Minotaur

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D&D's latest depiction of the minotaur.

No relation to the Space Marine Chapter called the Minotaurs, who have several references to the mythological creature.

A minotaur is a half-man, half-bull, taking the form of a humanoid figure - originally purely human, but adding any combination of fur, a tail and digitigrade hooved legs became popular somewhere around the 80s - with a bull's head. Though at least one artist drew the minotaur as a messed up centaur, with a human head on a hulking bull.

This creature originates in Greek mythology, much like its fellow Medusa. Also like Medusa, "the Minotaur" was the name/title of a unique individual abomination rather than a species. Still also like Medusa, its origin story is pretty weird and fucked up, even by the standards of Greek mythology. The original minotaur, whose title means "the bull of Minos" and whose true name was actually Asterion or Asterius, was born to one Queen Pasiphae. Minos was supposed to sacrifice a white bull to the god Poseidon, but he refused because he took a liking to the majestic creature. As punishment, Poseidon had his wife Pasiphae take a bigger liking, and by "bigger liking" we mean to the point of having a giant hollow bull statue constructed so she could consummate her liking for the bull in private. After the minotaur was born, Minos was understandably livid that his wife cheated on him with an animal, but killing the bastard wasn't on the list (probably for good reason), so the hybrid was kept in a labyrinth so that ordinary people wouldn't have to look at it.

This might seem like a pretty raw deal for the minotaur, but on the other hand the Cretans forced the Athenians to send virgins for the monster's meals, because apparently omnivore + herbivore = obligate carnivore: once every seven years (or just every year, depending on the source) seven of the bravest youths and seven of the fairest maidens would be the minotaur's munchies. This would mean that either the Minotaur would be able to survive off of one teenager for six months and the rest would keep wandering around for up to six and a half years (aside from the question of how they didn't starve to death), or else be he ate them all in one sitting and digest them over the course of several years like the Sarlacc Pit Monster. When it was time for the third serving of Soylent Happy Meals, a bloke named Theseus came along and objected to this man-eating. He took the place of one of the youths (meaning that he must've been one hell of a bishie), sailed to Crete (where he fell in love with a local princess, but that's a tale for another time) and set up a rope that he could follow back. He found the center of the maze by constantly going straight ahead and never going left or right, and encountered the sleeping minotaur. Depending on the source he either stabbed it in the throat or strangled it with his bare hands, after which he walked out unmolested by the Creteans, who didn't stop him because they were too busy scratching their heads wondering why they didn't try that before.

As a result of this story, minotaurs are associated with labyrinths and mazes of all kinds. In AD&D minotaurs are immune to the Maze spell, which is odd given that the labyrinth was intended to keep the original thing in to begin with. In Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition they enjoy puzzles and feel at home in twisting, turning passages. Whenever minotaurs build towns or cities, the roads are always arranged in the most confusing way possible. To the locals, this makes perfect sense. To adventurers, it's a fucking pain. To GMs, it's an easy way to take up an hour or two of the party's time after they breeze through your perfectly designed challenge in 5 minutes and you have nothing left this session.

An interesting way to play with this trope might be to have a Minotaur philosopher character, who makes heavy use of labyrinthian logic full of twists and turns and who jumps through many a hoop to reach his conclusion. One could also have a minotaur character be the center of such a labyrinthian plot .

Dungeons & Dragons

Minotaurs in Dungeons & Dragons traditionally worship Baphomet, Demon Prince of Beasts, which makes them bitter enemies of the Gnoll race, due to the rivalry between Baphomet and Yeenoghu.

4e was also the first edition to make minotaurs a mainstream playable race, rather than monsters - they had first been given a playable write up in Dragonlance. In Points of Light, Minotaurs were originally ruled over by Baphomet, the Horned King. After the Dawn War ended, he was cast into the Abyss and Erathis, the goddess of civilisation, called dibs on the minotaurs. This went well for a short while, until cultists of Baphomet corrupted the city, and Melora had to kill them with fire. Individual minotaurs struggle with the insane beasts that rages in the maze within their heads. If they succumb to this madness, they often fall into thralldom to Baphomet. If they were to overcome this insanity or keep it at bay their entire lives, minotaurs can be civilised creatures, though often preferring to live on the edge of society.

