Of everything here, I like the Mongrelmen or Deep gnomes best because they would fit in easily in the underdark/dungeon environs of the Minotaurs. However, if these feel too much like food stock races to you then why not use an automoton to which ceaselessly follows its programming building tunnels to nowhwere within a certain areas (= maze). Or in a forest setting, how about a satyr or spriggan slaves making strong razorvine enforced topiary mazes?
who will want to keep troglodytes.. they stink, I mean literally they stink
Well,
Perhaps keepers of troglodytes surgically remove their scent glands? Then you get perfume manufacture and safe slaves in one go!
I think one of the main problems, from a logistic standpoint, Is why the Minotaurs wouldn't just eat their slaves. Warforged work I suppose, but the brutish Minotaur dont seem like the type to be able to create life from spare parts..... the same goes for other constructs, as the big and brutish Bulls have little in the way of crafting skill or
I was originally thinking of going with a subrace of dwarves that had been warped by the same earth energy that created the Greathorn Minotaur, but after a little thought .... I'm starting to consider Other options.
The morlocks are growing on me, IN my game world, the Morlocks are a group of orcs, who fled underground after a great war with the humans and elves.... only to find the dwarves. ( this was the first time the dwarves encountered a race from the surface.) The morlocks, being caught literally between a rock, and a hard place, fled into more and more inhospitable regions of the Underdark, until they were adopted by an evil Deity of the Dwarven Pantheon, who was pretty much the dwarven boogyman up untill that point.
Mycronid would be hilarious, I could put in something about the Minotaurs not wanting to eat their greens, and thus why they don't devour their slaves.
Ibixian are a great race, and I considered them, but I thought perhaps they were to closely related to the Minotaur to work.
On a CR scale, the Big bosses of the Bulls rest around CR 7 ( not including any class levels i give them) so i want something that can still do damage to the party, but could still be used in groups.
oh, and pardon that part about my " Wolf" building expert... it's Supposed to be world.... I've no idea how That got in there.
Morlocks definitely make sense. As for why the minotaurs don't eat their slaves, I imagine that in times of hardship they would - kind of the way we would use a horse as a beast of burden unless we got really hungry ...
This makes me think of water buffaloes with those little white birds on their backs, eating the flies.
So...What about a small, white-feathered version of the Tengu. Someone suggested Tengus above, just make them identical, but small-sized, so an extra +2 to Dex and -2 to Str.
I just don't see Tengu ever being a slave race - mostly based on actual Japanese folklore. I'm giving Tengu of my Kaidan setting some of what Japanese Tengu possess including Limited Teleport. Having that means escaping a maze and a Minotaur slave master, no problem.
What's with all the tengu hate?!
GP
I like the Myconid idea for slaves. Or Vegepygmies. Minotaurs don't eat vegetables (or mushrooms). The slaves could emit a slightly hallucinagenic spore that causes the victim to get left and right mixed up about 50% of the time--ideal for a maze! And the minotaurs would be immune, since they don't get lost. Win-win-win....unless you're the PCs!
Or chicken-kenku that reproduce superfast from all their eggs. AND they get an extra +2 to flanking attacks and aid anothers, so they can still threaten higher level PCs while still being fodder.
EDIT: And I wouldn't call them chicken-tengu. I would re-name them (Gaipan?) and just use the kenku stats. I once made boar-headed minotaurs and just replaced horns with tusks. It was a purely cosmetic change, but left the players guessing.
I also like the chicken tengu. Just the image of a Minotaur King with several small birds picking the flesh of dead foes off of him. Exquisite.
Or chicken-kenku that reproduce superfast from all their eggs. AND they get an extra +2 to flanking attacks and aid anothers, so they can still threaten higher level PCs while still being fodder.
Or rabbit people
I imagine the Minotaurs might not eat their Morlocks just because it gives them better options. Why eat them while they are useful? Eat a few to keep them scared but save the rest for when food is scarce.
Sigurd
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A funky alliance between Drow females and Minotaurs males, all devoted followers of Baphomet, and someone able to interbreed and produce either Minotaur male children, Drow female children or Drow male children (which are promptly enslaved), could be funky.
