Though gnolls are relatively lean for their height, they cut an impressive visage. Gnoll skin is greenish-gray, and their furry hide a light or dark brown hue, sometimes marked with spots or stripes. Many gnolls also have a dirty yellow to reddish-gray crest-like mane that stands on end when they are angry.

Female gnolls are indistinguishable from males by size. In fact, so similar are male and female gnolls in appearance that they are often mistaken for one another. The only reliable way to tell the difference, other than through a close physical examination, is if a female was pregnant or openly nursing. Even seeing them naked doesn't necessarily clear it up, since the females have a pseudopenis that superficially resembles the male organ.

Moreso than many other humanoid races, primal instinct is a strong part of the gnoll psyche. Gnolls are natural predators and savor the thrills of the hunt. Almost all gnolls preferred the wilderness to the civilized enclaves favored by humans, dwarves, or other similar races and those that do take to cities usually think of them as just another kind of landscape.   Gnoll also practice carrion eating. Unlike most races, gnolls have few, if any, qualms about eating the dead of other races. When gnolls strike a village they do not only leave no survivors but no corpses, eating most of those whom they don't take as slaves. There are even indications that some gnolls have taken this practice a step further, actually raiding graveyards for fresh corpses on which to feed.

Though gnolls are not necessarily evil, the craving of the hunt and primal bloodlust that inhabits the gnoll mind have made many of the race lean towards a chaotic evil alignment by reflex. Gnolls that succumb to this tendency often become nomadic savages, wreaking havoc wherever they can, giving them their fearsome reputation as slaving brigands throughout the world. Such creatures have rarely been united and although gnolls as a whole have had a strong affinity for family and blood ties, this friendliness has not often extended to those who belonged to a different pack and the race has commonly made war on itself.   Gnolls place a very strong value on family for instance, respecting blood ties perhaps more than any other aspect of a relationship. Though gnolls within a pack will commonly fight with each other for dominance, these battles are quickly forgotten after their resolution, and in most situations, gnolls of the same bloodline are loyal friends and allies to one another. These bloodlines have almost always traced maternally, through the female line.   This loyalty to family is particularly obvious during combat, either with rival gnoll packs or other races. Gnolls who fought side by side regularly throw away personal glory in order to help their brethren. Perhaps most surprisingly, when a gnoll has been separated from clan and family their instinctive need for such blood ties leads them to form a surrogate "pack" from those whom they choose to befriend. To these unlikely allies the gnoll is as loyal and faithful as they would their own brothers or sisters, embracing the outsiders as if they were family.

Gnolls of all kinds have an affinity for hyenas, who many see as their brethren and whom they have kept as pets or for hunting.

Many other races find the gnoll psyche feral and aggressive, and the behavioral tendencies of the race have certainly given this impression. Gnolls start fighting among one another at a very early age and as soon as they can walk, many crawl into places away from the eyes of adults where they engage in vicious, often lethal battles. A gnoll is more likely to demand answers than it is to actually ask a question. Gnolls, however, do not see this as an act of hostility, but rather a basic demonstration of strength.   Gnolls have a propensity for scavenging. At its most basic level, this tendency has lead many gnolls to collect trophies that remind them of past victories, items sometimes grisly though just as often simple and mundane. Gnoll trackers use this to their benefit, keeping scraps of clothing or other objects with the scent of their prey on them, which they use to point them in the direction of their quarry.   While all gnolls had an innate tendency for collecting souvenirs and trophies, nomadic packs, particularly the savage ones who have little contact with other races except during wartime, have few other ways to acquire technology, having crafted few tools of their own. The result of this is that most gnolls rely on the other races as their source of wealth and technology. This extends to arms and weaponry, giving gnoll armor a unique aesthetic where each suit is typically made kitbashed together from scavenged pieces of armor found either on victims or abandoned.   Though gnolls of all kinds have a strong loyalty towards family, they do not extend such courtesies to those outside their pack and mainstream gnoll culture has had a much deserved reputation for brutality. Most gnolls are nomadic, wandering from land to land and living off of raids on the local populations. Victims of these attacks can expect no mercy from their attackers and those who are not killed are taken as slaves to be brutalized and abused both physically and mentally. Gnolls detest physical labor and so to ensure utter loyalty from slaves, take their brutalization and maltreatment to an art form. For this purpose most packs have specialized slavers known as tantekurash or "spirit breakers" who have made it their business to break the will of a slave through repetitive torture.   The process wreaked on a slave's mind by the tantekurash is brutal and often irrevocable. Those captives who do not submit are eaten, often in front of other slaves as yet another form of torment. Slaves who accept their fate often live short and brutal lives, which are ended by them being devoured. Few victims are lucky enough to be rescued and those that are may take months to shake the scars from their psyche and recover.   An even less fortunate few find their minds so broken that they have actually embraced the brutality of their captors, becoming the kryshantel or "savage souls," who follow their masters into battle as thralls. Most of these individuals are broken creatures, little more conscious than the hyenas that the gnolls favored as pets, but a handful retain their intellect, effectively becoming gnolls in all but form. These kryshantel are the most dangerous since they, unlike regular gnolls, have been able to act as infiltrators, performing sabotage and laying the ground for gnoll raids, too often undetected until it is already too late.   Though most gnoll packs embrace their reputation for savagery, others refrain from such utter depravity. These clans are also nomadic but unlike the others rarely engage in violent raids except when seriously provoked. Likewise, though they retain the natural gnoll bloodlust they take no joy in torture or unnecessary cruelty, embracing hunting and tracking over outright slaughter.   In some cases these gnolls might even come to befriend or at least peacefully interact with the members of other races, offering their services as trappers or hunters. However, they generally prefer their own kind and except when on business rarely visit neighboring villages dominated by members of another race. Likewise, these gnolls remain aggressive and quick to anger, meaning visitors should be careful not to offend.