In Dragonlance, it's noted that minotaurs actually have two-toed but otherwise human-like feet, with hooves being restricted to corrupted throwback-mutants. They're also famous for being even more Greco-Roman inspired than minotaurs usually are, having a highly disciplined, warlike culture based on a strong army and martial honor, gladiatorial games being super-important (it's even how they select their emperors!), and being expert sailors. So much so that 5e made minotaurs playable by using the Krynn variant as inspiration and releasing it in the Waterborne Adventures web-enhancement here.

D&D Racial Stats

Playable minotaurs have never received a lot of attention, but they have appeared here and there throughout the editions.

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AD&D

Playable minotaurs appeared twice in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. The first time, for AD&D 1e, was in Dragon Magazine #116. They were then present in the 2nd edition sourcebook The Complete Book of Humanoids. The Savage Coast of Mystara sourcebooks for 2e also provided stats for the Enduk, a race of winged minotaurs native to that gonzo-fantasy world.

Dragonlance

Minotaurs have long had a prominent place in Dragonlance. In fact, if you don't count Tinker Gnomes and Kender (which most people prefer not to, seeing as how they're more annoying setting-specific versions of gnomes and halflings), minotaurs were one of the two new PC races introduced in "Dragonlance Adventures", the first ever sourcebook for the setting in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition. This is a position they share with the Irda.

Minotaurs in this setting are basically Spartans, combining a brutal warrior culture with codes of honor and scholarship. Their society is built on Three Virtues, Strength, Cunning, and Learning, and they're famed navigators and pirates. They tend towards Lawful Evil rather than chaos.

In the 3.5 Sourcebook "Races of Ansalon", Minotaurs got a chapter all to themselves. Their stats are as follows:

+4 Strength, –2 Dexterity, –2 Intelligence, –2 Charisma. Minotaurs are large and powerful, but not very agile. From youth, minotaurs focus on developing their muscle over their minds. Minotaur arrogance can be offensive to other races.

Medium: As Medium creatures, minotaurs have no special bonuses or penalties.

A minotaur’s base land speed is 30 feet.

+2 natural armor bonus.

Gore: A minotaur may use his horns as natural weapons to make a gore attack, dealing 1d6 points of damage plus the minotaur’s Strength modifier. If the minotaur charges, his gore attack deals 2d6 points of damage, plus 1 ½ times his Strength modifier. A minotaur can attack with a weapon at his normal attack bonus and make a gore attack as a secondary attack (–5 penalty on the attack roll and half Strength bonus on the damage roll).

+2 racial bonus on Intimidate, Swim, and Use Rope checks. Minotaurs are familiar with the sea and naturally adept at skills useful among seafarers.

Minotaurs may take the scent special quality as a feat. (See the Monster Manual.)

Automatic Languages: Common, Kothian. Bonus Languages: Kalinese, Nordmaarian, Ogre, Saifhum.

Favored Class: Fighter.

3e

3rd Edition featured two extremely different versions of playable minotaurs. The first version, appearing in the Monster Manual, was quite a beast, with 6 hit dice and a +2 level adjustment, meaning that minotaur player characters had to start at ECL 9. The full statblock, as printed in the 3.5e Monster Manual, is as follows:

+8 Strength, +4 Constitution, –4 Intelligence, –2 Charisma.

Large size.

Space/Reach: 10 feet/10 feet.

A minotaur’s base land speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision out to 60 feet.

Racial Hit Dice: A minotaur begins with six levels of monstrous humanoid, which provide 6d8 Hit Dice, a base attack bonus of +6, and base saving throw bonuses of Fort +2, Ref +5, and Will +5.

Racial Skills: A minotaur’s monstrous humanoid levels give it skill points equal to 9 × (2 + Int modifier, minimum 1). Its class skills are Intimidate, Jump, Listen, Search, and Spot. Minotaurs have a +4 racial bonus on Search, Spot, and Listen checks.

Weapon Proficiency: A minotaur is proficient with the greataxe and all simple weapons.

+5 natural armor bonus.

Natural Weapons: Gore (1d8).

Special Attacks: Powerful charge.

