Playable Races from our Deep Dive Series
I was scrolling through the Deep Dives the other day - I can’t believe we’ve been doing this since 2018! - and thought about which of the creatures we have profiled someone could reasonably be able to play as a character race. In this current iteration of Dungeons & Dragons, it feels like you could play practically anything, as the list has grown to over 40 playable character races in the 5th edition. It might be a bit difficult to be a beholder or lich since you could slaughter most everything out of the gate, but there were a few creatures from our list that could be reasonably converted to a playable race.
The two we’ll be taking a look at today are the giff and the gnoll. I’ve linked both to their respective Deep Dive, and I recommend you take a second to read them. Both are fascinating creatures and are surprisingly easy to adapt into a race for your brand new fighter, monk, wizard, or whatever. Being able to play a gun-toting hippo-humanoid sounds quite fun, and if you think the tiefling has a fiendish side, just wait till you get a glimpse at the gnoll.
Giff
I won’t get overly detailed on how amazing the Giff is, as it would be redundant with most of the information found in the Deep Dive. Here are the basics. The Giff is a race of hippopotamus humanoids. Some people may love shiny armor, and others never leave home without their trusty sword, but the Giff are crazy about gunpowder. If it goes boom, whether it’s a musket or barrel with a fuse that’s filled with 50 pounds of the stuff, the Giff will have it or want it. They living in a rigid military-style society, following orders, even if it means certain death. The Giff don’t necessarily go looking for others to go to war with. Instead, they are a highly desired group of mercenaries. So if you need an army that doesn’t mind sacrificing itself and you have enough gunpowder to pay them with, you’ve arrived at your destination.
As a playable character race, the Giff make great fighters as their Strength increases by 2, and their Constitution goes up by 1. Because they live in a world where strict hierarchy and order are valued above almost everything else, your Giff is going to be of Lawful Alignment. That’s not to say that there aren’t rogue Giff pirates in the world, but they are far and few between.
The Giff can live into their 70’s but let’s be honest. There is an excellent chance that you’ll either blow yourself up or die in glorious battle. If you blow yourself up, it will make quite a mess, with the Giff being upwards of 8 feet tall and weighing 700 pounds. Maybe if you’re that big, you could survive the blast, depending on how much gunpowder you stuffed into the barrel. While not the spriest creature in existence, the Giff isn’t some lumbering hulk either, and your walking speed is a pedestrian 30 feet.
Your military background grants you proficiency in two of the following - Athletics, History, Intimidation, or Survival. Not surprisingly, you also have proficiency in all things firearms. Being a hippo-humanoid also comes with a couple of benefits, mainly revolving around that big hard head of yours. Most creatures make their unarmed strikes with fists or legs, but as a Giff, you can headbutt someone so hard they will end up seeing stars for hours. Don’t worry if they are 20 feet away since you also have a Headbutt Charge trait. If you decide to Dash on your turn and move at least 20 feet, you can use your bonus action to slam your massive cranium into the unfortunate individual in your way.
Gnoll
One must first be willing to move past their chaotic evil origins if they wish to play a gnoll. Playable character gnolls have broken free from the influence of their god Yeenoghu. Any god with the monikers Ruler of Ruin, Destroyer, and Lord of Savagery is someone you might not want to be affiliated with if you try to be accepted into civilized culture. Gnolls are the subject of intense racism, as are many of the other monstrous races. They are barely tolerated by most humanoid races but have established friendly relationships with the bugbear, hobgoblin, and orc races. While most are unable to shed their chaotic nature, some have broken away entirely and are of neutral alignment.
Family is everything to a gnoll, and bloodline and clan affiliations determine who they are the most loyal to among other gnolls. The markings on a gnoll’s hide consist of spots and stripes, and the shapes and patterns of these markings identify their family relationships. I had forgotten how important family was to these creatures, so even though all the racist humanoids may shun them, at least they’ve got family.
While they may appear skinny and weak, the gnoll has a toughness and agility that you won’t see right away. This is further accentuated by the fact that even the shortest gnoll stands 7 feet tall, making them look even more gaunt. In battle, though, these traits show through with the gnoll seemingly hitting above their weight class. As a playable character race, their Strength increases by 2, and their Dexterity goes up by 1.
Now I looked through a bunch of homebrewed gnoll races during my research. Many were very good but a little too cookie-cutter for my tastes. Many have the bite and rampage traits, and while they fit perfectly with the race based on their history and description in the Monster Manual, I wanted to do something different from just cutting and pasting.
In Dragon Magazine #364 (June 2008), the Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Yeenoghu delves into the Beast of Butchery’s history and lore. One of the things it loved to do was curse its foes by insulting them, striking fear into them before the battle started. This is reinforced in Volo’s Guide to Monster’s (Nov. 2016), so I wanted the gnoll to be able to use the vicious mockery cantrip. Stephen pointed out that it seemed odd to give the race the bard’s signature spell. He was entirely correct, so I went back to the drawing board. The result was the gnoll being able to cast the primal savagery cantrip. This allowed me to utilize the bite aspect of the gnoll without being a typical old bite. In general, acid damage seems weird for this cantrip, but I decided to run with it.
In Out of the Abyss (Sept. 2015), the stat block for Yeenoghu shows that the god can cast the cause fear and invisibility spells 3 times a day, so I figured those fit right in with what I was trying to accomplish. I wish there was a low-level spell where metal spikes rose out of the ground (Yeenoghu loved to use this as an attack and then mount your head on the spike after it killed you). Sure there’s spike growth, but a bunch of wooden brambles and thorns just didn’t do it for me.
So there are two playable character races pulled from our Deep Dive series. As always, I look forward to your feedback and constructive criticism, as it can only improve the quality of my work.
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