Gnoll shaman

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A gnoll shaman, G, is a monster that appears in SLASH'EM, SlashTHEM and Hack'EM as part of the gnome monster class. The gnoll shaman, 9, also appeaars in SpliceHack as part of the gnoll monster class.

A gnoll shaman is an an omnivorous humanoid gnoll that can hide themselves, see invisible, possesses infravision, and will seek out gold, gems and various other items to pick up - they are large in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM, and medium in SpliceHack and Hack'EM. A tame gnoll shaman may turn traitor.

A gnoll shaman has the rare ability to cast both mage and clerical monster spells, and will attempt to cast one of each per turn. In Hack'EM, gnoll shamans possess poison resistance.

A gnoll shaman corpse is poisonous to eat.

Generation

Gnoll shamans are only randomly generated in Gehennom, though they can also appear on other levels that generate G at level creation if the difficulty is appropriate. They are always created hostile, and are not a valid form for normal polymorph.

In all variants except Hack'EM, a gnoll shaman is always generated with an athame, a stack of 12 shuriken, two random offensive items, and body armor: they have a 110 chance of generating with silver dragon scale mail, and otherwise have a 45 chance of generating with crystal plate mail and a 15 chance of generating with red dragon scale mail.[1] In Hack'EM, the gnoll shaman will not generate with dragon-scaled armor, with a 45 chance of generating with crystal plate mail as in other variants; the athame is also replaced with a parazonium.

Origin

The gnoll is a creature that appears in various types of fantasy media, and is generally portrayed as a human-hyena hybrid or a form of humanoid hyena. The term originates from 1912 short story collection The Book of Wonder by Lord Dunsany, with one short story titled "How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art upon the Gnoles".

The gnoll of Dungeons & Dragons is introduced in the first boxed set of the game, and gnolls are described in Book 2: Monsters and Treasure as a "cross between Gnomes and Trolls (...perhaps, Lord Sunsany did not really make it all that clear)". These early gnolls were stated to be similar to hobgoblins with +2 morale, while a gnoll king and his bodyguard fought similar to trolls without regenerative power. This may serve as the basis for gnolls being part of the gnome monster class in SLASH'EM and other derived variants.

The 1st Monster Manual for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and all subsequent material describe gnolls as aggressive desert-dwelling nomads that resemble humanoid hyenas, and actively raid and plunder other settlements; it also introduces Yeenoghu, the demon god of gnolls who many of them serve and worship. In spite of their devotion to Yeenoghu, few such gnolls have any interest in ritual, making gnoll shamans and clerics very uncommon and few in number - gnolls that worship Yeenoghu see their brutality as a sign of their devotion, painting the eye of Yeenoghu onto their weapons and armor and howling his name as a war cry in battle.

Encyclopedia entry

SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM do not have an encyclopedia entry for the gnoll shaman.

SpliceHack

These bipedal hyenas serve Yeenoghu, and are almost unmatched
in combat.

Hack'EM

We are born and we die.
No one cares, no one remembers,
and it doesn't matter.
This is why we laugh.
[ The Gnoll Credo, by J. Stanton ]

References