Special Qualities): Natural cunning, scent.

Automatic Languages: Common, Giant. Bonus Languages: Orc, Goblin, Terran.

Favored Class: Barbarian.

Level adjustment +2.

A few months after the launch of 3.5e, the Dragonlance Campaign Setting was updated for Third Edition rules, and it featured a severely nerfed form of Minotaur that players could play at level one. Its full stat block is as follows:

+4 strength, -2 dexterity, -2 intelligence, -2 charisma

Medium size

Base land speed 30 feet

Natural armor +2

a gore attack for 1d6 + str modifier

a charge + gore attack for damage equal to 2d6 plus 1.5x str

+2 to intimidate, Swim, and Use Rope checks

can take Scent as a feat

Automatic languages: Common and Kothian. Bonus languages: Kalinese, Nordmaarian, Ogre, and Saifhum

Favored class: Fighter

Pathfinder

Like most OGL monsters from 3E, Minotaur's only changes in Pathfinder are system wide (which means no LA so they can't be playable). In Golarion minotaurs are, in addition to a true breeding race, a result of a curse on human parents by Lamashtu. This means any organization in or near human lands could have a Minotaur around as some muscle.

Dreamscarred Press, in love with old often weird subsystems (they even toyed around with making Truenamer not shit!), created their own version of the Monster Classes introduced in Savage Species (and used by the World of Warcraft RPG mentioned above). Naturally one of the monster classes they made was the Minotaur. Minotaur is one of the simplest monster classes, having all the abilities of the "real" minotaur at the same strength across the same number of hit die and just being a grandular progression from level 1. They are great melee brutes, but with one obvious flaw: They aren't proficient with armor. They either need to dip into some class or stick to 0 ACP armor like (masterwork studded) leather. They do however get the ability to pick an awesome minotaur only feat at 15th level called Labyrinth Lord: It's simultaneously a maze SLA, a way to force enemies into one on one combat, an infinite size portable hole and a Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion.

World of Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game

Tauren, the aforementioned Good Guy Minotaurs, appeared in the original Warcraft D20 RPG, but were re-written with a much better format (including dumping the racial level adjustment) in the World of Warcraft re-release. They were there from the corebook, and they had these stats:

+2 Strength, -2 Agility (Dexterity)

Medium

Base land speed 30 feet

Natural Weapon (Ex): Taurens have a set of horns that function as a natural weapon that deals 1D8+ Str bonus damage. Tauren are automatically proficient in the use of their horns.

Weapon Familiarity: Tauren Halberds and Tauren Totems are Martial weapons rather than Exotic for Tauren.

Weapon Proficiency: Longspear and Shortspear

+2 Racial bonus on Handle Animal and Survival checks. Handle Animal and Survival are always class skills for Tauren.

Racial Class: Tauren

Favored Class: Warrior

Tauren Racial Class

Hit Die: D10

Skill Points (1st level): (2 + Int modifier) x 4

Skill Points (else): 2 + Int modifier

"Class" Skills: Climb, Concentration, Handle Animal, Listen, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Spot, Survival.

Weapon & Armor Proficiency: Simple Weapons, exluding Crossbows, and Light Armor

Level 1: BAB +0, Fort Save +2, Ref Save +0, Will Save +2,+1 Strength, Tauren Charge (when charging, a tauren may use their horns instead of a melee weapon; this lets the tauren inflict a Gore attack that does horn damage + 1 1/2 times the tauren's Strength modifier in addition to the normal benefits)

Level 2: BAB +1, Fort Save +2, Ref Save +0, Will Save +2, +2 Spirit (Wisdom), +4 racial bonus on saves vs. fear, Tauren Weapon Proficiency (gain proficiency in either Tauren Halberd or Tauren Totem)

Level 3: BAB +2, Fort Save +3, Ref Save +1, Will Save +3,+1 Strength, Improved Tauren Charge (tauren is considered Large size for charging and bull rushing, +4 racial bonus on Strength checks for bull rush effects), Tauren Weapon Proficiency (gain proficiency in either Tauren Halberd or Tauren Totem)

D&D 4e

The sad proof that, for all 4e's efforts at trying to undo the pigeonholing effect of race from editions past, it hadn't quite gotten past it yet. Not a mechanically bad race, few 4e races were, but so heavily optimised for close-quarter combat that there was little encouragement besides fluff to be anything other than a melee brute.

