Bulette 5e: Deadly Leap, Burrowing and the Land Shark Fight

A bulette is a CR 5 Large monstrosity with AC 17, 94 hit points, a 40-foot burrow speed and tremorsense. It hunts from underground, surfaces near its prey and uses Deadly Leap to land on top of characters, knocking them prone before it bites. The 2014 bulette bites once for a huge 30 damage and its leap deals 28 on a failed DC 16 Strength or Dexterity save. The 2024 bulette bites twice for 17 each, and its leap is a shorter, more flexible jump against a DC 15 Dexterity save only.

Table of Contents

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

Bulette Stat Block (2014)

This is the bulette from SRD 5.1, matching the 2014 Monster Manual.

There's no Multiattack. Each turn the 2014 bulette either bites once (+7, 4d12 + 4, average 30) or uses Deadly Leap. Thirty damage from one bite is enough to drop most level 4 wizards and sorcerers from full.

How 2014 Deadly Leap works. The bulette has to jump at least 15 feet as part of its movement. Standing Leap lets it long jump 30 feet or high jump 15 feet without a running start, and each foot of a jump costs a foot of movement. Then it uses its action to land in a space that holds one or more creatures. Each creature in that space makes a DC 16 Strength or Dexterity saving throw, its choice:

• •Fail: 14 bludgeoning plus 14 slashing damage (28 total) and knocked prone.
• •Success: half damage (14), not prone, and pushed 5 feet out of the bulette's space to an unoccupied space of the creature's choice. If there's nowhere to go, it falls prone in the bulette's space instead.

A failed save leaves the character prone inside the bulette's space, under the creature that just landed on them.

The Bulette in the 2024 Rules

The 2024 bulette (SRD 5.2.1) keeps the same AC, hit points, speeds, ability scores and CR. Its tremorsense doubles to 120 feet, and its actions are rebuilt.

What this changes at the table:

• •Steadier damage. Two 17-damage bites rarely both miss, and together (34) they slightly outdamage one 30-damage bite.
• •Heavy armor stops helping. A 2014 fighter can use a Strength save against Deadly Leap. The 2024 leap is Dexterity only, so the plate-armored fighter with Dexterity 10 is now the easiest target.
• •More reach. Bonus-action Leap (30 feet for 10 feet of movement) plus Deadly Leap (15 feet for 5 feet) lets the 2024 bulette reach a target up to 70 feet away: Leap 30, walk the remaining 25 feet, then Deadly Leap 15.

How Bulettes Fight

Find them by vibration. Tremorsense lets the bulette pinpoint creatures touching the ground within 60 feet (2014) or 120 feet (2024). Underground, it has total cover, so the party can't target it. It tracks footsteps from below, picks the cluster with the most bodies, and comes up beside them.

Land on the cluster. The bulette is Large: its landing space is 10 by 10 feet, room for up to four Medium characters standing shoulder to shoulder. Deadly Leap hits everyone in that space. Here's what each edition does to one character:

The 2014 leap is the bigger hit. The 2024 leap is easier to set up, with no 15-foot run-up needed, and the bulette has a bonus action to spare.

Then bite the prone. Characters who fail are prone and still inside or next to the bulette. If they're still down when its next turn comes (a character who stands up spends half their movement, and some won't want to), its bites against them have Advantage. Against AC 18, a +7 bite hits on 11 or higher, 50% of the time. With Advantage that rises to 75%:

A prone character can stand up for half their movement. Climbing out from under a Large creature and walking away provokes an opportunity attack, which from a 2014 bulette is a 30-damage bite.

Leap, bite, leap. Use Deadly Leap whenever the party clusters and bite when they spread out. A 2024 bulette can also bonus-action Leap 30 feet away after biting, landing outside melee reach of most characters, then come back with Deadly Leap next turn. That Leap still provokes opportunity attacks as it leaves reach, since jumping is just movement.

When to leave. With Intelligence 2 it doesn't negotiate or think strategically. Let it burrow away at around 30 hit points and come back later. A bulette that surfaces again during the party's short rest is a nasty, fair surprise.

