How would /tg/ play a gnoll? What personalities, characteristics, and dreams would you give your gnoll?
I generally wouldn't really. They're basically just orcs with hyena heads, and I'm not too into the evil PC stuff. I see even less point in it if you aren't going to play up the evil shit
>>43801441
Gnoll Barbarian, assuming D&D
Would make him a young pup searching for strength and power through training in order to return to his land strong enough to destroy the tribe who killed his own, long ago.
Willing to do anything for power, or wealth to translate into power. Whether personal training or strong allies. Never met his father. Worships the spirit of his dead mother and dead tribe.
>>43801441
Sloven, slothful, wisecracking ranger who hunts humans as a bounty hunter. She only needs to deliver the head in most cases, so dinner is free if you don't count scrapes and bruises.
That or a super fucked up and lordly priestess of Lamashtu in pathfinder. Would NEED an evil party for all the weird monster spawning that would happen. Actually want to play this character concept super bad.Either way, the most basic part of playing a gnoll character would be being a hot ass futa furry. Obviously.
>>43801497
Let's be honest, most /tg/ers are that guy /d/eviants who just want to play a female gnoll because hyena females have dick sized clits so they can argue that it's not their magical realm, man, it's just logical anatmoy.
>>43801441
Very cautious, curious, scavenger. Eats anything. Probably would dream about having a pack or, if already in a pack, murdering the shit out of those above me to claim higher status.
One of the players in my current game is playing a Gnoll barbarian. Taken in as an infant by a Half-Orc adventurer after his adventuring party wiped out their tribe.
They're playing up the nature vs. nurture angle, good natured, good intentions, but quick to resort to violence as a solution and now that they're reaching adulthood are starting to have dreams of violence and bloodshed that play on their insecurities, resentments and fears about the safety of their adopted family. Pretty sure the DM is aiming to make them accept turning into a Fang of Yeenoghu through the old 'power to protect the ones you love' trick.
Personally planning on attempting to cock-block Yeenoghu by having my character forgo as much sleep as they can and cast Protection from Evil and Good on them when they start dreaming.
Without the futa shit.
>>43801441
neutral nomads at best
evil raiders at worse
>>43801574
Always good to know /tg/ has its priorities straight.
>>43801441
A survival and tracking based ranger that's an absolute brute in combat. Challenged the wrong person in his band for supremacy and was forced out to survive among prey for the extra humiliation factor. Now works as a mercenary with the party and is slowly gathering that the 'civilized' races might be on to something with discipline, rule of law, and professional armies. Has a...feral sense of humor compared to the rest of the party with no patience for mercy, waste, or luxuries. Eventually wants to return to his band to take leadership and apply what he's learned.
Had a gnoll NPC that accompanied the party in my last game who gave off heavy Dr Gonzo vibes. Ruined pretty much every tactical manoeuvre the party ever tried to make, but was also good enough at fighting his way out of his own fuckups that they kept him around anyway.
I play a Gnoll in a DnD game currently.
He's a cleric of a God he calls 'God in the Walls', which is essentially a god that represents civilization from an outside perspective.
He's a holy man and thinks highly of all brewers, lantern lighters, brick makers, castle builders, and architects. He wants nothing more then to take a few wives and start a family he can raise in an Abbey he'd like to build and examines dungeon architecture to reach true understanding.
>>43801441
Incredibly brazen when with a group, but a whimpering coward if ever alone.
Has a very strict hierarchy in their head among their "pack," even if it's mostly imagined. While the other party members might not really care, the gnoll would be keeping track of the group dynamics very closely and always keeping their list in mind. Rude and bossy to those "below" them meek and eager to please for those "above."
They wouldn't really respect anyone outside of the pact, and would probably favor violence over diplomacy for problem solving. Of course, they would still favor any plans party members they think are in a stronger position in the pack come up with.
It'd also be fun to sometimes have more dramatic things cause them to lose this discipline, so when they actively lash out and disagree with someone they normally always listen to, it has more impact and shows something is really serious to them or getting under their skin.
>>43801944
Is the idea here that they don't comprehend civilization being more about the people who make it up, because of being a gnoll? So they think civilization is more about the physical marks of it?
>>43801441
Gnoll Barbarian
His hard work and training caused him to be betrayed by his leader and chased out of his tribe. Being alone and young he sets forth to find a new pack to journey and train with for one day he'll kill his chieftain, but his true goal is in killing a god and taking his place since godhood you can be lazy, your own "pack" of followers, and power.
Urban "Bloodhound." Private investigator. Tracker of men.
Rude pronounced Rudy
A coward who fights behind others as a cleric
Specializes in using crossbows and treated int as dump stat. Put all the points into strength, and wisdom
If an enemy gets close and no allies are near Rude immediately flees to safety of nearby trees, rocks. Tall nearby ally. As such most of his points were sunk into jump, climb, or swim.
If safe within his group Rude is strong, powerful, and isnt afraid of anything.
Alone, rude would either beg for mercy and defect, or would run like hell.
Gnolls, man...love them
>>43801944
Why does that sound adorable?
Anyway, if I were to play a gnoll, I'd probably be looking for chances to make Digger references.
