Gnoll Leaders and Shamans

Art by Dave Sutherland, from
1st Edition Monster Manual

Previously I have written a post about humanoid leaders and shamans though that post looked at those species with 1HD or less for their basic profile. As the last of the major humanoid races to be covered, in this post I shall go over my version of gnolls. Although their basic profile has 2HD, nonetheless I envision gnolls having a similar progression to orcs, goblins and hobgoblins, with an extra hit dice added. 

Gnoll Warrior

These include the basic gnolls members of a tribe and as they grow in size and experience they gain the same abilities as their goblin counterparts, albeit with an extra hit dice. 

Title	HD (d8)	THAC0	Special Abilities
Juvenile or Female	1	19	Stats for Juvenile or Female
Warrior	2	18	As basic monster stats for gnolls
Veteran Warrior	3	17	Set Spear vs charge
Clan Leader	4	16	Junior Commander
Clan Leader	5	15	Inspire Courage
Subchief	6	14	2-weapon Fighting
Subchief	7	13	Middle Commander
Tribal Chief	8	12	Monstrous Mount
Tribal Chief	9	11	Inspire Zeal
Warlord	10	10	Senior Commander
Warlord	11	9	Two-weapon mastery

Their special abilities are: 

• Set Spear versus Charge is the same as for human fighters. 
• Junior Commander - a gnoll warrior of 4HD or higher can reliably command up to 3 normal gnoll warriors per level of the commander. 
• Inspire Courage - Allies within 30' get +2 to morale checks and saves vs fear.
• 2-weapon Fighting - The gnoll warrior can use 2 one-handed weapons, at -2 to hit penalty for both. They must be weapons that a human warrior can wield in one hand (e.g. normal sword, hand axe, mace etc, not a two-handed sword or battleaxe). 
• Middle Commander -  The gnoll warrior can reliably command 1 junior commander for every 2 levels. 
• Monstrous Mount - The warrior can tame and ride a monster larger than himself, which must have HD equal to or lower than the warrrior and be suitable for riding. Hyaenodons (Dire Hyenas) are often chosen but more exotic creatures might be tamed 
• Inspire Zeal - Allies within 30' get +2 to hit and damage and +4 to morale and saves vs fear, usable 1 encounter per day. 
• Senior Commander - reliably command 1 middle commander per two levels. 
• Two-Weapon Mastery - As per two-weapon fighting, but the gnoll warrior suffers no penalty to hit. 

The weapons, armour and equipment for gnoll warriors is entirely up to the DM, though the default gear for a typical 2HD gnoll warrior is: Scale armour, Morning Star (2d4 damage, wielded in two hands), Dagger. Generally speaking a gnoll gets +1 to damage rolls with any one-handed weapon due to its strength. At the DM’s discretion particularly large and strong gnoll leaders may get more of a bonus to damage, including with two-handed weapons such as morning stars. 

Gnoll Shaman

Gnoll Shaman				Prepared Spells by Level
Title	Level	Hit Dice	THAC0	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
Acolyte	1	2d6	20	1
Acolyte	2	3d6	19	2
Junior Shaman	3	4d6	18	2	1
Junior Shaman	4	5d6	18	2	2
Shaman	5	6d6	17	2	2	1
Shaman	6	7d6	16	3	2	2
Senior Shaman	7	8d6	16	3	2	2	1
Senior Shaman	8	9d6	15	3	3	2	2
Great Shaman	9	9d6+2	14	3	3	2	2	1
Great Shaman	10	9d6+4	14	3	3	3	2	2

Gnoll shamans are essentially clerics, with the same saving throws and spell selections. They can wear any armour but do not use shields. They can use any blunt weapon (like clerics) though prefer using either flails (treat as maces) and morning stars (two-handed weapons, basically spiked clubs,  that do 2d4 damage). 

In terms of spells, gnoll shamans can access spells for chaotic clerics including reversed versions of spells such as Darkness and Cause Disease, and will often pick spells that will either demonstrate their power in combat or protect themselves. Only rarely will a shaman choose spells that aid others, and then only for the benefit of the tribe. 

Gnolls are not particularly devout creatures and have fewer shamans than other species of humanoid. Nonetheless, they have some shamans., who fall into two broad camps - the followers of Chaos and the followers of Yeenoghu. 

Yeenoghu is the patron immortal of the gnolls, and is aligned both to Chaos and to the Sphere of Entropy. He is a vicious, hateful creature that delights in the suffering of others and encourages his followers to do likewise. He is often depicted as an oversized emaciated gnoll wielding a three-headed flail and is the most popular actual immortal among gnolls and their shamans. This is a relatively easy concept for gnolls to grasp (and they are not the most intelligent of humanoids) as many see Yeenoghu as a really big, tough leader of all the gnolls who is giving orders through his shamans. Some gnolls refer to him as The Pack Leader of all Packs. They understand hierarchy within the clans and tribes, and Yeenoghu is at the very top. 

However, other gnoll shamans will follow Chaos as a whole. This is similar to human Chaos Cultists who are more interested in the philosophy and concepts of Chaos than the whims of a single immortal. These chaos gnolls are more likely to ally with other chaotic creatures, such as human chaos cultists. In the Caves of Chaos (module B2: The Keep on the Borderlands) the gnoll clan there has allied itself to the Cult of Chaos led by evil humans, although these gnolls do not have their own shaman. 

Art by Dave Sutherland, from 1st Edition Monster Manual