Should I use Half-Orc or Gnoll for Melee Tank?

[Zhentarim]

I have a mechanical question as to whether I should play a gnoll or a half-orc when it comes to being a tank. My character starts off married to another player in the game and he is an investigator with very high INT.


Lvl 5 LE Antipaladin Half-Orc (Insinuator)
STR 16
DEX 14
CON 16
INT 7
WIS 12
CHA 16

Or...

Lvl 5 Gnoll Antipaladin (Insinuator)
STR 16
DEX 14
CON 16
INT 10
WIS 12
CHA 16

[Zhentarim]

I'm thinking the gnoll would be the better tank, but I'm not sure.

[Zhentarim]

Going gnoll

[GreyBlack]

.... I hesitate to ask, but what race is the Investigator?

[Zhentarim]

.... I hesitate to ask, but what race is the Investigator?

human, and he changed to witch

[GreyBlack]

human, and he changed to witch

... I hesitate to ask again, but what are the logistics here? Like, why would a gnoll and a human... become intimate? From the SRD, gnolls generally view things that aren't hyenas and other gnolls as meat or slaves, and are known to participate in cannibalism. In addition.... trying to keep PC here, but Hyena reproductive habits are... horrifying?

I guess what I'm asking here is why in Odin's glorious name would a gnoll and a human get together? Like, what's the story justification here?

[Zhentarim]

Hello, people... I'm married to a gnoll!

Now, let me pitch in how I see the whole issue. Sorry if I don't quote each of you, many have made very intelligent points.

First: total agreement: CHA does not mean straightforward attractiveness. A high CHA + high physical states, however, does. At least in my book.

Second: certainly people in a fantasy world have more capacity to see other species attractive. Specially if, as in the case of our story, the gnolls and the humans of that region live together and spend lots of time seeing each other. I think to be able to see people with widely different "bodies" to yours attractive you just need to have seen a lot of them.

I dunno if anyone of you has experienced something similar after moving to a region with people from a widely different ethnic group but to me at least it takes becoming used to a set of features and then I can more easily recognize what specifics within that set are attractive. When I moved to England it took me a while to discern attractive Englishmen from the "milky white round flat face" that they usually seemed to me. Obviously this is a tad more extreme (no human ethnic group is comparable to gnolls. Well, maybe Andalusians*) but I think it is a safe bet that a human from a region such as this would be attracted to a gnoll.

Third: I also think attraction and love are messy things at best and very tied to the character's personal stories. My witch-gravewalker was sold into marriage with this gnoll anti-paladin's father. None of them were supposed to do much but obey, and yet together they intrigued and fought to win power and independence for themselves. I think that makes quite a bonding experience.

Also, I'm totally rping this in a Adams family style XD




*Joking. I'm Andalusian. Also, not joking: we're quite hairy and our traditional music (flamenco) has a lot of heart-felt screaming and stomping the ground.

That is why