Gnolls

Table: Random Gnoll Starting Ages
Adulthood Intuitive1 Self-Taught2 Trained3
8 years +1d4 years
(9 – 12 years)
+1d6 years
(9 – 14 years)
+2d4 years
(10 – 16 years)
Table: Age Categories
Age Category Years
Middle Age1 20
Old2 30
Venerable3 40
Max 40 + 1d20

1 This category includes barbarians, oracles, rogues, and sorcerers.
2 This category includes cavaliers, fighters, gunslingers, paladins, rangers, summoners, and witches.
3 This category includes alchemists, clerics, druids, inquisitors, magi, monks, and wizards.

Table: Random Gnoll Height and Weight
Gender Base Height Height Modifier Base Weight Weight Modifier
Male 5 ft. 6 in. +2d10 in.
(5 ft. 8 in. – 7 ft. 2 in.)
170 lbs. +(2d10×5 lbs.)
(180 – 270 lbs.)
Female 5 ft. 3 in. +2d10 in.
(5 ft. 5 in. – 6 ft. 11 in.)
150 lbs. +(2d10×5 lbs.)
(160 – 250 lbs.)

Gnolls are an opportunistic race of humanoids who prefer to scavenge rather than actively hunt; they happily reap the rewards of others’ hard work. Much like the hyenas they resemble, gnolls prefer to wait for others to complete a task, and then the gnolls sweep in to benefit from the others’ labor. While they are physically powerful, gnolls are also lazy and cowardly, so they avoid entering melee with other creatures, unless the gnolls know they have some advantage over their foes. To many civilizations, gnolls are notorious slavers or despicable killers, and settlements neighboring gnoll territories have numerous tales of such gnoll exploits.

Physical Description: Gnolls are impressively built creatures standing anywhere from 6 to 7 feet tall and typically weighing 250 pounds. They have coarse fur and coloration similar to that of either striped or spotted hyenas, depending on the gnoll tribe. Their legs have a hyena-like structure, with their high anklebones making their legs, which end in blunt, non-retractable claws, appear to have a weird bend. Gnolls’ upper body structures are similar to their apparent hyenidae relatives, which gives the bipedal gnolls a somewhat hunched appearance but also gives them their powerful build, which tapers down to their lithe lower bodies. Gnolls have forward-facing ears atop their heads and short, furry tails. A gnoll has sharp, piercing teeth that allow them to rip meat from the bone of their or other creatures’ kills, but their teeth and jaws are not strong enough to provide them a bite attack in combat. All gnolls have guttural voices when they normally speak, but, as gnolls become stressed or excited, their voices reach higher pitches and sound like manic laughter.

Gnolls wear whatever armor they scavenge, steal, or force slaves to fashion, so they often have mismatched pieces of varying quality they use for protection. Much like their armor, gnoll weapons are a mishmash of collected swords, spears, flails, and other weapons gnolls can easily wield.

Gnolls only lightly adorn themselves with jewelry and the like. They wear small earrings to differentiate themselves from other gnolls, but they do not wear anything overly large, as such objects could be a liability in a battle. The adults of certain tribes also brand themselves or use specific dyes from plants or berries to give their fur a peculiar shade. These adornments help identify their tribe members and outcasts— the latter’s brand being removed or obscured and/or their dye removed by shaving or painful abrasives.

Standard Racial Traits

  • Ability Score Modifiers: Gnolls are powerful physical specimens geared toward hunting and scavenging, though their mental faculties are not blunted but equivalent to many other races’. They gain +2 Strength, and +2 Constitution
  • Size: Gnolls are Medium creatures and receive no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
  • Type: Gnolls are humanoids with the gnoll subtype.
  • Base Speed: Gnolls have a base speed of 30 feet.
  • Languages: Gnolls begin play speaking Gnoll. Gnolls with a high Intelligence score can choose from the following: Abyssal, Common, Goblin, Orc. See the Linguistics skill page for more information about these languages.
  • Darkvision: Gnolls can see perfectly in the dark up to 60 feet.
  • Armor: Gnolls have a +1 natural armor bonus.

