Minotaur

No relation to the Space Marine Chapter called the Minotaurs, who have several references to the mythological creature.

A minotaur is a half-man, half-bull. Unfortunately for the woman giving birth to the thing, the head is taurine, making giving birth even more difficult than normal. Though at least one artist drew the minotaur as a messed up centaur, with a human head on a hulking bull.

This creature originates in Greek mythology, which is pretty fucked up, even by the standards of Greek mythology. The first minotaur was born to Pasiphae, the wife of a king of Crete named Minos. Minos was supposed to sacrifice a white bull to the god Poseidon, but he refused because he took a liking to the majestic creature. As punishment Poseidon made his wife like the bull more than him. After the minotaur was born, it was kept in a labyrinth so that ordinary people wouldn't have to look at it. This might seem like a pretty raw deal for the minotaur, but on the other hand the Cretans forced the Athenians to send virgins for the monster's meals: once every seven years (or just every year, depending on the source) seven of the bravest youths and seven of the fairest maidens would be the minotaur's munchies. This would mean that the Minotaur would be able to survive off of one teenager for six months, meaning that either the rest would keep wandring around for up to six and a half years or it would eat them all in one sitting and digest them over the course of several years like the Sarlacc Pit Monster. When it was time for the third serving of Soylent Happy Meals, a bloke named Theseus came along and objected to this man-eating. He took the place of one of the youths (meaning that he must've been one hell of a pretty boy), sailed to Crete (where he fell in love with a local princess, but that's a tale for another time) and set up a rope that he could follow back. He found the center of the maze by constantly going straight ahead and never going left or right and encountered the sleeping minotaur. Depending on the source he either stabbed it in the throat or strangled it with his bare hands, after which he walked out unmolested by the Creteans who were too busy scratching their heads thinking why didn't they try that before to stop him.

As a result of this story, minotaurs are associated with labyrinths and mazes of all kinds. In AD&D minotaurs are immune to the Maze spell, which is odd given that the labyrinth was intended to keep the thing in to begin with. In Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition they enjoy puzzles and feel at home in twisting, turning passages. Whenever minotaurs build towns or cities, the roads are always arranged in the most confusing way possible. To the locals, this makes perfect sense. To adventurers, it's a fucking pain. To GMs, it's an easy way to take up an hour or two of the party's time after they breeze through your perfectly designed challenge in 5 minutes and you have nothing left this session.

Dungeons & Dragons

Minotaurs in Dungeons & Dragons traditionally worship Baphomet, Demon Prince of Beasts, which makes them bitter enemies of the Gnoll race, due to the rivalry between Baphomet and Yeenoghu.

4e was also the first edition to make minotaurs a mainstream playable race, rather than monsters - they had first been given a playable write up in Dragonlance. In Points of Light, Minotaurs were originally ruled over by Baphomet, the Horned King. After the Dawn War ended, he was cast into the Abyss and Erathis, the goddess of civilisation, called dibs on the minotaurs. This went well for a short while, until cultists of Baphomet corrupted the city, and Melora had to kill them with fire. Individual minotaurs struggle with the insane beasts that rages in the maze within their heads. If they succumb to this madness, they often fall into thralldom to Baphomet. If they were to overcome this insanity, or keep it at bay their entire lives, minotaurs can be civilised creatures, though often preferring to live on the edge of society.

In Dragonlance, it's noted that minotaurs actually have two-toed but otherwise human-like feet, with hooves being restricted to corrupted throwback-mutants. They're also famous for being even more Greco-Roman inspired than minotaurs usually are, having a highly disciplined, warlike culture based on a strong army and martial honor, gladiatorial games being super-important (even how they select their emperors!), and being expert sailors. So much so that 5e made minotaurs playable by using the Krynn variant as inspiration and releasing it in the Waterborne Adventures web-enhancement here

D&D Racial Stats

Playable minotaurs have never received a lot of attention, but they have appeared here and there throughout the editions.

