Gnolls: Angry Hyena Furries

Ah, gnolls. Another fantasy classic. Maybe they’re not as beloved as creatures like dragons. But they’re still a welcome addition to any fantastical setting.

Question is: do they deserve to be in yours?

Lore: Hounds of the Demon Lord

If you’re familiar with fantasy, you’ve probably got a general idea of what gnolls are about. They are feral monsters that raid small villages, slaughtering and devouring anyone who dares cross their path.

Long ago, the demon lord Yeenoghu wandered onto the Material Plane. While he rampaged, packs of hyenas followed in his wake, eating those killed by the demon lord. Slowly, they were transformed into gnolls. When Yeenoghu was banished from the Material Plane, they remained, scattered across the world.

Unlike more intelligent creatures, gnolls attack completely at random. Like a plague of locusts, they’ll ravage a land then move on to the next. They’ll choose small villages over fortified castles, always preferring the easy prey. It’s rare for them to settle down and build anything. They’ll simply steal from the corpses of those they kill and move on like a deadly wind.

There is no reasoning with a gnoll. It’s heart is filled purely with malice and hunger, just like the worst demons. None can tame these beasts. Even the most savage orcs of the land avoid them.

A gnoll pack is lead by the alpha, the pack lord. They will rule with might and cunning, eliminating any who would stand in their way. They’ll often decorate their fur with the most valuable of their plundered goods and dye their fur with demonic sigils in the hopes to appease Yeenoghu. For they believe that their demonic creator has the power to give them invulnerability.

Gnolls will celebrate a victorious raid by performing demonic rituals in Yeenoghu’s name. Sometimes, the demon lord will reward those who please him by sending a demonic spirit to possess them. The recipient is marked as Yeenoghu’s favorite, becoming his fang. These will undergo a horrific transformation, becoming the mightiest gnoll that could be born. They reproduce more rapidly than the average gnoll, leading to massive inflations of their population. In order to contain them, one must first slay the fang.

The lore here is surprisingly cool! You can mix them into a plot about demons pretty easily! Whether you only need them for one fun encounter or as a setpiece for a greater villain like Yeenoghu, these guys can fit the bill!

Design: NYEH NYEH NYEH!!

Did you ever play Guild Wars 2? You know the Charr from that game? Yeah, it’s kinda like that.

There’s a charming simplicity to the gnolls. What’s not to love about walking hyena men? They’re just fun!

But… well, they’re kind of generic. You can find gnolls in pretty much any fantasy out there and they’ll look exactly the same. Not even Blizzard changed them in World of Warcraft! And that’s a game where Kobolds are rat people!

This isn’t a bad design. But it lacks the creativity that we look for in Best of the Bestiary. Still, it’s better than ‘a normal dude with different colored skin’.

Boy, I can’t wait until next week…

Stats: RAMPAGE!!

We’ve got three different flavors to go over. Three. So… we might be here for a bit.

The basic gnoll is hardly a dangerous foe. It’s AC is average and the HP is fairly low. It can bite you, stab you with a spear, or shoot you with a longbow. None of them do very much damage and they can only do one at a time.

The pack lord is a bit more dangerous. The AC is the same and its HP is well over double. It’s got a glaive, a longbow, and it can bite you. None do much damage, but it can do more than one of them at a time; it can make two attacks with any weapon per turn. It also has a special move called Incite Rampage, but… well, we’ll get to that.

The fang is the strongest, yet simplest, of the lot. Its AC is lower than the others, but it makes up for that by having the highest HP pool. It can bite you, rake you with a claw, or do two of the ladder and one of the former. Once again, damage isn’t that high. Although its bite does have extra poison damage, provided the victim fails a saving throw.

All three gnolls have an ability called Rampage. This is activated when a gnoll reduces a creature to 0 HP with a melee attack. When active, it can take a bonus action to move half of its movement speed and take a bite attack. And the pack lord can incite this ability in others with its Incite Rampage ability.

Which means that you’ve got to have one in your fight. Or else these guys are gonna be super boring.

Placement

The gnolls are a fairly decent enemy. They’ve got cool lore and a decent design, and their stats could make for a fun fight if utilized properly. For an early game enemy, they’re surprisingly tricky for a Dungeon Master to use properly. But if they do, it can be a pretty memorable time.

With all that in mind, let’s put the Gnolls on the Best of the Bestiary!

1. Beholder
2. Death Tyrant
3. Dragon Turtle
4. Green Dragons
5. Red Dragons
6. Blue Dragons
7. Black Dragons
8. White Dragons
9. Silver Dragons
10. Couatl
11. Behir
12. Aboleth
13. Bronze Dragons
14. Brass Dragons
15. Copper Dragons
16. Gold Dragons
17. Chuul
18. Gibbering Mouther
19. Chimera
20. Death Knight
21. Fomorian
22. Bone Devil
23. Dracolich
24. Faerie Dragon
25. Ankheg
26. Storm Giant
27. Hill Giant
28. Empyrean
29. Efreeti
30. Dao
31. Cloud Giant
32. Drow (all four of ’em)
33. Shadow Demon
34. Marilith
35. Drider
36. Aarackockra
37. Azer
38. Demilich
39. Spectator
40. Marid
41. Cambion
42. Fire Giant
43. Animated Armor
44. Banshee
45. Basilisk
46. Yochlol
47. Bulette
48. Cloaker
49. Darkmantle
50. Doppelganger
51. Ghoul and Ghast
52. Ettin
53. Pit Fiend
54. Erinyes
55. Chain Devil
56. Bearded Devil
57. Barbed Devil
58. Spined Devil
59. Ice Devil
60. Djinni
61. Nalfeshnee
62. Glabrezu
63. Chasme
64. Barlgura
65. Horned Devil
66. Balor
67. Shadow Dragon
68. Vrock
69. Dretch
70. Gnolls (all three) <————————
71. Goristro
72. Hezrou
73. Manes
74. Frost Giant
75. Duergar
76. Quasit
77. Dryad
78. Flumph
79. Githyanki
80. Planetar
81. Imp
82. Flameskull
83. Displacer Beast
84. Carrion Crawler
85. Githzerai
86. Rug of Smothering
87. Bugbear Chief
88. Bugbear
89. Vine Blight
90. Twig Blight
91. Needle Blight
92. Bullywug
93. Ettercap
94. Gas Spore
95. Cockatrice
96. Lemure
97. Solar
98. Deva
99. Cyclops
100. Centaur
101. Ghost
102. Fire Elemental
103. Water Elemental
104. Air Elemental
105. Stone Giant
106. Dinosaurs (All six of them)
107. Earth Elemental
108. Galeb Duhr
109. Flying Sword
110. Crawling Claw
111. Violet Fungus
112. Shrieker
113. Gargoyle