Feat and Skill Racial Traits

  • Weapon Familiarity: Gnolls are always proficient with any flail, including the dire flail, and they treat any weapon with the word “gnoll” in its name as a martial weapon.

Society: Gnolls live in nomadic tribes that roam the land searching for the most favorable places to scavenge or hunt in warm plains or deserts.

Most tribes separate into at least two smaller bands of 10 to 100 adult members and their non-combatant entourage, including children (an additional 50% of the band’s numbers); 5-8 hyenas; and 10-20 slaves.

Tribes can often contain up to 200 adults and have more slaves and 4-7 hyaenodons, though a charismatic leader can pull more individuals under his or her sway. The more successful gnoll tribes often establish semi-permanent settlements after putting their slaves to work building warrens, homes, rolling buildings pulled by slaves, and other structures—not to mention gathering supplies and water, or even hunting for the lazy gnolls. Separate gnoll tribes may have rivalries, but they rarely attack one another, and a gnoll never takes another gnoll as a slave, so a victorious gnoll band just absorbs defeated gnolls into the band, or slays them if they would burden the victorious gnolls’ resources.

The pack, band, or tribe is the most important thing to gnolls, and anything threatening the gnoll unit meets with strong resistance or— against a superior foe—dispersal. This unity extends through all aspects of gnoll life, and breaking that unity in any way constitutes the greatest sin in gnoll culture. Thus, a gnoll who kills another gnoll or betrays a gnoll to a racial enemy faces the most severe punishment: exile (and branding or other marking to indicate that a gnoll is an outcast). Due to the gnolls’ strong aversion to hard work, a gnoll faces exile if the gnoll forces another gnoll to work, steals from another gnoll, or kills another gnoll’s slave.

When a lone gnoll arrives at a gnoll encampment or settlement, the gnolls there inspect the new arrival for any markings that might call the gnoll out as an outcast.

Most outcast gnolls find their way to large population centers, where they attempt to quell the loneliness of exile and team up with others who might be tolerant of them. Perhaps counter intuitively, outcast gnolls do not band together, because gnolls regard exile so strongly that they reject other outcast gnolls while maintaining a strange sense of denial about their own situations. Gnolls regard any group of non-gnolls they have joined as their new tribe and try to spend as much time as possible with their new tribes-mates.

While gnolls have no literature of their own and do not bother with books other than as a means to keep a fire going during a chilly night, they have storytelling traditions they pass down to young gnolls. These stories tell of great deeds performed by powerful gnolls, but they mostly serve to remind the gnolls about the importance of pack unity and the price for betraying the pack. Another common moral of gnoll stories is the importance of getting other creatures to do their work for them, and these stories point to the most successful gnolls whose laziness has rewarded them. For some gnoll tribes, the oral traditions stretch back dozens of generations, so they might contain information about local events from a century or two prior.

In larger gnoll enclaves where slaves do the vast majority of work, including hunting, gnolls have time to engage in leisure activities. Most of the time, these activities involve betting on slaves in gladiatorial games, but occasionally gnolls turn to artistic pursuits. A gnoll’s idea of art consists mostly of body modifications, such as cropping or otherwise sculpting the ears; piercing and adornment of the ears, nose, or other body parts; branding; and fur dying. Gnolls also engage in painting, but they do not have the patience to fully express their visions, so their paintings are crude affairs, typically dealing with successful hunts. Gnolls dislike anything involving crafting, such as sculpture or woodwork, since that requires an effort beyond their comfort and attention level.

Child-rearing is a communal affair, and sometimes gnolls entrust the care and feeding of gnoll young to slaves. When a young gnoll reaches the age of eight, the gnoll travels with the rest of the viable hunters on a hunt. The elder gnolls hang back during the hunt and allow the prospective adult to do most of the work; if the gnoll survives the hunt, the pack considers the gnoll a full-grown adult. Gnolls have short lives and die of old age in their forties (see the included Age charts), but the vast majority never makes it through their twenties.

