Gnoll

Something you really don't want to see when adventuring.

In order to sate the eternal hunger of murderhobos for fresh faces to kill and loot from, Dungeons & Dragons has created many, many different races. The humble Monstrous Humanoids have long made up the bulk of these doomed souls; sapient enough to have plans beyond simply skulking in a hole in the ground and waiting to pounce, yet inhuman enough to be butchered without guilt, they are truly the backbone of the classic hack-and-slash game. Some of these have even surpassed their humble origins, achieving a level of player interest that has sown demands for portrayals beyond sword-fodder roles. Kobolds, Goblins, Orcs, even Ogres have all managed to attain a notoriety and a connection with D&Ders that has seen attempts to raise them up from the mud.

And then there are races who haven't been so fortunate. The gnoll is one of them.

Born way back in Basic Dungeons & Dragons - they were actually in the White Box, released back in 1974, gnolls were originally a jokey monster, said to be the result of crossbreeding a gnome with a troll. But, come Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, people realized that this was really too stupid for words, so they were instead changed into a hyena-based beast-man race. They were given a rather slap-dash generic evil humanoid lore, with about the most notably things being a profound laziness that leads to a reliance on slavery, and a particular fondness for cannibalism. Because nothing makes your adventurers feel more heroic than kicking the shit out of people who brutally force others to work for them until they drop and then eat them alive.

And we're not joking about the slap-dash efforts. Seriously, look at the difference in the AD&D MM manuals for the Gnoll, Orc and Sahuagin; the Orc and Sahuagin entries are at least twice as long.

Despite all this, gnolls have managed to claw out a niche for themselves in D&D; having been there in every edition, and even in its Pathfinder spin-off, gnolls don't look to be going anywhere anytime soon. And a few settings, most-notably Eberron and Wicked Fantasy, have at least attempted to round them off a little.

Unfortunately, they don't look to getting more mainstream any time soon. The 5e Monster Manual outright says gnolls, unlike other monster races, are just born bad, due to the demonic influence of their creator Yeenoghu. And authors for 5th edition's "Volo's Guide to Monsters", the 5e analogue to a Monster Manual 2/Complete Book of Humanoids hybrid, felt it necessary to explicitly call out that gnolls will not be a PC race option, due to being "too demonic"... despite the fact that they had a PC writeup in the previous edition, which is where they stole the "Gnolls are direct creations of Yeenoghu" lore from.

Gnolls have a stronger, usually smaller, smarter and more badass cousin called the Flind, which is mostly remembered for being a cannibal ("flind" apparently means "eater of gnolls" in the gnoll tongue) and for wielding solid-iron nunchuks called "flindbars", which gave them the aggravatingly cheap ability to force your PCs to save vs. wands in AD&D to avoid having their weapons yanked out of their hands.

Physiology

As mentioned above, gnolls are hyena-based beast-men, so they resemble humanoid creatures with clawed fingers and the tails, pelts and heads of hyenas. Exactly which aspect of their physiology dominates, the man or the beast, depends on edition and to an extent on setting; their original AD&D art makes them very humanoid, but later editions have made them more feral, with typically hunched back, longer arms, and shorter legs, leading to a more primal, ape-like body-stance. They also have gone from human-like legs to more digitigrade legs, complete with paws in lieu of feet.

In some settings, such as the Wicked Fantasy setting, it's stated that gnolls can actually move around more quickly and easily on all fours, furthering their "primalness".

Gnolls typically are portrayed with features akin to the spotted hyena, the largest, most aggressive and sociable of hyena species, most notably the pelt coloration.

Culture

Yet it's easier for a pirate.

In a word, primitive. Gnolls tend to be described as lazy and feral creatures, relying mostly on slavery, banditry and bloody raids to fashion themselves with labor, food and weapons. They're more likely to be described as nocturnal, in recent days, and often their barbarity is tied into their worship of malevolent deities - see Religion below. Cannibalism and scavenging are also huge mores. In general, though, they're fairly one-dimensional bad guys.

But not always. Eberron devotes a little attention to gnolls as non-evil, as part of the region of Droam, which is dedicated to giving "standard monsters" their own civilization. Likewise, the "Races of the Wild" generic sourcebook for 3.5 does provide some examples of non-evil gnolls. 4th edition had a "Playing Gnolls" article in one of its earliest Dragon Magazine issues, #367, devoted to showcasing how gnolls could be a savage but still non-evil race. But, perhaps the setting with the biggest divergence to the standard is Wicked Fantasy, where its gnolls - Dach'youn, in their own tongue - are one of the ten player races.

