I love Gnolls without doubt they're my favorite monster, and I think they don't get enough love, as I found the current pseudo-official Gnoll in the Advanced Race Guide a bit lame I created a type of Gnoll that I believe has a bit more of flavor:
GNOLLS
+2 Str, -2 Int, +2 Wis (0 RP): Gnolls are strong and cunning but also slothful.
Speed: Gnolls have a base speed of 30 feet.
Size: Gnolls are Medium creatures and thus receive no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
+1 Natural Armor Bonus (2 RP)
Gnolls have Dark-Vision up to 60 feet. (2 RP)
+2 to Perception (2 RP)
Carrion Sense (1 RP): Gnolls have a natural ability to sniff out carrion. This functions like the scent ability, but only for corpses and badly wounded creatures (creatures with 25% or fewer hit points).
Natural Attack: Bite 1d3 (1 RP)
Hatred (1 RP): Gnolls gain a +1 to attack rolls made against elves and humans.
Kneecapper (1 RP): Gnolls gain a +4 racial bonus on combat maneuvers checks to trip an opponent.
Total 10 RP
ALTERNATE RACIAL TRAITS
Subterranean Gnoll: Some gnolls dwell in caverns and grottos, such individuals develop other kind hostilities; they gain a +1 to attack rolls made against monstrous humanoids and derros. In addition they also gain a +1 bonus on Knowledge (dungeoneering) and Survival checks made underground. This trait substitutes Natural Attack and Hatred.
I also want to create a class mainly for Gnolls, a Strenght-based caster with self-buffs and a bit of demon-summoning from mid to late levels. But I don't know how exactly do it, I may update this thread in the future when I start to figure that out.
i would like to see an alt racial trait that ups damage of the bite, hyenas have the strongest jaws in nature after all.
edit: maybe that be more appropriate than natural armor?
Yeah, I know real world Hyenas' bites are very powerful. Sadly, according to the Advanced Race Guide the Bite trait can only be taken up to two times and replacing 1d3 Bite for 1d4 Bite is pretty meaningless, I believe.
Lizardfolk have 1D4 bite, but they have a short snout. A long snout like from a gator or hyena would be 1D6. Greater Gnolls(not Flinds) might spread carrion fever with their bite. Favored class could be witch doctor, a clrical class that includes all the necromancer spells. They tend to play with their food.
remember that the arg is not a perfect all encompassing system, spending more points to make the bite always treated as if the gnoll were a size larger, with more damage (a 1d6 would be ok or even 1d8) and allowing grapple with it would certainly be ok. make sure the gnolls are humanoid with the gnoll subtype and make that a requirement for the ability. with a specific requirement 4 to 5 RP would be a fair cost.
I also like gnolls. They are a race with great potential, but forever an extra on the stage. The deadliest of them in editions of the past have been portrayed as rangers, which I like, so I think a +2 to survival would be fitting. And to address the 1d3 vs. 1d4 damage, strength and a half plus power attack cause a bite attack to ramp up pretty quickly.
I would get rid of the lesser scent ability, maybe offer it as a feat choice. What you have there could be covered in survival or perception instead.
[edition blasphemy]
I liked 4th edition's treatment of Gnalls. They boosted the pack hunter aspect by giving them bonus to hit and damage when flanking with gnolls and hyenas. I charged a group of them once and got served a hefty slice of whoop ass. I think I got to attack once before I was out of the fight. Sure, attack and damage bonuses to serve as fluff can be half-asses, but it worked.
[/edition blasphemy]
I would get rid of the lesser scent ability, maybe offer it as a feat choice. What you have there could be covered in survival or perception instead.
not necessarily as it essentially gives you a constant Detect Undead/Deathwatch as an extraordinary ability.
by the way, i never understood why fluffy hyena folk get Natural Armor. it just never made sense to me.
Well, they've got moderately tough hides (I assume) and fur, if thick enough, could be kind of cushioning, I imagine.
Also, there's a 'pseudo-official gnoll' in the ARG??? *goes to check*
...And it is a bit underwhelming, this is true.
Anyway though, this looks pretty cool. It seems to sum up gnolls pretty well (though they don't have a bite, according to the bestiary... which I don't really get, but hey). But yeah, I like this.
I also want to create a class mainly for Gnolls, a Strenght-based caster with self-buffs and a bit of demon-summoning from mid to late levels. But I don't know how exactly do it, I may update this thread in the future when I start to figure that out.
You might want to take a look at Cleric as the most similar class then, perhaps with something similar to a bit of the Antipaladin stuff. Particularly, I'm thinking of the Fiendish Boon Antipaladin class feature.
Upon reaching 5th level, an antipaladin receives a boon from his dark patrons. This boon can take one of two forms. Once the form is chosen, it cannot be changed.
