>50706393
Kobolds simultaneously worship and hate/vilify dragons. Their priests/necromancers work constantly to slowly poison and eventually (over generations) kill the dragons that "rule" their clans and then use their bones and organs &c to gradually empower their tribes by "improving" the chieftains with various draconic abilities and magic(k)s.
Eventually they hope to supplant the dragons entirely and finally take their tribes out of servitude and into isolationist remote nations where they can, at long last after their role as labour/food, they can live in states that benefit them rather than some other cunts.

>>50698311
I wouldn't consider that fat really, though you have a point about her not being cut

Maybe she's like one of those greek ideals, muscular as fuck but has a layer of thick enough fat over it that you can't tell until she lifts you one handed?

>>50707056
That's a conspiracy not a culture

>>50707108
Their entire culture revolves around the appeasement of the dragons that "rule" them while knowing that the dragons will serve them, if not now then in later generations. Their culture is based on a better future for their descendants.

>>50707124
>Their culture is based on a better future for their descendants.
So the american dream basically?
Seriously though, that's as much of a culture as saying the Aztec culture was human sacrifice
What are their beliefs?
Social values?
Customs?
Ect

Cultures are a LOT more than just one sentence, and for the most part some variation of every combination has popped up somewhere in human history, that's why most people just mix and match cultural traits

>>50707169
Well, I will admit that I've never written out my Kobold Society Manifest, and I'm less than articulate at the moment cos I'm well drunk.
I'll whip up a thread one of these days, but it'll be a real pisser to do so.
But...
>What are their beliefs?
The dragon is the ultimate force that they must conquer, via slow poisons. Songs are passed down and changed through the generations that reflect the slow weakening of the dragon, played on drums of shed scales and horns of shed horn casings. The Dragon is the source of good things in the form of its body, and at the same time the source of suffering.
pt.1

>>50706970
you sure showed him

>>50707495
I Sure Did.
Thanks for the acknowledgement, you mushroom-nigger.
>I don't know your ethnicity, so I went with "mushroom"... no, I don't know why.

>>50706788
I like it when a story can start off with "This is the story of a time long ago – a time of myth and legend. When the ancient gods were petty and cruel, and they plagued mankind with suffering,"

>>50708584
I prefer these kinds of gods, or the gods that are lazy and they only entertain your prayers so you will shut the fuck up so they can get back to sleep.

File: with arnold schwarzenegger or whoever the fuck that was.jpg (38KB, 700x534px) Image search: [Google]

38KB, 700x534px

>>50708584
too doo doo do do doo DOOT
too doo do do doo doo DOOT

in other words, I understood that reference

>>50669760
Yes. I like natural disaster enemies, especially when there are intermingling societies that would use something like this for their own control. Gnolls are smarter and more interesting than typical demon cults, and a hell of a lot better than generic undead legions. Hell, there is even undead gnolls made from a gnoll eating another gnoll.

What I like even better is that they start small and grow bigger and badder as they are left unchecked. They have a complete "zombie" campaign that launches into political intrigue/asshole wizards from the story of stopping the gnolls.

It also makes more sense for well intentioned people to create gnolls for hunting or whatever else versus zombies or summoning something from a different plane.

>>50710647
Xena was better.

>>50711842
I don't disagree.

>>50706814
Holy cow! Someone else did their research!

Imagine if Gygax had gone with the Margaret St. Clair interpretation instead of whatever was the genesis for the hyena-men.

>>50684504
Why is the dwarf a furry?

>>50711842
Hercules started out better, but got bad.
Xena started out okay, and then had some stand-out fantastic episodes.

>>50686056
>the more willing they are to do horrible things to them and the less willing they are to learn anything about them that doesn't help with killing them
Generally the idea with a completely evil race is to make them so evil that whatever you do to them isn't quite as bad.

Killing the gnoll babies should be a cold but indifferent act.

>>50710820

I've started to think of them as "Fantasy Xenomorphs", from the Aliens' franchise.

Seriously, your airship sets down, one gnoll slips aboard. It kills/eats one or two crew, it grows larger. On the third feeding, it makes another Gnoll (the guide wasn't clear here, suggesting gnolls rip themselves out of Hyenas), either regurgitating a new Gnoll or two new gnolls ripping out of the old... repeat the process until you're sneaking around the dark passages of your own airship, watching for the glint of eyes or a cackle...