Ability Scores: +2 Strength, +2 Constitution OR +2 Wisdom

Size: Medium

Speed: 6 squares

Vision: Normal

Skill Bonuses: +2 Nature, +2 Perception

Vitality: +1 healing surge

Ferocity: When you drop to zero hit points or fewer, you can make a melee basic attack as an immediate interrupt.

Heedless Charge: You have a +2 racial bonus to AC against attacks of opportunity you provoke during a charge.

Goring Charge: You have the Goring Charge racial power.

Goring Charge Minotaur Racial Encounter Power You charge the enemy and gore it with your horns.

Standard Action

Melee 1

Effect: You charge and make the following attack in place of a melee basic attack:

Target: One Creature

Attack: Strength, Constitution or Dexterity +4 (6 at 11th level and 8 at 21st level) vs. AC

Hit: 1D6 + Strength, Constitution or Dexterity modifier damage, and you knock the target prone.

• Level 11: 2D6 + Strength, Constitution or Dexterity modifier damage, and you knock the target prone.
• Level 21: 3D6 + Strength, Constitution or Dexterity modifier damage, and you knock the target prone.

D&D 5e

The first playable version of a Minotaur in 5e appeared in Unearthed Arcana for May, 2015. This version was explicitly modeled after the Krynnish version, since WoTC this time realised that with the half-orc, warforged, and goliath already done, the "big tough bruiser" racial niche is already pretty overcrowded. The 1d10 natural weapon is powerful at low level, but it loses out to magic weapons & feat boosts later on.

Krynnish/Nautical Minotaur:

Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 1.

Conqueror’s Virtue. From a young age, you focused on one of the three virtues of strength, cunning, or intellect. Your choice of your Strength, Intelligence, or Wisdom score increases by 2.

Age. Minotaurs enter adulthood at around the age of 17 and can live up to 150 years.

Alignment. Minotaurs believe in a strict code of honor, and thus tend toward law. They are loyal to the death and make implacable enemies, even as their brutal culture and disdain for weakness push them toward evil.

Size. Minotaurs typically stand well over 6 feet tall and weigh an average of 375 pounds. Your size is Medium but they can wield heavy weapons in 1 hand due to their sheer size.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Horns. You are never unarmed. You are proficient with your horns, which are a melee weapon that deals 1d10 piercing damage. Your horns grant you advantage on all checks made to shove a creature, but not to avoid being shoved yourself.

Goring Rush. When you use the Dash action during your turn, you can make a melee attack with your horns as a bonus action.

Hammering Horns. When you use the Attack action during your turn to make a melee attack, you can attempt to shove a creature with your horns as a bonus action.

Labyrinthine Recall. You can perfectly recall any path you have travelled.

Sea Reaver. You gain proficiency with navigator’s tools and vehicles (water).

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

An alternative ovine-featured minotaur appeared in "Plane Shift: Amonkhet", but they're only reskinned half-orcs with a Natural Weapon instead of Darkvision. Not overpowered by any means, and certainly competing for mechanical space with the half-orcs.

Amonkhetian/Sheep-Headed Minotaur:

+2 Strength, +1 Constitution

Medium

Base speed 30 feet

Natural Weapon - Horns: You can use your Horns as a natural weapon to make an unarmed strike. A Horn Attack inflicts 1d6 + Str modifier Bludgeoning damage.

Menacing: You have Proficiency in Intimidation.

Relentless Endurance: When you would be reduced to 0 hit points, but not killed outright, you can choose to be reduced to 1 hit point instead. Once you have used this trait, you must complete a Long Rest before you can use it again.

Hammering Horns: Immediately after you hit a creature with a melee attack as part of the Attack action on your turn, you can use your reaction to make a shove attack against that creature. You can only make this shove attack on a creature that is no more than one size larger than you and which is within 5 feet of you. The creature must succeed on a Strength saving throw (DC 8 + your Proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier) or be pushed up to 5 feet away from you.

