List of Animal-Derived Races/Monsters

[odigity]

I'm curious how many D&D 5e speech-capable races/monsters are obviously and directly derived from a real animal. That is, with the right evolutionary pressures (for bipedal posture, brain growth, etc), you could see how they could have originally started as those animals.

Here are some examples that come to mind:



Animal
Race / Monster


Ape
Human


Bird
Aarakocra


Cat
Tabaxi


Cow
Minotaur


Fish
Kuo-toa, Merfolk, Merrow, Sahuagin


Frog
Bullywug, Grung


Lizard
Lizardfolk


Snake
Yuan-ti


Turtle
Tortle (Tomb of Annihilation)



Rejected:


Rakshasa — fiend
Slaad — aberration

[Millstone85]

As I said in another recent thread, I have nothing against evolution in a fantasy setting, but there are some creatures for which having a natural origin would be a huge change to their lore:
* Rakshasa are fiends of the Lower Planes.
* Slaadi are a byproduct of the Spawning Stone in Limbo.
* Yuan-ti began as humans using dark rituals.

[odigity]

As I said in another recent thread, I have nothing against evolution in a fantasy setting, but there are some creatures for which having a natural origin would be a huge change to their lore:
* Rakshasa are fiends of the Lower Planes.
* Slaadi are a byproduct of the Spawning Stone in Limbo.
* Yuan-ti began as humans using dark rituals.

I failed to notice that Rakshasa are fiends and Slaadi are aberrations. That would disqualify them from this project.

However, while Yuan-ti's stated origin was dark rituals, that's irrelevant to my criteria. I'm looking for creatures that *could* have conceivably evolved from an ordinary animal. The background is basically flavor text, whereas the creature category is not just flavortext.

[Unoriginal]

I'm curious how many D&D 5e speech-capable races/monsters are obviously and directly derived from a real animal. That is, with the right evolutionary pressures (for bipedal posture, brain growth, etc), you could see how they could have originally started as those animals.

Here are some examples that come to mind:



Animal
Race / Monster


Ape
Human


Bird
Aarakocra


Cat
Tabaxi


Cow
Minotaur


Fish
Kuo-toa, Merfolk, Merrow, Sahuagin


Frog
Bullywug


Lizard
Lizardfolk


Snake
Yuan-ti


Turtle
Tortle (Tomb of Annihilation)



Rejected:


Rakshasa — fiend
Slaad — aberration


Kuo-toa, Yuan-ti and Minotaurs come from humans modified via various processes.


That being said, are you saying "who COULD come from evolution, but don't" or "who do come from evolution"?

[Millstone85]

I failed to notice that Rakshasa are fiends and Slaadi are aberrations. That would disqualify them from this project.

However, while Yuan-ti's stated origin was dark rituals, that's irrelevant to my criteria. I'm looking for creatures that *could* have conceivably evolved from an ordinary animal. The background is basically flavor text, whereas the creature category is not just flavortext.I could see that work for those yuan-ti who look like snakes with arms ("abomination", MM p308), including those with multiple heads ("anathema", VGtM p202), or scaly humanoids ("broodguard" and "mind whisperer", VGtM p203-204), but what about those who are just humans with a snake head ("malison", MM p309), humans with snake eyes ("pureblood", MM p310), humans with a snake tail for legs ("nightmare speaker", VGtM p205), or humans with skane tails for arms ("pit master", VGtM p206)?

[Pelle]

Horse -> Centaur ?

If that is DQd for just being a human-animal mashup, then most of the other entries should be as well...

[nickl_2000]

Frog would also be Grung

[Pelle]

small apes (monkeys?) -> halfling and gnome
bearded ape -> dwarf
pointy eared ape -> elf
pig -> orc

[odigity]

Frog would also be Grung

Thanks, added.

[Millstone85]

Other creatures to consider:



Animal
Sapient




Bug
Thri-kreen


Crow
Kenku


Fish
Triton


Hyena
Gnoll


Snake
Naga


Spider
Chitine


Toad
Troglodyte


Vulture
Nagpa

[Ronnocius]

Newts into firenewts?

Scorpions into tlincallis?

[leogobsin]

Kenku have the curse that's the big part of their origin but as far as I'm aware before the curse were still avian so they'd probably qualify.

Ettercaps are humanoid spiders, kobolds if you want to change up their fluff some could be dragon/lizard descended, troglodytes which seems to be some kind of amphibian/reptile, umber hulks are some sort of huge bugs, and giff are based on hippos.

Then there's myconids, which aren't actually 'animals' but could be seen as an evolved form of life that exists in the real world; also various types of plant based monsters (treants, dryads, blights, etc).