>>50712618
>Killing the gnoll babies should be a cold but indifferent act.

No such thing anymore. They're 'born' ready to kill. They're essentially Warhammer Fantasy Bloodletters in furry form.

File: Butthen.jpg (369KB, 800x1132px) Image search: [Google]

369KB, 800x1132px

>>50712985
>I admire its purity. A survivor... unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.
>Whose awesome - your awesome.

>>50692272
If they're really dumb, their "history" and "culture" will be very simple, but if they're smart enough to have them, it's a good idea to develop them. Otherwise it doesn't make any sense.

But then you can also flip that shit up and make them have no culture, but then you also have to explain why it is that they have no culture.

I mean, sure, you can have a shitty world with no thought to it and play it while smoking pot, but most of us would prefer to play something that seems to make sense, at least internally. I mean, we have magic and shit, but it has to make sense some way.

>>50692272
>like where the fuck did fantasy change from weird unexplainable shit happening to people

Semi-demonic ravenous, hive-mind hyena-men who burst clawing and biting from the swollen and distended guts of hyenas which have fed off the bodies of the victims of an extra-dimensional demon who wants to eat the world... isn't weird shit?

It's like something straight out of the Cthulhu mythos.

>>50694600
That's what goblins are for. They're barely-sentient savages who think only of eating, killing, and fucking. They're the perfect kill-fodder for low-level adventurers: little intelligence, and what intelligence there is is wholly malignant.

>>50688452
>>50688675
Pretty decent. I'm not buying it wholesale, but as >>50688514 saíd this is leagues better than 5e...

File: 4cb.png (109KB, 200x267px) Image search: [Google]

109KB, 200x267px

>>50699666
Dubtrips of truth and research.

>>50688468
>And of course it lacks the whole "Gnoll minds are so demonic that joining your mind to theirs will turn you into a slave" thing.

Gnoll Hive-mind.

>>50714148
>Gnoll Hive-mind.
Explain this part please

>>50717820
Yeenoghu acts like a server that all the gnolls have access to, uploading and downloading crazy.

It's directness varies, but aside from Yeenoghu being conscious of any gnoll's activities, he also sends constant signals in the form of vague symbols that the gnolls can interpret. Effectively, gnolls could function as an elaborate network and perform incredibly coordinated attacks, were it not for Yeenoghu being about as reliable as you'd expect a Demon Lord to be.

>>50717884
...New PC goal
>Defeat Yeenoghu and/or hijack the gnoll hivemind
>Become overmind of gnolls and turn them into a proper military empire under my rule
>Acquire all the furry, muscular, dominant gnoll bitches
>Probably set something up where the most muscular, femdomy queen bitch of a gnoll is presented as the Empress and my PC is her boytoy at best so any assassinations attempts are targeted at her

File: 5a7ee264348f229fb7e4bdfbaa65e6de.jpg (610KB, 650x700px) Image search: [Google]

610KB, 650x700px

>>50719048
This actually sounds like a half-decent campaign idea, with ymmv cautions for magical realm?
>HACK THE PLANET/DEMON LORD!

>>50719339
True, the last bit is motivated by fetish, though having the power behind the throne be a pampered slave is a good cover for things, if the PCs are against it he can have the empress take a fall, let the empire devolve into chaos and have him get 'stolen' by a group of gnolls (and escorted to safety) and once the chaos settles have his new chosen start amassing power once more, rinse, repeat until someone puts 2 and 2 together

As for the PCs doing it, it would make a good endgame for a (probably) non-good PC, fetish or no

Anyone got more pics of gnolls?
Ideally female but any are good

File: IMG_1074.jpg (166KB, 705x579px) Image search: [Google]

166KB, 705x579px

>>50686435
>>50687985

And to think everyone said it'd be impossible to conceive.

File: IMG_1076.png (1MB, 576x1079px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 576x1079px

>>50696574

File: IMG_1077.png (187KB, 794x897px) Image search: [Google]

187KB, 794x897px

>>50722263

File: IMG_0926.png (2MB, 1200x1215px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1200x1215px

>>50696231
>>50720574

>>50722287
For some reason when I look at that gnoll I assume he grows "special" herbs