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I'm working on a new campaign setting, and I want to avoid using the same common, cliched fantasy races (Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, Goblins etc.).
But I'm finding that I do want some "major" evil humanoid species, that it's morally okay to just bash their skulls in because they're obviously bad guys. And these shouldn't be too high CR, because I want to be able to use lots and lots of them without people wondering why human civilization survives at all.
What are your favorite evil "horde" humanoids/monstrous humanoids?
hobgoblins would be perfect.
I've had great experiences with troglodytes and gnolls respectively. Both have cool attack animals, fun societies and nothing says plague to humanity like a stench that literally sickens regular folk!
I will recommend hobgoblins. I dont know how often they are used in golarion APs, but the fluff paints them as exceedingly militaristic, they have excellent stats, and no reason to be dum. The could act as a god "mongol horde" type of thing.
My first thought was gnolls.
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I don't like the concept of an entire race of evil people, it doesn't make sense and promotes dumb ideas (I'm not going to call a spade a spade today). So I'm gonna go with demons or undead, something created from evil.
That's kind of the thing with a horde though, they don't all have to be evil as a race per se. But with the horde threatening society anyone attached to it is an enemy by default. A few members that have left and integrated into society are totally reasonable.
A city of goblin paladins one believing they don't need that shiny hammer and bark shield but now they believe they are doing what the scary (deity) says
They think they doing good but... lol so not.evil ... just trying toooo hard to be good
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Okay, I like the gnoll hyenodon-rider hunter-scavenger-slaver packs. Those make for a nice kind of steppe warrior bogeyman, occasionally appearing as mercenaries for unsavory nobles, and the rare Mongol Horde scenario. Also, I've got a sort of degenerate humanoid-animal theme going on, they fit into that.
Grimlocks crawling up from the earth to hunt people for food, or being led by medusas - good for a less organized enemy. I was thinking about morlocks earlier, but these are also good. Again with the degenerate humanoid theme - after the previous apocalypse the world turned dark and cold, and to survive people had to change; most became evil and twisted.
I think I'm going to avoid hobgoblins because I want to avoid orcs and goblins, and they've got "goblin" in the name. I was actually thinking about using reskinned dwarves as a sort of evil underground Roman empire; they survived the previous apocalypse by going underground, but eventually adapted to it. They also nearly fit the autonomous militarist LE niche.
I'm still looking for a "mass-minion" race, kind of like the orcs Saruman was spawning in the LotR movie; gross and belligerent, but scary enough. But I want to find something else than orcs/goblins/kobolds.
I would definitely say drow are the way to go.
You can even use Sarumans' technique here: changing elves to something hideous.
Both Sarumans' Urak-hai and Lord Evils' drow are very similar in many ways, minus the drows' magic.
Still, another vote for drow.
you could take a standard cliched character and make them awesome instead!
Paizo did AMAZING things with Goblins. 2E goblins were LAME.... As were the yippy dog kobalds... but now we get kind of excited when we come across the crazy ADHD pyromaniacs and the little dragon folk....
Drow. I actually want my PCs to fight Undead Drow that worship Urgathoa. Cross my fingers on seeing what happens with Mummy's Mask (I did not spoil it for myself).
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Tieflings!
Apparantly they are so numerous that every party has at least a couple of them, and they all seem to act as evil as the rest of the group will let them so I can only assume that they are wholly evil as a race and populous enough that hordes of them are a reasonable expectation in golarion.
I second Gnolls as a choice.
I like Golarion Goblinoids, simply from their various personalities and the interplay of each society;
Goblins - CE - BURN THE WORLD
Hobgoblins - LE - Militarized society
Bugbears - NE - Malicious evil out to terrify and kill all enemies
Actually, Goblins in PF are NE and Bugbears are CE. I don't see why as much, other than wanting the goblinoids to fill all Evil alignments, since both Goblins and Bugbears seem roughly CE.
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Humans are really my favorite evil horde race but that's because when designing my own setting I prefer the ambiguity of having people as adversaries so that it's not necessarily OK to just kill them all and let Pelor/Saranrae/Zeus sort them out. I want the evil horde to have some neutral members, some redeemable members, and families.
In a more standard fantasy setting, I like the Greyhawk approach. You don't need one evil horde race. You can have a whole bunch of them. A fantasy world is a big place so if orcs are the hordes of the Pomarj, it's fine for gnolls to be the hordes of the hills to the northeast of Nyrond and for hobgoblin tribes to attack Sterich from the Crystalmists.
The point of using evil humanoids is that they do not embrace the entire spectrum of human moral and cultural possibilities (if orcs have exactly the same moral and cultural possibilities as humans then orcs are just humans with bad teeth and green skin and you might as well just use humans). So when you want to tell a story about the conflict with the demon worshiping cannibalistic nomads of the steppes you use gnolls. When you want to tell a story about the devil-worshiping, city building orderly tyrants of the mountains, you use hobgoblins. If you want to tell the story about the treacherous underground masterminds who worship the spider queen, you use drow. If you stray too far from those stereotypes then your gnolls, hobgoblins, and drow cease to be gnolls, hobgoblins, or drow. They're just humans with funny faces like the Star Trek aliens who are humans with an extra wrinkle or a fork stuck to their nose. Different stories demand different hordes.
Bugbears are made out of horrible.Killing them is practically a civic duty.
Darkfolk would make for an interesting game.
Gnolls, lizardfolk, minotaurs, ratfolk.
Humans.
I will recommend hobgoblins. I dont know how often they are used in golarion APs, but the fluff paints them as exceedingly militaristic, they have excellent stats, and no reason to be dum. The could act as a god "mongol horde" type of thing.
That's what I went with in my homebrew setting, the Hobgoblins are a combination of Mongol Horde, Feudal Japanese Nazis
I'm working on a new campaign setting, and I want to avoid using the same common, cliched fantasy races (Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, Goblins etc.).
But I'm finding that I do want some "major" evil humanoid species, that it's morally okay to just bash their skulls in because they're obviously bad guys. And these shouldn't be too high CR, because I want to be able to use lots and lots of them without people wondering why human civilization survives at all.
What are your favorite evil "horde" humanoids/monstrous humanoids?
Humans. Just check the history books. We fit the definition of an evil humanoid race perfectly.
I don't like the concept of an entire race of evil people, it doesn't make sense and promotes dumb ideas (I'm not going to call a spade a spade today). So I'm gonna go with demons or undead, something created from evil.Like Drow?
you mean drow as an example of a race that is just evil because, or as an example of a race that was "created from evil" (as I so eloquently put it)?