Thoul

Thouls are living creatures, not undead, despite the ghoul blood mixed into them along with that of hobgoblins and trolls. Most could pass for hobgoblins: about 6½ feet tall, dark skinned and scruffy, with yellow teeth. Some show their troll heritage in near-hairless greenish skin instead of a hobgoblin's dark red or red-orange, ropy hair of dull black or slate, or a long, tubelike troll nose in place of the doglike hobgoblin snout. Their pupilless eyes, yellow or pure white, and their vacant stare betray the troll and ghoul in them.

Like hobgoblins they love bright clothes, usually blood-red cloth and glossy black leather, and keep their weapons polished and in perfect order. They speak hobgoblin rather than a language of their own, and about 60% also know orc, goblin and carnivorous ape. Those living among hobgoblins speak common if their hosts do; independent thouls know it 20% of the time.

They see 60 feet with infravision and fight as well in daylight as in darkness. Thouls raised by hobgoblins share their hatred of elves.

A thoul's claw paralyzes like a ghoul's: the victim must save vs. paralyzation or be held for 1d6+2 rounds. They seldom bother with melee weapons except against elves, whom the paralysis cannot affect. Armed thouls usually carry a sword and a long bow. While alive, a thoul regenerates 1 hit point every melee round.

Thouls are brutal and militaristic. Free thouls dwell as small families in ruins or caves, and lone ones are hunters or scouts away from the band. A lair holds two young per adult; young cause no damage but still paralyze, though victims get +2 on the save.

About 25% of underground hobgoblin lairs keep 2d6 thouls as guards, but only 5% of surface villages do, and they often guard hobgoblin kings and chiefs. Hobgoblins hate and fear them for their superior powers and rank, and one without a powerful hobgoblin patron becomes a despised outcast who often survives the abuse only by regenerating.

Spellcasters are rare, a bit less so among hobgoblin-dwelling thouls. A thoul can rise to 5th level as a shaman (spheres: Charm, Healing, Necromancy) or to 4th level as a witch doctor (schools: Necromancy, Enchantment/Charm, Illusion/Phantasm).

Thouls breed true but more slowly than almost any other humanoid. Hobgoblins, and sometimes orcs, raid free thoul communities to steal young and train them as royal guards, assistant shamans or witch doctors. A thoul lives about 50 years, and those serving hobgoblins last a bit longer since they are better fed and housed.