Savage Attacks: When you inflict a Critical Hit with a melee weapon, increase the damage inflicted by a further +1 weapon damage dice result.

And a third 5e Minotaur appeared in May 2018, three years after the original debuted. This one was closer to the "generic" minotaur in concept. It also loses out on the awesome and flavorful Labrynthine Recall in favor of being the "big tough bruiser" the previous UA minotaur was trying not to be, and represents the persistent overvaluation of natural weapons by the design team this edition. Whelp.

Standard Minotaur:

Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Strength, +1 Constitution

Size: Medium

Speed: 30 feet

Vision: Normal

Horns: You possess horns, which are a natural weapon that you have proficiency with. When you hit with a horn attack, you inflict 1d6 + Strength modifier Piercing damage.

Goring Rush: Immediately after you use the Dash action on your turn and move at least as far as your speed, you can make one melee attack with your horns as a bonus action.

Hammering Horns: Immediately after you hit a creature with a melee attack as part of the Attack action on your turn, you can use your reaction to make a shove attack against that creature. You can only make this shove attack on a creature that is no more than one size larger than you and which is within 5 feet of you. The creature must succeed on a Strength saving throw (DC 8 + your Proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier) or be pushed up to 5 feet away from you.

Menacing: You have Proficiency in the Intimidation skill.

Hybrid Nature: You count as being both a Humanoid and a Monstrosity in terms of Creature Type, and thus can be affected by any game effect that specifically targets either of your types.

Finally, the "Official Minotaur" debuted in the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica in November 2018; this is the exact same stats as the UA "Standard Minotaur", but dropping Hybrid Nature and trading Menacing for Imposing Presence (free proficiency in either Intimidation or Persuasion).

Midgard Minotaurs

The 3rd-party setting of Midgard has its own unique spin on minotaurs, as well.

Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength, +1 Constitution

Size: Medium

Speed: 30 feet

Darkvision: 60 feet

Natural Attacks: When making Unarmed Strikes, you can attack with your horns, which deal 1d6+Str modifier piercing damage.

Charge: If you move at least 10 feet straight toward a target and hit it with a horn attack in the same turn, you deal +1d6 piercing damage and can use a bonus action to Shove the target 5 feet. You can only make a Charge attack once per turn. At 11th level, you can Shove the target up to 10 feet instead. You can only make a number of Charges per day equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum of 1). You recover all uses of this ability when you complete a Long Rest.

Labyrinthine Sense: You can automatically retrace any path that you have taken, without error or the need for an ability check.

Kinosian Minotaurs

When the Classical Mythology-themed setting of Arkadia debuted, minotaurs were conspicuously absent from the ancestries of the Phaedran, a race of Half-Fey bred from Greco-Roman themed fey races that stood in for playable examples of those races. Minotaurs appeared in the bestiary in the back of the setting book, but were described as curse-spawned fey, too mindless and savage to possibly be adventurers, and this applied to any progeny created by coupling with humans, elves, dwarves or orcs. Eventally, though, fan complaints caused them to backtrack on this and they introduced Kinosian Minotaurs as a free PDF expansion for the setting.

Kinosian minotaurs inhabit the crumbling, labyrinthine ruins of the island of Kinos, which they once shared peaceful with a now-extinct race of dwarves. Along amongst minotaurs of Arkadia, they are a fully sapient and civilized people, and nobody knows why they are so different to the monstrous, bestial minotaurs of the mainland. The dwarves of Kinos claimed it was the divine blessing of their god, Ptol, whilst sages speculate that maybe once all minotaurs were like those of Kinos, but for some reason those of Arkadia descended in savagery. Whatever the reason, Kinosian minotaurs are normally content to guard their ancestral labyrinths, but every so often, one dares to stride forth into the world.

Mechanically, Kinosian minotaurs have the following stats:

Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength, +1 Constitution

Size: Medium

Speed: 30 feet

Colossal Build: This is the same as Powerful Build, just with a different name.

Monstrous Strength: Your first weapon attack using Strength each turn deals 1d4 extra damage of that weapon’s type.