*Weapon Bond Stuff - Snip*
The second type of bond allows an antipaladin to gain the service of a fiendish servant. This functions as summon monster III, except the duration is permanent and the antipaladin can only gain the service of a single creature and that creature must either have the chaotic and evil subtypes or it must be a fiendish animal. Once selected, the choice is set, but it may be changed whenever the antipaladin gains a level. Upon reaching 7th level, and every two levels thereafter, the level of the summon monster spell increases by one, to a maximum of summon monster IX at 17th level.
Once per day, as a full-round action, an antipaladin may magically call his servant to his side. This ability is the equivalent of a spell of a level equal to one-third the antipaladin's level. The servant immediately appears adjacent to the antipaladin. An antipaladin can use this ability once per day at 5th level, and one additional time per day for every four levels thereafter, for a total of four times per day at 17th level.
At 11th level, the servant gains the advanced template (see the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary). At 15th level, an antipaladin's servant gains spell resistance equal to the antipaladin's level + 11.
Should the antipaladin's fiendish servant die or be banished, the antipaladin may not summon another servant for 30 days or until he gains an antipaladin level, whichever comes first. During this 30-day period, the antipaladin takes a –1 penalty on attack and weapon damage rolls.
I took my own shot at a PC gnoll race based on the ARG a little while back. Have a look! Might be of interest.
I'd base off gnolls more on the real life behaviour of hyenas.
They aren't as lazy as thought by some, nor are they purely scavengers.
Actually, going by the real life examples, they are far more dangerous than usually thought.
Can't I edit the first post? I'd like to be able of making changes to the original post. Anyway, I think I'll just open a Google Document or something like that.
@Ciaran Barnes: Now that you said that, I have decided to make some gnoll feats as well (more gnoll love!). I'll drop this one, tell me what you guys think of it:
Food goes down! (Combat feat)
Prerequisite: Gnoll, Animal companion (Hyena)
Benefit: Your hyena and you can share the same square at the same time. If you both attack the same foe while being in the same square then you both are considered to be flanking that foe as if you were in two opposite squares, and if either your hyena or you attempt a trip maneuver to the foe that you are flanking then you both get a +2 bonus to do so (this bonus stacks with previous bonuses, such as Kneecapper).
@John Mangrum: Oh, thank you for sharing it, I didn't found your take on Gnolls on the forum, it's slighty different from what I want but I think I'll "steal" your Four-Legged Loper trait ;)
@+5 Toaster: I was thinking... as making a Gnoll with a Bite that pack a "serious" punch requires to get rid of many traits of my "core" gnoll I might just show it as an alternative kind of Gnoll, not unlike the "Subterranean Gnoll". Maybe with the name of "Big Maws" or something like that.
@Icyshadow: Ikr, but I just followed the tradition of slothful Gnolls because they are slavers, aren't they? Slaver cultures don't seem to be industrious they rather make others to be industrious for them, if you get my meaning.
@Darkwolf117: The cleric! Oh, yes, the cleric does seem to be the most suitable choice to be the base for the class I want to make. And the Fiendish Boon Antipaladin class feature will be most certainly part of the class, at least the part of the fiendish pet (the weapon option is "meh"), I love it! Thank you for pointing it out.
Thank you all for contributing to the thread in one way or the other.
Well, they've got moderately tough hides (I assume) and fur, if thick enough, could be kind of cushioning, I imagine.
I guess I just find them being more durable than orcs a little hard to swallow.
I had a cat named creamsicle. She was a longhair and a great hunter. She was able to tree a racoon. The racoon couldn't reach her through all that fur.
What you could do is mixed breed. A Gnoll when created has one trait, such as long muzzle, long legged loper, clerical aptitude, pleage bearer, or even shaggier. A feat can be used to further increase the trait or get the basic of another.
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Well, they've got moderately tough hides (I assume) and fur, if thick enough, could be kind of cushioning, I imagine.I guess I just find them being more durable than orcs a little hard to swallow.
Natural armor is odd in D&D/PF. Anything with scales seems to get a +5 or so NA (lizardfolk, sahuagin, troglodytes), but if you've ever owned a pet snake or lizard, you know that some scaly critters seem to be ridiculously fragile compared to furry pets... (Indeed, those races would be much easier to 'balance' if they only had a +2 NA, at best.)
I'd be inclined to give more thickly furred creatures a +1 NA (or higher), but Gnolls fur often is portrayed as patchy or even bare on much of their bodies, so it's a subjective thing. Gnolls are more commonly depicted as desert / badlands critters than D&Dish Orcs and Hobgoblins, so some 'leathery' weather-toughened hides might fit them thematically.
Orcs, Hobgoblins, etc., OTOH, don't seem to have any visible justification for having any more natural armor than a Dwarf or Human.