Shattered Kingdoms

Griffons can be a excellent race for newbies. However, playing something so different from the run-of-the-mill does have its pitfalls. So I'd to offer some suggestions to help new players know what a "typical" griffon is like. Though of course, the only official limits are in the help files.

Descriptions

1) Stick to the classic half-eagle, half-lion divided somewhere behind the shoulder. Despite the help files, being part hawk or part tiger gets negative reactions from a lot of players. Tailfeathers and leonine front paws also get negative reactions. You've leeway to use rare colors, such as black. However, blatantly unnatural colors like bright green should be avoided.

2) "Help size" reveals that a griffon should be about nine feet long. By custom, they're a tad larger, typically 5 feet at the shoulder (which translates as about 10 feet long for a big cat.) There's leeway here, but you should normally avoid making yours over 6 feet at the shoulder, which is getting into a giant's weight class, or making them only 3 feet at the shoulder like lions.

Roleplay

1) Griffons take bonuses to intelligence as well as physical attributes. They should not normally be played as dumb brutes with bad grammar. Avian accents are welcome, but certainly not necessary.

2) Body motions should match a griffon's peculiar anatomy. For example, instead of using the smile social, use an emote that conveys the idea: "chirps brightly", "eyes sparkle as his beak gaps wide", whatever. Or maybe even an inscrutable emote, since griffon expressions are supposed to be hard for humanoids to read: "clicks his beak".

3) Griffons can range from the feral to the civilized, though IMO the best griffons have some qualities of both. But do remember that per the help files, they are "altruistic", a very strong word.

4) For your backstory, don't worry about picking a birthplace with griffon NPCs. The great majority of families are simply fabricated, off in the mountains of their particular country. Being a bit vague about exactly where they are is downright common. Being raised by humanoids or having escaped from the Empire are acceptable stories, but perhaps a bit overused.

Any thoughts on origin? Should most griffons believe that they arise from a wizard's cauldron? I've had a griffon wandering around with a severe inferiority complex because she is in the natural world, but not innately of it. And I read elsewhere in the forums a theory of some 'alternate plane', but I'd never seen an in-game reference, so I was unsure of how widespread that thought might be.

Also, while I've never seen it, I don't see a great number of griffons running about (most likely in part because as an introvert, I tend to play introvertive characters. I know, it's rather self-defeating to hop on a game with 40 other people and then avoid them like the plague, but I'm working on that ) To get to my question - I've often seen griffons in art depicted with having feather-tufted ears toward the backs of their heads. Does this fall in the realm of the typically accepted in SK? It would be handy as far as emotes go. Instead of tilting my head in confusion, my ears could flick forward and back, etc. But since this is the first game I've come across with griffons, it's hard to figure the norm.

Apart from that, thanks for the note! It's a helpful reference, half happy confirmation and half new information.

-Threnody

The alternate plane theory can be discovered in the Griffon Island (The Ruins of Owyran).

Heh, I just have to muster my courage and ask someone IC where in Pyrathia that is.

Griffons were denying the cauldron legend long before any alternate theory arose. How could creatures of such perfection be an accident?

Long ears are fine, since they're a part of the typical griffon found in heraldry. Avian ear-tufts are fine too, and can serve the same purpose. Your choice.

Just want to give this a bump for all the new griffons I'm seeing. It's great to have more roleplay partners. However, having a 9+ foot tall griffon screams "newbie" louder than you might like.

Griffons are natural quadrupeds, and are built like a great cat. That implies a body length of roughly twice their shoulder height. So that 9 foot reference in "help size" is for their length, their largest dimension.

As mentioned, griffons are somewhat larger by game tradition. A large male griffon might well be 5 1/2 feet at the shoulder. The head will be higher depending on posture - perhaps over 7 feet when sitting. But 9 feet is just too tall, well into the giant size class.

Just wondering--would a griffon slave work rp-wise?

Depends on how you RPed it...

the master could be holding the parent griffons captive... Maybe he echanged the life of his griffon cub (who was captured by the master ) in exhange for his servitude

A griffon slave of the Empire, born into servitude, and a PC "owner". That would be a challenging and fun RP.

I know of a couple of people who did it/do it. Though, I think the alignment issues with Griffons being innately light aura would cause them to want to break free, somehow.

unless they're crazy.

But yes, it is possible.

Another RP hook is a griffon who was saved by a paladin, and allows the paladin to ride him instead of a damned horse. That would be l33t.