Quick Stats:

• Ability Score Adjustment: +1 Muscle, +1 Leadership, -1 Knowledge
• Class Level Limits: See Racial Level Limits
• Multi-Class Options: Fighter + any one non-warrior
• Height (M/F): 84 in / 80 in +2d6
• Weight (M/F): 450 lbs / 390 lbs +4d20
• Aging:
  • Starting: 13 +3d6 years
  • Adult/Middle/Old/Venerable: 16 / 75 / 100 / 150
  • Maximum: 150 +1d100 years
• Languages:
  • Bonus Languages: Common, Minotaur
  • Recommended Languages:
• Movement: 12
• Special Abilities:
  • Minotaurs gain hit dice by class and receive 6 bonus hit points at 1st level.
  • Minotaurs are large creatures and can carry 50% more than a human of similar strength.
  • A Minotaur’s tough hide grants him +4 to his natural AC. As with all creatures with natural armor, this is superseded by (does not stack with) actual worn armor. Armor that grants an armor bonus of +4 or less grants a +1 bonus to the minotaur’s AC (this does stack).
  • Minotaurs gain a +2 bonus on all surprise rolls, a product of their natural cunning and sharp senses.
  • Minotaurs can track prey by scent and gain Tracking as a bonus non-weapon proficiency.
  • Minotaurs are immune to maze spells and gain Direction Sense as a bonus non-weapon proficiency.
  • Minotaurs receive a +3 bonus to their morale scores, including saves vs. magical fear effects.
  • Minotaur infravision enables them to discern gradients of heat within 60 feet in darkness.
• Special Restrictions:
  • Minotaurs take damage as Large creatures.

Background: Most minotaurs are either cursed humans or the offspring of such, having the head of a bull and the body of a human. Standing seven feet or more in height, not only do they overawe others with their physical presence, but, accustomed to command, they radiate auras of leadership and authority. They are supremely confident in their own abilities and destiny, so much so that they treat others with arrogance and contempt. They do not apologize for their own greatness and indeed seek to impress it upon all others at any opportunity. This overbearing attitude quickly becomes insufferable to others, but is made worse by the fact that, more often than not, they are right.

Yet their insufferable pride is the also the source of one of their saving graces: a finely-honed sense of nobility. The strong, they believe, should naturally rule. Surrender is viewed as weakness, so minotaurs fight (or argue) to the death. They are extremely cunning and have excellent senses. They will attack without fear and retreat only if the opponent is obviously beyond their ability to defeat. Secure in the knowledge that they are superior, minotaurs have developed a strong sense of correct (not right or wrong) behavior that only the truly superior can afford. They remember their debts and obligations and understand perfectly their status in society. They feel little challenge to their position from other races and so can tolerate and even elevate others to high rank with only a touch of condescension.

Although cunning and clever, minotaurs are trustworthy to those who have earned their respect. At the same time, they are masters at feigning interest and loyalty to those they are forced to follow but hold in low regard. Indeed, they are more devious and dangerous to their own kind, where the whims of fate can sometimes overturn the proper order of things, than to the members of other races, who only gain respect by earning it. A brave human warrior, on the other hand, has first to prove himself.

Minotaurs are scrupulously and cold-bloodedly just (although they are as susceptible to corruption as anyone else). By nature, minotaurs are a physical people, less interested in the pursuits of the mind than those of the sword. Still, they are not so foolish as to neglect the awesome powers of magic, although it is somewhat more difficult for them to master.