Ghoul

For many, the word “ghoul” conjures grotesque images that shock and nauseate. Dwellers in graveyards and connoisseurs of flesh and bone, these hooved eaters of the dead move with hungering poise, slaver for the living, and exude the stench of a charnel house. A Mythos ghoul shares a taste for flesh with these monstrosities, but it is not savage or feral. Rather, these folk possess a keen intellect and a complex culture steeped in lore and custom.

Indeed, a Mythos ghoul is just as likely to aid visitors as attack, if not more so.

Unlike the more well-known grave-gorging undead that share the same name, these ghouls are living creatures. While their demeanor and nature would seem to make them natural allies to their monstrous brethren, competition for food and the mundane ghoul’s hatred of the living makes living ghouls and their undead counterparts bitter enemies. Mythos ghoul necromancers are fond of using undead as minions, as undead ghouls often appeal to the sardonic sense of irony so many ghouls possess.

Unless otherwise noted, the word “ghoul” is used in the text below to refer to the living ghouls of Lovecraft’s traditions, rather than monstrous undead ghouls.

History

As long as humanity has lived, hungered, and died, there have been ghouls dwelling in the shadows, eager to feed on flesh and memories. The history of the ghoul race can be read in every boneyard, every necropolis, and every anonymous grave. They preserve that which was lost, both in their habit of aping old customs and in regaining memories forgotten by feeding upon the dead.

Many suspect these ghouls to have first come to this world by tunneling into graveyards from below, after digging deep into areas of the Dreamlands. Some believe ghouls are a fragment of an ancient past or the manifestation of a new future. Whatever the case, ghouls have lived alongside us since we first began burying our dead, and will likely remain among us until long after the last of our graves have been filled.

Playing a Ghoul

Ghouls are sardonic and dark-humored. They enjoy eating carrion for the flavor and the fragments of memory they can absorb and take delight in knowing others are discomforted by this fact. While not ashamed of their nature as ghouls, they find other humanoid cultures intriguing and often envy them to some extent. They have a passion for history and obscure knowledge.

If you’re a Ghoul, you likely…

  • have a dark sense of humor and are amused by death rather than frightened by it.
  • enjoy making others uncomfortable, often via odious eating habits.
  • are immensely eager to learn more about the world’s history.
  • find graveyards to be pleasant places, and neither death nor undeath particularly frightens you.
  • have chosen a specific type of humanoid as the focus of your curiosity: you may consider yourself to have once been one of these humanoids, prefer the flavor of their flesh, or simply wish to adopt elements of their culture and belief as your own.
  • underestimate others’ repugnance at your feeding, even as you wallow in your depravity.

Others probably…

  • think you’re an undead creature.
  • worry you want to eat them.
  • are frightened, based on your appearance, that you are a mindlessly ravenous monster.
  • assume you live in a graveyard or sleep in a coffin.
  • mistake you for a lycanthrope.

Physiology

Though Mythos ghouls blur the line between life and death, they are indeed living organisms. While many of their habits, appetites, and preferences are identical to those possessed by undead ghouls, no one who gets to know a Mythos ghoul will again make the mistake of assuming they’re a flesh-eating undead creature. From their distinctive appearances to their behavior, the contrast grows increasingly stark.

A ghoul is humanoid in shape yet monstrous in appearance.

The ghoul’s visage is almost canine, with a pronounced snout filled with sharp teeth akin to the fangs of a hyena. This snout isn’t large enough to significantly distort or hamper the ghoul’s ability to speak or express itself, although ghouls do tend to have a guttural, raspy tone to their voices. A ghoul’s ears are large and pointed, and its hair is generally short and mangy with thick bristly patches on the back, shoulders, and forearms. A ghoul’s mouth slavers and its long tongue frequently lolls when not in active use.

A ghoul’s bestial features extend to the rest of its body.

Its stance is somewhat hunched, with broad shoulders, hands that appear human but fingers that end in talon-like nails, and legs and hooves reminiscent of those of a hairless goat.

Ghouls are immune to non-magical disease, and thus, contrary to expectations, they rarely carry infections or spread maladies. Despite this, they tend to have slovenly personal hygiene and bear a musty stink on the best of days. More often, the cloying stench of decay accompanies them, an odious perfume carried on their breath and under their nails. Almost never falling ill encourages such filthy habits, but this nonchalance toward propriety and presentation stems in part from the amusement many ghouls derive from making humanoids feel uncomfortable and nauseated.