>>43801441
I remember some 4E Dragon (Dungeon?) article about Gorellik being the original creator deity of the gnolls, who was then eaten and subsumed by Yeenoghu, leading to their corruption. It could be fun playing a Gnoll questing to topple Yeenoghu and restore or replace their original deity.
>>43801441
I have a buddy (sometimes he's GM, sometimes I'm GM) who absolutely loves the idea of gnoll bards. He always includes gnoll bard NPC's in all of his D&D games, and he has played a gnoll bard in someone else's game on at least one occasion.
Gnoll bard has become my default mental image for gnolls.
>>43801441
I played a gnoll who had been exiled from his tribe and was picked up by the party as an act of sympathy. He was a devoted servant of Yeenoghu who was only not killing and eating the party because they had saved him from exile. So when ever he didn't commit evil acts it was because of the party. When ever combat was about to break out he would ask the party what specifically he was not allowed to do and anything they didn't mention was 100% on the table. He took enemies as slaves which for the party he called servants. He sacrificed anyone he could to yeenoghu and said prayers to him before battle and meals, which were mostly consisted of mystery meat from his fallen enemies. He consistently offered to feed the party and pretended not to hold a grudge when they refused. And while argument and spite were abundant he never tried to harm the party or impede them in any way.
Except when he knew he would never be caught. Three PCs were killed before he was found out. Lets just say that you never wanted to be alone in the room with him when a powerful enemy showed up. He always carried the body out to the party lamenting that they had been killed by whatever monster. He was worried if he said they were eaten then they would check for a body. But he did offer their souls before he brought them out.
Luckily the people I was playing with were cool enough to not get supper pissy about it and everyone actually liked the challenge of trying to catch him in the act or expose his actions without meta gaming.
>>43802261
Gnoll bard, and to a lesser extent,Nurse Verityhave definitely impacted my view of how gnolls are played.
>>43802344
So he was loyal to the people who saved him because they saved him, was blatantly evil and untrustworthy, tried to feed the party sentients, and actually randomly wasn't loyal if he could get away with betrayal, but only in dangerous situations he was at risk I'm too.
Great character in a party of great characters played by smart people.
>>43802471
The rational was that he should kill powerful people to offer powerful souls and that it was better he do it than they get killed by some other monster. The first time it happened I ripped a mind flayers tentacle off its face and strangled the wizard to death with it. Then told the party he was killed by the flayer after getting mind controlled. When I walked up to him I asked "You are...out of spells yes?" Which out of game the player thought was a reference to two games before when he had spent 3 hours of travel time explaining to me that cantrips and normal spells were different because he could not "throw fire at the bushes" for my amusement because he was out of spells for the day. The wizards player described the death as "Worryingly intimate" later on.
I kept a few pages out of his spellbook as a memento.
>>43802109
A bit. The idea I'd that Gnolls are angry at humans because humans keeps besting them in wars even though humans are smaller and weaker then them. Humans have knights, humans have wizards and armies. Where do these come from? They come out of walls. So he reasoned there must be a God in the Walls.
I'm seeing a whole lot of "Forced out of the tribe" stuff.
>>43802759
True, want to give us one that doesn't?
>>43802759
Gnolls exile tribe members, its one of the only reasons you would ever not be in a tribe and also still alive. The crimes of failure to kill your superiors, kindness to those weaker than you, and making another gnoll of equal standing do work are punishable by exile assuming they don't kill you instead.
>>43802759
It's an easy start with an easy end goal. Generic gnolls really aren't known for their desire to learn about or get along with other races.
>>43801650
Exactly.
>>43802759
Adventurers are almost always outsiders on their communities and barbarians especially.
>>43802849
I don't understand the last four panels. What is 'plop'ing?
>>43803346
It's furry speak for a boner. Like they call sex yiffing for some stupid meme reason.
>>43803346
his shirt falling off his body.
Gnoll monk, abandoned as a pup for being a weak pup, raised in a strict monastery, calm but still struggles with bestial nature...ohhodfurrywolverine
>ctrl+f pseudo
Good. Carry on.
>>43803600
You forgot to ctrl+f futa.
>>43801441
Well, thing is, gnolls are done a bit different in my campaign - less 'giggle giggle slobber crazy' and more 'well-trained warrior mercenaries', with a strong helping of 'proud predator race' thrown in. Though the 'giggling psychopath' is still a very real thing - and the reason for all the harsh discipline and training.
The way it works is, whenever a gnoll's 'passions' are too strong - too angry, too happy, too excited, even too depressed - they risk 'the Laughing God's touch', driving them into cackling madness and risking harm to others and themselves - many are the cases of a gnoll biting off their own tongue or fingers, or striking their faces into a tree long after they should have lost consciousness.
To stave off the 'red laughter', gnolls strive for control and discipline, leading to a generally cold, hard and often brutal sort of personality being the general norm. Gnolls also take well to mercenary and militaristic lifestyles, finding comfort in the controlled and regulated environment, as well as a relatively safe outlet for their aggression and stress - so long as they watch themselves for any slips.
So, in turn, a PC is likely to be a mercenary either looking for or hired to do a job, or perhaps a soldier of fortune looking to test himself and prove his strength and control. He is almost guaranteed to have at least a few notable, visible scars, to prove how tough he is. He might respect strength, or toughness, or cleverness, or he might not; but he is almost guaranteed to approve of signs of self-discipline and motivation. Shows of emotion are rare, and worth noting; laughter especially, no matter how innocent it might seem, is something he would consider a sign of danger.
