The Flind is a hostile gnoll warlord in The Risen Road Cave just west of The Risen Road Waypoint during Act One. Unique among gnolls for having become part fiend, thus not counting as a monstrosity.
| Gnoll Warlord | |||||||
| Flind | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Stats | |||||||
| Level 5 | |||||||
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 Race
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Gnoll Flind | ||||||
 Type
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Fiend | ||||||
 HP
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85; 110Tactician | ||||||
 AC
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16 | ||||||
 Movement Speed
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9m / 30ft | ||||||
 Size
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Medium | ||||||
 Weight
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100kg | ||||||
 Proficiency Bonus
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+3 | ||||||
 Initiative
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+8 | ||||||
| Passive features | |||||||
    | |||||||
| Character information | |||||||
| Location | The Risen Road | ||||||
| Allies | Gnoll Hunter Hyena Gnoll Fang of Yeenoghu | ||||||
| Experience on kill | 75 | ||||||
The warlord is one of the highest hitting enemies within the first act and comes with a wide mix of attack choices to unleash.
Act 1
The Flind is the warlord of a vicious band of gnolls found gathered outside of The Risen Road Cave. The gnolls have trapped Rugan and Olly, who are transporting good for Zarys in the surrounded cave.
After the first round of combat, the gnoll warlord will mentally link with the player, revealing that she is a forcefully made True Soul. The creature can be convinced to join the players' side for the fight using Illithid Persuasion, if it hasn't been used that day.
DC 2 Wisdom check. Convince the Gnoll and her pack to focus on people in the cave, making them your allies.
- DC 2 Wisdom check. Convince the Gnoll to turn on her own pack to sate her hunger. Doing so will reward you the XP of all living enemies as if you have defeated them, including Flind.
After the fight is remains unsated still. Another Illithid Persuasion Check can be done for differing outcomes.
Attacks and abilities
Melee: 1.5 m / 5 ft 
Range: Self Conditions
- Any nearby creatures with the Rampage trait can make a bite attack as a bonus action.
Tactics
Flind is a very powerful and dangerous enemy that can be encountered quite early if you're exploring aimlessly. Flind has quite a lot of Hit Points and notable amount of AC which makes her quite tanky. As for damage, her unique flail attacks can vary between dealing massive amounts of damage, paralysing or turning a party member hostile for a time. The biggest threat is if she reaches a frenzied state, allowing her to use all three of her unique flail attacks in one multiattack.
Flind's extremely high initiative will almost always allow her to act first in combat. She will immediately seek out the first party member she sees to initiate a conversation where you are given the opportunity to use your Illithid Powers to convince her to turn against her pack. You can command her to kill Rugan and Olly and still force her to turn against her pack after. Turning her against her pack is highly recommended as fighting Flind and her pack at the same time can be very difficult. Once she is convinced to betray her pack, one should focus on the Gnoll Hunters as they will often target the party instead of Flind. Their frenzied multi-attack arrow shots can be devastating, so it is best to kill them as quickly as possible with AoE attacks like Cloud of Daggers or Alchemist's Fire before they are allowed to frenzy.
The best way to engage Flind is to sneak up behind her and sneak attack the Hunters in front of her to start the battle. On her first turn, she should initiate conversation with whoever is closest to her. It's important that Flind is able to initiate conversation on her first turn to make sure she is targeted by her pack as early as possible, so make sure you are close enough to her that she can talk to you immediately.
When alone, direct combat with Flind is avoidable if you are able to pass two Wisdom checks to get her to kill herself. If that option is unavailable, Flind is incredibly dangerous up close; in her frenzied state she can easily kill multiple party members in a single turn. A decent strategy to fight her is to restrict her movement with spells like Grease, Web and Entangle then pelt her at range.
Notable loot
Notes and trivia
- The Flind has an extremely high initiative score despite lacking any clear means to increasing it so.
- "Flind" is not the creature's name, but is actually a superior type of gnoll that is physically more powerful and vicious than their lesser cousins. As such, the Flind has the race Gnoll Flind.
External links
Flind on the Forgotten Realms Wiki