Gnolls treat their dead like they would any other dead creature and engage in cannibalism, but they may offer a brief ceremony for a revered member of the pack prior to devouring the fallen gnoll.

Gnolls have no livestock, unless they belong to a large tribe, and they have slaves who can tend to cows or sheep. Even then, gnolls have no patience for husbandry, and they usually devour their herds before they can produce any young to keep them viable. Gnolls prize hyenas and take the animals as companions on their hunts; most gnoll settlements feature roaming hyenas. In a surprise departure from their normal aversion to work, gnolls will spend time training their hyenas, which they sometimes consider more important than rearing their young.

Relations: Gnolls, due to their scavenging and slaving activities, have difficulty gaining acceptance by most civilized races. Many people avoid known gnoll-infested areas, and many crusaders have taken it upon themselves to eradicate what they see as a blight on the land. City-dwelling gnoll outcasts are met with suspicion or outright disdain, and they find it difficult to gain sympathy, especially from those victimized by gnoll slavers. Some outcast gnolls actively reform their views in order to fit into their new societies, but they occasionally revert to old habits, especially in times of stress. A gnoll’s insistence on eating, rather than burying or burning, the dead is particularly off-putting to most civilized people.

Gnolls regard other races as competitors for resources and attack weak, unprotected settlements for their resources and for slaves. They give strong, well-protected communities a wide berth, but they ambush caravans or travelers to or from those areas.

Outcast gnolls temper their views of other races in their attempt to join a new “pack,” and they get along with humans, half-orcs, and the occasional gnome or halfling. These gnolls find elves and half-elves too frail and aloof, and must see evidence of those races’ battle prowess before giving the fragile ones any respect. Outcast gnolls have difficulty with dwarves, whom the gnolls view as too rigid in their lawfulness, but these gnolls respect a dwarf’s loyalty to his or her clan.

Alignment and Religion: Gnolls are, with few exceptions, extremely selfish with respect to non-gnolls and tend toward evil. They also believe themselves beholden to no laws, except for whatever benefits their tribe most, making gnolls generally chaotic. Gnolls, when they choose to give honor to deities, worship gods and goddess who make their hunts easier, give them more bestial power, or control the weather. They actively distrust any follower of a deity who advocates hard work or toil as a means to prosperity.

Adventurers: Most gnolls who overcome their selfish natures with respect to other races prove to be valuable teammates in an adventuring party. Nearly all adventuring gnolls have been outcast from a gnoll band and seek out adventuring parties that give them a sense of belonging. Most gnolls come to understand they have to work and contribute to the party, but their laziness sometimes gets the better of them. Gnolls traditionally take on martial roles, with a strong preference for the ranger class, but they also make good barbarians and fighters. They are also drawn to divine magic and become clerics, druids, or (rarely) oracles; but they generally stay away from arcane magic, especially anything requiring them to read and study. Finally, gnolls have no aversion to sneaking around and using subterfuge, so they also make excellent rogues.

Male Names: Arrk, Gart, Grosh, Klarr, Mett, Parrn, Yarrig.

Female Names: Ayill, Geela, Neep, Nolf, Rill, Varl, Yeet.

Alternate Racial Traits

The following racial traits are available in lieu of existing gnoll traits, or they include a balancing effect if no replacement trait is listed.