>>43803636
What dreams a gnoll PC might have naturally vary from character to character; however, the more common ones likely include earning enough prestige in one's journeys to be able to win a mate, or challenge for a position of leadership and authority, if not the right to take over as clan chieftain or start an entirely new clan.
Finally, almost always, every gnoll travelling away from their home clan carries on their person a small, crudely carved token of a face. It is the sign of the Laughing God, and is used as a charm and a holy symbol, in the hopes of warding off His attention during their journey.
>>43801650
Wait, I thought female Hyenas had, like, long penis-like vaginas. Like, tubular.
>>43801497
>objectively evil non-demonic races
Any setting that contains this is literal and unredeemable trash.
>>43801441
While I was never a gnoll myself, I had a sexy gnoll follower (we rolled for "sexiness" and she scored a 19 out of 20) whom engaged in lesbian acts with my chaotic neutral character. Together we had lesbian orgies with so many NPCs (and some PCs), her using her Hyena clitoris to show everyone a good time and prove her dominance.
It was fun.
>>43801441
You ever read Digger? Essentially like that.
>>43803727
Agreed.Although I love D&D, but I generally interpret the setting's only inherently evil entities to be demons/devils/other kinds of malevolent extraplanars and the like. Anything else just shows alignment trends.
>>43803365
bullshit
>>43802849
Just his clothes falling down made in a lazy way by the drawfag
>>43803857
Proper use of gnoll followers. A+ well done.
>>43801497
Stop playing forgotten realms
>>43801441
Ranger
Intelligent by gnoll standards. Maybe watches a mercenary company take down a fuckhuge monster, asks to join that pack. Eventually gets formal training in combat and civility.
Being used to hunting as a gnoll, prefers not to be weighed down by heavy army. Softens targets up with a bow before going in for the coup de grace.
Uses a compound bow to show off feral gains because it gets all the sloots
Full of himself, but if left alone too long starts developing a nervous tick, subconsciously needs to be around friends.
>>43801441
Gnoll paladin who, due to a mix of her new religious beliefs and her tribe's old ideas on funeral cannibalism, has taken the concept of a sin eater to its logical conclusion and decided it's her paladiny duty to eat all the evil
>>43801441
>personality
Cannibal.
>characteristics
Cannibalism.
>dreams
Eat the party.
>>43801441
I would play it like a puppy who's trying its best at being human, adorabily -and sometimes frighteningly- failing to do so.
>>43802708
I bet you powergame aswell.
>>43802708
Did they at least find out he was a murderer and kill him after long hours of torture?
I already played my one gnoll character I wanted. I was the only veteran player amongst a bunch of noobs so I made a support type character. The DM is a friend and allowed me more freedom with character creation since they trust me with their campaigns.
He was a nerdy, scholarly gnoll raised by a convent. A sorcerer who used intelligence for casting. If you've ever encountered a dog that is terrified of people but so eager to please them? That was him. He had never had friends or playmates and just wasn't sure how to do it.
He wasn't terribly religious since he struggled with the nature of his race, the dread goddess who plagued his dreams and nightmares, and the religions of the the more civilized races.
The party found him near death from dehydration and starvation in a ditch. From there they went on to to face off against an otherworldly tyrant and the sinister organization he had created who had been trying to infiltrate and control the world for over two centuries. In their adventurers they gained leadership of a small country, a small abyssal plane, an apocalyptic cult that was eventually reformed, and saved the world.
In the end he became a demigod of outcasts and sacrifice.
Best character and campaign I've been been a part of.
Pic is just some gnoll.
>>43803365
No it's not you tart. It's literally just a comedic cartoonish sound for his clothes falling to the ground.
>>43801441
Depends on the setting.
>>43803636
Cool and very eldar-esque. Seems like a great "transitioning" race to play-from nomad to civilization. Do they have a nation or power base in your campaign aside from acting as mercenaries for others?
>>43805282
>eat all the evil
That's actually a pretty metal philosophy.
>>43802152
Like it
>>43807630
"You gonna finish that sinner?"
>>43805366
As a powergamer, I'm insulted you would compare me to them.
>>43801441
Natural philosophers that don't have quite enough Int to come to any lasting conclusions.
>>43801441
I was going to play a Gnoll Avenger in 4ed once. His background had him an orphaned pup taken in by a monastery order and raised to be basically a hunting/attack "dog" to go and murder people in a religiously motivated assassination, supported by his animal abilities of heightened smell and natural weapons.
He'd be pretty much what any sort of hunting dog would be like if they could vocalise in human speech - A robotic automaton acting only on orders, but latently craving the kill and being restless unless unleashed on another target.
I never got to play him because the campaign never came to life.
>>43801441
I would make a Gnoll Sea Captain, leading a massive whaling vessel in the Arctic circle. It would be ironclad, with huge ogre slaves shackled to the front, to pull it through ice shelves.
>>43808724
>hunting dog
>robotic automaton
I don't think you'd lived around many dogs, anon.
>>43801441
Janek Janek Janek Janek Janek Janek
I've already played an animal person barbarian. The archetype fits animal people well, on average.
