AC 14 (hide armor)
HP 45 (10d8; bloodied 22)
Speed 40 ft.
Proficiency +2; Maneuver DC 12
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 9
Languages Gnoll
Pack Tactics. The gnoll has advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one of the gnoll’s allies is within 5 feet of the creature and not incapacitated .
ACTIONS
Spear. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) piercing damage.
Multiattack. The gnoll attacks twice with its spear.
Chilling Laughter (Recharge 6). The gnoll’s barking laughter drives allies into a frenzy. Each other creature of the gnoll’s choice within 30 feet that can hear it and has a Rampaging Bite bonus action can use its reaction to make a Rampaging Bite.
BONUS ACTIONS
Rampaging Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one bloodied creature. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) piercing damage.
Combat
Gnolls attack fearlessly, preferring to target bloodied creatures. If no such target is present, they attack whichever enemy is nearest.
Legends and Lore
With a Nature or Religion check, characters can learn the following:
DC 10 Gnolls are hyena-like humanoids that raid border settlements and slaughter the inhabitants.
DC 15 Gnoll warriors worship demons and sometimes allow themselves to become possessed in battle.
Gnolls are hyena-headed, demon-worshiping humanoids whose chilling laughter terrifies the quarry of their bloody hunts. They roam the borderlands and raid humanoid settlements, killing and eating their victims and pillaging weapons and treasure. Gnolls prefer to hunt at night, trusting the darkness and their echoing barks and laughter to disorient and terrify their prey.
Demonbound Raiders. Gnolls worship the demon lord that they believe created them from hyenas. Every adult member of a gnoll pack has undergone a horrific initiation rite binding them to this demon. In battle, they invite the demon to drive them into a destructive frenzy.
Gnolls make no alliances, and in the bloodlust of battle they sometimes turn on even other members of their tribe. The only creatures gnolls don’t attack are the hyenas that follow their packs, feeding on the carrion that gnolls leave behind.
Gnolls who aren’t initiated into their demonic cult can be peaceful, and some gnoll warriors manage to turn their back on their pack and live among other creatures, conquering but never truly escaping their fiendish bloodlust.
Lone Behavior
1 Scouting for a larger group
2 Feasting on a corpse
3 Wounded and insane; can’t stop laughing and attacks on sight
4 Looking for a surrogate pack; will be submissive to an armed group and acts violently towards all others
Group Behavior
1 Performing a gruesome sacrifice to the demon lord that first transformed them from hyenas
2 On a surprise raid against an undefended village, seeking plunder and slaughter
3 Fighting among themselves
4 Taking grisly trophies such as ears and teeth from the corpses of villagers
5 Giggling as they hunt a human or other humanoid
6 Feasting on corpses, drunk with bloodshed
1 A burned-out village scattered with gnawed corpses
2 Armored
warriors
seeking revenge against a gnoll band
3 Gnoll tracks
4 Hyenas following you from afar
5 Distant high-pitched laughter
6 A corpse, its belly ripped open, surrounded by bloody tracks
Gnolls rampage in wild lands within raiding distance of other tribes and villages.
CR 0–2 1 or 2 gnolls
Treasure 10 gp, 80 sp, signet ring (25 gp)
CR 3–4 3 to 5 gnolls , or 3 to 4 gnolls with 1d6 hyenas
Treasure 50 gp, bulky crate of 20 longswords (15 gp each), moonstone carved with an Abyssal rune (75 gp), 2 potions of healing
CR 5–10 1d8 + 7 gnolls , or 1d4 + 2 gnolls riding giant hyenas , or gnoll pack leader with 1d6 + 6 gnolls , or gnoll demonfang with 1d4 gnolls
Treasure 12 pieces of miscellaneous jewelry (75 gp each), 2 potions of hill giant strength , efficient quiver
Humanoids include a number of different intelligent, language-using bipeds of Small or Medium size. Humans and elves are humanoids, and so are orcs and goblins. Humanoids may employ magic but are not fundamentally magical—a characteristic that distinguishes them from bipedal, language-using fey, fiends, and other monsters. Humanoids have no inherent alignment, meaning that no humanoid ancestry is naturally good or evil, lawful or chaotic.