One of the most notable aspects of ghoul physiology is that when ghouls feed, they experience and absorb the memories held within the flesh of their repast. Scholars have yet to discern a scientific explanation for this ability, relegating such powers to the realm of the supernatural. While they delight in this ability to digest memories, ghouls themselves have neither an explanation nor a desire to learn more about how or why it functions, and many adhere to the strange superstition that knowing the reason for this would disrupt the mechanism itself. That it works at all is enough for ghouls, who ironically enjoy indulging in the procedure to divine all manner of secrets and forgotten tidbits of lore.

Family

Mythos ghouls are born as ghouls, but they do not display ghoul characteristics at first: instead, they undergo a transition later in life to resemble their unsettling folk. As such, family is a complex subject for ghouls: many of them have been forced to abandon their own when their transformation into a ghoul resulted in a shameful, often violent flight from home. Many nascent ghouls live the first several years of their lives after becoming a ghoul in self-imposed solitude and may in fact have no idea others of their kind even exist. Ghoul societies are quick to embrace new brothers or sisters, because almost every ghoul vividly remembers the loneliness, anxiety, and fear of this transitionary period.

While most ghouls eventually learn to appreciate these foster siblings as true kin, many never recover from the shock of losing the families that raised them. Such ghouls, who live much longer than most mortal races, often return to their homes decades later to watch or stalk previous relations. Such returns only occasionally result in violence: more commonly, ghouls demonstrate a dark kind of patience in achieving their goals while avoiding confrontation. For instance, if a ghoul learns that a family member has passed away, grave robbery is often quick to follow. Feeding on the decayed flesh of a parent, sibling, or child can bring a ghoul a grisly form of closure, as they experience shadows and fragments of their previous life by digesting the memories of their prior relations. Ghouls who seek this closure often keep a memento of the event as a keepsake, such as a skull or less frequently some sort of heirloom, such as a weapon, piece of jewelry, or other item.

Ghouls can have children of their own, but when a new ghoul is birthed, the baby appears as a normal child of a humanoid race linked to the ghoul’s own bloodline. Ghoul parents often can’t resist the urge to seek out a family to raise their child in the hope of giving their baby a chance at something approaching a normal life. Ghouls leave children as orphans or foundlings on temple stoops or in areas where they suspect and hope that an unexpected baby will be cared for. In other cases, desperate or callous ghouls will take more sinister measures.

Stealing into a village or township under cover of deep night, the ghoul parents seek out a child in the village who looks similar to their own, then swap the children in the hope that the changeling will be raised in comfort and luxury.

The kidnapped child is then raised as a ghoul.

In an ironic twist of fate, both children in these sorts of “switched-at-birth” situations develop into nascent ghouls: the changeling itself as a result of her ghoulish bloodline, and the abductee as a result of growing up knowing nothing more than using tombstones as platters and graveyards under moonlight as playgrounds. In this way, ghouls can be created as surely as they can be born.

Life Cycle

For most living creatures, the long road to death begins with birth, but not so for the ghoul.

Ghouls born to ghoul parents can appear to belong to another race connected to a parent’s bloodline, in which case they resemble that race until a few years after reaching maturity or until the transformation is triggered by proximity to death and decay. Some ghouls born to ghoul parents display their bestial features (hooves, fangs, and claws) from the first day; such ghouls mature quickly, growing to adulthood in about 10 years. Ghouls are protective of their children-particularly those who look more ghoul-like-and shelter them in the deepest corners of their graveyard warrens. As a result, they are only rarely encountered by non-ghouls, giving rise to the false suppositions that ghoul children do not exist, and that ghouls only come to be when they magically transform victims into their own kind.

Becoming a Mythos ghoul through magic is rare. Certainly, curses and magical infections can cause ghouls to manifest as well, but ghouls cannot “infect” their victims like a disease or lycanthrope. Most who become cursed or otherwise transformed into ghouls meet their fate not through interaction with ghouls, but through powerful magic or curses in old tombs, from reading forbidden texts, or by taking part in blasphemous rituals. In fact, those who pursue it often find themselves accidentally turning into undead ghouls. Regardless, Mythos ghouls do not make a habit of creating more of their own kind through magical means.

Graveyards remember when they have played host to ghouls, and becoming a ghoul is as much a matter of behavior and atmosphere as it is one of magic or genetics.

