Minotaur

A minotaur is a huge, broad, heavily muscled man well over 7 feet tall with the head of a bull. Its fur runs from brown to black, and its skin shows the same range of tones as any human's. It wears little, typically just a loincloth or kilt. Some are cursed humans; others were born to a minotaur father and a human mother.

Minotaurs have the strength of an 18-Strength human. Against creatures at least 6 feet tall they head-butt for 2-8; smaller foes they bite for 1-4. From 30 feet or more away, a minotaur can lower its horns and charge any target 6 feet or taller, dealing double butting damage on a hit. Most also carry a weapon, a great axe (treated as a halberd) or a flail, adding +2 to its damage.

Not bright but extremely cunning, they have keen senses: +2 to surprise rolls, infravision, and a ranger-like knack for following prey by smell that succeeds 50% of the time, always following any unfamiliar smell. Maze spells do not affect them. They attack intruders fearlessly and retreat only from a foe clearly beyond them, gaining +3 to morale in combat.

Minotaurs lair in underground labyrinths, where they never lose their way and so hold every advantage over prey. These mazes are seldom natural; usually an evil wizard or tyrant builds one, settles a minotaur family inside and feeds it a steady stream of prisoners and slaves. If that patron dies, the minotaurs must fend for themselves, and since few creatures wander into a labyrinth willingly, they are usually starving.

Groups number up to eight. When a band exceeds six, one member is an elder (8+4 Hit Dice, Strength 18/50) who leads the clan, stays at the labyrinth's center raising the young while the others hunt, and is always found there.

They speak a crude tongue of their own, and 25% also speak broken common. They have little culture and live more like beasts than people. Physical strength is what they respect most, and especially powerful human fighters have earned their regard. They worship crude gods through weak shamans of no more than 3rd level. Rumors persist of smarter minotaurs with advanced societies.

No one knows the curse that makes minotaurs, though sages suspect 'crimes against the natural order.' One tale holds that the first was a great, bad-tempered warrior who longed for a bull's might and had the wish granted in the most monstrous way possible. All minotaurs are male and breed with human women, always producing male minotaurs. They live 200 years and can go years without food, but stay hungry unless fed regularly. They eat meat, and the curse gives them a craving for human flesh. A wish can restore someone cursed into this form, but a born minotaur can never become human. They are sworn foes of gnolls, and either race slaughters the other wherever they meet.

Minotaur parts sometimes go into spells and potions and may serve in magic items dealing with strength, location or misdirection.