Dragonlance

In the 3.5 Sourcebook "Races of Ansalon", Minotaurs got a chapter all to themselves. Their stats are as follows:

+4 Strength, –2 Dexterity, –2 Intelligence, –2 Charisma. Minotaurs are large and powerful, but not very agile. From youth, minotaurs focus on developing their muscle over their minds. Minotaur arrogance can be offensive to other races.

Medium: As Medium creatures, minotaurs have no special bonuses or penalties.

A minotaur’s base land speed is 30 feet.

+2 natural armor bonus.

Gore: A minotaur may use his horns as natural weapons to make a gore attack, dealing 1d6 points of damage plus the minotaur’s Strength modifier. If the minotaur charges, his gore attack deals 2d6 points of damage, plus 1 ½ times his Strength modifier. A minotaur can attack with a weapon at his normal attack bonus and make a gore attack as a secondary attack (–5 penalty on the attack roll and half Strength bonus on the damage roll).

+2 racial bonus on Intimidate, Swim, and Use Rope checks. Minotaurs are familiar with the sea and naturally adept at skills useful among seafarers.

Minotaurs may take the scent special quality as a feat. (See the Monster Manual.)

Automatic Languages: Common, Kothian. Bonus Languages: Kalinese, Nordmaarian, Ogre, Saifhum.

Favored Class: Fighter.

World of Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game

Tauren, the aforementioned Good Guy Minotaurs, appeared in the original Warcraft D20 RPG, but were re-written with a much better format (including dumping the racial level adjustment) in the World of Warcraft re-release. They were there from the corebook, and they had these stats:

+2 Strength, -2 Agility (Dexterity)

Medium

Base land speed 30 feet

Natural Weapon (Ex): Taurens have a set of horns that function as a natural weapon that deals 1D8+ Str bonus damage. Tauren are automatically proficient in the use of their horns.

Weapon Familiarity: Tauren Halberds and Tauren Totems are Martial weapons rather than Exotic for Tauren.

Weapon Proficiency: Longspear and Shortspear

+2 Racial bonus on Handle Animal and Survival checks. Handle Animal and Survival are always class skills for Tauren.

Racial Class: Tauren

Favored Class: Warrior

Tauren Racial Class

Hit Die: D10

Skill Points (1st level): (2 + Int modifier) x 4

Skill Points (else): 2 + Int modifier

"Class" Skills: Climb, Concentration, Handle Animal, Listen, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Spot, Survival.

Weapon & Armor Proficiency: Simple Weapons, exluding Crossbows, and Light Armor

Level 1: BAB +0, Fort Save +2, Ref Save +0, Will Save +2,+1 Strength, Tauren Charge (when charging, a tauren may use their horns instead of a melee weapon; this lets the tauren inflict a Gore attack that does horn damage + 1 1/2 times the tauren's Strength modifier in addition to the normal benefits)

Level 2: BAB +1, Fort Save +2, Ref Save +0, Will Save +2, +2 Spirit (Wisdom), +4 racial bonus on saves vs. fear, Tauren Weapon Proficiency (gain proficiency in either Tauren Halberd or Tauren Totem)

Level 3: BAB +2, Fort Save +3, Ref Save +1, Will Save +3,+1 Strength, Improved Tauren Charge (tauren is considered Large size for charging and bull rushing, +4 racial bonus on Strength checks for bull rush effects), Tauren Weapon Proficiency (gain proficiency in either Tauren Halberd or Tauren Totem)

D&D 4e

The sad proof that, for all 4e's efforts at trying to undo the pigeonholing effect of race from editions past, it hadn't quite gotten past it yet. Not a mechanically bad race, few 4e races were, but so heavily optimised for close-quarter combat that there was little encouragement besides fluff to be anything other than a melee brute.

Ability Scores: +2 Strength, +2 Constitution OR +2 Wisdom

Size: Medium

Speed: 6 squares

Vision: Normal

Skill Bonuses: +2 Nature, +2 Perception

Vitality: +1 healing surge

Ferocity: When you drop to zero hit points or fewer, you can make a melee basic attack as an immediate interrupt.

Heedless Charge: You have a +2 racial bonus to AC against attacks of opportunity you provoke during a charge.

