Assassin 5e NPC Stat Block: Damage Math, Tactics and the 2024 Assassin

This is the Assassin NPC stat block, the CR 8 hired killer a DM sends after the party, not the rogue subclass. The 2014 Assassin has AC 15, 78 hit points, two poisoned shortsword attacks that each add 24 (7d6) poison damage on a failed DC 15 Constitution save, Sneak Attack, Evasion and Assassinate: Advantage against anyone who hasn't acted yet, and an automatic critical hit on any surprised creature. Played from ambush it can kill a level 8 spellcaster before they roll a die. The 2024 Assassin drops Assassinate and Sneak Attack and instead gets three attacks a turn, poison that needs no save, Cunning Action and a +10 initiative bonus.

Table of Contents

• •Assassin Stat Block (2014)
• •The Assassin in the 2024 Rules
• •How the Assassin Fights
• •Running an Assassin Encounter
• •How Players Beat an Assassin
• •Assassin Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Assassin Stat Block (2014)

This is the Assassin from SRD 5.1. It can be any race and any non-good alignment.

Most of the damage is poison. A shortsword hit deals 6 piercing, then the target makes a DC 15 Constitution save against 24 (7d6) poison damage, taking half on a success. Even a character who makes the save takes 12. Sneak Attack adds 14 (4d6) once per turn when the Assassin has Advantage or an ally of the Assassin is next to the target.

Three traits define how it plays:

• •Assassinate gives Advantage on attacks during its first turn against any creature that hasn't taken a turn yet, and makes every hit against a surprised creature a critical hit.
• •Evasion means a successful Dexterity save against Fireball or Lightning Bolt deals no damage at all, and a failed one only half. With Dexterity +6, it succeeds against DC 15 60% of the time.
• •Stealth +9 beats the passive Perception of most parties. A typical level 8 character's passive Perception is 10 to 15; the Assassin's average Stealth total is 19.5.

One limit is easy to miss: the 2014 Multiattack is two shortsword attacks only. With the light crossbow it makes one attack per turn.

The Assassin in the 2024 Rules

SRD 5.2.1 keeps the CR and XP but rebuilds the stat block. It is Medium or Small, neutral by default, and speaks Common and Thieves' Cant.

What changed from 2014:

Four things change the fight:

• •No more alpha strike. The 2024 Assassin has no Assassinate, and the 2024 surprise rule only gives surprised creatures Disadvantage on initiative. The one-turn kill is mostly gone.
• •Reliable damage every round instead. Three attacks with poison that doesn't allow a save make the 2024 Assassin more dangerous from round two onward.
• •It goes first. Initiative +10 against a character with +2 wins about 80% of the time, and a surprised character rolls with Disadvantage on top.
• •It shoots now. Three crossbow attacks at 80 feet is its best damage option. The 2014 Assassin has to get into melee to use its Multiattack.

How the Assassin Fights

An assassin wins before initiative or not at all. Spend time planning the approach, not the fight.

Damage per turn against a level 8 character with AC 17 and a Constitution save of +3. The 2014 Assassin hits on an 11 or higher (50%); the 2024 one on a 10 or higher (55%). The 2014 expected poison damage per hit is about 18.6, because the target fails the DC 15 save 55% of the time.

A level 8 wizard has roughly 40 to 50 hit points. A 2014 Assassin that surprises them will usually kill them in one turn. The 2024 Assassin's 48 a turn often leaves them standing on 1 to 5 hit points, so it usually needs a second turn.

About that critical. The SRD 5.1 critical hit rule doubles the attack's damage dice, plus extra dice the attack itself deals, such as Sneak Attack. The 2014 Assassin's 7d6 poison is different: the target takes it "on a failed save", and how much it takes depends on that Constitution save, not on the attack roll. It is the save's damage, so a critical hit doubles the 1d6 piercing and the 4d6 Sneak Attack but not the 7d6, and the table above is built that way. The 2024 Assassin works the other way round: its poison is listed as plain extra damage on a hit ("plus 17 (5d6) Poison damage"), so on a natural 20 those dice are rolled twice too.

2014: build the surprise. Surprise needs the Assassin's Stealth to beat each character's passive Perception. Approach in darkness or crowds, attack the target who hasn't noticed, and let Assassinate do the rest. Pair it with a thug or bandit who starts next to the target so Sneak Attack applies every turn, not only the first.

2024: shoot, hide, repeat. The 2024 Assassin fires three crossbow bolts, then uses Cunning Action to Hide behind three-quarters or total cover, out of every enemy's line of sight. Stealth +10 against DC 15 succeeds on a 5 or higher (80%). Being hidden gives it the Invisible condition, so the first bolt next turn has Advantage. Hiding ends as soon as it makes an attack roll, so only the first of the three attacks benefits.

Use the Poisoned rider. A 2024 shortsword hit leaves the target Poisoned until the start of the Assassin's next turn: Disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks. Hit the fighter once with the shortsword and the fighter's counterattack is at Disadvantage.

