http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drfe/20080924
I really was happy about Dragonkin being in the new edition, as I am a huge draconophile. But after reading about the gnolls who are in tune with their hyena nature... I think gnolls have a new place in my list of D&D favorites.
Gnoll Rangers, Gnoll Rogues, Gnoll Fighters, Gnoll Warlocks... heck, gnoll anything has some great potential. Still not as cool as dragonkin, but a close second to be sure.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drfe/20080924
I really was happy about Dragonkin being in the new edition, as I am a huge draconophile. But after reading about the gnolls who are in tune with their hyena nature... I think gnolls have a new place in my list of D&D favorites.
Gnoll Rangers, Gnoll Rogues, Gnoll Fighters, Gnoll Warlocks... heck, gnoll anything has some great potential. Still not as cool as dragonkin, but a close second to be sure.
I'll give this to them. They seem to have watched the Discovery Channel at some point. Not enough to make Gnolls actively matriarchal the way hyenas are but enough to touch on myths of hermaphroditism.
I have always loved gnolls and this was one of the few articles I saved for "possible" future use. Gnolls in my game are really nasty, eating there dead etc. I had players decide they wanted to attack a young adult dragon rather then a small tribe of gnolls(bout 17ish in number) in a game I ran a while back.. I wonder where my notes went on that game.. Hmm.
I've always been a gnoll fan myself, and loved that article. Made me wish it had come out a couple months sooner, cause if it had my PbP Gnoll fighter woulda been a ranger with the feat that gives claws that count as light weapons.
Overall, it was a very good article for both GMs and players.
I've always liked gnolls - loved to envisage them using the Confrontation-style Wolfen imagery.
AJC
Well, the "hermaphrodite" bit does make it easier to retcon hyena-style gnolls into the old MM entries that describe them as patriarchal male-chauvinists (just like orcs, hobgoblins, and near-every other evil race apart from Drow).
When adventurers or soldiers slaughter a gnoll pack, they're unlikely to closely examine the filthy, blood-soaked, flea-infested corpses other than stripping them of anything that looks saleable. The leader is big, muscular, flat-chested, and has dangly bits - it must be male, right? So "all gnoll leaders are male" becomes common knowledge.
Pregnancy hampers a female's ability to fight, especially late in the term. So a female leader needs to avoid becoming pregnant, or she gives her rivals a chance to attack her when she is weakened. (This implies that the shaman/herbalist of the tribe, as the source of contraceptives, wields considerable political power.) Conversely, she wants to keep her rivals "barefoot and pregnant" as much as she can. So, while the alpha female and perhaps a few trusted betas lord it over the males, the lesser females are "kept in their place" with beatings, rape, and general abuse. Thus "gnolls abuse their females" becomes common knowledge - the lesser females, breasts swollen by pregnancy/nursing, would appear more "female" to human eyes. Note that this means the best and brightest gnolls are LESS likely to reproduce, explaining a perpetuation of the worst traits of the race...
The semi-hermaphroditic nature of real-world female hyenas also means that childbirth is especially painful, bloody, and dangerous for them - imagine the pain of human childbirth PLUS the pain of a man passing a kidney stone. Often the first child is born dead, and often a female's first childbirth is fatal to her as well. (Subsequent births are somewhat easier because the birth passage has already been torn open once and scarred over...) Another reason for a dominant female to avoid pregnancy (though she may have had to survive at least one birth in order to become leader - the extreme danger of birth implies that females who survive would gain status/bragging rights; probably this is how a lesser female rises to "beta" status).
So anyone want to run a game with gnolls as the PC's? So far I have only run 4e and would love a chance to actually play it to get a feel for both sides of the coin..
So anyone want to run a game with gnolls as the PC's? So far I have only run 4e and would love a chance to actually play it to get a feel for both sides of the coin..
There was a very good (old) adventure of Dungeon that did this... pretty sure it was 2E... need to get my index.
I've been running a 3.5 campaign with lots of gnoll adversaries. (Sorry, wrong edition--eek!) Anyways, mine are matriarchal and are infamous pirate-priestesses. I also have made up a few PrCs just for gnolls: Gnoll Lunatics (crazy barbarians that think they're werehyenas that have been cursed and trapped in hybrid form), Gnoll Gynark (female leader PrC), and the Saffron Knights (golden-robed-and-cloaked gnoll cavalry mounted on dire lions [hyenas actually steal more kills from lions than lions do from hyenas--more mouths per pound between groups of lions and hyenas]).
My gnolls don't worship the demon-prince Yeenoghu, they worship the Bi+ch, the goddess of spite and marauding, raiding, and pillaging (Chaos, Destruction, Evil, Travel, Water). Their capital city is Biccemynster.
I'll have to check out that 4th Edition article.
Interesting note, one of the later 3.5 MMs, one of the ones that gave sociology and new role elements for classic monsters (MM4, I think,) did feature gnolls, stating that they were female dominated, (and more specifically, dominated by fiend-blooded females.) So... my guess is that Wizards of the Coast does know their stuff, nature-wise, and in 4th Ed, decided to give us a "have them as you like it" version of the gnoll. If you want patriarchy, go for it, if you want matriarchy,* that's fine too, if you want egalaterian gnolls, that's also... since humans can't tell the difference, you don't even need to make the decision yourself if you don't want to do.