So for a Gnoll, I'd try to do something different. Maybe a comfy as fuck Gnoll trader or diplomat. Maybe a Gnoll bard who never figured out he's not supposed to eat the bones in the stew.
Video related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FNvXzy4il4
>>43801441
> How would /tg/ play a gnoll?
Fiercely loyal to group leader if the group leader shows personal strength, treacherous otherwise. Always around his pack. Anthropophage, of course.
> What personality would you give your gnoll?
Short-sighted and not afraid to use violence. Not talkative.
> What characteristics would you give your gnoll?
Likes hit and run tactics, survives out of the equipment his quarry holds, a salvager (no craft or profession, but survival for sure.). Attrition and terror.
> What dreams would you give your gnoll?
Dreams matter little when you're not willing to fight for them. Common fantasies otherwise: Harem, not having to hunt his own food, having enough humanoid servitors to be able to eat one at random once in a while (and not doing so).
>>43801497
> They're basically just orcs with hyena heads.
I disagree. I see gnolls as a lot more passive than orcs when it comes to war/politics and even more xenophobic. Actually having a thing for humanoid flesh puts them on a different notch. I also imagine orcs crafting stuff and not gnolls.
I would (temporarily at least) ally with orcs to root out gnolls. I'd rather my wife captured by orcs than by gnolls as rape is not as bad as cannibalistic murder.
>>43802344
Pic:
>"Herdick is as large as a full-grown hyena"
Never played but I have a recurring CN Gnoll Ranger NPC.
According to his people's ancient laws he left his village at 17, with the goal to come back with plenty of riches when he hits 27. He's a Ranger-for-hire and sometimes meets the PCs in the bad side of town taverns, usually brawling with some clients.
I got jackal-gnolls as a subrace in my setting, they are supposed to be similar to Anubis in appearance. Could be used as some kind of cleric or mage but so far no one has played one.
>>43802784
Unless you just leave on your own. You'd probably be exiled in absentia but fuck the technical stuff.
>>43801441
Gnoll druid, with a focus desert, savannah and jungle survival. Track through the outback unseen, commune with the snakes in the grass and the birds of the air, learn their secrets. I would make a home of the fearsome land, make it mine. Seek to let all from the fiercest lion to the smallest ant know that I am to be respected, just as I respect all living things.
And when the great spirit demands it I would ritually consume my enemies.
>>43801441
Unkown the money concept, be brute, outgoing, fierce, and often guided for basic instincts (hunger, fear, anger, etc).
Gnoll ranger/rogue, very opportunistic in his approach to, well, everything. Prefers to strike from ambush when he must fight but prefers to set things up so someone else fights for him. He is cunning instead of smart and uses it to his advantage.
Lately I've taken to using a grass covers ghillie suit to help get him into sniping positions ahead of time. No one in my group gets the joke.
[Spoiler] I am the grassy gnoll [/spoiler]
>>43810518
Gonna steal that Idea if you don't mind.
>>43807630
>>43808668
Pretty much, though more focused on undead and evil outsiders, she'd firmly believe that as long as she stays pure, her own body's innate holiness would scour away the sins of any evil doer she ate
Now, if only I could find something to grant her a bite attack and a series of feats to boost the holy damage for natural attacks so she'll be better able to smite while she bitesAnd resist the urge to see if she can get swallow whole and have it deal holy damage
>>43801441
Like a fluffy seven foot tall Johnny bravo
My first character in D&D was a gnoll barbarian. Intended to play him as a noble savage type.
... didn't put enough points in Int, so, the only language he knew was gnoll. Luckily the monk was kind enough to take gnoll as a language.
The first adventure we go on, I scout ahead because I'm the only one with darkvision. I get caught in a giant spider's web, and start yelling at them, trying to warn them about the spiders. The monk translated it as "The guy's afraid of a couple of spiders, and got a cobweb stuck in his mane."
... after that, we sorta became the Scooby and Shaggy of the party.
>>43815525
Played a gnoll once. I essentially became the party mascot just like yours. He was big, fuzzy, and clueless when it came to cities, but capable of tearing enemies apart at a moment's notice.
He got ditched in a forest by his kin who were migrating and hadn't seen another gnoll since then. Grew up with druids and has no idea about what gnolls are really built for. Met up with a tierfling ranger and became best friends. They wandered into a town one day looking for adventure and met up with the rest of the party in a guildhall that was hiring new scouts.
>>43815380
Fantastic. I'm going to use this somewhere.
4th Edition. Gnoll hunter (Ranger) exiled for showing "weakness" (respect for the natural world). The character was wiser than anyone would expect a gnoll could be, he was loyal, and even kind sometimes, but as a predator he was also brutal. (Loyal/Evil)
His dream/aspiration was to slay something that would turn him into a legend, an Omega Predator.
It was challenging to deal with the bad reputation of gnolls sometimes, but the party was very united and we had each others backs, so i could count with the Bard's diplomacy.
On combat his aim with the bow was deadly and his survival/hunting skills paired with his senses and instincts were real lifesavers. My own experience with camping/survival/animal behavior helps a lot to make good Rangers interpretations.