Bull’s Horns: Your horns are a natural weapon that you have proficiency with.When you hit with an attack using your horns you inflict 1d4 + Strength modifier piercing damage. This damage is further increased by Monstrous Strength. If you move at least 20 feet straight toward a creature no more than one size larger than you and then immediately hit it with an attack using your horns, it must succeed on a Strength or Dexterity saving throw against a DC equal to 8 + your Strength modifier + your proficiency bonus or be shoved 10 feet away and knocked prone. On a successful save, the creature is not shoved or knocked prone.

Thylean Minotaurs

In the Odyssey of the Dragonlords setting, minotaurs descend from a tribe of humans who were stranded upon the southern regions of Thylea by the great maelstrom that surroudns the lost continent. Coming to reside in the rocky hills of the Aresian peninsula, they built the city of Minos, but would have starved had they not discovered a celestial bull, which graciously loaned its supernatural strength and vigor to the fledgeling tribe, allowing them to produce bountiful crops. They began to venerate this bull as their god of the harvest, but this angered the vainglorious and cruel titan Sydon, who transformed the tribe into bulls themselves. He yoked them all to a plow and forced them to tread the same winding, geometric path, until their actions carved out a deep, labyrinthine gorge. Only when the plows broke were they restored, but the curse left them permanently marked - all Thylean minotaurs resemble humanoid bulls, to varying degrees; one may look like a normal person with a bull's head, another may look like a bovine satyr, and a third may look like an anthropomorphic bull. They also possess the ability to transform into raging, long-horned cattle when in the throes of battle-rage. To this day, they are shunned by humans of Thylea, especially those of Mytros, who fear they are still cursed by the gods and often force them into indentured servitude.

Mechanically, a Thylean minotaur has the following stats:

Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Strength, +1 Constitution

Size: Medium

Speed: 40 feeet

Labyrinthine Vision: You have Darkvision 60 feet, gain Advantage on skill checks to solve maze-like puzzles, and automatically succeed on saves against Maze and Hypnotic Pattern.

Colorblindness: You can only see the world in shades of red and gray.

Keen Snout: You have Advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks based on scent, and can detect strong odors from up to 6 miles away.

Cursed Transformation: From 5th level, you can use a bonus action to shapeshift into the form of a Bull (or a Dire Bull, from 9th level) once per day as a bonus action. This follows the rules of a Polymorph spell, barring that you do not need to concentrate. This ability automatically triggers if you suffer prolonged exposure to very bright shades of red.

Vodarin Minotaurs

In the Seas of Vodari, minotaurs were created by a demonic master and once ruled a dark empire, but it was sundered during the Godwar and their patron abandoned them. Without its baleful influence, minotaurs adapted and evolved, forsaking their bloodthirsty origins and becoming a meritocracy ruled over by the most skilled. Though self-sufficient, they have a friendly attitude and often become adventurers.

Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.

Age. Minotaurs reach maturity at around the age of 20 and can live well into the middle of their second century.

Alignment. Most minotaurs are lawful and believe in a strict moral code. They prize strength, skill, and honor in all people.

Size. Minotaurs are tall with heights around 7 feet. They have a large muscular build with their weight averaging around 300 lbs. Your size in Medium.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

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

Savant. You gain proficiency in one skill of your choice. In addition, you gain proficiency with your choice of vehicles (water) or one type of artisan’s tools.

Sense of Direction. You have advantage on checks against becoming lost and always know which direction you are facing.

Horns. Your horns are natural melee weapons, with which you are proficient. If you hit with your horns, the target takes piercing damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier.

Minotaur Weapon Training. You have proficiency with the greataxe, greatsword, and maul.

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

D&D Gallery

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In Magic: The Gathering

Minotaurs are amongst the many, many races of creatures that appear throughout the planes of Magic: The Gathering, being native to Alara, Amonkhet, Dominaria, Theros, Ravnica, Ulgrotha, and Zendikar. Some planes actually have multiple distinct forms or cultures of minotaur, and the race includes ram- and antelope-headed versions as well as the classic bull-headed version.

