D&D 5E: Naught, adventuring minotaur

Naught was born under peculiar circumstances, a homunculi body forged into the form of a minotaur by the Lich Malenkin and later liberated from the Lich's tower by a group of errant adventurers who had no place poking their nose into his affairs. Naught was forged into his form of a minotaur and so has no understanding of their culture, their ways or even their language and mannerisms; he is a tabula rasa of sorts, learning about the world as he travels along.

So far Naught, who took the name to reflect that he was neither a minotaur nor a homunculi any longer, has spent some time studying sword and spell under the adventurers who liberated him. They have been perplexed by his hesitance to fight, though it eventually became clear that Naught's problem stemmed from the innate fear that the homunculi feel at being around any truly living things.

Because of his odd upbringing as a mad lich's experiment, Naught's time in the tower taught him core survival skills (rogue). His subsequent time with his liberators has introduced him to the more martial skills, with some dabbling in magic. However, their training has focused entirely on fighting with a single long sword and some minor magic. This has led Naught to favor a duelist's style, which is unusual for his race.

Naught (Source)

Naught
Minotaur (shifted homunculi), Rogue Level 1, Fighter level 3
Medium male minotaur (8 feet tall), albino skin and fur
Background: Wizard's Experiment
Str 17 (+3), Dex 13 (+1), Con 12 (+1), Int 14 (+2), Wis 9 (-1), Cha 10 (0)
Proficiency +2; Saves: Str, Dex, Con, Int
Hit Dice: 1D8+3D10 (+4); Hit Points: 31 Armor Class: 15 (14 natural plus Dex)

Languages: Common (Mercurian), Homunculi's Tongue, Minotaurish

Skills: Arcana +4, Athletics +5, History +4, Perception +1, Sleight of Hand +3, Stealth +5

Proficiency: Light armor, medium armor, shields, simple weapons, martial weapons, thieves tools (expertise)

Rogue Abilities: Expertise (Stealth, Thieves Tools), Sneak Attack (1D6), Thieves Cant (special: Homunculi language)

Fighter Abilities: Fighting Style: Dueling, Second Wind, Action Surge, Archetype: Champion (improved critical)

Minotaur Abilities: reckless, charge, gore attack (2D8+Str), darkvision 60 feet

Feats: Magic Initiate (wizard spells: Blade Ward, Mending and Comprehend Languages)

Background - Wizard's Experiment Traits: Odd familiarity: once per long rest naught can apply advantage to an untrained Arcana check on something magical, be it an item, piece or lore, or odd fact.

Armor: Naught wears only a loose tunic and leather harness. He favors his natural armor (AC 14) and dexterity.

Weapon of Choice: longsword +1 (+6 attack; 1D8+6 single-handed, or 1D10+4 as a two-handed versatile weapon; Crits on 19-20) or Gore (2D8+3 damage, possible extra 2D8 charge damage)

Duelist and Gore: for purposes of Duelist I am interpreting it literally that a duelist must be wielding a one-handed weapon to get the bonus, and gore does not qualify for it.

Design Notes: Naught is an ongoing NPC in my Saturday game. His development is based on what he's exposed to in the course of play, ergo his rogue, then fighter-duelist choices. His Champion option is based on expedience; it's much easier to adjudicate a champion fighter in play which requires none of the extra work of the other fighter archetypes. Likewise, his magic initiate feats, while based on what was taught to him, reflect a combination of what Naught could learn and what he would personally find useful; Naught is indeed "not" a real minotaur in many ways, so his spells reflect the interests of a being that began as a tiny homunculus and was eventually forged for sadistic amusement by the lich Malenkin into a giant of a being with no understanding of its own heritage. Naught really, really wants to learn what it means to be a real minotaur....but he still has yet to meet a live one!

30 Days of Dungeons & Dragons Day 9

Day 9: Favorite Character I haven't Played

This one looks easy on the surface but in truth it's a bit hard. I'm interpreting it to mean "a character one of my cohorts has played, which I was impressed by." There are a few worth mentioning...such as my sister's character from back in the day, the wood elf thief and mage Womie who stole from the gods and anyone else he could. There's my friend Mark's many characters, including his most recent, the barbarian half-orc Skullcrusher. There was Maretz the CoDzilla from 2006, or Jeff's Marlonius Kord, madman fighter with a chaotic taint. So many cool characters over the years!

Of all the amazing characters I've seen in action I will give this honor to my friend Dave's Mardieur Mardieux, the dirge-singing tattooed Huron Minotaur of Chirak, a ranger by profession and ex-slave making his way throughout the world of Chirak with his axe and wits to guide him. Mardieur started in 1996 with the AD&D 2nd edition revival of Chirak, and remained a principle character in almost every Chirak game through 2005. Mardieur had a very good run, and was semi-retired (sort of, his journey technically awaits a continuation) at level 27, with some multi-classing into wizard, and a divine zodiac stone in his possession.

Mardieur Mardieux had the following cool features:

1. big hair minotaur, who tattooed himself with memories of particularly impressive victories
2. sang dirges while battling to aid the freshly slain on their speedy journey to the afterlife
3. founded "Villa Mardieu," in Mercurios, a winery and hospice for wayward adventurers
4. Owned the Cannadad Dei for much of his career before giving it to allies and taking off on foot
5. Came to possess the Akquinarios Stone, and began the path of the avatar toward godhood
6. Was killed mid-career and his body possessed by the spirit of the betrayer god Minhauros; his soul was captured and given to the lich Halistrak as a gift; Mardieur and his cohorts had to spend a year in captivity learning how to convince the errant familiar of the lich to release their souls into unformed homunculi bodies to allow them to come back to life (and seek revenge)...this was a huge plot twist and I lost one player over it
7. late in life once took on a colossal scorpion and killed it in 2 rounds; once took on 400 orcs lead by 12 level 20 warlords and killed them in four rounds

The B/X D&D Project Part VI: Minotaur Racial Class

Source

It's back! After a bit of an absence I feel the urge to write some more about Basic/Expert D&D. I have acquired PDFs of the remaining Basic series modules, as well as the Creature Catalog and the D&D Rules Cyclopedia. Many of the modules I have never owned before, but I once held the D&D Rules Cyclopedia and CC in my collection....ah, if only the years hadn't been so unkind to my library over time!

