Now isn’t this interesting?

1. restrain or regulate (a fluid, sound, etc.).

   “to baffle the noise further, I pad the gunwales”

   synonyms:

   perplex, puzzle, bewilder, mystify, bemuse, confuse, confound,disconcert;

   plural noun: baffles

1. a device used to restrain the flow of a fluid, gas, or loose material or to prevent the spreading of sound or light in a particular direction.
   So baffles can be a device, or an action.  You can be deliberately baffling as in confounding, confusing, perplexing or you can be confounded, confused and perplexed.

All of this implies agency.  I “pad the gunwales”, I baffle myself.