  • Bite Attack: Gnolls with this racial trait gain the powerful jaws from their hyena heritage and can make a bite attack that deals 1d3 points of damage as a primary attack (or secondary attack, if the gnoll uses a weapon). This racial trait replaces the gnoll’s natural armor.
  • Carrion Finder: Gnolls have a natural affinity for carrion, since they feed on that more than on fresh kills. Gnolls with this racial trait gain the scent ability, but only in regard to corpses and badly wounded creatures (those reduced to 1/4, or less, of their total hit points). This racial trait partially replaces darkvision, replacing it with low-light vision.
  • Civilized: Outcast gnolls have learned to better integrate with society in an attempt to find a new pack. Gnolls with this racial trait gain a +2 bonus on Diplomacy and Sense Motive checks. This racial trait replaces weapon familiarity.
  • Feral: Gnolls with this trait give in to their animal natures at the expense of their intellects. A gnoll with this racial trait always has Perception and Stealth as class skills. In return for this racial trait, the gnoll starts with a -2 penalty to Intelligence.
  • Heat Acclimated: Gnolls are accustomed to the extreme temperatures of the plains and deserts they inhabit. Gnolls with this racial trait automatically succeed on Fortitude saves to avoid heat dangers for conditions up to and including severe heat. These gnolls have a more unsettling appearance and start with a -2 penalty to Charisma.
  • Hyena Friend: Gnolls and hyenas have a mutual respect for one another, and some gnolls truly embrace the bond between the two creatures. Gnolls with this racial trait gain a +2 racial bonus on Handle Animal checks with hyenas, and Handle Animal is always a class skill for them. This racial trait replaces weapon familiarity.
  • Information Hunter: Outcast gnolls who live in large settlements have learned to apply their hunting and scavenging instincts to more esoteric pursuits. Gnolls with this racial trait gain a +2 racial bonus on Diplomacy checks to gather information, and Knowledge (local) is always a class skill for them. This racial trait partially replaces darkvision, replacing it with low-light vision.
  • Light Build: Some gnolls are light and proportionately weaker but more agile. These gnolls start with a +2 bonus to Dexterity. This racial trait replaces the +2 Strength bonus.
  • Influential: Exceptionally clever gnolls take up the mantle of shaman for their tribes and use their gifts to more readily enslave gnoll captives. Gnolls with this racial trait gain a +2 bonus on Diplomacy checks and add +1 to the saving throw DCs for their spells of the enchantment school that they cast. This racial trait replaces weapon familiarity.
  • Loper: Gnolls find success by moving faster than their kin, sometimes at the expense of the thick fur protecting them. Gnolls with this racial trait gain a +10 bonus to their base speed, and they gain an additional +10 foot racial bonus when using the charge, run, or withdraw actions. This racial trait replaces the natural armor racial trait.
  • Savant: One out of every thousand gnoll births results in a hairless gnoll, which the gnoll tribe deems as a great portent for the tribe’s success. Gnolls with this racial trait start with +2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, and -2 Constitution, and they have a +1 racial bonus on all saving throws. This racial trait replaces the starting attribute bonuses.

Racial Subtypes

You can combine various alternate racial traits to create gnoll subraces or variant races, such as the following.

  • Desert Pack: Gnoll packs living in extreme desert conditions have adjusted to their environment, becoming lithe and agile in the process. Desert pack gnolls have the heat acclimated and light build traits.
  • Generational Outcast: In very rare circumstances, outcast gnolls will overlook the outcast status of other gnolls and associate with other exiled gnolls. Sometimes these associations result in unions that produce gnoll young who become accustomed to their parents’ gentrified life. Outcast pack gnolls have the civilized and information hunter racial traits.
  • Hairless Adept: Gnolls who do not prefer the company of less aggressive gnolls sometimes gather in packs of like-minded fellows, creating a formidable group that gathers slaves to do all their work for them. Hairless adept gnolls have the influential and savant racial traits.
  • Throwback: Some gnolls have not evolved much beyond their hyena forebears, or abandoned gnoll children sometimes regress to a wilder form.
  • Throwback gnolls have the bite attack and feral alternate racial traits.

Favored Class Options

Instead of receiving an additional skill rank or hit point whenever they gain a level in a favored class, gnolls have the option of choosing from a number of other bonuses, depending upon the character’s favored class.

The following options are available to gnolls who have the listed favored class, and unless otherwise stated, the bonus applies each time the favored class reward is selected.

Racial Archetypes

The following racial archetypes are available to gnolls:

New Racial Rules

The following options are available to gnolls. At the GM’s discretion, other appropriate races may use some of these new rules, especially considering that gnolls rarely create their own equipment.

Gnoll Equipment

The following items are useful for gnolls.