The Minotaur Racial Class

For this installment I present a racial class for minotaurs. The D&D minotaur is a ferocious, not often smart brute that eats humans and is very determined. The mintoaur presented in the D&D Rules Cyclopedia is a creature with a 5 intelligence and a minimum of 16 strength to reflect its damage bonus with weapons. The typical minotaur stands around 8 feet in height and can fight with weapons, gore and bite. Finally they save as level 6 fighters.

To make minotaurs into a playable race we'll assume that the bit about "minotaurs of greater intelligence" is actually typical of PC minotaurs; your average NPC minotaur may be a brute, but its the smart ones that tend to be more agreeable with other humanoids, or to seek out a better station for themselves in life apart from running down and eating men in dark catacombs. We will also assume that the average minotaur presented in the core rules is actually a level 6 minotaur; a PC class minotaur actually begins at first level with 1 hit die like any other adventurer.

Prerequisites: When rolling stats, minotaurs must have a minimum of 9 strength and constitution with no upper limit. Their intelligence score will fall between 3 and 16, as will their charisma. Minotaurs have no limits on other stats.

Class Advancement: minotaurs roll D8 for hit dice at each level, through level 10. After level 10 they gain 3 hit points per level thereafter. Minotaurs can advance to level 15 before they are maxed out (at the DM's discretion). They advance as fighters for purposes of experience points per level. Likewise, minotaurs gain saving throws as a fighter, but roll on the monster attack matrix, and use their active hit dice to determine THAC0 hit numbers; if the minotaur gains a CON modifier bonus to hit dice that is factored in (so a level 3 minotaur with a +1 CON modifier per level is treated as "3+ to 4" on the chart).

Weapon Skills and Armor: Minotaurs are familiar with all weapons, but tend to favor spears, clubs and axes. They are also familiar with all armor, but a minotaur has to pay four times the cost for a suit of armor that is properly sized for his unique shape and height.

Natural Attacks: any minotaur can attempt a gore and bite attack in a round, each of which deals 1D6 damage.

Natural Armor: minotaurs have tough skin, and a natural AC of 6. Minotaurs will always default to the better AC of either worn armor or natural armor, but they do not stack for effect.

Combat Maneuvers: if using these rules, minotaurs gain access to combat maneuvers at level 15, but in the same manners as dwarves do at level 12, including two attacks per round, and advance in the same fashion as dwarves from this point.

Spellcasters: a minotaur which meets the prerequisites for clerics (shamans) or magic users (wokani) may advance as spellcasters in addition to their regular advancement. To advance as a shaman, the minotaur advances as described above, but also must pay the full XP cost for advancement through level 4 as a cleric at the same time, and gains none of the cleric benefits except for spell casting. After level 4 the minotaur shaman can continue to advance as a minotaur, but no longer pays the supplemental cost for the four levels of cleric; at the DM's option a high-wisdom minotaur could continue to pay XP for cleric levels up to a level equal to wisdom minus 10 (so max level 8). Likewise, a minotaur wizard, or wokani, is limited to level 2 in the same manner, gains only the spell advancement, and may continue to advance as a regular minotaur after maxing out; a higher intelligence may optionally allow for higher advancement in the same manner, to a maximum of level 6.

Note that the XP cost for advancement in these classes is tallied separately from the minotaur class XP accrual; all XP earned while advancing in both classes is split evenly.

Shamans and Wokani have limited spell lists; the lists are on page 216 of the D&D Rules Cyclopedia; if you're using an older set like B/X, just use the cleric and magic user lists, instead.

Minotaur Advancement:

Level   Minotaur Warrior    Minotaur Shaman                Minotaur Wokani         
2           2,000                         2,000+1,500                           2,000+2,500
3           4,000                         4,000+3,000                           4,000+5,000** (Int 13)
4           8,000                         8,000+ 6,000                          8,000+10,000** (Int 14)
5           16,000                       16,000+12,000*(Wis 15)       16,000+20,000** (Int 15)
6           32,000                       32,000+25,000*(Wis 16)       32,000+40,000** (Int 16)
7           64,000                       64,000+50,000*(Wis 17)       as minotaur warrior only
8           120,000                     120,000+100,000*(Wis 18)
9           240,000                     as minotaur warrior only
10         360,000
11         480,000
12         600,000
13         720,000
14         840,000             Attack Rank
15          960,000*            C
             1,080,000           D
             1,200,000           E
             1,320,000           F
             1,440,000           G
             1,560,000           H
             1,680,000           I
             1,800,000           J
             1,920,000           K
             2,040,000           L
             2,160,000          M

*add cleric XP cost per level if the DM allows optional advancement by Wisdom score
**add wizard XP cost per level if the DM allows optional advancement by Intelligence score
*** advancement through level 15 as per XP requirements on the fighter chart

Other Notes: minotaurs are not often accepted in society, though some cultures may be more or less used to them depending on circumstances; some regions may know little of the bloodthirsty subterranean minotaurs and find a bull-headed man to be a novelty, others may fear them due to frequent raids, or know them only as gladiator slaves in the arenas. DMs should weigh carefully reactions to minotaurs in humanocentric regions, or areas devastated by monster attacks.