Garl
"A Very Harryhausen Halloween: Part 5" © Robert Squier, accessed at his website here
[The garl from basic D&D is not a very interesting monster. It's a giant caveman with 6 HD and no special abilities, and no flavor text except "hey, these guys are really really stupid. They do +4 damage with weapons. And sometimes have uncut gems". But I knew I wanted to cover it? Why? Well, I have a fondness for scientifically inaccurate cavemen as monsters. So much so that I invented an entire subtype for them, the pilts. And Ray Harryhausen's troglodyte, from Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, is a monster that's been on my "I should cover one day" radar for a long, long time. But the name "troglodyte" is taken in D&D and Pathfinder (even if Pathfinder has to call them xulgaths now) So this is a syncretic entry. Using the garl's name and HD as a basis to do a Harryhausen Trog.]
Garl CR 5 CN Humanoid (giant) This humanoid has gray leathery skin and a simian face, with a horn growing from the center of the forehead. It is clad in crude fur garments and clutches a tree branch as a club.
Garls are oversized, horned humanoids related to pilts and their kin. Unlike most members of this lineage, garls are not strongly predisposed to violence. They are hunters of megafauna, spending their lives tracking herds of mastodons, giant sloth, woolly rhino or other primeval beasts. As such, they are more likely to view other humanoids as curiosities rather than prey. Garls are incredibly social creatures, as they know that cooperation within their bands is what keeps them alive. On the one hand, this means that a garl found alone is likely to befriend travelers, including adventuring parties or caravans, in order to form a surrogate clan. On the other hand, that means that they are somewhat naive and prone to exploitation; many garls found in “civilized” lands are as enslaved laborers or soldiers.
Garls fight naturally with clubs, stones and their own natural weapons. Both male and female garls have horns, which are made of keratin like the horn of a rhinoceros (some unscrupulous merchants with enslaved garls have been known to shave it off and sell garl horn as rhino horn). Garl strategy is crude but effective—typically, a single garl will attempt to bait a foe into charging it, braces its horn against the charge, and then its fellow garls surround and beat down the opponent. Garls can combine assisting their allies with furious shouts and displays of strength.
Garl material culture is limited. They can make weapons out of stone and wood, and often wear furs as both protection and trophies of especially memorable hunts. Garls have not mastered fire, but value it extensively—fires are collected from lightning strikes or other natural events, or even stolen from other humanoids, and then carefully guarded by garls whose community role is as fire-tender. Some of these fire-tenders are magically gifted; garls that can cast spells are rare, and usually druids. Garls are awed by long distance projectile weapons such as bows and arrows, and take well to their use if trained.
