Gnoll

For more information on all races, see: Races

Gnolls are an opportunistic race of humanoids who prefer to scavenge rather than actively hunt; they happily reap the rewards of others’ hard work. Much like the hyenas they resemble, gnolls prefer to wait for others to complete a task, and then the gnolls sweep in to benefit from the others’ labor. While they are physically powerful, gnolls are also lazy and cowardly, so they avoid entering melee with other creatures, unless the gnolls know they have some advantage over their foes. To many civilizations, gnolls are notorious slavers or despicable killers, and settlements neighboring gnoll territories have numerous tales of such gnoll exploits.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Gnolls are extremely tall. Though gnolls are relatively lean for their height, they cut an impressive visage. In part because of their height and lean musculature, gnolls are very quick compared with many other races such as humans. Gnoll skin is greenish-gray, and their furry hide a light or dark brown hue, sometimes marked with spots or stripes. Many gnolls also have a dirty yellow to a reddish-gray crest-like mane that stands on end when they are angry. Their legs have a hyena-like structure, with their high anklebones making their legs, which end in blunt, non-retractable claws, appear to have a weird bend. Gnolls’ upper body structures are similar to their apparent hyenidae relatives, which gives the bipedal gnolls a somewhat hunched appearance but also gives them their powerful build, which tapers down to their lithe lower bodies. Gnolls have forward-facing ears atop their heads and short, furry tails. A gnoll has sharp, piercing teeth that allow them to rip meat from the bone of their or other creatures’ kills, but their teeth and jaws are not strong enough to provide them a bite attack in combat. All gnolls have guttural voices when they normally speak, but, as gnolls become stressed or excited, their voices reach higher pitches and sound like manic laughter. It is believed by some that gnolls have traces of demonic blood, which may be evidenced by unusual features found among some of the gnoll bloodlines. These may include talons, gleaming red eyes, or black fur with fiery orange spots.
Female gnolls are indistinguishable from males by size, in spite of a reputation for being shorter. In fact, so similar are male and female gnolls in appearance that they are often mistaken for one another. The only reliable way to tell the difference, other than through a close physical examination, is if a female is pregnant or openly nursing.
Gnolls only lightly adorn themselves with jewelry and the like. They wear small earrings to differentiate themselves from other gnolls, but they do not wear anything overly large, as such objects could be a liability in a battle. The adults of certain tribes also brand themselves or use specific dyes from plants or berries to give their fur a peculiar shade. These adornments help identify their tribe members and outcasts—the latter’s brand being removed or obscured and / or their dye removed by shaving or scalping of the skin.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Gnolls are generally known to live in the warm plains of the Twilight and harsh deserts of the Everlight, though they are highly adaptable and can be found living in most regions, sometimes even underground. They are less common in the arctic Evernight regions.
More so than many other humanoid races, primal instinct is a strong part of the gnoll psyche. Gnolls are natural predators and savor the thrills of the hunt. Almost all gnolls prefer the wilderness to the civilized enclaves favored by humans, dwarves, or other similar races and those that do take to cities usually think of them as just another kind of landscape. Many other races find the gnoll psyche feral and aggressive, male and female equally, and the behavioral tendencies of the race certainly give this impression. Gnolls start fighting among one another at a very early age and as soon as they can walk, many crawl into places away from the eyes of adults where they engage in vicious, often lethal battles. A gnoll is more likely to demand answers than it is to actually ask a question. Gnolls, however, do not see this as an act of hostility, but rather a basic demonstration of strength.
Though gnolls are not necessarily evil, the craving of the hunt and primal bloodlust that inhabit the gnoll's mind make many of the race lean towards chaos and evil by reflex. Gnolls that succumb to this tendency often become nomadic savages, wreaking havoc wherever they can, giving them their fearsome reputation as slaving brigands throughout the world. Fortunately, such creatures have rarely been united and this friendliness is not often extended to those who belong to a different pack, as the race commonly wars with itself. Some gnolls suffer from a rare form of madness that quells their intense hunger and evil instincts, causing guilt for their misdeeds and a pacifistic nature.
Other gnoll practices might seem equally strange, such as the gnoll propensity for scavenging. While all gnolls have an innate tendency for collecting souvenirs and trophies, nomadic packs, particularly the savage ones who have little contact with other races except during wartime, have few other ways to acquire technology, having crafted few tools of their own. The result of this is that most gnolls rely on the other races as their source of wealth and technology. This extends to arms and weaponry, giving gnoll armor a unique aesthetic where each suit is typically made kitbashed together from scavenged pieces of armor found either on victims or abandoned. At its most basic level, this tendency has lead many gnolls to collect trophies that remind them of past victories, items sometimes grisly though just as often simple and mundane. Gnoll trackers use this to their benefit, keeping scraps of clothing or other objects with the scent of their prey on them, which they use to point them in the direction of their quarry. This tendency leads to the even more alien gnoll practice of carrion-eating. Unlike most races, gnolls have few, if any, qualms about eating the dead of other races. When gnolls strike a village they do not only leave no survivors but no corpses, eating most of those whom they don't take as slaves. There are even indications that some gnolls take this practice a step further, actually raiding graveyards for fresh corpses on which to feed. Gnolls treat their dead like they would any other dead creature and engage in cannibalism, but they may offer a brief ceremony for a revered member of the pack prior to devouring the fallen gnoll.
