Topics

Overview

Overview information about humanoids.   What do all animals have in common?   Person?   Shared characteristics   Shared attacks   Shared defences  

Humanoid Habitation by Terrain

Humanoid
Hills/Mtns
Grassland
Desert
Forest
Jungle
Lake/River
Swamp
Bugbear
Gnoll
Goblin
Hobgoblin
Kobold
Lizard Man
Neanderthal
Ogre
Orc
Troglodyte
Troll
* Indicates a saurian humanoid.  

Cannon Fodder Variants

Humanoids are often employed as cannon fodder for boss-level foes—these are the low-level minions that throw themselves at the party to thwart their plans. The challenge is keeping them memorable, otherwise every group of orcs or kobolds or goblins start to seem like the same encounter.   To make cannon fodder more interesting (but not over-powered), roll 1d6 below, then 1d4 to assign a special trait:  
  1. Special defence (d4: 1 acid for blood; 2 damages weapons when struck; 3 immune to specific material or attack type; 4 force field protects fodder as long as they don’t attack)
  2. Special result when killed (d4: 1 petrifaction, binding weapons into body; 2 noxious corpse; 3 reanimate in 1d4 rounds; 4 useful body part)
  3. Special role (d4: 1 soldier caste – bonus to attack and damage; 2 scout caste – sneaky with ranged strike; 3 tank caste- slow but takes a beating while it delivers massive damage every other round; 4 thinker caste – directs allies until killed)
  4. Special ability (d4: 1 very strong for extra melee damage; 2 very nimble and hard to hit; 3 natural attack supplements weapon use; 4 can summon reinforcements)
  5. Special vulnerability (d4: 1 photosensitive for penalty in daylight; 2 weakness against specific material or attack type; 3 berserker mode makes them reckless under certain conditions; 4 cowardly for poor morale and prone to retreat)
  6. Special tactics (d4: 1 always fields hidden reserves to turn the tide of battle; 2 stalwart and fights to the death; 3 assassin mentality makes them refuse a stand-up fight, preferring to attack from prepared ranged positions; 4 unique weapon that has performance edge but can only be used by the fodder race)