The Completist's Guide to Humanoid Characters
| Author | Iain Fyffe |
| Publisher | Fifth Element Games |
| Publish date | 2008 |
| OGL Section 15 | cghc |
The material below is designated as Open Game Content
Gnolls are vicious hunters and scavengers. They are nocturnal carnivores, preferring intelligent creatures for food because they scream more. Larger than most Medium humanoids, they use intimidation and aggression as weapons whenever possible. They are wild and uncivilized, and quick to anger.
Gnolls like to attack when they have the advantage of numbers, using horde tactics and their physical strength to overwhelm and knock down their opponents. They show little discipline when fighting unless they have a strong leader; at such times, they can maintain ranks and fight as a unit. While they do not usually prepare traps, they do use ambushes and try to attack from a flanking position.
Gnolls are well-known slavers. They take slaves both for their own use and for sale to other evil beings. Gnoll slaver parties conduct frequent raids on goblin and human villages, finding them to be plentiful and relatively easy prey.
GNOLL TRAITS
Gnoll characters have the following racial traits.
• Strength +2, Intelligence -2, Charisma -2.
• Medium size: As Medium creatures, gnolls have no special modifiers due to their size.
• Gnoll base land speed is 30 feet.
• Darkvision (Ex): Gnolls can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but is otherwise like normal sight, and gnolls can function just fine with no light at all.
• +1 natural armour bonus.
• Gnolls receive Toughness as bonus feat.
• Weapon Proficiency: Gnolls receive the Martial Weapon Proficiency feats for the flail and heavy flail as bonus feats.
• Weapon Familiarity: Gnolls may treat dire flails as martial weapons, rather than exotic weapons.
• Automatic Languages: Gnoll. Bonus Languages: Common, Draconic, Elven, Goblin, Orc.
• Favoured Class: Ranger. A multiclass gnoll’s ranger class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.
GNOLL ADVANCEMENT
A gnoll who takes levels in his racial class uses the following game rule information.
Hit Die: d8.
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier (x4 if 1st level is the character's 1st character level).
Class Skills: Craft (Int), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Search (Int), Spot (Wis).
Table XIV: Gnoll Racial Levels
| Level | Attack | Fort | Ref | Will | Special |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | +0 | +2 | +2 | +0 | Constitution boost |
| 2nd | +1 | +3 | +3 | +0 | Flail focus |
| 3rd | +2 | +3 | +3 | +1 | Strength boost |
| 4th | +3 | +4 | +4 | +1 | Flail specialization |
| 5th | +3 | +4 | +4 | +1 | Improved darkvision, natural armour +2 |
Weapon and Armour Proficiency: Gnolls with racial class levels are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with light armour, and with shields (but not tower shields).
Constitution Boost: At 1st level, a gnoll's Constitution score increases by 2 points.
Flail Focus: At 2nd level, a gnoll gains Weapon Focus as a bonus feat for the flail, heavy flail or dire flail. The gnoll must be proficient with the type of flail selected. If the gnoll already has Weapon Focus with at least one type of flail, he can instead gain Weapon Specialization with that type of flail, even if he does not meet the normal requirements.
Strength Boost: At 3rd level, a gnoll's Strength score increases by 2 points.
Flail Specialization: At 4th level, a gnoll gains Weapon Specialization as a bonus feat for the flail, heavy flail or dire flail. The gnoll must be proficient with the type of flail selected, and must also have Weapon Focus with the type of flail selected.
Improved Darkvision: At 5th level, a gnoll's darkvision range increases by 30 feet.
Natural Armour: At 5th level, a gnoll's natural armour bonus increases to +2.
Balancing the Gnoll
If we compare a 3rd-level gnoll using these rules to a standard gnoll, which is ECL 3 (2 HD + 1 Level Adjustment), we find the 3rd-level gnoll has 7 (+Con modifier) more hit points, +1 better base attack bonus, +1 better Reflex saves, 2 extra feats (including Weapon Focus with a flail), and 2 (+Int modifier) more skill points. This is clearly superior; however, the standard gnoll's +1 LA appears to be a bit high, so these rules should not be unbalancing.