Goring Charge: You have the Goring Charge racial power.

Goring Charge Minotaur Racial Encounter Power You charge the enemy and gore it with your horns.

Standard Action

Melee 1

Effect: You charge and make the following attack in place of a melee basic attack:

Target: One Creature

Attack: Strength, Constitution or Dexterity +4 (6 at 11th level and 8 at 21st level) vs. AC

Hit: 1D6 + Strength, Constitution or Dexterity modifier damage, and you knock the target prone.

• Level 11: 2D6 + Strength, Constitution or Dexterity modifier damage, and you knock the target prone.
• Level 21: 3D6 + Strength, Constitution or Dexterity modifier damage, and you knock the target prone.

D&D 5e

Explicitly modeled after the Krynnish version, since WoTC this time realised that with the half-orc, warforged, and goliath already done, the "big tough bruiser" racial niche is already pretty overcrowded.

Krynnish/Nautical Minotaur:

Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 1.

Conqueror’s Virtue. From a young age, you focused on one of the three virtues of strength, cunning, or intellect. Your choice of your Strength, Intelligence, or Wisdom score increases by 1.

Age. Minotaurs enter adulthood at around the age of 17 and can live up to 150 years.

Alignment. Minotaurs believe in a strict code of honor, and thus tend toward law. They are loyal to the death and make implacable enemies, even as their brutal culture and disdain for weakness push them toward evil.

Size. Minotaurs typically stand well over 6 feet tall and weigh an average of 300 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Horns. You are never unarmed. You are proficient with your horns, which are a melee weapon that deals 1d10 piercing damage. Your horns grant you advantage on all checks made to shove a creature, but not to avoid being shoved yourself.

Goring Rush. When you use the Dash action during your turn, you can make a melee attack with your horns as a bonus action.

Hammering Horns. When you use the Attack action during your turn to make a melee attack, you can attempt to shove a creature with your horns as a bonus action. You cannot use this shove attempt to knock a creature prone.

Labyrinthine Recall. You can perfectly recall any path you have travelled.

Sea Reaver. You gain proficiency with navigator’s tools and vehicles (water).

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common.

An alternative 5e Minotaur appeared in "Plane Shift: Amonkhet". Based on the ovine-featured minotaurs of that plane, they're essentially half-orcs with a Natural Weapons racial trait tagged on. Not overpowered by any means, at least not particularly so, but definitely very beefy and certainly competing for mechanical space with the half-orcs.

Amonkhetian/Sheep-Headed Minotaur:

+2 Strength, +1 Constitution

Medium

Base speed 30 feet

Natural Weapon - Horns: You can use your Horns as a natural weapon to make an unarmed strike. A Horn Attack inflicts 1d6 + Str modifier Bludgeoning damage.

Menacing: You have Proficiency in Intimidation.

Relentless Endurance: When you would be reduced to 0 hit points, but not killed outright, you can choose to be reduced to 1 hit point instead. Once you have used this trait, you must complete a Long Rest before you can use it again.

Savage Attacks: When you inflict a Critical Hit with a melee weapon, increase the damage inflicted by a further +1 weapon damage dice result.

In Magic: The Gathering

Minotaurs are amongst the many, many races of creatures that appear throughout the planes of Magic: The Gathering, being native to Alara, Amonkhet, Dominaria, Theros, Ravnica, Ulgrotha, and Zendikar. Some planes actually have multiple distinct forms or cultures of minotaur, and the race includes ram- and antelope-headed versions as well as the classic bull-headed version.

Amokhet's minotaurs are ovine-featured instead of bovine-featured, and are notorious for being rowdy, boisterous and direct. If one takes "Plane Shift: Amonkhet" as canon, they're actally incredibly short-lived, even given that they live in a world where everybody considers the point of life to be achieving a glorious death and become an undead slave to the God-Pharoah - according to this document, they don't fully mture until the age of 20, but don't live much longer than age 40, which is why they're so driven to squeeze the most out of life. Although they prefer close combat, they're also capable of producing talented spellcasters, favoring fiery magic and buffs, and those few who take up long-ranged weaponry are devastating with their heavy bows and javelins.