People who engage in ghoulish activity, be it feeding on decayed flesh or living in graveyards, put themselves at risk of becoming ghouls. This risk increases if such behaviors are undertaken in the company of other ghouls or if they’re pursued in regions where ghouls once cavorted and dined, even if no ghouls have been active in an area for decades or even centuries. A child, abducted by ghouls and raised among their kind, can transform into a ghoul, despite potentially having no predilection toward a ghoulish nature or heritage from a ghoul. Curiously, those who deliberately seek the transformation into a ghoul and engage in such activities to foster such a change often find their goal elusive. The change seems to seek those who don’t expect it but avoids those who pursue it.

Typically, a humanoid that undergoes the transformation into a ghoul does not make the change swiftly. Instead, the victim spends a significant amount of time, often many years, as something known as a “nascent ghoul.” Once a creature makes the transition to full ghoul, either after enduring the change via nascent ghouldom or simply by growing to adulthood as a ghoul child, the ghoul can live for centuries. A ghoul reaches middle age at 100 years, old age at 300 years, and venerable age at 500 years. Curiously, ghouls do not actually die of old age, but they do grow increasingly feeble 1d% years after reaching venerable age. After this time passes, a ghoul loses the ability to fend for itself or even move, and will eventually die of starvation if not fed. Many ghouls, rather than endure an endless existence helplessly dependent on family, offer themselves to the banquet table. This funeral feast is not a matter of shame or despair in ghoul society, but one of triumph, for in feeding upon the elder, their memories, knowledge, and personality can live on in those who partake.

Nascent Ghouls

When the conditions are right, a humanoid creature can become a nascent ghoul. The nascent ghoul template in the sidebar should be applied to such a creature until it manages to reverse the situation or makes the transition into a full-fledged ghoul. The change from humanoid to ghoul is a painful transition full of uncertainty, confusion, and shame.

Nascent Ghoul Template

Any humanoid can become a nascent ghoul. A humanoid can remove the nascent ghoul template by undergoing a special quest of the GM’s design or by methods employed to remove curses.

Ability Scores. Your Constitution score increases by 1. Your Charisma score decreases by 2 and your Dexterity score decreases by 1. While the physical transformations that wrack a nascent ghoul wreak havoc on coordination, the toll it takes on the mind is greater.

Bite. You can bite as an unarmed strike if you could not already. When you make an unarmed strike with your bite, it has the light and finesse properties and deals 1d4 piercing damage. You can use your bite in two-weapon fighting.

Grave Nose. You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell to notice or recognize corpses, decaying things, meat, and undead creatures.

Hunger. If you go more than 24 hours without feeding on the flesh of a humanoid that has been dead at least 24 hours, you gain one level of exhaustion and your level of exhaustion can’t be reduced until you feed on such a corpse.

Final Change. The final trigger that enables you to make the full transformation into a ghoul varies.

Sometimes, it’s merely a matter of time-one year or several years might pass before the transformation completes suddenly. At other times, it requires the consumption of a specific number of bodies, either of a specific age or epoch, or perhaps of a specific race. The actual trigger is left to the GM to determine, but once it takes place, your transformation into a full ghoul is swift, painful, and permanent. The features and effects of this template are removed and your original race’s traits are replaced by the Mythos ghoul race traits. Once the change is complete, only a wish, divine intervention, or similar effect can restore the newly minted ghoul’s original race.

Society

It’s certainly easy for someone to look upon a ghoul and make assumptions. The sight of a ghoul devouring dead flesh might lead an observer to view the entire race as nothing but feral, unsophisticated monsters. In truth, ghouls are, on average, more intelligent than typical humans, and even when they are at their most debased, they are never far from a keen insight into the nature of their meal. Often, a clan of ghouls will spend entire nights gathered in boneyards, perched atop gravestones or lounging in opened and emptied coffins, engaged in spirited debates about diverse and esoteric topics.

Yet for all their intellect, ghouls have always lacked something significant in their lives: a society they can truly call their own. They reap, rather than sow, relying upon humanoid society for many of their needs, including food from their graves and shelter in their tombs, without creating their own edifices or nations. Distracted by the memories they consume, it may well be that a ghoul’s mind is incapable of the inspirational spark found in most humanoid cultures that leads them to build civilizations. They are voracious readers of texts of all types, yet few ghouls can bring themselves to create texts of their own. They model themselves after those they feed upon, seeing themselves, perhaps, as the inheritors of another civilization’s past. Yet, they are never truly a part of human society, regardless of how much human flesh they eat or how many human minds they experience.

