Monster Class - Minotaur

With the body of a powerfully built man and the head of a snarling bull, this creature stomps its hooves as if preparing to charge.

Nothing holds a grudge like a minotaur. Scorned by the civilized races centuries ago and born from a deific curse, minotaurs have hunted, slain, and devoured lesser humanoids in retribution for real or imagined slights for as long as anyone can remember. Many cultures have legends of how the first minotaurs were created by vengeful or slighted gods who punished humans by twisting their forms, robbing them of their intellects and beauty, and giving them the heads of bulls. Most modern minotaurs hold these legends in contempt and believe that they are not divine mockeries but divine paragons created by a potent and cruel demon lord named Baphomet.

A minotaur stands more than 7 feet tall and weighs about 700 pounds.

Alignment: As a monstrous humanoid graced with ferocity and strength of a bull, minotaurs tend towards evil, but as most are extremely cunning, they can vary widely depending on their upbringing. This can produce minotaur who lean more towards neutral.

#### Minotaur Racial Traits

• +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, –2 Intelligence, and –2 Charisma: Minotaurs are powerful combatants and often quite feral.

* Medium: Minotaurs are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
* Monstrous Humanoid: Minotaurs are monstrous humanoids.
* Normal Speed: Minotaurs have a base speed of 30 feet.
* Darkvision (Ex): Minotaurs can see perfectly in the dark up to 60 feet.
* Hunter’s Instinct (Ex): Minotaurs gain a +2 racial bonus on Perception and Survival checks.
* Tough Hide (Ex): A minotaur’s thick hide grants it a +1 natural armor bonus to its AC.
* Languages: Minotaurs begin play speaking Common. Minotaurs with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Draconic, Dwarven, Giant, Goblin, Gnoll, and Orc.

Hit Die: d10.

Starting Wealth: 3d6 × 10 gp (average 105 gp.) In addition, each character begins play with an outfit worth 10 gp or less.

#### CLASS SKILLS

The minotaur’s class skills are Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Fly (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Perception (Wis), Ride (Dex), Stealth (Dex), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).

#### FEATURES

All the following are class features of the minotaur racial class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A minotaur is proficient with all simple weapons, plus the greataxe. Minotaurs are not proficient not with any type of armor or shield.

Ability Score Increases: As a minotaur gains levels, its ability scores increase as noted on Table: Minotaur. These increases stack and are gained as if through level advancement.

Gore (Ex): At 1st level, a minotaur gains a gore attack. This is a primary attack that deals 1d4 points of damage plus 1-1/2 times the minotaur’s Strength modifier. When the minotaur grows to Large size at 4th level, the damage die of its gore attack increases to 1d6.

Natural Cunning (Ex): Although minotaurs are not especially intelligent, they possess an innate cunning and logical ability, as well as an incredible sense of direction. Starting at 1st level, a minotaur can never become lost. It can always retrace its path back to anywhere it’s been. At 6th level, the minotaur’s senses improve, and it becomes immune to maze spells. In addition, it is never caught flat-footed.

Scent (Ex): At 2nd level, a minotaur gains the scent special quality, allowing it to detect creatures within 30 feet by sense of smell. If the creature is upwind, the range increases to 60 feet; if downwind, it drops to 15 feet. Strong scents, such as smoke or rotting garbage, can be detected at twice these ranges. Overpowering scents, such as skunk musk or troglodyte stench, can be detected at triple normal range. When the minotaur detects a scent, the exact location of the source is not revealed—only its presence somewhere within range. The minotaur can take a move action to note the direction of the scent. When the creature is within 5 feet of the source, it pinpoints the source’s location. In addition, the minotaur can track by sense of smell, making a Wisdom (or Survival) check to find or follow a track. The typical DC for a fresh trail is 10 (no matter what kind of surface holds the scent). This DC increases or decreases depending on how strong the quarry’s odor is, the number of creatures, and the age of the trail. For each hour that the trail is cold, the DC increases by 2. The ability otherwise follows the rules for the Survival skill. While tracking in this manner, the minotaur ignores the effects of surface conditions and poor visibility.

Natural Armor (Ex): A minotaur’s thick hide causes many blows to simply glance off. At 3rd level and again at 5th level, a minotaur’s natural armor bonus to its AC increases by +2.

Wilderness Sense (Ex): At 3rd level, a minotaur’s racial bonus on Perception and Survival checks increases to +4.

Large Size: At 4th level, a minotaur grows to Large size. Its ability scores do not change, although it gains the normal benefits and penalties for being a Large creature. The minotaur’s space and reach both increase to 10 feet and it gains a –1 size modifier to attacks and armor class, a +1 special size modifier to its CMB and CMD, a –2 penalty to Fly checks, and a –4 penalty to Stealth checks, as normal. Its gore attack now deals 1d6 points of damage.