In spite of the savage nature of the gnolls, there are some aspects to their culture that are not inherently repulsive. Gnolls place a very strong value on the family, for instance, respecting blood ties perhaps more than any other aspect of a relationship. Though gnolls within a pack will commonly fight with each other for dominance, these battles are quickly forgotten after their resolution, and in most situations, gnolls of the same bloodline are loyal friends and allies to one another. These bloodlines have almost always been traced maternally, through the female line. This loyalty to family is particularly obvious during combat, either with rival gnoll packs or other races. Gnolls who fight side by side regularly throw away personal glory in order to help their brethren. The pack, band, or tribe is the most important thing to gnolls, and anything threatening the gnoll unit meets with strong resistance or—against a superior foe—dispersal. This unity extends through all aspects of gnoll life, and breaking that unity in any way constitutes the greatest sin in gnoll culture. Thus, a gnoll who kills another gnoll or betrays a gnoll to a racial enemy faces the most severe punishment: exile (and branding or other marking to indicate that a gnoll is an outcast). Due to the gnolls’ strong aversion to hard work, a gnoll faces exile if the gnoll forces another gnoll to work, steals from another gnoll, or kills another gnoll’s slave. When a lone gnoll arrives at a gnoll encampment or settlement, the gnolls there inspect the new arrival for any markings that might call the gnoll out as an outcast. Most outcast gnolls find their way to large population centers, where they attempt to quell the loneliness of exile and team up with others who might be tolerant of them. Perhaps counter intuitively, outcast gnolls do not band together, because gnolls regard exile so strongly that they reject other outcast gnolls while maintaining a strange sense of denial about their own situations. Most surprisingly, when a gnoll has been separated from clan and family, their instinctive need for such blood ties often leads them to form surrogate "packs" from those whom they choose to befriend. To these unlikely allies, the gnoll is as loyal and faithful as they would their own brothers or sisters, embracing the outsiders as if they were family.
Most gnoll tribes separate into at least two smaller bands of 10 to 100 adult members and their non-combatant entourage, including children, and 10 - 20 slaves. Tribes can often contain up to 200 adults and have more slaves, though a charismatic leader can pull more individuals under his or her sway. Gnolls of all kinds have an affinity for hyenas, who many see as their brethren and whom they keep as pets or for hunting. Besides hyenas, they are known to keep hyaenodons as pets, and most tribes tend to have a few traveling with them, as well as hyenas. The more successful gnoll tribes often establish semi-permanent settlements after putting their slaves to work building warrens, homes, rolling buildings pulled by slaves, and other structures—not to mention gathering supplies and water, or even hunting for the lazy gnolls. Separate gnoll tribes may have rivalries, but they rarely attack one another, and a gnoll never takes another gnoll as a slave, so a victorious gnoll band just absorbs defeated gnolls into the band, or slays them if they would burden the victorious gnolls’ resources. Some gnoll societies are patriarchal and led by a chieftain, the biggest and strongest of the tribe. Chieftains are known to keep harems and as gnolls bred for fieriness, the harem-wives are the strongest fighters among other males and females, second in war-strength only to the chieftain.
While gnolls have no literature of their own and do not bother with books other than as a means to keep a fire going during a chilly night, they have storytelling traditions they pass down to young gnolls. These stories tell of great deeds performed by powerful gnolls, but they mostly serve to remind the gnolls about the importance of pack unity and the price for betraying the pack. Another common moral of gnoll stories is the importance of getting other creatures to do their work for them, and these stories point to the most successful gnolls whose laziness has rewarded them. For some gnoll tribes, the oral traditions stretch back dozens of generations, so they might contain information about local events from a century or two prior. In larger gnoll enclaves where slaves do the vast majority of work, including hunting, gnolls have time to engage in leisure activities. Most of the time, these activities involve betting on slaves in gladiatorial games, but occasionally gnolls turn to artistic pursuits. A gnoll’s idea of art consists mostly of body modifications, such as cropping or otherwise sculpting the ears; piercing and adornment of the ears, nose, or other body parts; branding; and fur dying. Gnolls also engage in painting, but they do not have the patience to fully express their visions, so their paintings are crude affairs, typically dealing with successful hunts. Gnolls dislike anything involving crafting, such as sculpture or woodwork, since that requires an effort beyond their comfort and attention level.
Gnolls have no livestock, unless they belong to a large tribe, and they have slaves who can tend to cows or sheep. Even then, gnolls have no patience for husbandry, and they usually devour their herds before they can produce any young to keep them viable. Gnolls prize hyenas and take the animals as companions on their hunts; most gnoll settlements feature roaming hyenas. In a surprise departure from their normal aversion to work, gnolls will spend time training their hyenas, which they sometimes consider more important than rearing their young.
Child-rearing is a communal affair, and sometimes gnolls entrust the care and feeding of gnoll young to slaves. When a young gnoll reaches the age of eight, the gnoll travels with the rest of the viable hunters on a hunt. The elder gnolls hang back during the hunt and allow the prospective adult to do most of the work; if the gnoll survives the hunt, the pack considers the gnoll a full-grown adult. Gnolls have short lives and die of old age in their thirties, but the vast majority never makes it through their twenties.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Male Names: Brask, Durrash, Faush, Lask, Thovarr, Wesk.
Female Names: Amal, Hett, Ishtish, Senga.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Gnolls, due to their scavenging and slaving activities, have difficulty gaining acceptance by most civilized races. Many people avoid known gnoll-infested areas, and many crusaders have taken it upon themselves to eradicate what they see as a blight on the land. City-dwelling gnoll outcasts are met with suspicion or outright disdain, and they find it difficult to gain sympathy, especially from those victimized by gnoll slavers. Some outcast gnolls actively reform their views in order to fit into their new societies, but they occasionally revert to old habits, especially in times of stress. A gnoll’s insistence on eating, rather than burying or burning, the dead is particularly off-putting to most civilized people. Gnolls regard other races as competitors for resources and attack weak, unprotected settlements for their resources and for slaves. They give strong, well-protected communities a wide berth, but they ambush caravans or travelers to or from those areas.
Outcast gnolls temper their views of other races in their attempt to join a new “pack,” and they get along with humans, half-orcs, and the occasional gnome or halfling. These gnolls find elves and half-elves too frail and aloof, and must see evidence of those races’ battle prowess before giving the fragile ones any respect. Outcast gnolls have difficulty with dwarves, whom the gnolls view as too rigid in their lawfulness, but these gnolls respect a dwarf’s loyalty to his or her clan.
While most gnoll packs embrace their reputation for savagery, rare outlier packs refrain from such utter depravity. These clans are also nomadic but unlike the others rarely engage in violent raids except when seriously provoked. Likewise, though they retain the natural gnoll bloodlust, they take no joy in torture or unnecessary cruelty, embracing hunting and tracking over outright slaughter.
In some cases, these gnolls have even come to befriend or at least peacefully interact with the members of other races, offering their services as trappers or hunters. These races could often include bugbears, hobgoblins, ogres, orcs, and even trolls. However, they generally prefer their own kind and, except when on business, rarely visit neighboring villages dominated by members of another race. Likewise, these gnolls remain aggressive and quick to anger, meaning visitors should be careful not to offend.