Scavengers to the core, ghouls are the ultimate outsiders, truly comfortable only alone or in small groups. Due to a lack of self-awareness and introspection, ghouls never really grasp the enormity and tragic truth of existence. Despite this or perhaps because of it, they carry in their hearts at least a subconscious understanding of the sadness of their situation.

Ghouls may titter and caper atop a grave in delight at finding a delicious new meal, yet in the aftermath of gorging on time-seasoned meat, their dreams are often haunted by lonely thoughts. Ghouls often grow solitary over time, left abandoned and forgotten to haunt distant sepulchers.

Ghouls rarely integrate well into greater societies, either. Despite centuries of education via texts and tomes, inevitably when ghouls finally make contact with the society they have for so long admired from afar, their appearance and hungers end only in tragedy.

Faith

Matters of faith and worship are not unknown to ghouls, but they have no true gods of their own. Many ghouls worship gods from their life prior to becoming a nascent ghoul, but many good deities discourage the death-adjacent lifestyle of a ghoul, which for them is not a choice.

Some particularly devout ghouls may shift their worship to a darker god in their original life’s pantheon-one more willing to hear the prayers of the ghoul. Typically, these gods are neutral or evil in nature and have fewer concerns regarding laws and taboos against feasting on the dead.

Other ghouls worship entities of the Mythos, particularly those who might offer the opportunity to learn secrets of a powerful nature, such as Nyarlathotep or Tsathoggua.

In some lands, ghouls worship the gods of old that most modern societies consider dead or have forgotten entirely.

In fact, this is merely the result of ghouls picking up fragments and memories left behind in ancient graveyards.

When a humanoid culture passes on, they leave behind only crumbling statues and temples, and when the ghouls move in, they pick up those pieces and make them their own. In this way, many otherwise-dead faiths live on in ghoul warrens, yet these gods are no more the preferred patrons of ghouls than any other.

Not all ghoul clans worship gods. Some prefer to consider themselves intellectual atheists, perhaps acknowledging gods if there is evidence of their power but denying that they have any special claim to authority or worship.

Other ghouls instead look to their predecessors for wisdom. This form of ancestor worship typically manifests in one or two ways: a ghoul may look back upon their parents and their parents’ parents for advice, mining their accomplishments for inspiration, or a ghoul might look back upon their own life, particularly in the case of a changeling ghoul who has finally undergone full transformation.

To these ghouls, lost family members, whether living or dead, become as ancestors to venerate: their existence is like something out of a past life. Worship of these childhood memories is all some ghouls have to keep their minds from fully toppling into madness and they may even continue to wear familiar clothing (often robbed from graves) and carry gear and weapons in an attempt to cling to their previous lives. Ghouls stuck in the past in this way often become objects of pity among their brethren, who typically leave them to wallow in their own memories as long as they do no harm. Such ghouls may try to reestablish contact with lost family, and even if this does not result in tragedy, such an event can reveal the presence of a ghoul colony to humanity, which can cause problems (see Relations).

Culture

Without a true culture to call their own, ghouls seem perfectly content to immerse themselves in the cultures of those they dine upon. As a result, most ghoul societies trail somewhat behind the times, with their aesthetics often seeming very old-fashioned compared to the modern-day cultures under whose graveyards they hide. By scavenging what these societies throw away, ghouls create a parasitic form of culture that suits them well and keeps them sated and happy. They treat ancient tools and discarded objects with reverence and respect and can typically eke out several more uses of objects other cultures have discarded as ruined.

Regardless of the society whose culture they’ve appropriated, ghouls usually form into relatively small groups known as clans for a very practical purpose. A ghoul clan is limited in size by the pool of available dead, and if the clan depletes a graveyard or feed so quickly that their host society notices the depredations visited upon their deceased, the ghouls may find themselves forced out of their homes or pushed into violent confrontations.

The typical ghoul clan prefers to lair in extensive warrens dug by tool and claw into the earth below a graveyard, but clans have been known to settle in abandoned necropolises or ruined cities. Anywhere there’s a large or steady source of meat to feed upon can serve a ghoul as a home-specifically dead meat, as they do not hunt living creatures for food save for in times of famine. They prefer flesh that is properly aged, at least by a few days and, if possible, for much longer. Mummified flesh is considered a delicacy to a ghoul. When a ghoul encounters a particularly delicious corpse (often the remains of a philosopher, wizard, alchemist, poet, or other great thinker who died years ago), they keep the remains handy in storage.