As the generations continue, the Drow have more and more Minotaur blood, and vice-versa, so that the Minotaurs are turning darker skinned, and sometimes white furred, with some magical abilities, similar to a Dark Elf, while the Drow females are getting stronger and a bit furrier, with smallish horns and sometimes even hooves, often being mistaken for Tieflings, due to their Minotaur blood.
Drow males, for some reason (perhaps lacking Baphomet's favor) do not seem to ever have any Minotaur traits or strength, and thus are easy for the much-stronger Minotaur-blooded females (and, naturally, the actual Minotaur males) to brutalize and intimidate.
Any Drow female with real status would have at least a few male Minotaur children (who, nominally, regard her with some devotion), as well as being at least an Adept of Baphomet, if not an Abyssal Bloodline Sorceress or full-on Cleric. (Or Oracle, Witch, whatever)
The one race that one would typically not expect to see as *slaves,* would be dark elves, so that might create a neat reversal of expectations.
The Ood.
An old-timer here, but with an idea that has been around a long time. In the Wilderlands of High Fantasy, there is dwarven city. Out side it is a system of caverns; part of which is ruled by a minotaur high priest and his gnoll followers. I like the gnolls. They are mean and savage enough to fend off most who threaten the minotaur's territory, but controlable enough for the minotaur to handle.
An old-timer here, but with an idea that has been around a long time. In the Wilderlands of High Fantasy, there is dwarven city. Out side it is a system of caverns; part of which is ruled by a minotaur high priest and his gnoll followers. I like the gnolls. They are mean and savage enough to fend off most who threaten the minotaur's territory, but controlable enough for the minotaur to handle.
This sounds like a good plan and saves you the trouble of creating something new. Another idea if you still haven't found anything might be Golomoids from Dragon #317 you could just reflavor them from being created by Gnomes to being some ancient slave race of the Minotaurs that built their mazes.
The Ood.
Is it me or did they look suspiciously like illithids?
The Ood.Is it me or did they look suspiciously like illithids?
Totally not just you.
I think the mongrel men idea is a good slave race for minotaur's .
Mongrel Men:
You can build it this way - there are no female Minotaurs, they require a female of another humanoid/tauric species to breed.
So they capture females from all humanoid species with preferences for certain types (drow breed fast intelligent Minotaures, dwarf females breed tank types and so on) - those that don't breed true (not perfect or mutantish) are enslaved as a lesser species who go on to breed amongst them selves(mongrel men). The slave cast make the weapons, grow the food (sometimes are the food), are the minions, while the Minotaurs live as the martial and political elite (kinda like the Spartans).
You have the added bonus of the Minotaurs having harems of ripe for rescue by a dashing party and a reason for the Minotaurs to raid the surface - more breeding stock.
troglodytes.
Shifters from the Eberron campaign setting make for some nice, low level, animal themed PC or NPC races.
You should get your hands on some kind of copy of the Classic Monsters Revisited book, the minotaur entry is increidble and goes into the whole maze dwelling thing. (According to the book minotaurs are actually fairly accomplished at construction of traps and mazes themselves.)
Though not an entire race so much, how about an old mad genius and his son. The old man could also make clockwork laborers to help build and maintain the place. (I know, but I always like giving a nod and a twist to the classics.)
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Pretty much what the title says, I've been detailing the races for my home setting, and I find that there needs to be something around to build all those mazes that the Minotaurs live in. I'd totally be ok with using 3rd party sources. What I need is something smaller, that the players can chop through before coming to fight the slave drivers.
anyone got any ideas?
Thanks.
'Bullock'
The Minotaur is considered historically to be the son of Pasiphae by the Sacred Bull resulting in Half Human-Half Bull.
If you cut the Testicles off a Bull it is called a Bullock. These are used in Labour where as the Bull is used for breeding. Effectivly they are an underclass of Minotaur - not Genetically as an alternative species, rather they are a genetic dead end.
Take the existing Minotar and make it less agressive. That is your Bullock caste.