>>43815890
Nice bow and loved the Eagle's Hat. XD
>>43801441
Varying societies based on hyena breeds. Brown gnolls live in small tribal villages, Striped gnolls are nomadic raiders, spotted gnolls are forming an empire by conquering brown gnoll villages and the territory of other species.
Gnolls have a natural talent for shamanism, connecting to long dead ancestors for guidance or aide in battle, among the spotted gnolls it's said that skilled shamans can hold one spirit in themselves for every spot on their body.
Like a junkyard dog, incredibly friendly to those it perceives as pack-members and submissive to the group leader. Incredibly aggressive towards strangers. Strangers can become pack-members through gifts of food.
Eh, I play my gnolls like I play anyone else, but with more pragmatic survivalist techniques and no qualms with eating people. Creeped out the other players, who had a hard time understanding that eating friends (raw) was a very close and personal experience. Shows them respect. Eating enemies (cooked) was not being wasteful. Despite this she was the second most-moral person in the party, willing to help people out and offer them advice but not putting her own survival or the party at great risk to do so. Had to travel through a great desert to uncover not-Egyptian artifacts Mad Max style.
She was a mechanic and loved machines, mostly because she didn't know how to deal with people. 8' tall and social inept she didn't know if her family was alive or where they were and being nearly middle-aged (19) started making her panic. So she hooked up with a human NPC who traveled with the party and liked to fuck (but avoided commitment) and finally graduated from virginity. Despite not being in a proper relationship she treated him like a lover and followed him around a lot (to the point where everyone called her 'his dog'). Nobody minded it because she was the mechanic and got her job done before dragging her lover back to her room for loving, saving them from her forced and awkward conversations.
So besides diving into a shotgun wedding and raising a family her dream is to get out of the desert and work with machines, preferably in the more civilized parts of the world. Spends the rest of her time making ludicrous weapons like a pistol with enough force to tear your arm off or gun-swords.
;tldr gnoll is shy mechanic with mid-life crises for babies due to short life expectancy.
I nearly got to play a Gnoll Ranger, but the game never worked out. I was making him on a slightly more Arabic theme, with a scimitar and a converse bow and a snake companion.
He wasn't really evil - his tribe had been destroyed at a young age, and he followed a homebrewed gnollish god of luck. So he wanted to go out, get rich, and get bitches.
I'm honestly a little thankful it didn't work out. I'm not sure I could really do more with a gnoll than acting as comic relief, and it would've been my first experience as a non-human race, especially one so bestial.
>>43805366
I hardly even read the crunch. Me and the whole table go for immersion and story over anything.
>>43805415
They found out he was a killer eventually. There were only 2 other original party members left and they overheard him mention to the parties new wizard that he knew it would be easyer to kill him than the other ranger. Because "Wizards aren't as paranoid". They locked me in a burning building. When I tried to get to the second floor to jump out a window the ranger shot me to death with arrows. The new party members wanted to just leave, but the two party members that had been alive from the start held a funeral despite everything and the cleric offered my soul to his god as some kind of vengeance.
>>43809102
I played a male, that isn't even the character art I used, this was.
I'm reminded of a joke character I made for a friend's campaign. Gnoll swashbuckler type back in D&D 2nd ed. Happy go lucky and a practical joker.
Errol Flind was his name. Yeah, I went there. He ended up being a lot more fun both to play and the party liked the character he ended up being played for over a year of weekly sessions.
Why do gnolls work great as a comedy race?
>>43819308
they're giant walking puppies
>>43819308
Because you can juxtapose character traits, and they have a built in excuse to not understand things that if anyone else tried to be stupid about it would just be annoying.
If a gnoll orders his meat raw at the inn and then wonders why everyone is giving them a look its funny. If a human did that its just as weird but if they aren't also a barbarian it doesn't make sense. Gnolls have a built in excuse to be weird. Which sometimes means funny.
>>43818273
At the very least you got what you deserved.
Although I would've gouged out your character's eyes, cut off each finger individually, then tiedhim up and burned him.
>>43819308
>>43819501
Plus, the way hyenas have that laughing bark gives the impression that they find shit funny. It becomes a lot harder to justify their constant giggling if they're stoic.
>>43819544
Even if it was just to give him a taste of what his afterlife in the Narak will be.
>>43801441
Pseudobenis in bagina :-DDDDD
>>43807317
Thanks, glad you approve. Don't actually know much about the Eldar - I know, shock and heresy, a fa/tg/uy who doesn't play 40k - so I'll take your word for it.
As to nation/power-base, there is something of a 'Gnoll Nation', which is pretty much a collection of territories controlled by the various clans, though internal power struggles - and the inevitable descent of any and all leaders into cackling madbeasts - keeps the idea of a unified, conquering force relegated to bogeyman status. For the most part, the clans are content with running their own territories, sending their representatives to meet with each other for inter-clan business, and otherwise handling or ignoring the other races of the world as their clan sees fit. Ostensibly, there is a 'Chief of All Clans', which is really just a ceremonial title used for multi-clan meetings and the like, and discarded soon after.