Actually, if I recall, they are pretty biologically accurate in their current stance, since the spotted hyena's the only breed where the females are obviously the larger and more badass gender. With most hyena species, there's just not much difference between the two sexes at all.
Personally, I like the idea of female dominated gnolls, just to give a bit of difference in the standard array of D&D baddies, and to show not all female big bads have to be 'hotties.' Also, I like the idea of giving birth as a mark of status among the female warriors of at least one race. A famous saying among female gnolls, in my head, "The hardest battle is fought against one's own body. The womb is a foe no male can truly understand." With the follow up as an old familiar joke, "Except my last male, who still bears the scars."**
* and they come out and say the females are the bigger, meaner ones in some tribes.
**...from when she damn near tore his face off in the pain of childbirth.
I found the notes I had for the previous gnoll game I ran a few years ago on All Hallows eve! Was a GREAT 2 session game!
Players were members of a gnoll clan out scouting there territory. They returned to find there camp had been attacked and all but a few bodies were left behind none of which were the attackers.. Very little information was left behind, atleast to the untrained eye. Players ended up tracking there quarry and after three and a half days chase(4 day travel time to the nearest underdark entrance) they found there culprits! Dark Elves had made a raid on the PC's people for slaves etc! Was brutal and a couple of the 5 PC's playing the game had to "Calm down" they go so into there characters.
Anyway, back on track here. In my game I had it set up similarly. Females earned the right to breed as governed by the matriarch and males had to fight to the death for the right to breed with the chosen females.
I think I'm going to revive this game and add a new dimension for this coming Halloween!
Also, didn't trolls used to be matriarchies? Or at least female trolls were bigger and badder than male trolls?
Also, didn't trolls used to be matriarchies? Or at least female trolls were bigger and badder than male trolls?
I think... maybe in the 2nd Ed Monster Manual, this was the case. If I recall correctly, there is some context to the idea of troll matriarchs being seriously mean, strong, and tough (see Grendel's mom, for example.)
Also, didn't trolls used to be matriarchies? Or at least female trolls were bigger and badder than male trolls?I think... maybe in the 2nd Ed Monster Manual, this was the case. If I recall correctly, there is some context to the idea of troll matriarchs being seriously mean, strong, and tough (see Grendel's mom, for example.)
I prefer seeing Grendel's mom from the newest version of the movie! ;-)
Also, didn't trolls used to be matriarchies? Or at least female trolls were bigger and badder than male trolls?I think... maybe in the 2nd Ed Monster Manual, this was the case. If I recall correctly, there is some context to the idea of troll matriarchs being seriously mean, strong, and tough (see Grendel's mom, for example.)
Don't think this idea has ever been mainstream D&D. I'm pretty sure I'd have noticed and I never did.
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While I found the mechanical bits of that article sound (and they really made me want to play a gnoll) I was quite disappointed that they retconned Gorellik out of the gnoll creation myth after the extremely awesome article on Yeenoghu a couple of months ago. Of course it'll be easy for me to modify the fluff to suit my needs.
In my campaign, gnolls will be a species of unknown origin. In the olden days they lead a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and worshiped Gorellik, exarch of Melora with special ties to the hunt and hyenodons. Once the war between the Primodials and Gods broke out Gorellik lost a battle against a newly formed demon prince, Yeenoghu, who was at that point a formless abomination of elemental fury. After defeating Gorellik Yeenoghu devoured his divine essence which became perverted by the seed of evil inside of him, giving rise to a demon lord with the appearance of a gaunt gnoll and a special affinity for gnolls, hunting and wanton slaughter.
Yeenoghu then went on to corrupt the gnollish bloodline with his own demonic blood, giving rise to the gnolls as we know them today. It is rumoured that there yet exist gnoll tribes that remain faithful to the tenets of Gorellik (through worshiping Melora), but they are most certainly in the minority. Gorellik's name has been all but erased from gnollish history, giving rise to myths about Yeenoghu being the scion of the race.
That's how I'm reconciling the contradictions between these two articles.
Now I am torn. This month they published an article about playing a minotaur as a PC. Being a tauren player on WoW, this has gotten my interest. Alas, I do not currently subscribe to DDI, but combine this with a preview of the bard (probably my favorite class), I may shell out the $4.95/mo. I may have to cancel my WoW subscription...
For those who have read the minotaur article, is it decent? How do they stack up vs. the gnoll?
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Based on that, I'll probably have to subscribe to Dragon. No, seriously, that minotaur article sounds like solid gold.
Except for the fact that we have a demon lord creating a race. Siring a race, yes, that I can believe, but I don't see how elemental representations of murder-death-buttrape-kill are going to get around to that much creating. Oh well, as I said, fluff is mutable. ;)
I played a flind once in a game; that was great fun.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drfe/20080924
I really was happy about Dragonkin being in the new edition, as I am a huge draconophile. But after reading about the gnolls who are in tune with their hyena nature... I think gnolls have a new place in my list of D&D favorites.
Gnoll Rangers, Gnoll Rogues, Gnoll Fighters, Gnoll Warlocks... heck, gnoll anything has some great potential. Still not as cool as dragonkin, but a close second to be sure.
I played a flind once in a game; that was great fun.
It would be interesting to see a gnoll/flind being played once the monk comes out.