Bandit 5e: NPC Stat Block, Ambush Tactics and the 2024 Bandit

This is the bandit NPC stat block, the one DMs reach for whenever the party meets highwaymen, smugglers, deserters or any armed robber on the road. A bandit is a CR 1/8 Medium Humanoid worth 25 XP, with AC 12, 11 hit points, a +3 scimitar (4 damage) and a +3 light crossbow (5 damage, range 80/320 feet). It has no special traits at all. A bandit fight is decided by numbers, cover and the reason the bandits are there. The 2024 rules keep every combat number the same and change the details around it: neutral alignment, Thieves' Cant and a Gear line. The bigger 2024 change is the Bandit Captain, who now carries a pistol.

Table of Contents

• •Bandit Stat Block (2014)
• •The Bandit in the 2024 Rules
• •How Bandits Fight
• •How Many Bandits for Your Party?
• •How Players Beat Bandits
• •Bandit Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Bandit Stat Block (2014)

This is the bandit from the 2014 rules (SRD 5.1).

Every ability score is 10 to 12. No skills, no darkvision, passive Perception 10. The bandit is a person with a sword, a crossbow and a reason to rob strangers, and the SRD describes them exactly that way: they rove in gangs, are sometimes led by thugs, veterans or spellcasters, and are not always evil, since drought, famine or oppression can push honest people into banditry.

Two numbers matter in play. 11 hit points means two ordinary hits from a level 1 character drop a bandit, and some single hits do. The light crossbow's 80-foot normal range is longer than a fighter can cover in one turn without dashing, so bandits that start the fight at range get two or three volleys before the melee characters reach them.

The Bandit in the 2024 Rules

The 2024 bandit (SRD 5.2.1) has the same AC, hit points, attacks and CR.

Three changes are worth knowing:

• •Thieves' Cant. Every 2024 bandit speaks it. A rogue in the party can overhear and understand the bandits' plans in the middle of a fight, and bandits can pass orders the party can't follow.
• •Gear can be looted. The 2024 Gear entry lists equipment that can be retrieved. A party that beats six bandits walks away with six sets of leather armor, six light crossbows and six scimitars, which matters at level 1, when a light crossbow is a real upgrade for a wizard.
• •Neutral, not evil. The 2024 block makes the default bandit neutral. It fits the SRD's own description of bandits as people pushed into it and makes negotiating or recruiting them easier to justify.

The Bandit Captain changed more

The Bandit Captain is CR 2 (450 XP) and AC 15 in both editions, with a Parry reaction. The 2014 captain has 65 hit points and makes three melee attacks a turn (two scimitar, one dagger), or throws two daggers (20/60 feet, 5 damage each). The 2024 captain has 52 hit points and makes two attacks using a scimitar (+5, 1d6 + 3) or a pistol (+5, range 30/90 feet, 1d10 + 3) in any mix. The pistol hits harder than a thrown dagger and lets the 2024 captain mix one melee and one ranged attack in the same turn, so it can hang back with the crossbows and still threaten anyone who reaches it.

How Bandits Fight

Bandits are not brave and they are not tough. Run them as people who want money and want to live.

The volley math. Light crossbow, +3 to hit, 5.5 damage on average:

Six bandits that focus fire on a level 1 wizard deal about 20 damage a round, enough to drop most of them in one volley. Spread across the party, the same bandits barely hurt anyone. Focus fire is the difference between a speed bump and a death.

Cover is the bandit's armor. AC 12 is easy to hit. AC 12 behind three-quarters cover (+5) is AC 17. A party attacker with +5 goes from a 70% hit chance to 45%. Put bandits behind wagons, low walls, a rock ridge or arrow slits, as described in the cover rules, and each attack is about a third less likely to land.

Ambush from 80 feet. Start the bandits at the crossbow's normal range, behind cover, with a blocked road between them and the party: a fallen tree, a cart turned on its side. The party spends two rounds getting to them under fire. Bandits have no Stealth bonus (+1 from Dexterity), so the surprise roll often fails, but even an unsurprised party has to cross open ground.

How surprise works depends on your rules version:

• •2014: a character who doesn't notice the ambush (bandits' Stealth against their passive Perception) can't move or act on its first turn and can't take reactions until that turn ends.
• •2024: a surprised creature has disadvantage on its initiative roll. It still acts in round 1, just probably later.

Swords for the ones who get close. A bandit adjacent to an enemy shoots with disadvantage (ranged attack within 5 feet of a hostile creature). Bandits facing a charging fighter should switch to scimitars or step back behind the next bandit.

Use a better leader. A gang of bandits with nobody in charge is a mob. Add a thug (2014) or Tough (2024), both with Pack Tactics and enough hit points to hold a gap, or a Bandit Captain. The leader's job is to make the bandits stay. When it falls, the bandits run.

