D&D 5E Let's Read: Volo's Monsters

[Bitbrain]

Reading Volo's, I'm of the opinion that Flinds are most effective when they are not right up next to the PCs.

there should always be at least one regular gnoll between the Flind and the PCs.
She's a horde master, not a shock trooper.

EDIT
Ever since I learned that female hyenas are typically larger than the males, I've been of the opinion that all Flinds should be female.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Flinds epitomize the monster that should be party of a large group. Looking at the warband composition chart in the gnoll section, if the players just directly confront a band that contains a flind you're looking at

2d4+2 Fangs (average 6)
2d4+2 Hunters (Average 6)
4d4 Gnawers (Average 8)
12d6 Gnolls (Average 48)
8d6 Hyenas (Average 28)
The Flind
A shoosuva

Which is an average of almost 100 combatants. Obviously this will be broken up into sections instead of a single big fight, but a fight with just the leadership and some mooks is going to have the party outnumbered.

Then the Flind hits one guy with Paralysis. That means every attack with advantage, and auto-crits. With everything having at least 2 attacks if not more? And may the gods help them if for some reason there is a pack lord as well, who can incite rampage to get everything within 30 ft making a free reaction attack.

This is a brutal, fortuantely there is an out for a party, since most of the creatures are low cr so an AOE is going to cause massive damage, but I don't think this is an easy encounter no matter what.

 

[psychophipps]

Complete agreement from me with Bitbrain. The Flinds, like many of the Mook+ monsters, is best used as a kicker to the normal mobs. Just sticking a solo Flind in front of a PC party is a gross misuse of it's abilities and purpose.

Sent from my XT1254 using EN World mobile app

 

[Demetrios1453]

I really like what they did with flinds for 5e. I assumed we would see a CR 5 or so creature like in previous editions. But, compared to several other creatures that they significantly lowered in CR (we'll be discussing two notable examples of this later on in this thread), they really upped the flind's power to make it a really nasty encounter. This, in my opinion, was an excellent design choice...

 

[Charles Rampant]

I think that the entry really pushes the idea of using them as a leader, not a solo - just the Aura alone demands it, as it suddenly unlocks the power of the Rampage trait. They're powerful by themselves, and much more so when they can help the lesser Gnolls swarm the players under - not to mention the danger of having a Shoosuva turn up, with its 4d10 bite damage!

I've got a party going to the Abyss soon, and I'm very strongly considering having one of the warband compositions that [MENTION=6801228]Chaosmancer[/MENTION] mentions being the first course - they will be level 16, so shouldn't find it too hard, but one of those will keep them on their toes, prior to having Yeenoghu turn up...

 

[Leatherhead]

A gnoll warband would present an opportunity for a few ideas I have wanted to use in combat for a while. Namely the ability for a commander to summon a virtually endless stream of "minion" monsters.

For 5e, that might work as describing the warband as a "lair" unto itself.

The Cackle of Yeenoghu:
The Cackle of Yeenoughu may only function as a warband so long as a Flind is leading it. If all Flinds in the warband are reduced to 0hp, the remaining Gnolls, and their allies, scatter from the battlefield.

Warband Actions:

On initiative count 20 (the warband loses all initiative ties) one of the following creatures is called forth from the fray for every Gnoll Pack Lord or Flind in the current encounter. Roll 1d8 :
1,2: Hyena
3: Gnoll Witherling
4,5,6: Gnoll
7,8: Gnoll Hunter

Whenever a Gnoll Pack Lord hits 0hp, roll 1d6 and add a creature from the following list to the encounter:
1,2,3: Gnoll Flesh Gnawer
4, 5: Giant Hyena
6: Maw Demon

A Gnoll Pack Lord or Flind may turn the chaos of battle to their favor. As a reaction, they may redirect any one attack targeted against them to different nearby Gnoll or Gnoll Witherling who is also in the range of the attack. This ability cannot redirect AoE attacks.

Regional Effects

You have a warband of Gnolls in your area, they like to eat everyone, I hope you can fight them off or run faster than everyone else!

 

[Charles Rampant]

The Gnoll entries include a good variation in CR, and the Flesh Gnawer comes in at a solid CR 1. This makes them pretty good for combat fodder for many levels - their HP and damage output keeping them at least relevant up until level 9 or so - and so you can probably expect to make heavy use of them after a while.

