Dretch 5e: Stats, Fetid Cloud and Running a Demon Swarm

A dretch is the weakest demon in the SRD: a CR 1/4 Small fiend with AC 11, 18 hit points, a 20-foot speed and a +2 bite and claw that barely threaten a level 1 fighter. What makes it worth using is Fetid Cloud, a once-a-day burst of gas that poisons anyone who fails a DC 11 Constitution save. A poisoned character can take an action or a bonus action, not both, and can't take reactions. Six dretches can shut down a low-level party's best turns. The 2024 dretch trades its two attacks for a single Rend and turns the lingering cloud into an instant burst.

Table of Contents

• •Dretch Stat Block (2014)
• •The 2024 Dretch
• •How Dretches Fight
• •How Many Dretches for a Level 1 Party?
• •How Players Beat Dretches
• •Dretch Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Dretch Stat Block (2014)

The dretch from SRD 5.1: Challenge 1/4, 50 XP.

The dretch has demon resistances (cold, fire and lightning) and poison immunity, but nothing else. No Magic Resistance, no resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks, no saving throw proficiencies. Its Intelligence is 5 and its Charisma is 3. Its telepathy works only with creatures that understand Abyssal, which is the only language it has.

What the 2014 Fetid Cloud does. The gas fills a 10-foot radius around the dretch, spreads around corners, lightly obscures the area and lasts a full minute unless a strong wind disperses it. Every creature that starts its turn inside makes the DC 11 save or is poisoned until the start of its next turn. Dretches are immune to the Poisoned condition, so they fight inside their own cloud at no cost.

The 2024 Dretch

The 2024 dretch is a simpler monster. Its Rend hits slightly more often, but one attack for 4 deals less than two attacks for 8. Its cloud no longer sits on the battlefield. It catches everyone in 10 feet once and disappears.

Expected damage against AC 16:

Neither number scares a fighter. The cloud is the threat, and the 2014 cloud is much stronger because it stays.

How Dretches Fight

Cloud first, then pile in. A dretch's best turn is its first: walk up to the party and release the cloud. Against a character with a +2 Constitution save, DC 11 fails 40% of the time. The poison takes away the things low-level characters rely on:

• •No reactions means no opportunity attacks, so dretches can walk past the fighter to reach the wizard. It also shuts off Shield and other reaction spells.
• •Action or bonus action, not both stops a rogue's Cunning Action after an attack, a monk's Flurry of Blows, a cleric's Healing Word plus a cantrip, and two-weapon fighting.
• •Disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks, from the Poisoned condition itself.

Stack the 2014 clouds. Each 2014 dretch's cloud lasts a minute. Three dretches spaced 15 feet apart create overlapping clouds that cover most of a small room. Every character who starts a turn inside rolls again. Lightly obscured also gives disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.

Time the 2024 burst. The 2024 cloud only catches creatures within 10 feet at that moment. Wait until two or three characters are adjacent, then release it. The poison lasts until the end of their next turn, so it costs them one full turn of actions.

Mob one target. Dretches are slow (20 feet) and stupid. Run them that way: they rush the nearest or most wounded creature and surround it. Six 2014 dretches around one character make twelve attack rolls at +2. Even at 35% each against AC 16, that is about four hits and 17 damage a round on a character who can't use reactions. Six 2024 dretches make six Rend attacks for about 10.

Use them as a screen. Dretches are best in front of something bigger. A vrock or a glabrezu behind a wall of dretches gets two or three free rounds while the party chews through fodder, and demons are immune to the vrock's Stunning Screech and their own poison.

How Many Dretches for a Level 1 Party?

Dretches are 50 XP each. For four characters under the 2024 budget:

Past level 2, dretch counts get unwieldy. At level 3, a quasit (200 XP) leading 8 dretches (400 XP) is a 600 XP Low encounter that plays faster than 12 identical demons.

Under the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines (used by our encounter calculator), four dretches are 200 XP x 2 = 400, which is exactly the Deadly threshold for four level 1 characters. Three dretches (300 after the multiplier) are Hard. The multiplier overrates dretches, which deal about 3 damage a turn each. Four 2014 dretches are a tough first fight, not usually a lethal one.

How Players Beat Dretches

• •Get out of the cloud. The 2014 save only happens when a creature starts its turn inside. Move out, and the poison won't return next turn. A strong wind disperses the cloud, which is what Gust of Wind is for.
• •Stay spread out. One 2024 burst only catches creatures within 10 feet of the dretch. Don't cluster around it.
• •Avoid fire, cold and lightning. Dretches resist all three, so Fire Bolt and Burning Hands deal half. Radiant, thunder, force and plain weapons are full damage. Thunderwave (2d8 thunder, average 9) and Magic Missile (3d4 + 3, average 10.5) each take about half a dretch's 18 HP, and Thunderwave can catch several at once.
• •Use Sleep or Bane. No Magic Resistance and terrible mental saves (Wisdom -1, Charisma -4) mean Bane sticks (it targets Charisma) and the 2024 Sleep, a Wisdom save, lands often. Under the 2014 rules Command fails unless the caster speaks Abyssal, because the target must understand the language; the 2024 Command has no language requirement.
• •Throw holy water. It deals radiant damage to fiends, which dretches don't resist.

Dretch Encounter Ideas

The leaking circle. A ruined wizard's tower holds a chalk summoning circle that was never closed. At the start of each round, one dretch crawls out. The fight ends when someone crosses the room and scuffs the chalk, through every dretch and every cloud already there.

The breached mine. A dwarf mining crew broke into a cave full of 2014 dretches. The tunnels are narrow, the clouds spread around every corner, and the miners are poisoned, slow and holding the shaft. The party has to clear a path to the lift before the clouds reach the miners again.

Vrock bait. A vrock keeps a dozen dretches in a pit and drops them on travelers to see who survives. The dretches are the warning. Kill them too fast, and the vrock lands to see what it's dealing with.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a dretch in 5e?

A dretch is CR 1/4 and worth 50 XP in both the 2014 SRD and the 2024 SRD.

What does Fetid Cloud do?

Creatures that fail a DC 11 Constitution save are poisoned, can take only an action or a bonus action on their turn (not both), and can't take reactions. The 2014 version leaves a 10-foot cloud for 1 minute that creatures save against at the start of each turn inside it. The 2024 version is a one-time 10-foot burst whose poison lasts until the end of the target's next turn.

Is a dretch immune to its own Fetid Cloud?

Yes. Dretches are immune to poison damage and the Poisoned condition in both editions, so they can fight inside their own gas.

How many dretches are a fair fight for level 1?

Under the 2024 rules, 4 dretches is a Low encounter for four level 1 characters, 6 is Moderate and 8 is High. Under the 2014 guidelines, 3 is Hard and 4 reaches Deadly once the group multiplier applies.

Is a dretch a demon?

Yes. It is a Small Fiend (Demon), chaotic evil, the weakest demon in the SRD. Like other demons, it resists cold, fire and lightning and is immune to poison.

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.