Minotaur — 4e Race

Power type: AW at-will · ENC encounter · DLY daily | Fields: Req requirement · Trig trigger · Tgt target · Atk attack · Hit/Miss/Eff · 1°/2° primary/secondary · Sust sustain · After aftereffect · Spec special | Shorthand: Str/Dex/Con/Wis/Int/Cha = ability mod · EONT/SONT = end/start of your next turn · sq = square(s) · CA combat advantage · OA opp. attack · MBA/RBA melee/ranged basic attack · HP hit points · tgt target · [W] weapon dice

Racial Traits

Average Height7´ 1˝–7´ 5˝

Average Weight320–350 lb.

Ability Scores+2 Strength; +2 Constitution or Wisdom

SizeMedium

Speed6 squares

VisionNormal

LanguagesCommon, choice of one other

Skill Bonuses+2 Nature, +2 Perception

VitalityYou have one additional healing surge.

FerocityWhen you drop to 0 hit points or fewer, you can make a melee basic attack as an immediate interrupt.

Heedless ChargeYou have a +2 racial bonus to AC against opportunity attacks you provoke during a charge.

Goring ChargeYou have the goring charge power.

ENC

Goring ChargeMinotaur Racial PowerStd Melee 1Tgt One creature

You charge the enemy and gore it with your horns.

Eff You charge and make the following attack in place of a MBA. · Atk Strength, Constitution, or Dexterity + 4 (6 at 11th level and 8 at 21st level) vs. AC · Hit 1d6 + Strength, Constitution, or Dex dmg, and you knock tgt prone. · Level 11 2d6 + Strength, Constitution, or Dex dmg. · Level 21 3d6 + Strength, Constitution, or Dex dmg.

Minotaurs embody the tension between civilization and savagery, discipline and madness, for they stand in two worlds. Tugged toward violence but bound by conscience, numerous minotaurs are driven to rise above their dark impulses. Such a minotaur seeks the balance between the monstrous and the refined. Innumerable minotaurs give in to the temptations staining their souls and find themselves thralls to Baphomet, the Horned King. Minotaurs must struggle to become more than the beasts they resemble or else succumb to the demonic brutality they despise.

Play a minotaur if you want…

to be a mighty warrior who has amazing strength and endurance.
to be a monstrous adventurer struggling against villainous tendencies.
to be a member of a race that favors the barbarian, fighter, and warden classes.

Physical Qualities

A minotaur combines the features of human and bull, with the build and musculature of a hulking humanoid, but with cloven hooves, a bovine tail, and, most distinctive of all, a bull’s head. Fur covers a minotaur’s upper body, coarse and thick on the head and neck, gradually thinning around the shoulders until it becomes humanlike hair over the arms and upper torso. The thick hair turns shaggy once more at the minotaur’s waist and thickens around the loins and legs, with tufts at the end of the tail and around the powerful hooves. Minotaurs take pride in their horns, the sharpness, size, and color of which are related to an individual’s place in minotaur society. Fur and skin coloring runs from albino white to coal black, though most minotaurs have red or brown fur and hair.

Labyrinthine patterns are important to minotaurs, and these decorations appear on their clothing, armor, and weapons, and sometimes even on their hides. Each pattern is particular to a clan, and the pattern’s size and complexity help minotaurs identify family allegiance and caste. The patterns evolve through the generations, growing more expansive based on clan members’ deeds and a clan’s history. Minotaurs live as long as humans do.

Playing a Minotaur

The minotaur preference for labyrinths is legendary, and is more than a quirk. It is central to what minotaurs believe and how they see the world around them. A labyrinth is a physical representation of the spiritual and psychological journey each minotaur must undertake to make peace with his or her conflicted nature.

Each minotaur must navigate the perils of the self to transcend bestial impulses. One minotaur might achieve this easily. Another might wander the corridors of his or her mind and soul for a lifetime, trapped within the circuitous passages of self-deception and monstrous desire. Those who fail might descend into depravity, becoming the thralls of the Horned King, whose presence looms over every minotaur community.

Perhaps as a result of this inner struggle, minotaurs seek structure and order in all they do. They take great pleasure from perfecting their talents, and many spend lifetimes mastering trades, artistic styles, magic, and fighting techniques. Once minotaurs commit themselves to a task, they see it through. Failure is not perceived as a personal flaw, but as an opportunity for growth. Giving up when faced with challenges, however, is seen as a weakness of character. The greatest challenge for minotaurs is to remain vigilant against their inner corruption, and so to capitulate in any effort is more than dangerous; it is the first step on the road to spiritual corruption. Although many minotaurs are civilized, they are the objects of suspicion and hatred from other races. This animosity stems not only from minotaurs’ monstrous appearance, but also from their infamy. Wicked minotaurs are remorseless raiders and killers, and these are often the only minotaurs known in a given area.