Alternate Racial Traits

Replaces Ability Scores

Feral

Gnolls with this trait give in to their animal natures at the expense of their intellects. A gnoll with this racial trait always has Perception and Stealth as class skills. In return for this racial trait, the gnoll starts with a -2 penalty to Intelligence.

Heat Acclimated

Gnolls are accustomed to the extreme temperatures of the plains and deserts they inhabit. Gnolls with this racial trait automatically succeed on Fortitude saves to avoid heat dangers for conditions up to and including severe heat. These gnolls have a more unsettling appearance and start with a -2 penalty to Charisma.

Light Build

Some gnolls are light and proportionately weaker but more agile. These gnolls start with a +2 bonus to Dexterity. This racial trait replaces the +2 Strength bonus.

Savant

One out of every thousand gnoll births results in a hairless gnoll, which the gnoll tribe deems as a great portent for the tribe’s success. Gnolls with this racial trait start with +2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, and -2 Constitution, and they have a +1 racial bonus on all saving throws. This racial trait replaces the starting attribute bonuses.

Replaces Hide

Bite Attack

Gnolls with this racial trait gain the powerful jaws from their hyena heritage and can make a bite attack that deals 1d3 points of damage as a primary attack (or secondary attack, if the gnoll uses a weapon). This racial trait replaces Hide.

Loper

Gnolls find success by moving faster than their kin, sometimes at the expense of the thick fur protecting them. Gnolls with this racial trait gain a +10 bonus to their base speed, and they gain an additional +10 foot racial bonus when using the charge, run, or withdraw actions. This racial trait replaces Hide.