5e ran screaming in the other direction, strangely, trying to make them stand out from the other evil humanoids by focusing intensely on their demonic taint. Gnolls are freakish abominations in 5e, spawning from within flesh-gorged hyenas that accompany their packs, and their fiendish presence causes supernatural evils to manifest ahead of them. In fact, according to Volo's Guide to Monsters, the 5e gnoll is essentially indistinguishable from a movie zombie: each and every gnoll has a direct mental link to Yeenoghu's endless hunger, and what little sapience it has revolves entirely around the desperate mad need to feed its progenitor through carnage and consumption.

Despite their propensity towards evil, gnolls are strongly pack-orientated. Whilst they may struggle for position in the pack, to an extent depending on the sourcebook, they always unite together to defend themselves against anyone not in the pack. Which doesn't mean all other gnolls are treated as allies; if you're not directly part of the pack, you're meat, and race has nothing to do with it. Packs sometimes unite to form larger tribes, or rampaging hordes.

AD&D originally described them as patriarchal - which, as anyone who's read up on hyenas knows, is a case of badly screwing up your research; spotted hyenas are matriarchal, the other species are more egalitarian. Later editions likewise tend to make them more egalitarian, with a simple "might makes right" approach to leadership. Pathfinder's gnolls are matriarchal, though still the same brutish scavengers and raiders. Wicked Fantasy's dach'youn are a mixture of matriarchy and egalitarianism; like a real world matriarchy, they trace descent through the mother (because they don't practice monogamy, so a new mother has no way of knowing which of the many males she banged at the last ou'chala -a celebration-based meeting of packs that occurs every 90 days, which is when dach'youn seek sexual partners - actually knocked her up), but leadership roles are decided by ability, not gender.

Religion

In Dungeons & Dragons, gnolls traditionally worship a Demon Prince named Yeenoghu, the Beast of Butchery. In the earliest editions, they were actually created by Gorellik, a giant hyena-like lesser member of the Giant's pantheon (seriously, the fuck?) - but he was such a lazy, disinterested, stupid shit that Yeenoghu was able to steal the gnolls away from him and he never even noticed. In 4th and 5th edition, gnolls were directly tied to Yeenoghu and given status as his creations; a fusion of demon and hyena that he engineered in 4e, and hyenas that spontaneously transformed after scavenging from his kills in 5e. This, incidentally, also gives them a religiously motivated hatred for minotaurs, as their patron Demon Prince, Baphomet, is a bitter rival of Yeenoghu's.

In Pathfinder, gnolls worship Lamashtu, a Demon Prince turned full-fledged evil goddess of monsters, mutations and misbirths, who they claim literally gave birth to them. Despite this, Golarion's gnolls are not matriarchal; females can earn some respect by becoming priestesses of Lamashtu, but they're still inferior to the male-exclusive Shamans, and any gnoll female who doesn't become either a priestess or a mother by a certain age will be killed and eaten by her pack for being "useless".

In Wicked Fantasy, dach'youn fear the sun as a creator god who, alongside his nameless wife, created the world and all life, but then grew angry with them and now wants to destroy the world, having murdered his wife when she tried to stop him. Consequently, they refuse to honor him, instead regarding him as a cruel and merciless monster to be feared. Instead, they worship the moons as a set of six or seven (there's actually only six moons, but many gnolls believe that the "moonless nights" that occur every 85 days are actually guarded by a black moon) goddesses; these Kachta, the sun's daughters, angrily chase him away every night, forestalling his plans to destroy the world each day. The Sister Moons are Cha'ppa (The Swift Red Moon), Hav'ha (The Deadly Silver Moon), Gu'sha (The Wise Blue Moon), Gur'gha (The Enduring Green Moon), Or'gha (The Cunning Yellow Moon), Sh'va (The Lovely Violet Moon) and Vax (The Black Moon).

Dungeons & Dragons Racial Stats

This girl is not feeling like putting up with your shit today.