Leave when it goes wrong. Assassins are paid to kill a target, not to die. When the target is protected, the surprise fails or the Assassin drops below half its hit points, it Disengages (2024 Cunning Action) or uses Acrobatics +6 to slip away and tries again on another night. A failed first attempt makes the second one scarier.

Running an Assassin Encounter

The Assassin is 3,900 XP. Using the 2024 budget for four characters:

Under the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines, which our encounter calculator uses, a single Assassin is Medium for four level 8 characters and Hard for four level 5 characters. Two Assassins are 7,800 XP, multiplied by 1.5 to 11,700, well past Deadly for level 8.

XP math assumes a straight fight, and an assassin encounter rarely is one:

• •A surprised party faces a much harder fight than the budget says, especially against the 2014 version. If the party has no reasonable way to notice the approach, treat the encounter one step harder than its XP.
• •An alert party faces an easier one. An Assassin that loses surprise is a 78- or 97-hit-point skirmisher with no defensive tricks beyond Evasion.
• •Below level 5, don't. A level 4 character has around 30 hit points. Even a single 2014 shortsword hit with a failed save is 30 damage.

How Players Beat an Assassin

Deny the ambush, resist the poison, and attack its Wisdom.

• •Don't get surprised. Keep watches, set Alarm, send a familiar ahead. Average Stealth totals are 19.5 (2014) and 20.5 (2024), so passive Perception alone rarely catches it. Active lookouts and magic do better. Against the 2014 Assassin, avoiding surprise removes the automatic critical hits entirely.
• •Resist poison. Poison is about three-quarters of the damage of every hit in both editions (a smaller share of a 2014 turn once Sneak Attack lands). Protection from Poison (2nd level) grants Resistance to poison damage for an hour, and so does a dwarf's Dwarven Resilience. Resistance cuts a 2014 shortsword hit from about 24.6 expected damage to about 15.
• •Target Wisdom, Strength or Charisma. All are +0. Hold Person works on both editions (it's a Humanoid) and a DC 15 save fails 70% of the time. A paralyzed Assassin takes a critical hit from every melee attack within 5 feet.
• •Avoid Dexterity saves. Evasion turns a successful save against Fireball or Lightning Bolt into zero damage, and its Dexterity save is +6 or +7. Faerie Fire would stop it benefiting from hiding, but it's also a Dexterity save.
• •Cut off the hiding spots. The 2024 Assassin needs Heavy Obscurement or three-quarters cover to Hide. Bright light, open ground and Daylight leave it with nothing to duck behind.
• •Shield the target. Sanctuary forces a Wisdom save (+0) before each attack on the warded character, and Shield adds +5 AC against a volley.

Assassin Encounter Ideas

Three nights at the Gilded Stag. The party is hired to keep a witness alive until the trial. The Assassin doesn't strike on the first night. It sends two thugs to start a brawl in the taproom to learn who guards which door, and on the second night it tests the windows. On the third night it comes for real, from the one approach the party didn't cover. Let observant players spot the probing and change the plan.

The contract in the dead man's coat. The party loots a dead courier and finds a sealed contract naming one of the player characters, with a down payment already made. The Assassin who accepted it is somewhere in the city. The party can hunt it, find out who paid, or buy out the contract at twice the price.

The one who wants out. An Assassin approaches the party in a temple, hands open, and asks them to fake her death. Her guild won't let her retire. She'll pay with the names of three clients, including one the party already trusts. It may be a setup, and the party has no spell-free way to be sure. If this becomes a long arc, Loreify can record your sessions and keep track of every NPC, contract and lie, so you know which clues the party has actually seen.

For quick names and motives for hired killers and their clients, use the NPC generator.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is the Assassin in 5e?

The Assassin NPC is CR 8 (3,900 XP) in both the 2014 and 2024 rules.

How does the Assassin's Assassinate trait work?

During its first turn, the 2014 Assassin has Advantage on attack rolls against any creature that hasn't taken a turn yet, and any hit it scores against a surprised creature is a critical hit. The 2024 Assassin doesn't have this trait.

How much damage does an Assassin do?

A 2014 Assassin averages about 35 damage a turn against an AC 17 target with Sneak Attack, and much more from surprise. A 2024 Assassin averages about 40 with three shortsword attacks or about 48 with three crossbow shots, because its poison damage no longer allows a saving throw.

Does the 2024 Assassin have Sneak Attack?

No. The 2024 Assassin has Evasion, Cunning Action and a three-attack Multiattack, but no Sneak Attack or Assassinate. It makes up for them with a higher attack bonus and poison damage that lands automatically on every hit, with no save.

Is the Assassin stat block the same as the Assassin rogue?

No. This is an NPC stat block for a hired killer, with its own hit points, attacks and challenge rating. The Assassin rogue subclass is a player character option and isn't part of this stat block.

Stat blocks: System Reference Document 5.1 (2014) and 5.2.1 (2024), Wizards of the Coast, CC-BY-4.0. Tactics, encounter math and ideas are Loreify's own.