Ghouls maintain entire “cellars” of corpses to feed upon, with walls lined with open coffins displaying their grisly contents in a macabre parody of human wine cellars.

Here, they keep their favorite bodies in storage, nibbling only now and then on these finely aged bones and preserved bits of flesh when the urge to celebrate strikes.

Undead often dwell in and around locales that ghouls favor, and for their part, ghouls do not abhor undead themselves.

Indeed, most ghouls find the taste of undead flesh to be delicious, and they have difficulty explaining how necromancy flavors flesh to those who lack their interests.

At times, lingering death magic has an almost narcotic impact on those who overindulge, which some ghouls particularly enjoy-a bit like drinking to excess but to far more potent effect. It’s not unusual to encounter ghoul societies that keep zombies as guardians and livestock simultaneously.

Relations

Ghouls have a complex relationship with humanoids. They depend on humanoids for food and base their societies and very culture on those they live near. When ghouls and humanoids meet, however, the result is almost always violent.

Most humanoids are quick to interpret the discovery of bestial-looking parodies of their own shape dwelling in their graveyards and eating their dead as unsettling at best, or downright blasphemous at worst. Once humanoids know of the clan’s presence, ghouls can expect continuous harassment.

The typical ghoul is more than a match for an average humanoid, and even though such humanoids are usually the ones to start confrontations when ghouls are discovered, ghouls are usually the ones to escalate or finish the fight. Though the results vary, conflict with a group of humanoids almost never ends well for a ghoul clan in the long run. They might be wiped out, destroyed by superior weapons or numbers, or otherwise forced to move on to find a new feeding ground.

While humanoid settlements generally have difficulty establishing peaceful relations with ghouls, the same is not the case for individuals. Often, an artist, necromancer, or eccentric who learns of the presence of ghouls in a local graveyard will seek to establish peaceful contact with the ghouls. For their part, ghouls value such contacts, for they give the clan insight into the workings of the society they feed upon, and such a contact can also help cover up their presence or warn them when their feeding becomes noticeable. In return, ghoul clans can offer value to their allies by revealing secrets lost to the ages or insights about history, supplying aid in dealing with undead, or serving as guides into underground regions.

Some humanoids actively seek out becoming a ghoul, which generally makes ghouls nervous. Rarely will a ghoul encourage a humanoid to become a ghoul, much less help them transform. Most ghouls rankle at the idea of “gifting” a humanoid with their abilities, and some feel ashamed at inflicting what they feel is a curse. There’s also a practical reason: any humanoid ally is a potential meal, and once a ghoul, an ex-humanoid is less likely to grace a banquet table-at least for a long, long time.

When it comes to sentient undead, although Mythos ghouls often share common interests and often tastes, there is rarely peaceful cooperation between the two groups. While ghouls enjoy the flavor of intelligent undead more than mindless ones, these undead typically understand that ghouls make poor allies. Curiously, while undead ghouls seem eager to feed upon their living counterparts, Mythos ghouls tend to find the flesh of undead ghouls to be unpleasant, describing it as “overripe” or “rancid” in flavor.

Adventurers

Ghouls become adventurers for as wide a range of reasons as anyone, but one driving force in particular is the constant urge to seek out new, exotic meals.

A ghoul adventurer might wish to sample the dead in a wide range of graveyards or might seek to uncover a hidden text or lost relic they learned of after feeding on a dead scholar. Since adventurers often have a much higher tolerance for strangeness, a ghoul is more likely to find acceptance in an adventuring party, which can offer important protection and support. If the ghoul’s adventuring allies can help keep them from being run out of town, then all the better!

Ghoul Traits

Your ghoul character is a monstrosity.

As such, spells and effects that only work on humanoids do not affect you.

The ghoul race is an excellent choice for a player who wishes to play a monstrous race that can fill a more scholastic role, but care should be taken to ensure that the GM and the rest of the players are comfortable with having a party member who may well be wallowing in unpleasant or taboo subjects (eating dead humanoids can easily upset one’s allies).

Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution and Intelligence scores each increase by 1.

