Flind

The Flind is a hostile gnoll warlord in The Risen Road Cave just west of The Risen Road Waypoint during Act One.

Overview

Flind is unique among gnolls for having become part fiend, thus not counting as a humanoid. The gnoll warlord is one of the highest hitting enemies within Act One and comes with a wide mix of attack choices to unleash.

Involvement

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 goods for Zarys in the surrounded cave.

After the first round of combat, the gnoll warlord will mentally link with the nearest party member, revealing that she was forcefully transformed into a True Soul.

The party can then convince the Flind to attack Rugan and Olly or search for the source of the Voice:

• Divert her attention to the cave - perhaps there's more meat inside?
• [ILLITHID] [WISDOM] Use the power within you to make her obey the Voice; to brave the flames and feast on the meat in the cave. (DC 5)
• [BARD] [PERFORMANCE] Conjure the mewlings of easy prey into her mind, centring it within the nearby cave. (DC 12)
• Search her mind for the source of the Voice.

Searching her mind for the source of the voice unlocks an option to turn on the other gnolls or to target Rugan and Olly again:

• [ILLITHID] [WISDOM] She wants meat? Command her to feast on the other gnolls. (DC 15)
• Search her memories - is there meat nearby?
• [WISDOM] Harness her anger - the meat in the cave must die. (DC 10)

After the fight is over, another Illithid Persuasion Check can be done for differing outcomes. Sometimes the dialogue doesn't start and she will attack immediately if you try to talk to her.

• [WISDOM] Extert your mental power, commanding her to leave. (DC 10)
• [WISDOM] She wants meat? Command her to feast on the other gnolls. (DC 15)
• [WISDOM] Dominate her mind, commanding her to feast on herself. (DC 10)
  • [WISDOM] Harness your willpower, and order her to devour herself. (DC 15)

Failing any of these rolls will cause her to immediately attack.

Combat

Attacks and Abilities

 Bloodfest ()

1d8 (1~8) hit points

Gorge on a corpse of the fallen to regain hit points.

 Melee: 1.5 m / 5  ft

Recharge: Per turn

 Flail of Madness ()

Normal weapon damage Strike a creature with the Flail of Dread Skulls and possibly drive it Mad.

 Melee: 1.5 m / 5  ft

 Flail of Pain ()

Normal weapon damage +

3d10 (3~30) Psychic

Strike a creature with the Flail of Dread Skulls to inflict as much pain as possible.

 Melee: 1.5 m / 5  ft

 Flail of Paralysis ()

Normal weapon damage Strike a creature with the Flail of Dread Skulls and possibly Paralyse it.

CON Save

 Melee: 1.5 m / 5  ft

 Main Hand Attack ()   –  Chaos Flail

Normal weapon damage Make a melee attack with your equipped weapon.

 Melee: 1.5 m / 5  ft

 Ranged Attack ()   –  Goblin Bow

Normal weapon damage Make a ranged attack with your equipped weapon.

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

 Seething Fury ()

Let the rage build within you. Once it overflows, you'll be able to attack multiple times per turn.

 Range: Self

Recharge: Per battle

The following only be used when  Frenzied through her  Seething Fury ability:

 Multiattack ()

Normal weapon damage + Normal weapon damage +

3d10 (3~30) Psychic

+ Normal weapon damage

Aim one  Flail of Madness, one  Flail of Pain, and one  Flail of Paralysis at a target.

 Melee: 1.5 m / 5  ft

 Multiattack (Ranged) ()

Normal weapon damage + Normal weapon damage + Normal weapon damage Aim three attacks at a target.

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

Allies

• Gnoll Fang of Yeenoghu
• Gnoll Flesh Gnawer
• Gnoll Hunter - 3x
• Hyena - 2x

Tactics

The Flind is a very powerful and dangerous enemy that can be encountered quite early if 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 the opportunity will be given to use the Illithid Powers to convince her to turn against her pack. It's possible to 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, the party 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. It's important that Flind is able to initiate conversation on her first turn to make sure the party can interact with her as described above.

When alone, direct combat with Flind is avoidable by passing the 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

• Mind Flayer Parasite Specimen
• Shattered Flail

Notes

• The Flind has an extremely high initiative score despite lacking any clear means of increasing it.
• "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.
• Because of being only partly fiend, Flind can be also affected by spells that only affect Humanoids, such as  Hold Person.
• Grants 75 experience when killed.

Related literature

• Recruiting Gnolls

External links

• Flind on the Forgotten Realms Wiki