Thouls are a bizarre humanoid species from the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Thouls are a crossbreed of magical origins, a mixture of traits of hobgoblins, trolls and ghouls. Despite their partially ghoulish origins, they are alive, not undead, and are capable of normal reproduction. In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, humanoid is a type of creature, or creature type. Humanoids are any creature shaped generally like a human (two arms, two legs, one head, or a humanlike torso, arms, and head), of Small or Medium size, with few or no supernatural or... In biology, a species is the basic unit of biodiversity. ... For other uses, see Dungeons & Dragons (disambiguation). ... A role-playing game (RPG) is a type of game in which players assume the roles of characters and collaboratively create narratives. ... Magic: The Gathering. ... In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, hobgoblins are a larger, stronger, smarter and more menacing cousin of the goblin, but not as high up on the goblinoid hierarchy as bugbears. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... In the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game, ghouls are monstrous, undead humans who reek of carrion. ... Look up life, living in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, undead is a type of creature, or creature type. Undead creatures were most often once-living creatures, which have been animated by spiritual or supernatural forces. ... For other uses, see Reproduction (disambiguation) Reproduction is the biological process by which new individual organisms are produced. ...

Thouls made their first appearance in print as a typographical error in an introductory mini-module included with an early D&D boxed set. They were intended to be a pair of ghouls. TSR received several inquires as to what exactly a 'Thoul' was, and made up the creature on the spot.

References

• Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rules (Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, 1981)
• Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (1983)
• Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia (1991)
• Mystara Monstrous Compendium Appendix (1994)