Talk:Gnoll (5e Race)

Why exactly did you pick those weapons? It seems to me that they should be proficient with spears, glaives, and longbows (as described in the Monster Manual). Darkvision seems right, but you completely ignored the cool Rampage trait, which could make them great DPS characters. The Imposing Figure trait seems pretty decent, but Medium creatures have a base walking speed of 30. You might consider giving them something like Fleet of Foot instead of Imposing Figure, if you want their speed to be 35. Finally, I think gnolls could be succinctly playable without subraces, with +2 to Strength and +1 to Dexterity (also cited from the Monster Manual). St. Noof 13:08 13 May 2015 (EDT)

I don't know why they have any weapon proficiencies. They don't have a weapon "culture" like elves and dwarves. Flind and flindbar fits I guess though. Marasmusine (talk) 14:18, 13 May 2015 (MDT)

See, I've never heard of flind gnolls, but I just figure if gnolls always use weapons when you fight them, they might as well get proficiency. St. Noof 17:22 13 May 2015 (EDT)

I tried to pick traits that fit gnolls, but I seemed to miss a few so thank you for pointing those out. As for the flind gnolls, they are the only named subrace of gnoll and typically use flindbars. Here's a link to a Wikipedia page on them http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flind. The typical gnoll does not have a special name. IdesOfMarch 8:13 16 May 2015 (EDT)

The gnolls you fight use weapons because they are the warriors of their tribe. They are proficient with weapons because they are warriors, not because they are gnolls. Marasmusine (talk) 01:36, 17 May 2015 (MDT)

I included proficiency in the listed weapons because a gnoll character would likely have learned how to use them before he/she started adventuring. When he/she started adventuring he/she may have switched to a different weapon of choice. IdesOfMarch (talk) 08:26, 23 May 2015 (MDT)

What happened to the subraces? I liked them. Marasmusine (talk) 08:54, 9 June 2015 (MDT)

There is only 1 subrace of gnoll-the flind. The normal gnolls are generic. This results in a race with an alternate form of the normal race more so than 2 distinct subraces. Furthermore, the only information I found on flind gnolls was that they were shorter, stouter, and used flindbars more often. Because of that it made more sense to just say if you want to play a flind gnoll make your character on the shorter and stouter side of the spectrum. Also make sure to use a flindbar. --IdesOfMarch (talk) 10:09, 14 June 2015 (MDT)

In my own homebrew of a Gnoll player race, I gave them proficiency with hand- and battleaxes, though I don't honestly know why; gave 'em spears, too, since the gnoll in the Monster Manual is wielding one. Come to think of it, though, Marasmusine has a good point; they don't need weapon proficiencies any more than half-orcs do. I also gave 'em a bite attack, since they have one in the MM as well. Also also, gnolls have their own language according to the MM, so I'mma add that in. :/ Knowlessman (talk) 00:56, 2 December 2015 (MST)

Why do they have +5 movement speed? The MM gnolls don't have that, and these are otherwise mostly identical to them. Well, and apart from the morningstar proficiency, which is just completely inexplicable. None of the MM gnolls have one of those, which they would if it was such a ubiquitous weapon for them. Knowlessman (talk) 14:26, 19 December 2015 (MST)

I authorize you to fix it :) In defense of claws, 4e did have the "claw fighter" feat for the Gnoll race that appeared in Dragon, but I don't mind either way. Marasmusine (talk) 16:36, 19 December 2015 (MST)

Had an idea about the flind gnoll thing; do we have a template for adding an optional racial background? Flind Gnoll could be a gnoll-only background option that gives a coupla skills related to them and proficiency with the flindbar, so not all gnolls start with it (Speaking of, actually, that bar's stats seemed a little much when I went and looked at it, so I might take another gander at that first). Knowlessman (talk) 20:58, 21 December 2015 (MST)

I've been trying to find a good gnoll PC race, and there's one at [1] - I'm not sure who the author is. Marasmusine (talk) 16:21, 15 September 2017 (MDT)

it might be more reasonable to tweak the flavor text so that they are more sympathetic? the way i see it, if its allowed for players, it shouldnt be "mostly evil", otherwise any NPCs that they come across are going to treat them like any other monster. and even disregarding that, its unlikely the majority of people who use a "typicaly evil" race arent just going to play a neutral or good character from it anyways. since presenting it for possible characters is already changing the tone of the creature from a monster to an intelligent humanoid that can be reasoned with normally, id say the best route would be to reflavor its lore from the perspective of a more neutral creature. EDIT: also the concept of "alpha wolves" in wild packs has been thoroughly debunked at this point, so it might be beneficial to look at the behaviour of real hyenas and wolves in the wild (recent studies i mean) and replace this bit with the updated knowledge on "pack structure" --TheWhiteRabbit 00:00, 0 Nixember 0000 (NNN)

worship

What would happen if we change the gnolls to nature worshippers instead of the usual demon worshippers? --Redrum 17:32, 31 October 2018 (MDT)

Or, if you'd like to keep Yeenoughu: maybe their religion could be made into a kind of animistic/ancestral structure, where they worship powerful nameless spirits and believe that all things in nature have their own spirit, but revere Yeenoughu above all, since they (Yeenoughu) are the composite of their ancestors' spirits. if you would be okay with me doing this kind of edit please let me know? --TheWhiteRabbit 00:00, 0 Nixember 0000 (NNN)