The Flesh Gnawer picture in Volo’s has a lot of character. Though it is very static - in essentially the same pose as the Flind and Witherling - the Gnawer has a very well done face, which is busily emoting a deranged world view to the observer. I’m also quite taken with the human hand which is jauntily stuck into the waistband, a nice snack for later.

The Flesh Gnawers get a flavour text so short that it barely counts as present. They are more feral than other Gnolls, they don’t bother with ranged weapons, and they can run fast to finish off enemies. The Gnoll section in chapter one says essentially the same thing - they lurk around at the start of battle, and then rush from wounded warrior to wounded warrior as though ‘shot from a bow’. In other words, you should use these guys as generic dudes for the players to kill in the game, they do not have hidden reserves of roleplaying potential for you to tap.

As I mentioned above, the Gnawer comes in at a useful CR 1. You can pretty much use these guys for the whole of tiers 1 & 2, to varying degrees of merit, and they should at least do something. Be aware, however, that your Cleric player will really start emphasising Spirit Guardians after a while if you lean on them in every combat. That isn’t bad - the spell is effectively a class feature, and letting a player get use out of it is no bad thing - but be warned that you’ll need to mix in ranged dudes as well. Not to worry though - the next statblock is the Hunter, who has the ranged options covered.

This statblock is pretty standard for CR 1. You get 22 hp, medium AC, and stats hovering around the 10 on average. They get the Rampage trait of all Gnolls, and they get three melee attacks for normal damage. The only really unique thing here is the Sudden Rush ability, whereby the Gnawer can move up to 120ft [Correction: 90ft.] a round and not provoke opportunity attacks. That sounds like a great way to have the Gnawers materialise in melee with the party backline, even if the Gnawers cannot attack afterwards, and in general means that you can put real pressure on the party to kill the Gnawers before they bring down the party squishies. It also makes them very effective at running away from fights that they are losing, so you could contemplate some kind of an ambush, with these guys drawing the players into a killzone with some Hunters or whatnot. Either way, this incredible movement is clearly the central mechanic of the Gnawer, and I imagine that most parties will really grow to hate these guys for that exact reason.

 

[Leatherhead]

Flesh Gnawers purpose in combat is not to maintain formations or be fodder, but to punish weak targets. Basically a Flind or Shoovusa inflicts paralysis on a target, and these guys rush in to take advantage of it. This also makes them the best gnoll to use in a group of non-gnolls, because they have to potential to capitalize on any target who has been weakened, grappled, or knocked down.

 

[Charles Rampant]

Remember that it takes their whole turn to reposition however, and my maths above was wrong - they can only move 60ft in one go. Thus they can run from one place to another, but they cannot do so and also attack the same turn.

 

[Charles Rampant]

Of the Gnolls, the Hunter is the ranged option. Effectively the rangers of the warbands, they provide some dedicated archery for you to use, and conveniently are the same CR as the basic Gnoll, making it easy to swap them out for each other as required for your party makeup.

The Hunter doesn’t get a picture in chapter three.

So the Hunters are described as the stealthy killers of the warband, picking off enemies before the main force arrives. To this end, they are very good at crippling shots with their barbed arrowheads, hobbling enemies for easy killing later. They also carry horns that make a keening wail, alerting other Gnolls; that sounds like a very evocative image to sketch in your game, as your players try to avoid getting ground into paste by a hundreds-strong force of Gnolls heading their way.

The Gnoll is CR 1/2, and really simple as a result. They are almost as tough as the Flesh Gnawer, and have some basic melee capabilities - which are actually not that far behind the Gnawers, to be fair - but the real reason to use these guys is their Longbow attacks. Doing solid damage, with two shots out to a long range, they can also reduce the enemy speed by 10ft for a round. It appears to stack as well - unless it falls afoul of a ‘no duplicate sources’ rule or something - so enough Hunters shooting can completely ground a group to a halt. This effect doesn’t have a save either, so it can really ensure angst in the party. Even if it doesn’t stack, this will allow you to isolate individual party members - especially one of the 25ft move races - and force them to either Dash to keep together or risk other Gnolls surrounding the crippled heroes. That seems pretty nasty, and combines very nicely with some of the other Gnolls - especially the Gnawers - who could bring down a Gnome Wizard with impunity and then get to use their Rampage ability to keep engaged.

Not much to say about these guys, other than to note how interestingly potent that Longbow shot is, and the fact that WotC seem move confident about bringing in ‘complex’ abilities on simple critters. The Hunters are cool, and should really spice up your combats, especially those that start with a large gap between the two sides.