Amokhet's minotaurs are ovine-featured instead of bovine-featured, and are notorious for being rowdy, boisterous and direct. If one takes "Plane Shift: Amonkhet" as canon, they're actally incredibly short-lived, even given that they live in a world where everybody considers the point of life to be achieving a glorious death and become an undead slave to the God-Pharoah - according to this document, they don't fully mature until the age of 20, but don't live much longer than age 40, which is why they're so driven to squeeze the most out of life. Although they prefer close combat, they're also capable of producing talented spellcasters, favoring fiery magic and buffs, and those few who take up long-ranged weaponry are devastating with their heavy bows and javelins.

In Dominaria, minotaur variants include the spiritual yet warlike clans of the Hurloon Mountains, famous for their practice of singing hymns to honor the fallen on both sides after a battle, the rare (possibly extinct) and super-shaggy minotaurs that roamed the Karplusan Mountains during the Ice Age, the eleven minotaur clans of Mirtiin, the radical and xenophobic minotaurs of Stahaan, who have been known to launch crusades against other races, and the vain, hairless, xenophobic, crystal sword-wielding minotaurs of the Talruum mountains, who are skilled illusionists and regard their kinsfolk as very ugly.

Therosian minotaurs are primal, carnivorous savages, little more than beasts stalking the night in search of blood. While they have existed for a while, this is when they started to get a lot of support like tribal effects. (Didgeridoo doesn't count, because it's on the Reserved List.)

In Ravnica, minotaurs are mostly native to Ordruun, where they serve the Boros Legion and the Wojeks, but they also have been seen fighting for the Izzet Legion.

Ulgrotha is home to both the Anaba, a shamanistic tribe of minotaur mystics, and to the Labyrinth Minotaurs, immortal guardians possibly created by magic.

Finally, Zendikar houses many different tribes of minotaurs, ranging from feral beasts to aggressive and impulsive, yet honorable, civilized tribes, who often practice earth-manipulating magic.

Minotaurs have earned some memetic laughs for the frequency with which they are the targets of various nasty effects in card art:

• Sympathy for the Minotaur, Part 1
• Sympathy for the Minotaur, Part 2
• Sympathy for the Minotaur, Part 3

This probably started for the same reason Worf gets beat up all the time: They're big, tough and easy to recognize as big and tough so whatever beats them up must be really strong. It continues mostly as a tradition. This tradition got a playful nudge in Unstable in the series of cards Target Minotaur, which shows 4 variations of the same unlucky minotaur getting pelted by spells.

M:TG Gallery

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In Warhammer

The Minotaurs of Warhammer Fantasy were a bovine form of beastman, not to be confused with older lore stating that Slaangors often mutated to look more bovine. Mindless, bloodthirsty carnivors, a minotaur on the tabletop was a fucking rape train, half-bull half-man killing machine employed by the chaos furries. Their generic characters the Doombull and Gorebull are Minotaur characters able to be even more fucking rapetastic shit because they're the strongest and smartest of their kind.

Taurox was a named Minotaur character who was favored by Khorne, despite being a beastman, aka the unwanted bastard children of the dark gods, meaning he was epic as shit to be noticed by the higher up. Sadly, he got shot down by Markus Wulfhart.

In AoS, they're back under the more copyrightable name "Bullgors". Not much has changed, only instead of them pissing and shitting everywhere in forests in the Old World, it's across all the mortal realms.

Other /tg/ Appearances

Warcraft was one of the first settings to give good minotaurs a look, in the form of the tauren, which are basically minotaurs done by way of the "noble savage Native American" stereotype. They eventually revealed more variants around Azeroth, like the EVIL Taunka to the north which resembling bison, the Yaungol who look like Himalayan yaks and have a bit of "roaming mongolian nomads" going on and finally the Highmountain Tauren, who are modelled after moose.

In White Wolf's Scion setting, minotaurs are a race of Demigod-tier mooks spawned when the aforementioned White Bull of Crete emerged from the sea, raped Pasiphae, and then began rampaging all over Crete raping every woman it encountered until Hercules came along and caught the fucking thing - King Minos couldn't stop it because it would have pissed off Poseidon, who sent it to do this pretty much for shits and giggles. All-male themselves, minotaurs have to keep raping human women to keep their numbers up.

