Choker
"Sometimes you just gotta choke a bitch."
- – Some asshole probably
Chokers are a race of humanoid aberrations that hail from Dungeons & Dragons.
At a casual glance, they could pass for some manner of goblinoid, being halfling-sized monsters with a recognizably humanoid body outline and a human-like face, if primitive, fang-mouthed and ugly. A closer look will reveal the distinctive elongated, rubbery, tentacle-like nature of their limbs, and the rubbery consistency of their skin. Debuting in GAZ6: The Dwarves of Rockhome for BECMI, Chokers are a race of dimwitted, primitive, cavern-dwelling predators that use their compact frames and boneless limbs to lurk near routes and ambush anything that passed by, seeking to strangle them with their long arms and fleeing if too great a resistance is posed.
Anatomically, Chokers consist of a bony but many-jointed and flexible skull and torso, paired with limbs that are tentacle-like arrays of sinewy muscle studded with omnidirectional joints of cartilage. This gives them a distinctly bow-legged, "floppy" sort of gait, as they cannot stand upright on their legs at full extension; they prefer to crawl on all fours or clamber over walls and ceilings instead, due to this being more comfortable. Fun fact; Chokers initially debuted with long, retractile, tentacle-like fingers tipped with cartilaginous talons. In 3rd edition, these were changed to a pad-like appendage on hands and feet bristling with backwards-facing hooked fangs.
After their debut, chokers went on to appear in BECMI's Creature Catalog, and then made the leap to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in the Mystara Monstrous Compendium Appendix. They hit the prime time with a debut in the Monster Manual in 3rd edition, and they went on to star in the Monster Manual for 4e as well, but in 5e they were initially relegated to the D&D Encounters adventure Dead in Thay (and its reprint as part of Tales from the Yawning Portal) before finally appearing in the Bestiary in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. They also received an "Ecology of the Choker" in Dragon Magazine #323 for 3rd edition.
The origins of the choker (besides The Hobbit) are a mystery. In AD&D, it's stated that goblins believe them to be the mutated, inbred descendants of a lost goblin tribe that degenerated into cannibalism - this edition also stated that chokers have an extremely high metabolism, and that goblin flesh is their favorite food, whereas the dwarves and humans they "preferentially" fed upon in GAZ6 are instead merely an opportunistic, readily available meal. In their Ecology of the Choker article, it's instead theorized that they are corrupted gnomes (possibly svirfneblin) or halflings - a theory that all three races find absolutely insulting and refuse to countenance.
Regardless, these primitive predators scavenge and hunt throughout caves and the Underdark, though they also adapt readily to other environments where their climbing skills and ambushing tactics work, such as dense forests or even cities. In the Nentir Vale setting, a subrace of Choker has evolved to thrive in the dense forests of the Feywild; these "feygrove chokers" are larger and stronger than their kin, and have a mystical ability to manipulate vegetation and use it as a weapon. They have a rudimentary grasp on the Underdark version of the Common language, and a fascination with shiny things like gems and coins, so it's not impossible to barter with them in exchange for treasure or meat - it's difficult because they're not exactly brain surgeons; "I give you this, you give me that" is about the extent of their understanding of diplomacy. They can make decent guards or even guides, but most denizens of the Underdark simply kill them on sight as a nuisance.
Gallery[edit]
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BECMI
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2e
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4e
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5e
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Dragon #323
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Pathfinder