On another cultural note, the gnolls have a tradition, somewhat like a reverse ahoge, where their young - male and female alike - are collected prior to reaching puberty, and brought to a special structure prepared for them. The reason is simple - with the coming of adulthood, so too comes the Laughter. Separating the young allows them to have a time and place to adapt and learn to control their emotions, hopefully before too many of them kill each other or themselves in psychotic frenzies. Those who endure (and survive) the harrowing year-long training are welcomed back into the clan as full-fledged members, to begin whatever apprenticeships and further lessons await them at this time.
>>43802759
Apply that to humans, and you'll realize most adventurers are exiled from their community... hence the term often used "murder hobos".
>>43819308
They have a funny laugh they can use often. You can play up dog and puppylike traits, so they whine and growl and yip helplessly when you kick them off a cliff. They'll do things that seem to make no sense to a human that they'll just shrug about. And most importantly, they're often described as scavengers. So they'll probably wear and use the silliest things.
>>43801441
Generally sneaky. Always prefers to stay just out of arms reach. Doesn't go into a fight unless he knows he can win. Feels like you should do the same. If he doesn't like how things are looking he wont hesitate to run. Kind of a dick when it comes to divvying out loot claiming he did the work so he gets first rights. That said, he doesn’t really care about anything that’s not essential so you could steal what ever you wanted off of him within an hour and as long as you don’t tell him you stole it from him he wouldn’t particularly care or even notice.
Also really likes fucking with his prey before and after the fight. He only really cares for himself, and getting fresh meat at the end of the day.
I would build him completely for burst damage with little to no sustainability. He wants to make sure he gets the kill, and as such first rights to loot. Also make sure he has a few dirty tricks up his sleeve. Those are his favorite.
I doubt I would ever play such a character, because its a one way trip to being THAT guy. But if you are playing an evil creature you might as well do it right.
>>43801441
During an Evil Military Campaign, my Gnoll's tribe was captured and assimilated. My Gnoll, named Remmock, was generally unmotivated to do much that wasn't based on his hunger. A Fighter type by nature that had been beaten regularly, he was finally given the opportunity to show that he was good for something when the Captain of a small task force picked him so that they could have a wall of meat clad in armor during the dangerous parts of an incursion into a captured city. The soldiers and commanding officer for the Gnoll's team (the other PCs) took an interest in him, and he wound up becoming the party tank because he genuinely had an interest in looking out for the only people that didn't keep him in chains, beat him, and cultivated in him a hunger for something a little greater than a meal. (Keep in mind, he's still evil and would rip your face off because he decided it looked tasty.) Basically, the loyalty he felt for his now-defunct tribe was redirected to his team because they earned it.
>>43822743
Then again, set the background in advance and you could do something pretty entertaining.
>PC1 saved gnoll long ago
>Gnoll decided to stick around
>PC1 acts as his 'handler' when ever he starts being an ass. This generally ends with PC1 stealing what ever gnoll got ahold of.
>Gnoll plays the entire campaign like fallout new Vegas with 4 intelligence.
Fuck now I kinda want to play this character.
>>43822743
I'm playing a gnoll barbarian today since my last PC died. What are some tips so I won't be that guy?
>>43826803
Don't be an asshole
>>43826803
Don't try to fuck anything that moves. Always been my #1 problem with barbarians and the people who play them.
>>43826803
If you're not that guy when you play normal character just do the same thing when you play a gnoll
>>43802775
Purchased as a pup by some necromancer or wizard to use for experiments, either saved by adventurers (ends up as ranger/martial class) or wizard kills himself by accident and the young gnoll stumbles its way into spellcasting (wizard/cleric) using the dead wizard's stuff.
Played one briefly, campaign died.
Gnolls weren't LMAO DEMONKIN WE EAT PEOPLE BECAUSE MONSTERS in this setting. Nomadic mercenary kind of people, varying degrees of morality among them. Fairly intelligent, a little bit of a moralfag, likes to be the hero ever since he scared off a bugbear gang from a tiny ass village that wasn't even worth terrorizing. His pack got messed right the fuck up by servants of Ehlonna, and he had his fingers of his right hand cut off and was left for dead. Yeenoghu never answered any of his prayers, but some God of the Hunt did. Sent a cleric his way, swore to join the Great Hunt in return for getting his hand back to a state where he could use a bow. Part of his Hunt is against servants of Ehlonna; they were all fair game as far as the God was concerned, they didn't really get on.
Ended up journeying with a blind Tiefling Warlock who had a run in with her own religious zealots, and was hell bent on ruining as much of their church as she possibly could. Her rage ended up putting his own into some level of perspective, and he decided to just target the four that fucked with him personally and leave it at that.
I was sorta looking forward to running that character. He was either going to help that Tiefling come to terms with what happened to her and just target her hatred at the people that were involved, or, as was more likely because we had ended up with a Neutral-leaning-Evil party, he'd give into bloodlust and vengeance like the Tiefling and go on a massive city burning campaign, not realising how far gone he was until it was far too late and turn into pic related.
>You're here because you wanted to feel like something you're not; a hero.
So what's the difference between Gnolls and your run of the mill LOTR Orcs?
Shadow of Mordor really made me feel like orcs were as ruthless as all the games i played made them up to be. Orcs have a very much imagined hierarchy where displaying strength and bossing others around makes you top dog.
Orcs pretty much live in tribes unless theyre martialed by the evil flavor of the week
>>43826803
Kill, THEN eat.