In Monster Hunter International they, or at least one Texas based tribe of them, prefer to be called Bullmen. They are among the few monsters that are both friendly to humans and PUFF exempt thanks to one of their own serving in the Vietnam war. They hold loyalty high enough one volunteers to have his hide made into a leather jacket to continue protecting the person he died protecting. Said jacket is tough enough that it is both bulletproof (though this hasn't been seriously tested) and can survive the wearer turning into a werewolf.

Monstergirls

This article or section is about Monstergirls (or a monster that is frequently depicted as a Monstergirl), something that /tg/ widely considers to be the purest form of awesome. Expect PROMOTIONS! and /d/elight in equal measure, often with drawfaggotry or writefaggotry to match.

Alongside centaurs (their fellow Greeks), minotaurs share the dubious honor of being a race that is alternatively embraced and shunned by fans of both monstergirls and furry - though their native form leans much closer to the furry side, monstergirl minotaurs are basically musclegirls with huge tits and at least one of several potential minor bovine features - long horns are near-universal, but they may also possess any or all of cow-like ears, a cow-like tail, digitigrade legs, hooves instead of feet, or unusual breasts/nipples (multiple boobs, oversized/multiple nipples, etc). You know, around the 10% mark on the furry meter, a bovine analogue to fauns. As for why minotaur monstergirls are so common, it's probably because of the connotation between "cow monstergirl" and "fucking huge tits" oppai Oppai OPPAI.

In fact, the presence of Minotaurs in the monstergirl fandom is a little contentious; "cowgirls", bovine-featured girls who tend to be hugely busty, often pleasingly curvy or soft in build, and very shy and gentle, are about as prolific in the MG fandom as the catgirl, and considered similarly "entry tier". Many argue that a cowgirl isn't a "real" minotaur MG unless she's also an amazon, or at least a musclegirl, and even then there's arguments about whether she has to have a brazen and forceful personality, matching the traditional violent/warlike depiction of the minotaur-as-monster, or if she can still be (at least in the right circumstances) as sweet and gentle as ordinary cowgirls. So in short, the difference between a cowgirl and a minotaur girl is the same as the difference between a domestic farm cow and an undomesticated aurox.

This divide is referenced in Life With Monstergirls: whilst their Minotaur "Liminal Race" is supposedly divided into the aggressive "Bullfighting" Minotaur and the more gentle and docile "Milking" Minotaur, the sample minotaur character Cathyl is a Milking type with an extremely aggressive nature who is quick to revert to violence. All minotaur females look like horned women with digitigrade, furry, cow-hooved legs, furry elf-like ears, and a cow's tail. Milking Types have huge tits which steadily swell bigger as they produce the day's milk, growing to painfully swollen and tender proportions far larger than a human head - Cathyl's breasts are bigger than even those of Tio, the ogre monstergirl who had previously been the must buxom member of the cast. Minotaur men are bull-headed muscular brutes with cow tails and legs, in a standard Japanese "men are more bestial than women" art style. It's unclear if both types of minotaur women are musclegirls; Cathyl is a Milking type who is visibly ripped, but she's also a farm-girl who spends a lot of time doing heavy labor. Of course, the same would probably be true of the average Milking type.

MGE

The MGE's Minotaur stands out from the cowgirl herd in a few ways.

The Monster Girl Encyclopedia actively embraces the minotaur/cowgirl divide by making them into two separate species; the ox/bull-based minotaur, and the cow-based holstaur. Minotaurs tend to be brazen, crass, forceful and violent in everything they do. If they see a potential partner they like they won't think twice about forcing themselves onto them. Extremely lazy by nature, they are hedonists who are driven by their emotions and live to eat, sleep and have sex. When not doing any of those things, they are usually working off some pent-up fury, which is one of the reasons why they are so ripped. The other reason is probably their love of rough sex, making every one of their constant bouts of lovemaking into a real workout.

Minotaur mamono are notorious for their peculiar trait of flying into a lustful frenzy if exposed to the color red.

Some translations of the name call them the Minotaurus race instead.

For details on their more "dainty" cousins, the Holstaur and the Hakutaku, see the Cowgirl page.

Gallery

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  Delicious beef.

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  Stronger than she looks.

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  Some artists apply bovines having four udders in a /d/ifferent way to cowgirls.

See Also

• Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition races