Minotaur (Revised)

Minotaurs are massive humanoids with powerful physiques and heads resembling those of bulls. Their origins are shrouded in mystery. Some scholars believe them to be monsters of the wilderness, while others suspect they are descended from demon lords or even created in extra-dimensional mazes.

Minotaurs come in all the colors of natural bulls, though a dusty brown is most common. All minotaurs have horns, regardless of gender, which can easily reach several feet in length. Many minotaurs polish or decorate their horns, with some even sharpening them for combat or wrapping them in ceremonial gold collars.

Minotaurs are furred all over their bodies, and generally have thick manes of hair on their necks and backs. Some carry hair on their face and chin as well. They have cloven hooves and thin tails, with a small tuft of fur on the end.

Minotaur Traits

Ability Score Increase

Your Strength and Wisdom scores both increase by 1.

Type

You are a Humanoid.

Age

Minotaurs tend to live somewhat longer than humans, reaching adulthood in their late teens and living well over a century.

Alignment

Minotaurs can be of any alignment, though it may vary based on their lineage. Abyss-descended minotaurs, for instance, may trend towards chaos or evil, while labyrinth-bred minotaurs may have extremely orderly and lawful beliefs.

Size

Minotaurs are Medium creatures, though they are substantially bigger on average than other humanoids. They range in height from 5 and a half feet to over 7 feet tall, and can weigh anywhere from 170 to nearly 400 pounds.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Minotaur.

Horns

Your horns are natural melee weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal piercing damage equal to 1d6 + Your Strength modifier.

Powerful Build

You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.

Goring Charge

Immediately after you take the Dash action on your turn and move 15 feet in a straight line, you can make a special attack with your horns as part of the same action. If the attack hits, the target takes bonus piercing damage based on your level: 2d6 at 1st level, 3d6 at 5th level, 4d6 at 11th level, and 5d6 at 17th level. The target takes an additional 1d6 bonus damage if you dashed at least 30 feet in a straight line before making the attack. The target must also make a Strength saving throw, with a DC equal to 8 + your Strength modifier + your proficiency bonus. If they fail, they are shoved up to 15 feet and knocked prone. Creatures that are at least two sizes larger than you automatically succeed on this saving throw.

Once you use this ability, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Minotaur Heritage

Minotaur cultures have a wide range of different customs. On some worlds, they descend from solitary labyrinth-dwelling monsters. On others, they are tainted offspring of the demon lord Baphomet, struggling to escape his legacy. On still other worlds, their origins are lost to the mists of time, and they have developed proud and distinctive civilizations, with specialties and traits unique to them.

Select one option for your Minotaur Heritage. Your DM may restrict the available options based on minotaur cultures present in your game.

Wildhorn

You are in touch with your bull's ancestry, and retain some of the power and grace of the wilds.

Ability Score Increase

Your Constitution or Wisdom score increases by 1.

Born to the Wild

You can can speak, read, and write Sylvan. You gain proficiency with one of the following skills of your choice: Animal Handling, Nature, and Survival.

Wilderness Roamer

You can ignore difficult terrain caused by nonmagical plants or terrain features.

Baphomet's Brood

Your bloodline was corrupted by the Prince of Beasts himself.

Ability Score Increase

Your Strength or Charisma score increases by 1.

Monstrous Skill

You can speak, read, and write Abyssal. You gain proficiency in one of the following skills of your choice: Athletics, Deception, and Intimidation.

Abyssal legacy

You know the thaumaturgy cantrip and the cause fear spell. You can cast cause fear once per long rest without expending a spell slot, or with any spell slots you have. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.

Seafarer

You come from a society of rugged sailors and pirates, with a proud nautical tradition.

Ability Score Increase

You Strength or Dexterity score increases by 1.

Rider on the Waves

You gain proficiency in Navigator's Tools and Water Vehicles, and in one of the following skills of your choice: Acrobatics, Athletics, and Survival.

Strong Swimmer

You gain a swimming speed equal to your walking speed.

Labyrinth-Born

You come from a lineage of minotaurs bred to stalk endless mazes, and hunt unlucky wanderers.

Ability Score Increase

Your Dexterity or Wisdom score increases by 1.

Darkvision

You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Maze Prowler

You gain proficiency in one of the following skills of your choice: History, Perception and Stealth.

Labyrinth Sense

You always know which direction is north, and you have advantage on any Wisdom (Survival) check you make to navigate or track. Additionally, you cannot become lost on any path you have previously traveled.

Minotaurs Across the Planes

While you could include all four subspecies in your world, they are aimed more at encompassing the different flavor minotaurs might possess across different game worlds.

Species Feats

The following are options for feats which can be selected only by minotaur characters.

Bull's Fury

You have trained to use your horns as effectively as any weapon. You gain the following benefits:

Increase your Strength or Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
The damage die of your horns increases to a d8.
Your Goring Charge can now target multiple enemies. When used in this way, you can target a number of creatures up to your proficiency bonus, and you can move through their spaces without triggering any opportunity attacks.
If you drop below half your maximum hit points, you regain the use of your Goring Charge. You can only recover it in this way once per long rest.

Bull's Constitution

You embody your species's legendary resilience.

Increase your Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
As a reaction, you can reduce any instance of damage you receive by a number equal to your proficiency modifier.
When you would fail a Strength or Constitution saving throw, you may reroll it use the new roll. You can use this feature once, regaining its use after a short or long rest.

Variant Rules

Ability Scores

If you prefer flexible ability score increases, you can just remove the ASIs and allow +2/+1 or +1/+1/+1 anywhere.

Personally, the author's recommended method is to allow shifting 1 point of species ASIs freely, with a hard maximum of 17 in any score. This allows any species to start with a 16 in their primary stat, but still preserves some of the species flavor.

Casting Ability

If you prefer flexible casting abilities, you can allow characters to cast species spells with their choice of Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma, and to cast them with any spell slots they have (as well as once per day).

Changelog

v.1.3.2

Updated artwork

v1.3.1

Clarified action economy on Goring Charge

v1.3

Replaced art & redid layout
Relicensed

v 1.2

Fixed level scaling on Goring Charge

v1.1

Replaced Uncanny Direction with Bull's Constitution

v1.0

Added species feats

v0.3

Swapped "race" for "species"
Added Variant Rules note

v0.21

Styling & layout rework

v0.2

Changed Goring Charge to be 1/SR (vs prof/LR)
Added Minotaurs Across the Planes note
Changed Born to the Wild to be 1 choice of skill, not 2

v0.1

Initial Release

Credits

Minotaur (Revised) created by somanyrobots
Discord | Patreon

Art

Path of the Risen, by David Kovačič

Background Stains

Jared Ondricek

License

Copyright 2023 somanyrobots. Rules material & game content is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available here.

5E SRD Content

This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 (“SRD 5.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available here.

The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available here.