Anticoagulant Gel: Crafted from the saliva of various stinging insects and other creatures, this pungent rust-brown gel coats 1 medium weapon, 2 small weapons, or 20 pieces of ammunition per dose. Gnolls use this gel to further wear down their opponents and kill them that much quicker. When a weapon coated in the gel deals damage, it also inflicts bleed damage as well (1d4 for medium weapons, 1d3 for small weapons, 1 point for ammunition). Medium and small weapons lose the gel’s effects after 3 such hits, while ammunition only benefits once from the gel.

Battle Dye: Gnolls use this alchemical substance to induce fear in their foes and to thicken their fur, which provides extra protection. The solution must be shaken until it changes to the desired color, since gnolls’ various opponents respond to colors differently. After applying the dye, the wearer immediately gains a +4 alchemical bonus to Intimidate checks. It takes 1 minute for the dye to fully absorb into a gnoll’s fur and thicken, but, after that time, the wearer gains a +2 bonus to his natural armor. The armor bonus persists for 1 hour, while the Intimidate bonus lasts for 4 hours, or until the dye is washed off with one gallon of alcohol.

Hyena Whistle: Gnolls use this reed whistle in the training of a pack’s hyena companions, but gnolls can also hear the frequencies that whistle emits. This allows them to also use hyena whistles to coordinate attacks or pass information among each other without other humanoids noticing. A hyena whistle grants a +4 equipment bonus to Handle Animal checks made with hyenas, and a +2 equipment bonus to Handle Animal checks with other canids.

Triple Flail: This complicated gnoll weapon features three flail heads that an expert wielder can use to attack three separate opponents. A rare gnoll may receive divine inspiration to create one of these weapons, marking one of the few times a gnoll actively pursues manual labor. When the gnoll scores a critical hit with the weapon (or rolls a natural 19 or 20 on a successful disarm or trip maneuver), he may make one additional melee attack (at the same target or another target within reach) as a free action. This attack uses his highest attack bonus and suffers a -5 penalty to the attack roll. The weapon can grant a maximum of two such bonus attacks per round.

Gnoll Special Materials

A pack of gnolls stumbled upon a meteorite containing an anti-gravitic metal ore that makes their lives easier, and they shared this ore with other gnolls. Naturally, gnolls in possession of the ore force slaves to craft weapons and armor from it.

Anti-Gravitic Ore: Anti-gravitic ore is a rare form of iron that seems to resist the world’s gravitational pull. Working this ore into metal armor and weapons is extremely difficult due to the ore’s behavior during smithing, so smiths usually blend the ore with normal iron to help keep it from pushing off an anvil or workbench.

The resulting material is as tough as anything crafted from iron and it can be tempered into steel just as raw iron can. However, it is extremely lightweight, making it easier to move around in armor and to wield or throw weapons. This reduces spell failure chances for armors made from anti-gravitic ore by 5% (to a minimum of 5%), increases maximum Dexterity bonuses allowed by the armor by 3, and decreases armor check penalties by 3 (to a minimum of 0). A thrown weapon or ammunition crafted from this metal increases the range increment by 50% (a thrown spear has a 30-ft. range increment as opposed to a 20-ft. range increment, for example). Melee weapons made from anti-gravitic ore are lighter, so one-handed melee weapons are treated as light weapons, and two-handed weapons are treated as one-handed weapons. This does not affect the ability to wield a one-handed or two-handed weapon with two hands. For other metal items, anti-gravitic ore reduces its weight by half.

Items fashioned from anti-gravitic ore are always masterwork items. Light armor made with the ore costs an additional 800 gp, medium armor costs an additional 1,600 gp, and heavy armor costs an additional 2,400 gp. Weapons cost an additional 500 gp, while ammunition costs and additional 10 gp per item. Finally, other items produced from anti-gravitic ore cost an additional 400 gp per pound. Anti-gravitic ore has 20 hit points per inch of thickness and hardness 10.