For general, I'd try to kitbash up some kind of weird druid/necromancer/ranger bit with as much Monster Hunter as I could beg, borrow, or steal. Kill big powerful shit, trap its 'spirit' in body chunks, eat chunks for boosts, or make them into cool stuff, like oversized axes that turn into swords that shoot fire. Would need a campaign with lots of funky monster shenanigans, though.
Did play a fighty warlock shenanigan in a campaign, from a bunch of civilised city-states on a continent that was leached of divine magic aeons ago. The city-states pretty much relied on people making demon pacts to protect your home city; it was seen as a big honorable sacrifice bit. For the low, low price of always being hungry but never being able to eat, he got the power to create vacuums in closed spaces, empty things, and vomit out battle tentacles.
Sadly, the game died after three sessions of investigation and one session of hunting bandits.
>>43834181
>run of the mill lotr orcs
They're not corrupted elves, they generally don't have EEEEVIL industry, they don't generally don't get along well with spoopy fallen angel wizards?
Depends on setting, man.
The more races you have, the tighter the niches tend to become. If I were contrasting JUST orcs and gnolls, I'd stress industry and organisation for orcs and nature plus personal power for gnolls. Orcs are the guys you call when you want 5000 dudes to knock over a castle. Gnolls are the guys you call when you want one guy's head on a platter, no questions, here's the money and I don't give a shit what happens with the rest of him.
More than that and it gets to theming and what you want to stress. Orcs I'd generally go with Numbers (there's always more orcs), Violence (They're ALWAYS looking for a scrap), and Order (They'll actually do what they're told to do instead of fucking off and betraying you). For gnolls, Hunting (Alone or in packs, they fight and kill and eat things), Fear (They got Jameson, and we can hear screaming and LAUGHTER out there in the dark) and Feralness (Compared to more 'civilised' races, they look and act like beasts).
Bump, anyone got pics of gnolls?
>>43826803
Don't be That guy. And don't play your character Evil if the rest is good. And don't betray your party.
>>43834181
gnolls are just orcs for furries
>>43811022
Totally stealing this, friendo.
Best gnoll.
>>43801441
All Gnoll Party Story Time
The system waspathfinder; It's popular where I am, so it's easier by an order of magnitude to find good PF GMs than good fringe GMs). GM borrowed some Gnoll mythos where they were the decendants of hyenas that had their souls supplanted by Demons, hence always!CE yet vaguely social. Society was pretty much a carbon copy of spotted Hyenas plus cannibalism, tools, and Abyssal inclinations. It got hilariously magical realm when you thought about it too much, so we mostly treated it as a point-and-laugh-OOCly matter.
>>43840431
Party consisted of three-and-a-half Gnolls. I pitched pic related to the GM and just refluffed the half-orc to suit it so we didn't have to deal with muh custom race. Being only half a Gnoll, I was bottom of the totem pole, including beneath the animal hyenas which sucked, but I stayed relevant by having some cognitive patterns Gnolls don't and letting the higher ups take credit for my ideas in exchange for a few bones.
Part 1 of the story is basically >we are Gnolls! stabstabstab
Which we did with gusto, mostly raiding irrelevant nonhumans and the odd lone giant. Things got interesting though when we first found humans.
We found humans and rounded a bunch up for snacktime, but my half-gnoll had a better idea. We talked long and hard about it and decided that Humans were like twofers. You could make them do shit for you and you could eat them. The raid leader presented this wonderful idea. So we started trying to domesticate humans like goats after raiding a couple villages.
>>43840527
Runaways were our first real problem. First inclination of the Queenbitch (actual title) was to messily execute runaways, e.g. with blood eagles, eating them alive, and the like. Talked it over with the other PCs. Someone presented the half-gnoll's idea of hobbling the slaves "Misery" style by placing a wood block between their ankles and breaking their feet inward so they can't run. Cutting off the big toe also made it so they could no longer physically run. I was against that one ICly and OOCly because of infection and shock, but Gnoll bloodthirst won out.
Humans made great slaves but mediocre livestock. Good livestock like goats eat shit their masters can't eat. Humans have a more diverse diet than gnolls, but they can't eat grass. Our equipment was also incredibly shoddy and mostly ripped off from orcs and other humanoids who probably ripped it off from humans.
However, it turns out humans also like slaves! Eventually, we found this ersatz-Mediterranean crossroads where a bunch of different human nationalities met. While let off the leash a bit, my half-gnoll although fugly managed to blend in with robes and other rudimentary disguise stuff and sequestered off with a few slaves who were not!Caucasian. They sold pretty well. Spent a portion of the proceeds on common not!Subsaharan slaves who were stronger but not exotic and headed back to base with them. Suddenly, the half-gnoll was important as a go between and the first bits of the Gnoll-powered slave trade fell into place.
>>43840675
So let's give a little backstory about what's going on while the half-gnoll isn't around. The others were getting used to a slave caste that doesn't just work until it dies and then gets eaten. Historically, they'd had halfling slaves and a couple elves. They did it for Gnoll amusement since they were generally too frail to last forever and mostly there for food anyways. Orcs and the like were too vicious for the job. So, things started to get almost like slaver ants. Gnolls were doing the hunting, communicating, and killing, and the humans were doing everything else.
