Cat 5e: Stats, Cat Familiars and Wild Shape

A cat is a CR 0 Tiny beast with AC 12, 2 hit points, a 40-foot walking speed, a climb speed, Stealth +4 and a claw that deals 1 slashing damage. Nobody fights a cat. Players search for it because the cat is one of the forms the Find Familiar spell lists by name and a CR 0 form a level 2 druid can Wild Shape into, so this page is mostly about using it that way. The 2024 rules (SRD 5.2.1) improve it: the 2024 cat has 60-foot darkvision, a 40-foot climb speed and jumps using Dexterity, while the 2014 cat has no darkvision at all.

Table of Contents

• •Cat Stat Block (2014)
• •The Cat in the 2024 Rules
• •The Cat as a Familiar
• •Wild Shape and Polymorph: Becoming a Cat
• •How Cats Fight (Mostly by Leaving)
• •Running Cats as a DM: Encounters, Spies and Swarms
• •How Players Beat a Cat Spy
• •Cat Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Cat Stat Block (2014)

This is the SRD 5.1 cat.

The useful numbers are Stealth +4, passive Perception 13 and Keen Smell, which gives Advantage on Perception checks that rely on smell. Advantage adds 5 to a passive score, so a 2014 cat effectively has passive Perception 18 for anything it could smell: a hidden intruder, a body behind a wall, smoke. What it lacks is darkvision. A 2014 cat in an unlit dungeon sees exactly as much as a human does.

The Cat in the 2024 Rules

Three changes matter for a familiar or Wild Shape player:

• •Darkvision 60 feet. When a caster looks through a 2024 cat familiar's senses, they get its darkvision. A 2014 cat scouting a dark crypt is blind.
• •Jumper. The 2024 cat uses Dexterity (15) for jump distance instead of Strength (3). A running long jump covers up to 15 feet, a standing one 7½. Its running high jump is 3 plus its Dexterity modifier, 5 feet. The 2014 cat, using Strength 3, clears 3 feet at a run.
• •Keen Smell is gone. The 2024 cat has a flat passive Perception 13 with no smell bonus.

The +4 Scratch looks like an upgrade, but a familiar can't attack, so it only matters for a druid in cat form or a wild cat.

The Cat as a Familiar

Find Familiar is a 1st-level ritual. Both SRDs list the cat as a form by name, and the 2024 version also allows any other CR 0 beast. The familiar has the cat's statistics but is a Celestial, Fey or Fiend (the caster's choice) instead of a Beast. What it can do depends on the edition.

A 2024 druid's Wild Companion spends a spell slot or a use of Wild Shape to cast Find Familiar as a Magic action without material components. That familiar is always Fey and vanishes at the end of a Long Rest.

What a cat familiar is good at.

• •Walking into places a bird can't. A cat on a windowsill, in a tavern kitchen or under a noble's dining table draws no attention. An owl indoors does. Use the cat for towns, houses and anywhere people live.
• •Climbing. A climb speed (30 feet in 2014, 40 in 2024) gets it onto roofs, up drainpipes and into rafters, where it can watch a room from above.
• •Delivering touch spells. The familiar can deliver a spell with a range of touch, using its reaction, as if it had cast the spell. A caster with Cure Wounds (a touch spell in both editions) can send the cat to a downed ally 90 feet away and heal them without leaving cover.
• •Help, carefully. A familiar can take the Help action to give an ally Advantage on an attack against an enemy within 5 feet of the familiar. A cat has 2 hit points and no Flyby, so it provokes an opportunity attack when it leaves and dies to any hit. The owl is the better Help familiar for that reason.

Cat versus other familiar forms. The owl flies and sees in the dark (120 feet). The bat has blindsight. The cat's edge is being ordinary: people ignore cats. In 2024 it also has darkvision, which closes most of the gap with the owl indoors.

Wild Shape and Polymorph: Becoming a Cat

Wild Shape. A cat is CR 0 with no fly or swim speed, so a druid can take the form from level 2 in both editions.

• •2014: the druid takes the cat's 2 hit points. Any damage beyond that carries over to the druid's normal form. The druid also loses its own darkvision, because a Wild Shaped druid can't use special senses its new form lacks, and the 2014 cat has none. The druid can't speak.
• •2024: the druid keeps its own hit points and gains temporary hit points equal to its druid level, keeps its ability to speak, and gets the cat's 60-foot darkvision. A level 2 druid in cat form is far sturdier than in 2014.

Either way, the point of a cat form is infiltration. A cat walks through a city gate, slips into a manor through a cellar window and listens. In 2024 it can even report back aloud. It isn't a combat form: a wolf or a panther does that job.

Polymorph. The 4th-level spell can turn any creature into a beast whose CR is at or below the target's CR or level, so a cat is always a legal choice. Against an enemy, the cat is a near-useless form. In 2014 the target's statistics are replaced by the cat's and it gets the cat's 2 hit points, though damage past that carries over. In 2024 the target keeps its hit points, gains 2 temporary hit points, and the spell ends when those are gone, so the cat lasts one hit either way. Polymorphing a dangerous enemy into a cat removes it from the fight until someone damages it. Tell your party not to.