Table: Gnoll Equipment
Item Cost Weight Craft DC
Anticoagulant Gel 150 gp 1/2 lb. 25
Battle Dye 120 gp 1 lb. 20
Hyena Whistle 25 gp
Table: Gnoll Weapons
Name Type Cost Dmg (S) Dmg (M) Crit Weight Damage Type Special
Triple flail Exotic two-handed melee weapon 120 gp 1d6 1d8 19-20, x2 13 lbs. B disarm, trip

Gnoll Feats

Gnolls are considered to meet the prerequisites for the Ironguts, Ironhide, Keen Scent, and Smell Fear feats. They additionally have access to the following racial feats.

Bone-Crushing Jaws

Your jaws have strengthened so much that your bite is deadly.

Prerequisites: Str 11, gnoll.

Benefit: You gain a bite attack that deals 1d4 points of damage, plus your Strength modifier.

If you have the bite attack racial trait, your bite damage improves to 1d6. You are considered proficient with this attack and can apply feats or effects that modify natural attacks to your bite.

If used as part of a full attack action, the bite is considered a secondary attack and is made at your full base attack bonus -5, and it adds only half you Strength modifier to damage.

Carrion Eater’s Resilience

Your steady diet of carrion has improved your overall resistance to harmful substances.

Prerequisites: Con 13, Ironguts, gnoll.

Benefit: You gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against ingested poisons, which stacks with the bonus provided by Ironguts.

Additionally, you gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against all disease; this bonus improves to +4 on saving throws against diseases inflicted by ingesting tainted material.

Finally, once per week, you may reroll a failed save against a disease, but you must use the second result even if it is lower.

Desert Runner

In your native desert and savannah environments, you are unmatched in speed.

Prerequisites: Con 13, gnoll.

Benefit: You gain a +5-foot racial bonus to your base speed when you travel through desert or plains terrain. Additionally, you gain the benefits of the Run feat while in those terrains.

Special: You may take this feat an additional time, which adds +5 feet to your base speed.

This also increases your run multiplier by 1, and grants you an additional +4 bonus to your Acrobatics checks for jumping after a running start.

Disturbing Foe (Combat)

Your unsettling appearance and horrific laughter potentially disrupt spellcasting.

Prerequisites: Unsettling Foe (below), fighter 8, gnoll.

Benefit: As a full-round action, you can make an Intimidate check, which applies the +4 bonus from the Unsettling Foe feat and that forces all spellcasters within a 60-foot radius who can see or hear you to succeed at a concentration check (DC equal to your Intimidate check) to cast a spell. This effect lasts until the beginning of your next turn.

Hyena Whisperer

You can speak with and understand hyenas.

Prerequisites: Gnoll, hyena friend racial trait or animal companion class feature.

Benefit: You gain a +4 racial bonus on Handle Animal checks for hyenas, and you can communicate with hyenas at will as if you cast speak with animals.

Hyaenodon Rider

You are particularly adept at riding dire hyenas.

Prerequisites: Ride 1 rank, gnoll.

Benefit: You gain a +2 racial bonus on Ride checks and you gain the benefit of the Mounted Combat feat when you are mounted on a dire hyena.

If you already have the Mounted Combat feat, you gain the benefit of a feat that requires Mounted Combat as a prerequisite (provided you meet all other prerequisites) while mounted on a dire hyena.

Pack Tactician

Your pack mentality allows you to apply tactical benefits to others in your party.

Prerequisites: Any teamwork feat, gnoll.

Benefit: As a standard action you grant one of your teamwork feats to an ally within 30 feet who can hear and see you. This effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to 3 + your Intelligence bonus (if any).

Special: This feat may be taken more than once.

For every time you take this feat, you can designate an additional ally to gain a teamwork feat, which must be the same feat for each ally. You still grant the feat as a standard action.

Spotter (Combat, Teamwork)

Your ally helps you make subtle corrections to your targeting with distance weapons.

Prerequisites: Gnoll.

Benefit: When you stand adjacent to an ally with this feat, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to your ranged attacks. You also benefit from Point-Blank Shot, Far Shot, or Precise Shot, if your ally has the applicable feat.

Throwdown Trip (Combat)

You have learned how to knock the breath out of an opponent that you trip.

Prerequisites: Tripping Bite (below) (or Int 13, Combat Expertise, Improved Trip), gnoll.