How Many Bulettes for Your Party?

A bulette is worth 1,800 XP. With the 2024 SRD budget for four characters:

The 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines, which our encounter calculator uses, rate one bulette as Hard for four level 4 characters (threshold 1,500) and Easy for four level 5 characters (Medium starts at 2,000). Two bulettes count as 5,400 XP after the ×1.5 multiplier, which is Deadly for a level 5 party.

A single bulette is a strong set-piece monster for levels 4 to 6. Two at once is a lot of prone characters and 30-damage bites. Save that for level 7 or higher.

How Players Beat a Bulette

• •Spread out. Deadly Leap hits only the creatures in one 10-by-10-foot space. Characters 10 feet apart give it one target per leap instead of several.
• •Get off the ground. Tremorsense only senses creatures in contact with the ground. A flying or levitating character is invisible to that sense, though the bulette's darkvision and Perception +6 still work once it surfaces.
• •Ready actions for the surface. While it's burrowed the party can't target it. Ready an attack or spell for "when it comes up." AC 17 is high, but readied damage on a turn it surfaces adds up.
• •Target Wisdom, Intelligence or Charisma. It has no saving throw proficiencies. Wisdom is +0, Intelligence −4 and Charisma −3. Banishment (Charisma save) takes it out of the fight if it rolls 17 or lower against DC 15 (85%). Under the 2024 rules Command works too. The 2014 version doesn't, because the bulette understands no language.
• •Stand up carefully. If you're prone in its space, standing costs half your movement, and leaving its reach provokes a bite. Sometimes the right move is to stand and attack from where you are.

Bulette Encounter Ideas

The survey stakes. A mining company is driving iron stakes across a valley to mark a new road. Every hammer blow is a ringing vibration to a bulette's tremorsense. Two crews have vanished. The party can guard the next crew or turn the hammering into bait: set up a decoy line of stakes, stand off the ground, and wait for it to surface where they want.

The farmhouse roof. Farmers fled to the roof of a single-story farmhouse after a bulette ate their horses. They've been up there two days. A 2014 bulette's high jump is 15 feet, enough to reach a low roof, but it hasn't tried yet. The party arrives as it circles underground, and the roof is the only high ground for a quarter mile. Decide before the session whether the roof holds a Large creature landing on it.

The duel field. Two noble families settle disputes by duel on a dusty field outside town. Today's duel draws a crowd of 40 people standing in a ring, a feast of footsteps for a bulette's tremorsense. The party is in the crowd. When the ground heaves, they have to move panicked spectators off the field while the bulette leaps from cluster to cluster.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a bulette in 5e?

A bulette is CR 5 and worth 1,800 XP in both the 2014 and 2024 rules. It has AC 17, 94 hit points, a 40-foot walking and burrowing speed, and tremorsense.

How does a bulette's Deadly Leap work?

In 2014, after jumping at least 15 feet, the bulette lands in a space with creatures, which make a DC 16 Strength or Dexterity save or take 28 damage and fall prone (half damage and a 5-foot push on a success). In 2024, it spends 5 feet of movement to jump up to 15 feet onto Large or smaller creatures, which make a DC 15 Dexterity save or take 19 damage and fall prone.

How far can a bulette jump?

The 2014 bulette's Standing Leap gives it a 30-foot long jump and a 15-foot high jump without a running start. The 2024 bulette can use its bonus action to jump 30 feet for 10 feet of movement, and Deadly Leap covers up to 15 feet.

Why is the bulette called a land shark?

It's a player nickname, not a rules term. The bulette swims through soil the way a shark swims through water, senses prey by vibration and erupts from below to bite, so the comparison stuck.

Can a bulette sense you if you don't move?

Under the 2024 rules, yes: Tremorsense pinpoints any creature touching the same surface within range, moving or not. The 2014 rules describe it as sensing vibrations, so whether a perfectly still character gives itself away is the DM's call. In both editions, leaving the ground works: Tremorsense can't detect creatures in the air.

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.