Baboon
Small Beast · · CR 0
- Beast
- Small
- Tier 1
CR 0 small beast, unaligned — that's Baboon. Native to forest and hill. Sourced from Monster Manual (5e 2014) and Monster Manual (5.5e 2024).
Stat Block
- Challenge Rating
- 0
- Type
- Beast
- Size
- Small
- Alignment
- —
- Speed
- —
- Habitats
- Forest, Hill
- Sources
- Monster Manual (5e 2014), Monster Manual (5.5e 2024)
Ecology
Baboons live in troops of 10–40 across savanna, hill country, and broken forest. They are omnivores: fruit, eggs, insects, small reptiles, occasionally carrion. Troops sleep on cliffs or in tall trees and forage by day. A dominant male leads, but females control social cohesion through grooming bonds. Their predators are leopards, lions, and large raptors — making baboons hyper-alert sentries by nature.
Behaviour
Loud, social, and surprisingly clever. Baboons recognize individual humanoids and remember faces for years. They steal food, mock distress calls, and coordinate attacks with calls and gestures. Curious about shiny objects and tools, sometimes mimicking small actions. Their Pack Tactics is real biology: a single baboon flees, but a troop will mob a leopard.
Origin
Baboons are mundane beasts, not magical, and appear across Toril's southern lands — Chult, Calimshan, Mulhorand. Mulhorandi worship a baboon-headed deity (Thoth in some versions, or Anhur), and sacred baboon troops live in the temple complexes of Skuld, fed by priests and considered oracular. Killing a temple baboon is a capital crime in old Mulhorandi law.
Related Monsters
Frequently Asked Questions about Baboon
- What is the challenge rating of Baboon?
- On the bestiary CR scale, Baboon sits at 0. It works against low-level groups.
- What type of creature is Baboon?
- The bestiary type for Baboon is beast, small size.
- Where does Baboon live?
- The published habitats for Baboon: Forest, Hill.