Gnolls have had playable stats in 1e (via The Orcs of Thar, though that may have been during their "gnome-troll" days), AD&D (via the Complete Book of Humanoids), D&D 3e (via the Monster Manual, Races of the Wild, Unapproachable East and Savage Species) and 4e (via Dragon Magazine #367). Flinds had playable stats in only AD&D (CBoH) and D&D3.5 (MM3).

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

Gnoll

Ability Score Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity

Ability Score Minimums and Maximums: Minimum Strength of 6, Minimum Dexterity of 5, Minimum Constitution of 5, Maximum Intelligence of 14, Maximum Wisdom of 16, Maximum Charisma of 14

Hit Point Modifier: +2 HP at first level

Natural Armor Class: 10

Special Disadvantage: Gnolls take damage as Large creatures

Monstrous Traits: Appearance, Bestial Habits

Weapon Proficiencies: Battle-Axe, Long Composite Bow, Morningstar, Two-handed Sword, Any Polearm

Non Weapon Proficiencies: Animal Training (Hyenodon), Close-Quarter Fighting, Hiding, Hunting, Observation, Tracking, Wild Fighting

Flind

Ability Score Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Charisma

Ability Score Minimums and Maximums: Minimum Strength of 8, Minimum Dexterity of 6, Minimum Constitution of 6, Maximum Intelligence/Wisdom/Charisma of 16.

Natural Armor Class: 10

Special Advantage: When wielding a Flindbar, enemies hit must make a Save vs. Wands; failure means their weapon is entangled and yanked out of their grip.

Monstrous Traits: Appearance, Bestial Habits

Weapon Proficiencies: Club, Flindbar, Glaive, Long Bow, Long Sword

Non Weapon Proficiencies: Animal Lore, Close-Quarter Fighting, Danger Sense, Direction Sense, Endurance, Fortune Telling, Local History, Looting, Hunting, Intimidation, Reading/Writing, Religion, Spellcraft, Weaponsmithing

Dungeons & Dragons 3.x

Gnoll

Ability Score Modifiers: Strength +4, Constitution +2, Intelligence -2, Charisma -2

Size: Medium

Base Land Speed: 30 feet

Racial Hit Dice: two levels of humanoid, which gives 2D8 HD, BAB +1, Fort +3, Ref +0 and Will +0.

Racial Skills: 5*(2+Int modifier), class skills are Listen and Spot.

Racial Feats: 1 feat of choice.

+1 Natural Armor Bonus

Darkvision 60 feet

Favored Class: Ranger

Level Adjustment: +1 level.

Flind

Ability Score Modifiers: +6 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +4 Constitution

Size: Medium

Base Land Speed: 30 feet

Racial Hit Dice: two levels of humanoid, which gives 2D8 HD, BAB +1, Fort +3, Ref +0 and Will +0.

Racial Skills: 5*(2+Int modifier), class skills are Listen and Spot.

Racial Feats: 1 feat of choice.

+2 Natural Armor Bonus

Darkvision 60 feet

Weapon Familiarity (Flindbar) - Flindbars are Martial weapons for Flinds, rather than Exotic.

Flinds receive a +2 racial bonus to Charisma checks made to influence Gnolls.

Favored Class: Ranger

Level Adjustment: +2 levels.

Dungeons & Dragons 4e

Ability Scores: +2 Constitution, +2 Dexterity

Size: Medium

Speed: 7 squares

Vision: Low-light

Languages: Abyssal, Common

Skill Bonuses: +2 Intimidate, +2 Perception

Blood Fury: While you’re bloodied, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls. This increases to a +4 bonus at 21st level.

Pack Attack: You deal an extra 2 damage on melee attacks against an enemy that has two or more of your allies adjacent to it.

Ferocious Charge: You can use ferocious charge as an encounter power.

Ferocious Charge Gnoll Racial Power

You lunge toward the enemy and, with a tirade of curses, unleash the wrath of Yeenoghu upon your hapless foe.

Encounter

Standard Action Personal

Effect: You charge, and deal an extra 2 damage on a successful attack. Increase the extra damage to 4 at 11th level and 6 at 21st level. If you are bloodied, double the extra damage and gain an equal number of temporary hitpoints.

Heroic Tier Feats Any feat in the following section is available to a character of any level who meets the prerequisites.

Butcher’s Lure

Prerequisite: Gnoll

Benefit: You can use ghost sound as an at-will ability and gain a +2 feat bonus to Bluff checks when using ghost sound to mimic specific people or sounds.

