Werebaboon

Weremandrill? Close enough. (Dungeon #98)

Werebaboons are a species of ape therianthrope that appear as a template in Dungeon Magazine #98 in the Flood Season module set in Greyhawk.

Ravenloft

Ravenloft fans from the Lonesome Road site also created their own werebaboons native to the setting. Surprisingly, this is not the first primate-shifter to emerge in Ravenloft - an NPC named Professor Arcanus is a weregorilla due to a Vistani curse.

This article is boring and stinks of being copypasted from a gamebook or another wiki. You can make it better by making it less unfunny.

Werebaboons are native to the tropical domains such as the Amber Wastes, and as you'd expect, they generally are created from the locals, resulting in them typically having dark skin and hair color. One unusual visual trait is that their eyes tend to be olive-green in color, which is usually uncommon at best amongst those self-same locals. They are triple-shifters, able to take on the form of unusually large, powerful baboons and half-man half-ape creatures, with the characteristic doglike muzzle, exaggerated canines and nonprehensile tail of a baboon. Their allergen is bronze; weapons made from this humble metal can penetrate their normally impervious hides even without being enchanted. They normally live on a diet of bird eggs, fruits, nuts and tubers, but eagerly supplement it with human flesh whenever they can get it.

Werebaboons are highly social and organized therianthropes, with a single city's entire population of werebaboons forming a singular political unit, called a "troop". Their human identities are often highly placed in their native society —wealthy traders, legendary warriors, master thieves, shamans, and even kings - and the troop's major concerns are cementing and maintaining their clandestine control over their native city through a combination of political, social and financial means. As a troop, they discuss mutual plans and concerns, arrange to share resources, discuss mutual enemies, and attend to their city-wide responsibilities... however, the males of the species have very little tolerance for each other, and troop meetings frequently devolve into bloody fights to the death between rivals. Outside of the troop, they gather in small family units, consisting of a patriarch, one or two wives, and young offspring.

These social parasites, subjects of equal parts fear and fascination in their native land, view themselves as a strong, supernatural race, worthy to assert their dominance over the "carrion", as they call humanity. They are ruthless and practical, caring nothing for abstract concepts like honor or mercy. They are neither vain nor humble, but will tear to pieces anyone who challenges their authority. Their brutality, however, should not be interpreted as simplicity—they are frighteningly intelligent creatures who are are capable of elaborate deception in their human guises.

Werebaboons are surprisingly indifferent to the other lycanthropes with which they come into contact, such as werecrocodiles, werecheetahs, werejackals and werelions. As long as the werebaboons' masquerade is not jeopardized, a few lone interlopers will be left unmolested. Those who cause trouble are quickly destroyed by the entire troop. Werebaboons do have one mortal enemy: the snake people known as the yuan-ti. The merest rumor that yuan-ti might be in the area is enough to send the troop into a paranoid frenzy.

If roused to battle, werebaboons favor the use of weapons over tooth and claw, but eagerly exploit their innate climbing ability as well as a unique ability to unleash a brain-bursting scream attack (treat as a Shout spell) for tactical advantage - in fact, they'll do just about anything to gain an advantage, no matter how "craven" a tactic may be. If cornered in their lair, the males stand their ground whilst the females attempt to flee with any young.