Age. A Mythos ghoul born as one reaches adulthood at age 10 and almost never live beyond their sixth century. For more information, see Life Cycle.

Alignment. Ghouls are opportunistic and often find the taboos of social norms highly confining if not antithetical to their very survival. They are rarely lawful or good.

Size. Ghouls are about the same size and weight as humans. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

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.

Grave Nose. You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell to notice or recognize corpses, decaying things, meat, and undead creatures.

Bite. You can bite as an unarmed strike if you could not already. When you make an unarmed strike with your bite, it has the light and finesse properties and deals 1d4 piercing damage. You can use your bite in two-weapon fighting.

Claws. You can make a claw attack as an unarmed strike with each hand. When you make an unarmed strike with a claw, it has the light and finesse properties and deals 1d4 piercing damage.

Psychic Feast. When you feed upon the flesh of a dead humanoid or monstrosity, you absorb some of the lingering traces of memory and knowledge that the creature possessed in life. Strangely, the older the corpse, the more potent the memories become. Feeding on a corpse less than 24 hours dead provides no benefit but nourishment. If you spend 1 minute feeding on an older corpse that has some amount of flesh (even dried flesh, such as a mummy might have), you gain insight into a skill or tool that the creature was proficient with. Specify a skill or tool you believe the creature possessed; if you’re correct, you gain that insight. If the creature lacked that proficiency, you get an insight of the GM’s choice instead. You add half your proficiency bonus to ability checks using a skill or tool if you have an insight into it and were not already proficient in that skill or with that tool. If you have an insight and are proficient in a skill or with that tool, you add one and one-half times your proficiency bonus instead of your normal proficiency bonus on checks using that skill or tool. You can normally gain only one insight from any given corpse. At the GM’s discretion, a particularly ancient corpse might grant a larger bonus or two insights. You can maintain up to three total insights. If you use this trait when you already have the maximum number of insights, choose one to forget in order to replace it with the insight from the new corpse. You can enhance this ability by taking the Erudite Feaster feat.

Inured to Disease. You are immune to nonmagical diseases and have advantage on saving throws against magical diseases.

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

Subrace

As children, Mythos ghouls can be mistaken for certain Medium humanoids. Some take advantage of this fact by contriving to have a ghoul child raised by members of other races. Typically, ghouls only place their children among highly organized races of Medium size.

A ghoul born and raised among ghouls is different from a ghoul who was raised by another race. Ghouls raised as changelings in another society maintain the cultural training they received when growing up in that race’s culture.

Choose one of the following subraces.

Raised by Ghouls

As a ghoul raised by ghouls, you take naturally to moving among ruins.

Burrower. You have a burrowing speed of 10 feet. You can burrow through sand, earth, mud, or ice. You do not leave a tunnel behind you unless the material is particularly solid. Unless you choose to leave a tunnel behind, you must hold your breath while burrowing.

Scrounger. You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) and Intelligence (Investigation) checks to find objects in rubble or undergrowth, buried, or otherwise hidden from view.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Ghoul.

Raised by Dwarves

As a ghoul raised by dwarves, you learned dwarven crafts and methods of war.

Dwarven Combat Training. You have proficiency with the battleaxe, handaxe, light hammer, and warhammer.

Tool Proficiency. You have proficiency with one set of artisan’s tools of your choice: smith’s tools, brewer’s supplies, or mason’s tools.

Stonecunning. Whenever you make an Intelligence (History) check related to the origin of stonework, you are considered proficient in the History skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Dwarvish.

Raised by Elves

As a ghoul raised by elves, you learned their magical ways.

Elven Subrace. Choose an elven subrace. You gain its traits other than its ability score increase.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Elvish.

Raised by Half-Elves

As a ghoul raised by half-elves, you found opportunities to develop a variety of skills.

Skill Versatility. You have proficiency in two skills of your choice.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Elvish.

Raised by Half-Orcs

As a ghoul raised by half-orcs, you were encouraged to develop your natural talents to intimidate others.

Menacing. You have proficiency in the Intimidation skill.

Savage Attacks. When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Orc.

Raised by Humans

As a ghoul raised by humans, you found ways to develop your natural talents, whatever they are.

Ability Score Increase. Two of your ability scores of your choice from the following list each increase by 1: Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom, or Charisma.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos, © 2018, Petersen Games; Authors: Sandy Petersen, David N. Ross, James Jacobs, Arthur Petersen, Ian Starcher.

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