Carrion Eater

Prerequisite: Gnoll

Benefit: You receive a +4 feat bonus to saving throws against poison and Endurance checks made to resist disease.

Claw Fighter

Prerequisite: Gnoll

Benefit: You possess vicious claws, which you can use as weapons with a +3 proficiency bonus and 1d6 damage. For purpose of powers and feats, you can treat your claws as light blades, and you are considered to have a weapon in each hand. You cannot enchant your claws.

Gnoll Tracker

Prerequisite: Gnoll

Benefit: You gain a +5 feat bonus to Perception checks made to track and to Insight checks made to penetrate an illusion or disguise. You can use this bonus during a skill challenge if you can convince the DM that scent is relevant to the check.

Paragon Feats Any feat in the following section is available to a character of 11th level or higher who meets the prerequisites.

Fierce Charge

Prerequisites: 11th level, gnoll, ferocious charge racial power

Benefit: When you use your ferocious charge power, you can choose to make an at-will melee attack instead of a melee basic attack.

Swift Bite

Prerequisite: 11th level, gnoll

Benefit: When you bloody a foe, you can choose to deal an extra 1d6 + Strength modifier damage with a bite against the target.

Epic Feats The feat in the following section is available to a character of 21st level or higher who meets the prerequisites.

Brutal Charge

Prerequisites: 21st level, gnoll, ferocious charge racial power, Fierce Charge

Benefit: When you use your ferocious charge power, you can choose to make an encounter melee attack power instead of a melee basic attack.

Dach'youn

The neutral-aligned, moon-worshipping gnolls of the Wicked Fantasy setting use the Pathfinder rules, and are very, very different beasts to their traditional kin.

+2 Constitution, +2 Charisma

Medium

Movement: Dach'youn can either walk on their hindlegs for a base movement speed of 30 feet, or run on all fours for a base movement sped of 40 feet. Four-legged speed can't be used unless the dach'youn has her hands empty.

Scent (Extraordinary Ability)

Pack Feats: A dach'youn starts with three Pack category feats, and gains one new Pack feat at 2nd level and every two levels afterwards (4th, 6th, 8th, etc).

Pack Tactics: When a dach'youn uses a teamwork feat, every member of her pack gains the benefits of it.

Ways of the Wild: Survival is always a class skill for dach'youn, and they receive a +1 bonus to Survival, Knowledge (Nature) and Wild Empathy checks. This bonus increases by a further +1 at every 5th level (so levels 5, 10, 15, 20).

Moon Sign: All dach'youn are born under the gaze of one of the Kachta, and this influences them. Pick a specific Moon Sign from the list below; this increases or alters your ability score bonus as indicated and gives you both a Moon Blessing (a special bonus you gain when your moon is full) and a Moon Curse (a special penalty you suffer when your moon is new).

Scavenger's Meal: Dach'youn gain a +4 racial bonus to Profession (Cooking) checks and can choose to make a Profession (Cooking) check in lieu of a Survival or Knowledge check relating to food.

Cha'ppa

+2 Dexterity instead of Constitution

Moon Blessing: Your bonus to Sense Motive and Perception checks doubles.

Moon Curse: You gain no benefits from Morale or Rally bonuses, but penalties still apply.

Gur'gha

+3 Constitution instead of +2

Moon Blessing: You can reroll a failed Fortitude save; the result of this reroll stands, you can't reroll it again.

Moon Curse: You cannot make any kind of Knowledge check.

Gu'sha

+2 Wisdom instead of Charisma

Moon Blessing: Once per ally per full moon, you can reroll an ally's failed saving throw using your own bonus; the result of this reroll stands, you can't reroll it again.

Moon Curse: Roll a d6 to determine which curse affects you for the duration of Gu'sha's new moon phase; on a 1 you cannot benefit from magical healing, on a 2 you are deaf, on a 3 you cannot use four-legged speed, on a 4 you are mute, on a 5 you lose the benefits of your Scent ability, and on a 6 you are blind.

Hav'ha

+2 Strength instead of Constitution

Moon Blessing: +5 to CMB

Moon Curse: You do not gain your Wisdom modifier to any rolls.

Or'gha

+2 Intelligence instead of Charisma

Moon Blessing: In a non-combat situation, your Intelligence modifier is doubled.