Benefit: If you successfully trip an opponent, you force your foe to succeed at a Fortitude save (DC equal to CMB result) or become staggered until the end of his next turn.

Tripping Bite (Combat)

You have tapped into your hyena heritage and learned how to trip a foe that you successfully bite.

Prerequisites: Bite attack, gnoll.

Benefit: You gain the trip special attack, which allows you to trip an opponent as a free action, without provoking an attack of opportunity, when you hit with your bite attack.

Your opponent may not attempt to trip you in return. You also gain a +2 bonus to CMB roll when making a trip attempt after biting your foe.

Normal: You can only attempt a trip attempt in place of a melee attack, and it provokes an attack of opportunity from your target.

Unsettling Foe (Combat)

When you are in combat, you take on a demented appearance, which, combined with your shrill laughter, throws your opponents off.

Prerequisites: +1 base attack bonus, gnoll.

Benefit: You gain a +4 bonus to Intimidate checks to demoralize your opponents, and you can demoralize opponents who can see or hear you.

Normal: You may only demoralize foes who can see and hear you.

Gnoll Magic Items

Gnolls have access to the following weapon special abilities and magic items.

Disentangling (Weapon Special Ability)

Aura: moderate abjuration; CL 7th

DESCRIPTION

Gnolls prefer to fight from an advantage, and the best way they can achieve this is by tripping their opponents. If a gnoll fails to trip an opponent with a melee weapon, the gnoll may face a trip attempt in return or lose the weapon. This special ability, which can only be applied to weapons with the trip special feature, alleviates this concern by unwrapping itself at the wielder’s mental command. If the wielder of a disentangling weapon fails to trip an opponent, the opponent cannot trip the wielder in return.

CONSTRUCTION REQUIREMENTS

Feats Craft Magic Arms and Armor; Spells freedom of movement; Price: +1 bonus.

Cloak of Sands

Aura: strong evocation and transmutation; CL 13th; Slot shoulders; Price: 30,000 gp; Weight: 2 lbs.

DESCRIPTION

This light brown cloak grants its wearer a +5 bonus to Survival checks in the desert. Once per day, the wearer can change into a cloud of sand, allowing the wearer to move through spaces as if she were three size categories smaller without penalty. She is considered to be incorporeal and cannot make any weapon attacks. While she is in sand form, she can fly 30 feet per round and create a stinging sandstorm with a 10-foot radius centered on her that deals 3d6 points of piercing damage to all creatures in the sandstorm. She remains in sand form for a total of 13 rounds, or until she dismisses the ability. If a strong wind strikes the area her sandstorm covers, this reduces the total duration by 1 round.

CONSTRUCTION REQUIREMENTS

Feats Craft Wondrous Item; Spells: dust form, scouring winds; Cost: 15,000 gp

Desert Jasper Hyena (Figurine of Wondrous Power)

Aura: moderate conjuration, enchantment, and transmutation; CL 11th; Slot none; Price: 12,000 gp; Weight: 1 lb.

DESCRIPTION

This fist-sized piece of desert jasper bears a remarkable resemblance to a laughing hyena.

Upon command, it transforms into a hyena or a dire hyena. Either form has Improved Trip as a bonus feat and can use unnerving laughter once per activation. A desert jasper hyena can be used once per day for up to 1 hour. After three transformations into its dire hyena form, the figurine loses all its magical properties.

CONSTRUCTION REQUIREMENTS

Feats Craft Wondrous Item; Spells: animate objects, unnerving laughter; Cost: 6,000 gp

Harpoon of Capturing

Aura: moderate conjuration and divination; CL 9th; Slot: none; Price: 21,905 gp; Weight: 16 lbs.

DESCRIPTION

This +1 distance merciful harpoon explodes in a spray of tentacles when it strikes a target. The tentacles have a +14 CMB and CMD 24, only target the creature struck (or a 5-foot square if the harpoon misses), and deal 1d6+4 points of nonlethal damage to the target each round the target is grappled. The tentacles remain for 9 rounds before the harpoon returns to its original form.