Minotaur Characteristics: Bloodthirsty, cruel, disciplined, enlightened, frustrated, militant, mystical, polite, savage, spiritual, tortured

Male Names: Asteron, Bjorkus, Codrus, Foostus, Goeban, Jak, Minron, Noostoron, Podrus, Terios

Female Names: Duula, Esteru, Hester, Kuonu, Loodra, Oestra, Raastred, Seestra, Uovana, Weoren

Minotaur Backgrounds

Here are background elements for minotaurs.

Baphomet Clan Exile: Your clan succumbed to the lies and promises of Baphomet’s cultists, and all your living relations are in the thrall of the demon lord. You alone refused to bow to the Horned King, choosing to flee into exile rather than become a sacrifice on Baphomet’s altars. Perhaps you swore to fight Baphomet in order to purify your people, or to exterminate your entire clan. Or perhaps you seek only to put that disaster behind you, to move on with your life and keep the beast in your heart contained.

Associated Skills: Religion, Stealth Silenced Beast: The voice of the beast within you is silent. Its savagery has no hold over you, and its call has no appeal. You have transcended it and moved to a higher consciousness, something akin to enlightenment. You are at peace with yourself, with who you are, and with the world around you. When you need to fight, you can fight fiercely, but you don’t lose control—the beast is at your command. How did you find such peace? Was it through religious devotion, disciplined martial practice, arcane study, or psionic meditation? Is there anything that can shatter your tranquility and loose the beast again?

Associated Skills: Diplomacy, Insight

Racial Paragon Path: Blooded Champion

“I do what I was made to do, for the causes I choose.”

Prerequisite: Minotaur

The warrior caste within minotaur society doesn’t admit just anyone to its ranks. To be recognized as a champion, a blooded warrior, you must demonstrate both skill at arms and an unfailing discipline to master the beast that rages to be released. Time and again, you proved your mastery over your weapons and yourself until that day when you finally gained the recognition you rightly deserved.

Continuous training has done more for you than simply gaining you greater standing among your people. Your devotion to your craft elevates your fighting style beyond that of most warriors. Your weapons are extensions of your will, razor-sharp appendages that slice and hew as you direct them. More important, you meld the spiritual forces guiding you on your life’s journey with your own fighting spirit until you become a honed machine of war. The thrill of the fight rises with your adrenaline, but it doesn’t master you. The urge to kill lends strength to your attacks, but doesn’t overtake your self-control. You recognize the taint afflicting your people, and you know that to give in to these dark impulses is to step into the trap of bestial savagery that all your people must face. So each battle and each contest is a chance to demonstrate your resolve and your mind’s focus on rising above the shadow that darkens your soul.

Path Features

Vigorous Action (11th level): When you spend an action point to make an attack while you’re bloodied, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Constitution score.

Aggressive Resurgence (11th level): When you use your second wind, you can forgo regaining hit points and the bonus to your defenses to instead both regain the use of your goring charge racial power and gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls and damage rolls until the end of your next turn.

Never Say Die (16th level): When you drop to 0 hit points or fewer, you don’t fall unconscious as a result of the dying condition until you fail a death saving throw.

Blooded Champion Powers

ENC	Follow-Up GoreBlooded Champion Attack 11Std Melee 1WeaponTgt One creature	Your weapon strike unbalances your foe, leaving it exposed to your ferocious gore attack. Atk Str vs AC · Hit 1[W] + 2d6 + Str dmg, and you slide tgt 1 sq and knock it prone.
ENC	Bloodthirsty ShiftBlooded Champion Utility 12Free Pers	When an enemy of yours falls, you spring forward to engage the next foe. Trig You reduce an enemy to 0 HP · Eff You shift your speed to a sq adjacent to an enemy.
DLY	Driving GoreBlooded Champion Attack 20Std Melee 1Tgt One creature	You swing your horns in a brutal arc, knocking your enemy back and down. Eff You charge and use the following attack in place of a MBA. · Atk Str + 8 vs AC · Hit 5d6 + Str dmg, and you slide tgt 4 sq and knock it prone. · Miss Half dmg, and you slide tgt 2 sq.