How Cats Fight (Mostly by Leaving)

A real cat in a fight does what a real cat does: it runs and climbs. A 2014 cat's claw is +0 to hit for 1 damage. Against AC 12 that's a 45% chance of dealing 1 point. Even the 2024 cat's +4 Scratch is 1 damage a hit.

The useful combat role for a cat is the druid in cat form or a familiar that never attacks:

• •Scout before initiative. A familiar cat goes ahead, and the caster watches through its eyes. In 2014 that costs the caster an action each round and leaves them blind and deaf to their own surroundings, so do it before the fight, not during.
• •Occupy a space. A familiar in a doorway is still a creature. It can't stop anyone, but an enemy has to decide whether to waste an attack on it.
• •Get out. A cat with a 40-foot speed and a climb speed can be on a rooftop in one turn. A 2024 cat can jump a 15-foot gap after a running start, which most pursuers can't follow.

Running Cats as a DM: Encounters, Spies and Swarms

A cat is worth 10 XP and doesn't belong in a combat budget. Under the 2024 rules, the smallest Low budget is 50 XP per character at level 1. A level 1 party of four could face twenty cats on paper, and it would be a silly fight.

The SRD has no swarm of cats. If you want a pack of feral cats in a ruined city to be a real threat, reskin the swarm of rats (CR 1/4, 50 XP): a 30-foot speed (plus a climb speed in 2024), bite damage that fits claws and teeth, and resistance to physical damage that reflects how hard it is to hit one cat in a pile of thirty. Four level 1 characters can handle four such swarms as a Low-difficulty fight (200 XP) under the 2024 rules. Our encounter calculator gives the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide reading for a group.

The better DM use is the cat that isn't a cat:

• •The villain's familiar. An enemy wizard's cat sits in the tavern while the party plans, and the wizard listens. It's a Celestial, Fey or Fiend, which matters for the counters below.
• •The druid in disguise. A cat that follows the party for three streets is a 2024 druid who can talk the moment it decides to.
• •The witness. A cat saw the murder. A character with Speak with Animals can ask it, though a cat with Intelligence 3 remembers smells and feelings better than faces.

How Players Beat a Cat Spy

The cat itself has 2 hit points. Finding it is the hard part.

• •Look for the wrong creature type. A familiar is a Celestial, Fey or Fiend. Detect Evil and Good senses all three within 30 feet, so a cat that shows up to it isn't a cat.
• •Light and area spells. Faerie Fire outlines every creature in its 20-foot cube that fails a Dexterity save, so a hidden cat lights up, and any area damage spell ends a 2-hit-point familiar. A familiar destroyed this way comes back only when its owner recasts the spell, which takes an hour.
• •Charm the real ones. Animal Friendship works on a cat in both editions (the 2014 version requires Intelligence 3 or lower; the cat has 3). A charmed cat stops treating you as a threat, which quiets a guard animal.
• •Don't plan near pets. The simplest counter is paranoia. A table that has met one familiar spy starts shooing cats out of the room, and that's a fine outcome.

Cat Encounter Ideas

The cat that keeps showing up. The same gray cat appears in three towns along the road. It's the familiar of a wizard who hired the party last month and doesn't trust them. Detect Evil and Good gives it away. What the party does with that, and whether they confront the wizard, is up to them.

The cat burglary. A noble's ruby has vanished from a locked room with only a chimney and a 4-inch gap under the window. The thief was a druid in cat form who climbed the chimney. Cat hair in the soot and a scratched windowsill are the clues; the party has to work out that the thief isn't a person, at least not at the time.

The temple cats. Thirty cats live in a desert temple, fed by the priests. They aren't hostile unless someone harms one, at which point they become two swarms and the priests come running. The cats also smell the assassin hiding in the bell chamber long before the party does.

If the party adopts a cat, it'll outlive three NPCs and your memory of its name. Loreify can record your sessions and keep track of the NPCs and creatures the party picked up.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you have a cat familiar in 5e?

Yes. Find Familiar names the cat as a form in both the 2014 and 2024 rules. The familiar uses the cat's stat block but is a Celestial, Fey or Fiend of your choice, and it can't attack.

Does a cat have darkvision in 5e?

The 2024 cat has 60-foot darkvision. The 2014 cat has no darkvision, only passive Perception 13 and Keen Smell.

Can a druid Wild Shape into a cat?

Yes, from druid level 2 in both editions, because the cat is CR 0 with no fly or swim speed. In 2014 you use the cat's 2 hit points; in 2024 you keep your own hit points and gain temporary hit points equal to your druid level.

How far can a cat jump in 5e?

The 2024 cat's Jumper trait uses its Dexterity of 15, so it can long jump 15 feet with a 10-foot running start, 7½ feet standing, and high jump 5 feet with a run-up. The 2014 cat uses its Strength of 3.

How much XP is a cat worth?

10 XP. It's CR 0 in both editions.

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.