Moon Curse: Your CMD is 10 and it cannot gain any bonuses.

Sh'va

+3 Charisma instead of +2

Moon Blessing: All creatures with Intelligence 8+ have their default starting attitude towards you increased by two levels.

Moon Curse: You gain a 10ft Aura of Untrust; all creatures in this aura automatically notice you and gain +5 to any contested Charisma check against you.

Vax

+1 to any ability score

Moon Blessing: When a hostile creature first makes eye contact with you, it must pass a Will save (DC 10 + your Charisma modifier + 1/2 your level) or flee in terror. This is a fear effect.

Moon Curse: All creatures with Intelligence 8+ have their default starting attitude towards you decreased by two levels.

Unified Setting Description

Unified Setting/Gnolls

/d/eviance

It's hard out there for a pimp.

Despite everything, gnolls are a little... embarrassing for /tg/. This, as much as the generally lackluster fluff, is more than likely why the race is rarely focused on, in comparison to, say, goblins, orcs or even ogres.

Let's start with the obvious elephant in the room; as a beast-man race, gnolls are like furry magnets. And unlike minotaurs or sphinxes (who have a mythological origin that can be pointed to), or kobolds (who don't really resemble any real-world animal), the only real difference between gnolls and fantasy-dwelling hyena furries is... well, pretty much the whole "demon-worshiping cannibalistic murderous tribal monsters culture" thing. Whenever there's a gnoll thread on /tg/, you can be sure there will be an argument about whether or not they count as furries that eventually gets it locked. Needless to say, confronted with the dilemma of either fleshing out the gnolls or being accused of being furries, most DMs say "fuck it" and try to do something interesting with orcs instead.

Another major problem is that, as mentioned above, gnolls most visually resemble the spotted hyena. The spotted hyena's brutally matriarchal social structure and female favoring sexual dimorphism (that is, girls are bigger and stronger than guys) easily translates into /d/-related content, since /d/ is all over musclegirls and other amazons as well as femdom. To say nothing of how the gnollish slavery-focused society easily translated into sex-slavery in the eyes of /d/Ms - but then, they've been doing that shit with orcs and other such races for ages. But there was more to it than that...

See, spotted hyenas are infamous for one particular thing: the pseudo-penis. Female spotted hyenas are essentially real life dickgirls. With the popularity of dickgirls on both /d/ and amongst furries, this led to a huge outburst of gnollish perversity that /tg/ fought hard to stamp out, but which still threatens to rear its ugly head today.

Add in the fact that hyenas in real life do have a lot of mythological/traditional association with perversity - Pliny the Elder reported hyenas were hermaphrodites who changed sexes whenever they wished, striped hyena anuses and vaginas are used for love & lust charms to the extent that "he has the anus of a hyena" is a real-world African saying today to refer to someone who's really good at scoring sex - and... well, let's just say that gnolls can very easily take a starring role in somebody's magical realm and leave it at that, okay?

Suffice it to say, gnolls probably won't be championed for more development or promotion to PC status by /tg/ any time soon.

The Races of Pathfinder
Player's Handbook:	Dwarf - Elf - Gnome - Half-Elf - Half-Orc - Halfling - Human
Advanced Race Guide:	Aasimar - Catfolk - Changeling - Dhampir - Duergar Drow - Fetchling - Gillman - Goblin - Grippli - Hobgoblin Ifrit - Kitsune - Kobold - Merfolk - Nagaji - Orc - Oread Ratfolk - Samsaran - Strix - Suli - Svirfneblin - Sylph Tengu - Tiefling - Undine - Vanara - Vishkanya - Wayang
Bestiaries:	Android - Astomoi - Caligni - Deep One Hybrid - Gathlain Gnoll - Kasatha - Munavri - Naiad - Orang-Pendak Reptoid - Rougarou - Shabti - Trox - Yaddithian
Adventure Paths:	Being of Ib - Kuru
Inner Sea Races:	Ghoran - Monkey Goblin - Lashunta - Skinwalker Syrinx - Triaxian - Wyrwood - Wyvaran
Ultimate Wilderness:	Vine Leshy
Blood of the Sea:	Adaro - Cecaelia - Grindylow - Locathah - Sahuagin - Triton
Planar Adventures:	Aphorite - Duskwalker - Ganzi