Decide the surrender point before the fight. The SRD has no morale rules (the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide has an optional one). Pick a trigger in advance: half the gang down, the leader down, or one bandit dropped by a single spell. Bandits who surrender can talk, and bandits who flee become rumors in the next town.

How Many Bandits for Your Party?

Using the 2024 XP budget (SRD 5.2.1) for four characters:

The 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines, which our encounter calculator uses, rate big gangs much higher because of the group multiplier:

• •4 bandits: 100 XP, doubled to 200. Medium for four level 1 characters.
• •6 bandits: 150 XP, doubled to 300. Hard at level 1.
• •Captain + 6 bandits: 600 XP, multiplied by 2.5 (seven creatures) to 1,500. Past Deadly at level 2 and Hard at levels 3 and 4.

The two systems disagree most about large groups of weak creatures, and bandits are exactly that. In practice the result depends on how many bandits can shoot the same target. A dozen bandits behind cover with a clear line to the wizard are far more dangerous than either budget says. A dozen strung along a winding forest road are not.

A good default: 4 to 6 bandits at level 1, a captain and 6 at level 2 or 3, and from level 5 on, bandits as background (lookouts, hostages, a gang that surrenders) while a veteran or a spellcaster carries the fight.

How Players Beat Bandits

• •Close the distance. Every bandit in melee is a bandit not shooting. A bandit with an enemy next to it shoots at disadvantage.
• •Break line of sight. Bandits have no darkvision. A night ambush is a disaster for them against a party with darkvision. Darkness or a fog cloud between the party and the crossbows turns a volley into a melee.
• •Area spells. At 11 HP, Burning Hands (3d6) kills a bandit on a failed save half the time, and Thunderwave (2d8) about a third of the time. The 2014 Sleep spell puts one bandit to sleep almost every time and two (22 HP) about 57% of the time.
• •Control spells work. Bandits are Humanoids with +0 Wisdom. Hold Person lands 60% of the time against DC 13 in both editions, and Charm Person or Command can take one out or turn one into an informant.
• •Drop the leader. Bandits stay because someone makes them. A captain or thug that falls in round 2 often ends the fight in round 3.
• •Talk. Bandits want money, not a fight with armed adventurers. An Intimidation check after the first two bandits drop, a bribe, or a better offer can end the fight. A rogue who answers in Thieves' Cant gets their attention.

Bandit Encounter Ideas

The hungry valley. A gang of eight bandits has been robbing grain wagons on the valley road. When the party springs the ambush, one of the bandits is the innkeeper's son from the last village. The gang is the valley's own farmers after two failed harvests. Killing them solves nothing. Getting the grain merchant to sell on credit does.

The protection racket. A merchant hires the party to guard a caravan alongside six other guards from a local company. At the ford, bandits shoot from the far bank, and four of the "guards" turn their crossbows on the wagon drivers. The guard company is the gang. The merchant has been paying them for months to stop robberies they commit.

The tax collectors. Five armed men in the baron's colors are collecting a "road tax" at a bridge, with a sealed writ. The writ is real. The baron's steward sold the right to collect it to a bandit crew and pockets half. Fighting them makes the party outlaws. Proving the deal makes them the steward's enemy.

Bandit gangs turn into recurring villains fast, and a party that spares one will meet him again. Loreify's session recorder keeps track of which bandits surrendered, who paid whom and what the party promised. Need a name for the gang's leader on the spot? Use the NPC generator.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a bandit in 5e?

A bandit is CR 1/8 (25 XP) in both the 2014 rules (SRD 5.1) and the 2024 rules (SRD 5.2.1). It has AC 12 and 11 hit points.

What is the difference between the 2014 and 2024 bandit?

The combat numbers are identical: AC 12, 11 HP, scimitar and light crossbow at +3. The 2024 bandit is neutral instead of any non-lawful, speaks Common and Thieves' Cant, can be Medium or Small, and lists its gear (leather armor, light crossbow, scimitar).

How many bandits should I use against a level 1 party?

Four to six bandits is a good fight for four level 1 characters. Under 2014 guidelines, four bandits are Medium and six are Hard. Under 2024 rules, eight bandits fill the Low budget (200 XP). Cover and focus fire matter more than the count.

What is the difference between a bandit and a bandit captain?

The bandit is CR 1/8 with one attack a turn. The Bandit Captain is CR 2 (450 XP) with AC 15, a Parry reaction and a Multiattack: three melee attacks (or two thrown daggers) in 2014, or two attacks with a scimitar or a pistol in 2024.

Are bandits evil in D&D 5e?

Not necessarily. The 2014 bandit can be any non-lawful alignment, and the SRD notes that drought, disease, famine or oppression can drive honest people into banditry. The 2024 bandit is neutral.

Can I use the bandit stat block for pirates?

In the 2014 rules, yes: the SRD describes pirates as bandits of the high seas. The 2024 rules have separate Pirate and Pirate Captain stat blocks.

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.