Homebrew Gnoll Species Details

"When travelling with a gnoll, move slowly and keep someone else between you and them at all times. That way if the gnoll's hunger takes over you don't lose anyone important"

-An elf rogue's Gnoll Survival Manual

 

Whether roaming the desert, begging for scraps or tearing into a screaming villager, gnolls are savage, hyena-headed humanoids that where created when Yeenoghu rampaged the material plane. They have a relentless hunger for meat, preferably from sentient creatures, but won't attack a well-defended village. A pack of gnoll hunters will charge right past a fortified town and leave nothing in a defenceless village except burned buildings and gnawed corpses. Some gnolls reject these bloodthirsty traditions, but will be torn apart by other gnolls if they notice.

Brutal Appearance

Gnolls are often battle-scarred and weigh up to 300 pounds. Regular gnolls are between 6 and 7 feet tall; senior gnolls can be over 8 feet tall. Gnolls begin learning how to fight from an early age like in hyenas, and sibilcide is commonplace. Almost all gnolls have scars and some have demonic traits, like red eyed, talons or fiery fur. All gnolls have the head of a hyena. Gnolls show off their fanged heads, which, even if the gnoll is not attacking, is often enough to cause the guard to be summoned

Yeenoghu's Mark

The demon lord Yeenoghu created gnolls from hyenas feeding on the corpses of his enemies. Like orcs, gnolls feel a compulsion to slaughter, kill and eat. Most gnolls succumb to this alignment and tear apart those who do not. Gnolls are not expressively evil, but most are. Gnolls feel emotion powerfully due to their enhanced desire for bloodlust and will often join in with things like dancing, drinking and wrestling, using their strength to pin enemies.

Gnoll Traits

Your gnoll character has certain traits deriving from your gnoll ancestry.

Ability Score Increase

Your Constitution and Strength scores increase by 2.

Age

Gnolls mature much faster than humans and rarely live past 30.

Alignment

Much like orcs, the bloodlust running through gnolls drives them towards the chaotic evil alignment.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision

Thanks to your gnoll blood, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

 Menacing

You gain proficiency in the Intimidation skill.

Powerful Gut

Your stomach is capable of handling all but the worst poisons and diseases. You have resistance to poison damage, advantage on saving throws against poison and immunity to disease.

Powerful Bite

Like a hyena, you have a fanged maw, which you can use in place of unarmed strikes. You are proficient with your bite attack and if you hit with it you deal [roll]1d8[/roll] + {{modifier:str}} piercing damage.

Languages

You speak Common, Gnoll and Abyssal. Gnoll is a harsh language with many imperatives.

Rampage

When you reduce a creature to 0 hit points with a melee attack on your turn, as a bonus action, you can move up to half your speed and make a bite attack.

Hyena Communication

You can communicate simple ideas to hyenas and have advantage on any Animal Handling or Nature check relating to hyenas. 

 

Gnoll Traits

Your gnoll character has certain traits deriving from your gnoll ancestry.

Ability Score Increase

Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.

Age

Gnolls mature much faster than humans. They rarely live longer than 30 years.

Alignment

Gnolls aren't inherently evil, but they are almost never good and most gnolls are chaotic evil.

Size

Half-orcs are somewhat larger and bulkier than humans, and they range from 5 to well over 6 feet tall. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision

Thanks to your gnoll blood, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Menacing

You gain proficiency in the Intimidation skill.

Powerful Gut

Your powerful gut gives you resistance to poison damage, immunity to disease and advantage on saving throws against poison.

Powerful Bite

Your bite is a natural weapon, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. You are proficient with it and if you hit you deal [roll]1d8[/roll] + {{modifier:str}} piercing damage.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Orc. Orc is a harsh, grating language with hard consonants. It has no script of its own but is written in the Dwarvish script.

Rampage

When you reduce a creature to 0 hit points with a melee attack on your turn, you can take a bonus action to move up to half your speed and make a bite attack.

Hyena Communication

You can communicate simple ideas to hyenas and have advantage on any Animal Handling or Nature check relating to hyenas.