Quaggoth

Like ewoks but bigger and grumpier

Quaggoths are a primitive race of Underdark-dwellers in Dungeons & Dragons. First created for the Fiend Folio in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition, they are bestial, clawed, white-pelted humanoids immune to poison.

Quaggoths eke out an existence as tribal bands that wander the depths, feeding on whatever they can catch. They are frequently subservient to the more intelligent races of the deepearth: especially drow, whom they serve willingly when they fight surface elves. Other subterranean sentients just enslave them outright.

Fiend Folio supplemented all this with Russ Nicholson's picture of a naked, snarling humanoid bear with a stone axe - despite that this race uses swords, presumably metal. Maybe that image was a homebrew of bugbears by some kid who didn't know the word's origin. Anyway, once the quaggoth got associated with the Stone Age and caves, the name "Deep Bear" cropped up in the second edition (though depending on the art, they can look more feline than ursine) and has stuck to them.

The 2e AD&D Monstrous Manual mooted that some believe they were once a semi-civilized race which dominated much of the Underdark through conquest and ritual sacrifice, until the drow, duergar, and other races broke their power. Others speculate they had some sort of civilization on the surface and were driven underground; this theory is supported by the quaggoths’ hatred for surface-dwelling dwarves and elves. Regardless, the quaggoth today are a minor faction in the Underdark, as likely to be prey as they are to be predator.

The closest thing that quaggoths have to higher culture in the modern era are the Thonots; shamans who wield psionics instead of divine magic (or who worship the Primal Spirits in the Nentir Vale setting). Thonots control what passes for religious life among quaggoths. They oversee what few rituals there are; those rituals which are known include the daily preparation for hunting, coming of age, and death (a brief whistling to send the spirit away before the rest of the quaggoths eat the body).

Quaggoths have never really been a hugely popular Underdark race. After the Fiend Folio, they went on to appear in the Forgotten Realms Revised Campaign Setting, and from there the Monstrous Manual and Night Below. In 3rd edition, they first appeared in Monsters of Faerun, were mentioned in the 3e Underdark sourcebook, and revised for 3.5 with Drow of the Underdark, which saw them receive their largest amount of information to date, even bringing back a reference to the Boogin - Quaggoth/Orc hybrids that had appeared in the sample adventurie in the FR Revised Campaign Setting, but which hadn't even warranted their own full statblock there! 4e saw them return, with rather scant details, in its own Underdark sourcebook, whilst 5e waited for the adventure Out of the Abyss to bring them back into the lime(stone)light. So, as one can tell, quaggoths aren't going anywhere any time soon.

Quaggoth PCs

A Quaggoth adventurer (Dragon #265)

Quggoths appeared alongside five other unlikely races as a PC option in an article in Dragon Magazine #265; the Gibberling, the Grimlock, the Mold Man, the Su-Monster, the Troglodyte and the Yeti. Here, they received some expansions upon the frankly meager lore available to them, presenting them as an aggressive, independent species with a strong sense of wanderlust, and a tendency to play roughly. The 3e Underdark sourcebook would also mention the possibility of quaggoth PCs, but they've never been formally written up as a PC race; players are instead left to decode them from the monster statblocks of the edition.

Ability Score Minimum/Maximum: Strength 6/18(00), Dexterity 3/18, Constitution 5/18, Intelligence 3/14, Wisdom 3/16, Charisma 3/15

Ability Score Adjustments: +1 Strength, -1 Charisma

Class & Level Limits: Fighter 10, Thief 8, Psionicist 7

Multiclass Options: Fighter/Thief

Available Kits: Assassin, Bandit, Beast-rider (Huge Spider), Beggar, Brute, Gladiator, Mine Rowdy, Pit Fighter, Scavenger, Sellsword, Tramp, Tribal Defender, Wizard Slayer, Militant Psionicist, Psionic Specialist (Psychometabolism, Psychokinesis) - at the DM's discretion, the Thonot's unique blend of psionics and priestly roles may qualify them for variants of the Oracle, Prophet, Savage, Seer and Wandering Mystic priest kits, amongst others

Movement Rate: 12

Size: Large

Natural Attacks: 2 Claws, 1d4 damage each

Infravision 120 feet

Immune to poison

When a quaggoth's hit points drop to below 25% of its maximum value, unless it succeeds on a save vs paralyzation which must be made each round that it remains both below 25% HP and in combat, it flies into a berserk frenzy. In this state, it grants a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls, but cannot stop fighting until dead or all enemies have either died or escaped its sight.

Drow receive a +1 bonus to attack rolls against quaggoths.

Many Underdark races will try to capture quaggoths for the prestige a quaggoth slave brings.

Weapon Proficiencies: Axe, Dagger, Club

Nonweapon Proficiencies: Animal Handling, Animal Training, Brewing, Fire-building, Leatherworking, Mining, Pottery, Stonemasonry, Animal Lore, Endurance, Hunting, Survival (Subterranean)

Gallery

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  1e
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  2e
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  Night Below
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  3e
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  4e
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  5e did away with the whole "Bear-man" thing.
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