Death Dog 5e: Two Heads, Two Bites and a Disease That Lingers

A death dog is a CR 1 Medium Monstrosity, a two-headed hound with AC 12, 39 hit points, 40 feet of speed, darkvision 120 feet and two bites per turn. Each bite can infect the target with a disease that shrinks their hit point maximum day after day. The SRD 5.1 text says the disease makes a victim's flesh slowly rot off the bone. Under the 2014 rules the disease never ends on its own; under the 2024 rules a successful daily save ends it. The 2024 dog also trades its Two-Headed trait for outright immunity to six conditions.

Table of Contents

• •Death Dog Stat Block (2014)
• •The Death Dog in the 2024 Rules
• •How Death Dogs Fight
• •Running a Death Dog Encounter
• •How Players Beat Death Dogs
• •Death Dog Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Death Dog Stat Block (2014)

Two-Headed gives advantage on Perception checks and on saves against being blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, stunned or knocked unconscious. With Perception +5 (passive 15) and 120-foot darkvision, sneaking past a death dog at night is hard.

The 2014 disease, step by step:

1. •A creature hit by a Bite makes a DC 12 Constitution save against disease.
2. •On a failure it's poisoned until the disease is cured: disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.
3. •Every 24 hours it saves again. Each failure reduces its hit point maximum by 5 (1d10). A success only avoids that day's loss; the disease stays.
4. •The reduction lasts until the disease is cured. If the maximum reaches 0, the creature dies.

The Death Dog in the 2024 Rules

AC, HP, speed, senses, CR 1 and 200 XP are the same. In both editions the first failed save only poisons; the hit point loss starts with the daily saves. The 2024 disease is milder because one successful daily save ends it, where the 2014 disease runs until someone cures it.

How Death Dogs Fight

Two bites, one target. Against AC 15, a +4 bite hits on 11 or higher (50%). A character with Constitution +2 fails DC 12 on a 9 or lower (45%). So each bite has about a 22% chance to infect, and one dog's two bites infect about 40% of the time per round. Three dogs on one character for a round: about 78%.

Run as a pack. Speed 40 outpaces most characters. Death dogs circle, split the party, and drag down whoever falls behind. Their damage is low, about 5 a round per dog in 2014 and 4 in 2024. The disease does the real work after the fight.

Hard to sneak past, hard to shake. Two heads means it's hard to blind, charm, frighten or stun in 2014 and immune to all of those in 2024. Plan around it rather than trying to disable it.

Running a Death Dog Encounter

For four level 2 characters, the 2024 Low budget (400 XP) is two death dogs, Moderate (600 XP) is three, and High (800 XP) is four. For four level 3 characters, four dogs (800 XP) are Moderate (over Low at 600, under Moderate at 900).

Under the 2014 guidelines in our encounter calculator, three death dogs count as 600 × 2 = 1,200 XP: Hard for four level 3 characters.

Death dogs fit a desert or badlands. Pair them with a gnoll war band or a lamia that keeps them as guards. Compared with a wolf pack, death dogs have fewer bodies and leave a problem behind. Compared with a hell hound, they lack the fire breath but carry disease.

Plan the aftermath before you run them. If no one in the party can cure disease, an infected 2014 character loses about 5 HP of maximum per failed day with no end in sight.

How Players Beat Death Dogs

• •Cure the disease. In 2014, Lesser Restoration ends a disease, and a paladin's Lay on Hands can cure one for 5 points from the pool; curing it ends the hit point maximum reduction. In 2024, the whole effect hangs on the Poisoned condition, so Lesser Restoration, Protection from Poison or 5 points of Lay on Hands ends it, and the lost maximum comes back on the next Long Rest.
• •Don't rely on control. Hold Person fails (it's not a Humanoid), and frightening, charming or stunning effects work poorly (2014) or not at all (2024). Damage works: no resistances, AC 12.
• •Keep the Constitution savers in front. Characters proficient in Constitution saves resist the infection better.
• •Use a choke point. At speed 40 they surround a party in the open. A doorway or narrow canyon makes them come one at a time.

Death Dog Encounter Ideas

The well road. The road between two desert wells is the only route across. A pack of four death dogs has started hunting it, and the caravan that hired the party has a sick guard who got bitten last week, and no healer.

The quarantine. A village has locked three bitten hunters in a barn. The priest can cure one a day. The party has to decide who waits, and go after the pack before more people get bitten.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a death dog in 5e?

CR 1, worth 200 XP, in both editions.

How does the death dog's disease work?

In 2014, a bitten creature that fails a DC 12 Constitution save is poisoned until the disease is cured and must save again every 24 hours, losing 5 (1d10) maximum hit points on each failure; it dies if its maximum reaches 0. In 2024, the first failure poisons it, each later failure lowers its HP maximum by 1d10, and a successful daily save ends the effect.

How do you cure a death dog's disease?

In 2014, Lesser Restoration or a paladin's Lay on Hands (5 points) cures it. In 2024, anything that ends the Poisoned condition (Lesser Restoration, Protection from Poison, or 5 points of Lay on Hands) ends it, and the hit point maximum returns on the next Long Rest.

Is a death dog immune to being frightened?

In the 2024 rules it's immune to Blinded, Charmed, Deafened, Frightened, Stunned and Unconscious. In the 2014 rules it only has advantage on saves against those conditions.

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.