Replaces Darkvision

Carrion Finder

Gnolls have a natural affinity for carrion, since they feed on that more than on fresh kills. Gnolls with this racial trait gain the scent ability, but only in regard to corpses and badly wounded creatures (those reduced to 1/4, or less, of their total hit points). This racial trait partially replaces Darkvision, replacing it with Low-Light Vision.

Information Hunter

Outcast gnolls who live in large settlements have learned to apply their hunting and scavenging instincts to more esoteric pursuits. Gnolls with this racial trait gain a +2 racial bonus on Diplomacy checks to gather information, and Knowledge (Local) is always a class skill for them. This racial trait partially replaces Darkvision, replacing it with Low-Light Vision.

Replaces Weapon Familiarity

Civilized

Outcast gnolls have learned to better integrate with society in an attempt to find a new pack. Gnolls with this racial trait gain a +2 bonus on Diplomacy and Sense Motive checks. This racial trait replaces Weapon Familiarity.

Hyena Friend

Gnolls and hyenas have a mutual respect for one another, and some gnolls truly embrace the bond between the two creatures. Gnolls with this racial trait gain a +2 racial bonus on Handle Animal checks with hyenas, and Handle Animal is always a class skill for them. This racial trait replaces Weapon Familiarity.

Influential

Exceptionally clever gnolls take up the mantle of shaman for their tribes and use their gifts to more readily enslave gnoll captives. Gnolls with this racial trait gain a +2 bonus on Diplomacy checks and add +1 to the saving throw DCs for their spells of the enchantment school that they cast. This racial trait replaces Weapon Familiarity.

Favored Class Options

Instead of receiving an additional skill rank or hit point whenever they gain a level in a favored class, gnolls have the option of choosing from a number of other bonuses, depending upon their favored class. The following options are available to all gnolls who have the listed favored class.

• Alchemist: Add +1/4 to the alchemist’s natural armor bonus when using his mutagen.
• Barbarian: Add +1 to the barbarian’s total number of rage rounds per day.
• Bard: Add +1/6 to the bonus provided by the bard’s inspire courage bardic performance.
• Cavalier: Add +1 hit point to the cavalier’s mount companion. If the cavalier ever replaces his mount, the new mount gains these bonus hit points.
• Cleric: Select one domain power granted at 1st level that is normally usable a number of times per day equal to 3 + the cleric’s Wisdom modifier. Add +1/2 to the number of uses per day of that domain power.
• Druid: Add +1 hit points to the druid’s animal companion. If the druid ever replaces his animal companion, the new animal companion gains these bonus hit points.
• Fighter: Add +1 to the fighter’s CMD when resisting a grapple or trip attempt.
• Gunslinger: Add +1/4 to the gunslinger’s grit points.
• Inquisitor: Add +1/2 to the inquisitor’s level for the purpose of determining the effects of one type of judgment.
• Magus: Add +1/5 to the magus’s level for the purpose of the magus’s armor proficiencies.
• Monk: Add +1 to the monk’s base speed. In combat this option has no effect unless the monk has selected it in an increment of five. This bonus stacks with the monk’s fast movement class feature and applies under the same conditions as that feature.
• Oracle: Add +1/2 to the oracle’s level for the purposes of determining the effects of one revelation.
• Paladin: Add +1/5 to the morale bonus on saving throws against fear effects from the paladin’s aura of courage.
• Ranger: Add +1/2 to the damage dealt by the ranger’s animal companion’s natural attacks.
• Rogue: Add a +1/2 bonus on Stealth checks.
• Sorcerer: Select one bloodline power at 1st level that is normally usable a number of times per day equal to 3 + the sorcerer’s Charisma modifier. The sorcerer adds +1/2 to the number of uses per day of that bloodline power.
• Summoner: Add +1 hit point to the summoner’s eidolon.
• Witch: Add +1/4 natural armor bonus to the AC of the witch’s familiar.
• Wizard: Add +1/2 to the wizard’s effective class level for the purposes of determining his familiar’s natural armor adjustment, Intelligence, and special abilities.

Racial Traits

+2 Strength, +2 Constitution
Gnolls are powerful physical specimens geared toward hunting and scavenging, though their mental faculties are not blunted but equivalent to many other races’.

Gnoll
Gnolls are humanoids with the gnoll subtype.

Medium
Gnolls are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.

Normal Speed
Gnolls have a base speed of 30 feet.

Darkvision
Gnolls can see perfectly in the dark up to 60 feet.

Hide
Gnolls have a +1 natural armor bonus.

Weapon Familiarity
Gnolls are always proficient with any flail, including the dire flail, and they treat any weapon with the word “gnoll” in its name as a martial weapon.

Languages
Gnolls begin play speaking Gnoll. Gnolls with a high Intelligence score can choose from the following: Abyssal, Common, Goblin, and Orcish.

Average Lifespan
30 years

Average Height
6 ft. 9 in. – 7 ft. 6 in.

Average Weight
280 – 320 lbs.