In Dominaria, minotaur variants include the spiritual yet warlike clans of the Hurloon Mountains, famous for their practice of singing hymns to honor the fallen on both sides after a battle, the rare (possibly extinct) and super-shaggy minotaurs that roamed the Karplusan Mountains during the Ice Age, the eleven minotaur clans of Mirtiin, the radical and xenophobic minotaurs of Stahaan, who have been known to launch crusades against other races, and the vain, hairless, xenophobic, crystal sword-wielding minotaurs of the Talruum mountains, who are skilled illusionists and regard their kinsfolk as very ugly.

Therosian minotaurs are primal, carnivorous savages, little more than beasts stalking the night in search of blood.

In Ravnica, minotaurs are mostly native to Ordruun, where they serve the Borus Legion and the Wojeks, but they also have been seen fighting for the Izzet Legion.

Ulgrotha is home to both the Anaba, a shamanistic tribe of minotaur mystics, and to the Labyrinth Minotaurs, immortal guardians possibly created by magic.

Finally, Zendikar houses many different tribes of minotaurs, ranging from feral beasts to aggressive and impulsive, yet honorable, civilized tribes, who often practice earth-manipulating magic.

Minotaurs have earned some memetic laughs for the frequency with which they are the targets of various nasty effects in card art:

• Sympathy for the Minotaur, Part 1
• Sympathy for the Minotaur, Part 2
• Sympathy for the Minotaur, Part 3

In Warhammer Fantasy

The Minotaurs of Warhammer Fantasy were a bovine form of beastman, not to be confused with older lore stating that Slaangors often mutated to look more bovine. Mindless, bloodthirsty carnivors, a minotaur on the tabletop was a fucking rape train, half-bull half-man killing machine employed by the chaos furries. Their generic characters the Doombull and Grebull are Minotaur characters that is able to do just as fucking rapetastic shit.

Taurox was a named Minotaur character who was favored by Khorne, despite being a beastman, aka the unwanted bastard children of the dark gods, meaning he was epic as shit to be noticed by the higher up. Sadly, he got shot down by Markus Wulfhart.

Other /tg/ Appearances

Warcraft was one of the first settings to give good minotaurs a look, in the form of the tauren, which are basically minotaurs done by way of the "noble savage Native American" stereotype. They eventually gave them an arctic EVIL equivalent as well.

In White Wolf's Scion setting, minotaurs are a race of Demigod-tier mooks spawned when the aforementioned White Bull of Crete emerged from the sea, raped Pasiphae, and then began rampaging all over Crete raping every woman it encountered until Hercules came along and caught the fucking thing - King Minos couldn't stop it because it would have pissed off Poseidon, who sent it to do this pretty much for shits and giggles. All-male themselves, minotaurs have to keep raping human women to keep their numbers up.

Monstergirls

Alongside centaurs (their fellow Greeks), minotaurs share the dubious honor of being a race that is alternatively embraced and shunned by fans of both monstergirls and furry - though their native form leans much closer to the furry side, monstergirl minotaurs are basically musclegirls with huge tits and at least one of several potential minor bovine features - horns are near-universal, but they may also possess any or all of cow-like ears, a cow-like tail, or hooves instead of feet. You know, around the 10% mark on the furry meter, a bovine analogue to fauns. As for why minotaur monstergirls are so common, it's probably because of the connotation between "cow monstergirl" and "fucking huge tits" oppai Oppai OPPAI.

The Monster Girl Encyclopedia minotaurs tend to be brazen, crass, forceful and violent in everything they do. If they see a potential partner they like they won't think twice about forcing themselves onto them. The minotaur seen on Life With Monstergirls has a similar but more subdued disposition: it's less violent and rapey than its MGE cousin, which goes for a lot of monsters.

MGE also introduces a more docile variant of the minotaur: the holstaur. These are based on cattle rather than wild or violent bovines, making them more docile and friendly than their greek cousins. They have actual cow tits that require frequent milking (because lactation is a popular fetish); failure to do so will make them more hostile like a minotaur.