CONSTRUCTION REQUIREMENTS

Feats Craft Magic Arms and Armor; Spells: black tentacles, clairaudience/clairvoyance, cure light wounds; Cost: 11,105 gp

Gnoll Cleric Subdomains

Gnoll clerics typically express their animal natures more fully than the gnolls they lead. These clerics often take the Animal domain or the Fur subdomain, but they are drawn to the Demon, Ferocity, Murder, or Rage subdomains as well.

Additionally, gnolls have access to the following subdomain.

Ferocity Subdomain

Associated Domain: Animal

Replacement Power: The following granted power replaces the speak with animals power of the Animal domain.

Bestial Fury (Su)

You gain an enhancement bonus on Intimidate checks equal to 1/2 your cleric level (minimum +1). Additionally, if you exceed the DC to demoralize an opponent by 5 or more, you can cause the opponent to become frightened for a number of rounds equal to half the duration you would have made the opponent shaken (minimum 1 round). You can use the enhanced demoralize ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + you Wisdom modifier.

Replacement Domain Spells: 1st—bristle, 2nd—animal aspect, 4th—beast shape II, 8th—frightful aspect.

Gnoll Spells

Gnoll rangers add deathwatch to the ranger spell list as a 1st-level spell. Gnolls also have access to the following spells.

Blessed Hunt

School enchantment (compulsion) [mind-affecting]; Level cleric 4, ranger 4

CASTING

Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, DF

EFFECT

Range 60 ft.
Target The caster and all allies within a 60-ft. burst, centered on the caster
Duration 1 hour/level (see text)
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance yes (harmless)

DESCRIPTION

While casting this spell, you designate a target or group of targets no larger than 6 individuals, which you have in your line of sight or you know. For the duration of the spell, each of your allies gains a +2 luck bonus on attack and damage rolls against the designated target(s). Additionally, all your allies gain a +4 luck bonus to Survival checks to follow tracks belonging to the target(s). If your allies are untrained in Survival, they can attempt to follow these tracks even if the DC exceeds 10. When you and your allies successfully kill or capture your designated prey, the spell ends.

Bloodlust

School transmutation; Level ranger 2

CASTING

Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, DF

EFFECT

Range touch
Target one creature
Duration 1 minute/level
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes

DESCRIPTION

When you cast this spell, you impart your hatred for a favored enemy to a target creature or you bolster your own hatred. If you target a creature other than yourself with this spell, it grants your favored enemy bonuses to the target for one of your favored enemies. If the target has the favored enemy class feature and already has the chosen favored enemy, the bonuses do not stack; it uses the best favored enemy bonus. If you target yourself, it increases your favored enemy bonuses for all favored enemies by +2.

Unnerving Laughter

School transmutation; Level bard 1, ranger 1

CASTING

Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M (hyena jaw), DF

EFFECT

Range touch
Target creature touched
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless) and see text; Spell Resistance yes

DESCRIPTION

The transformed creature gains a hyenalike laugh that proves disturbing to opponents hearing it. This laugh does not negatively affect the target’s ability to speak or cast spells. The target may laugh as a standard action, causing any creature within 30 feet of the target to become shaken for the duration if it fails its Will save (DC as the save DC for the unnerving laughter). A creature that successfully saves is immune to this effect for 24 hours. Additionally, the transformed creature gains an enhancement bonus to Intimidate checks equal to half the caster level (minimum +1). If the transmuted creature successfully demoralizes an opponent who has become shaken as a result of this spell, the opponent instead becomes frightened.

Unnerving Laughter, Mass

School transmutation; Level bard 4, ranger 4

CASTING

Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Targets one creature/level, no two of which can be more than 30 ft. apart

DESCRIPTION

This spell functions like unnerving laughter, except that it affects multiple creatures, and each targeted creature that attempts to demoralize an opponent grants a +2 circumstance bonus to any other targeted creature that attempts to demoralize the same opponent.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Christina Stiles Presents: Races Revised – Cackle of the Gnolls, ©2013 Super Genius Games; Author: Mike Welham; Text ©2013 Christina Stiles.

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