But with more free time on their hands, the Gnolls started bickering a lot more. The males had more time to plot baby eating tactics, and the females had to think of more ways to guard the kiddies in a children's creche. Prior, infantcide was opportunistic and darwinian so the female would go back into estrus etcetera etcetera. No longer! Now it was a passtime.
>>43803365
Why you always gotta be lyin
>>43840791
So the other three PCs were full Gnolls. Two female and one male, of which none matched their player's actual sex funnily enough. Out of this new conflict where men had too much time on their hands to plan eating the babies of whatever giant scary she-beast they had their eyes on, the result was the creation of a children's creche where Gnoll and animal hyenas were put together into one place where all the females could keep an eye on them.
Later when the half-gnoll would get back, he would float the idea that this be a good place to drill things "all Gnolls should know" into their heads, but that wouldn't be for a while.
Anyways, the children's creche is pretty well guarded. Pups are born a lot more developed than human babies for obvious reasons and are troublesome, but with bigger and stronger females guarding the place anda few eunuchs who royally botched their jobs, the raiding was mitigated so there were some babes left to grow into adulthood the following generation.
tl;dr infant cannibalism was the Gnoll equivalent of panty raids.
>>43841025
The baby raids caused some mild and comedic intra-party strife and a lot of OOC joking on the male Gnoll's part. His player, female, kept wisecracking about replacing another player's babies with her own which made the player of the target female Gnoll, male, hilariously uncomfortable.
>>43841059
On the more serious side of things, the half-gnoll came back with just as many slaves as he left only different colors and some gold to show for it. He didn't get to keep either, but the idea stuck. Humans don't mind slaves, especially if they're different colors. So we started selling darkies to whities, who as of yet didn't have racial slavery in this setting, aaaand disappearing a few villages of whities to bring down to sell to the southern slavers because they thought pale humans were neat looking.
Using the resources of a lot of gold and ingenuity, one of the party managed to get one of the PCs to supplant the current Queenbitch and the slave trade got a lot smoother without excessive confiscation of goods and gold by the higher ranking Gnolls. Our margins improved dramatically, so we went hog wild. With superior weaponry and equipment bought from southern markets and enchanted to our heart's content, we managed to roll up a lot of other Gnoll tribes becoming something like the a tribal nation running on slave power and slave trade.
A lot of slaves turned out were happy to enforce order on other slaves if they were given a position of authority and a couple symbolic representations thereof. Really smoothed things out as operations got bigger and we ran out of other Gnolls to pressgang into the business.
>>43841238
Things started getting pretty ridiculous after one of us found the true name of an Efreeti and managed to summon it. We learned that they really liked slaves and we had a lot of those, so we presented it with like 200 high quality ones which could have netted us a hefty pile of gold. It was so pleased with the presentation that it decided to allow us those three wishes. Of course, everyone knows their reputation for corrupted wishes, so after some deliberation, I used my half-gnoll as a mouthpiece for my wishes
>Wish 1: neither me and mine nor you and yours can betray one another.
>Wish 2: For eternal friendship between me and mine and you and yours.
>Wish 3: A way to get into direct and immediate contact with you at any time.
The wishes did mildly twist... by a lot. Turns out I accidentally made forced Gnoll solidarity a thing through the "me and mine" wording. Fortunately, it extended equally far on the other side since it turned out the Efreeti was a Malik, a noble.
The GM was expecting us to get roasted alive, but the surprising wishes gave him some horrible ideas. For one thing, we had contact with a plane that was very, very hungry for slaves of all kinds. They especially liked Elves, and we were their supplier. It was the friendly thing to do. Occassionally we got more wishes, but they went pretty horribly wrong but not in ways that would completely screw us over.
We ended up using wishes mostly as trade binding type things and got a lot of really awesome equipment from the plane of fire that gave us military superiority. Eventually, we accidentally wished for a portal to the plane of fire opened and led to oppression of a small kingdom by Genies and other fire people.
The epilogue of the story was pretty neat. The Gnoll race was eventually blessed by fire, and we became a sort of native outsider and solidified a place as procurers and appraisers of flesh. Trusted for their taste in meat both literal and figurative.
>>43841467
Unfortunately, our interference in planar matters tipped the balance of power between the genies, and caused the other three sides to become very discontent. Lots of hinting that the other three main varieties of geniekind were gearing up for war for a possible future campaign. Maybe we'll get to do it some day.
>>43801441
Never had a gnoll. Had a kobold paladin once, though. His AC was bullshit and since he only spoke draconic his player would type out everything in vodkarunes and pm people who could speak it with the original message. Most of it was gibberish anyway. At one point a necromancer was channeling a spell that was taking forever to cast, and when we were trying to figure out how the hell to get through the gate we turn around and see the paladin with a mining pic yelling "dig dig smash evil thing yes yes!"
Not very relevant, but generally evil creature characters in a normal campaign can be hilarious.
>>43840431
So like, what were the player classes?
>>43841757
Barb, Ranger, Inquisitor, massively nerve summoner.
The summoner had 1/2 eidolon progression and had to cut off a body part to summon anything. If the summoned creature died, it got carted off back to its home plane. If it was dismissed or the spell expired, body part returned. At one point the summoner was a head on a pillow.
capped for future generations
