Drider 5e: Stats, Tactics and the 2024 Drider

A drider is a CR 6 Large monstrosity with AC 19, 123 hit points, a 30-foot walking and climbing speed, and three attacks a turn. The 2014 drider fights like a soldier with a longsword or a poisoned longbow, plus Darkness and Faerie Fire once a day. The 2024 drider drops the weapons for 10-foot-reach forelegs and a 120-foot Poison Burst, and can cast Darkness, Faerie Fire or Web as a bonus action whenever its magic recharges. Both versions climb on ceilings, walk through webs freely and fight badly in sunlight. AC 19 is the number to plan around: at level 5 to 7, most characters hit it less than half the time.

Table of Contents

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

Drider Stat Block (2014)

This is the drider from SRD 5.1, the same creature as the 2014 Monster Manual. The SRD gives no origin story. In Monster Manual lore, which is not part of the SRD, driders are drow transformed by their goddess as punishment.

Look at the attack options and do the math, because the obvious choice is the wrong one. The longsword deals 7 (8 two-handed). The longbow deals 7 piercing plus 4 poison, 11 total. Three bow shots out-damage three sword swings by a wide margin, and the bow reaches 150 feet. A 2014 drider should usually shoot.

The bite (2 piercing plus 9 poison) can replace one of the three attacks, but only at 5 feet. Its best use is against a character who has closed to melee, where the drider swaps to two sword swings and a bite.

Its traits fill in the picture. Darkvision 120 ft. and Stealth +9 make it an ambusher in the dark. Spider Climb lets it fight from the ceiling. Fey Ancestry gives it advantage against being charmed and makes it immune to magical sleep. Sunlight Sensitivity gives it disadvantage on attack rolls and sight-based Perception in sunlight.

The Drider in the 2024 Rules

The 2024 drider (SRD 5.2.1) keeps the same AC, hit points, speed, CR and languages, and changes how it attacks and casts.

The changes that matter:

• •More damage, more flexibility. The 2024 drider's attacks deal 13 each, at range or in melee, and it can mix them in one turn. Against AC 16 it averages about 23 damage per round with forelegs, against about 18 for the 2014 drider's bow.
• •Magic on repeat. The 2014 drider casts Darkness and Faerie Fire once each per day. The 2024 drider casts one of three spells as a bonus action, then gets the ability back on a 5 or 6 each turn. It still has to concentrate, so it can keep only one of them running.
• •Web is new. Web restrains anyone who fails a DC 14 Dexterity save in a 20-foot cube, and Web Walker lets the drider ignore it. This is the 2024 drider's strongest play.
• •Charm and sleep work better. Without Fey Ancestry, the 2024 drider rolls normally against charm effects and can be put to sleep by magic.

How Driders Fight

A drider is smart (Intelligence 13), patient and built to fight in the dark, from above, at range.

Start on the ceiling. With Spider Climb, Stealth +9 or +10 and 120-foot darkvision, a drider waits overhead in an unlit cavern. Characters with 60-foot darkvision see it as a shape in dim light at best, and a party carrying torches lights itself up for the drider.

Damage per round against AC 16:

The last row is why Faerie Fire and Web matter. Both give the drider advantage: Faerie Fire on anyone outlined by it, Web on anyone it restrains.

Open with a spell. The 2014 drider casts Faerie Fire (DC 13) on the party as its action on round one, then shoots with advantage from round two on. The 2024 drider casts Faerie Fire as a bonus action and attacks three times with advantage in the same turn. Web is slower but nastier: creatures caught in the cube make their Dexterity save when they start their turn there or enter it, so the payoff comes on the drider's next turn, against targets that are Restrained (disadvantage on their own attacks and Dexterity saves, advantage for anyone attacking them).

Use Darkness to break line of sight, not to attack. Darkness blocks darkvision, including the drider's. A drider inside it can't see the party any better than they can see it. Use Darkness to blind the party's archers, cover a retreat or cut the battlefield in half, then fight from outside it.

Fight in webs (2024). A lair full of spider webs is the 2024 drider's home ground. Its Web Walker trait means it knows where every creature touching the same web is, even in Darkness or when the party is invisible. Pair it with giant spiders, whose Web action restrains targets at range, and the party spends its turns breaking free.

Retreat upward. A drider at 40 hit points or below climbs out of reach onto the ceiling or a cave wall and shoots from there. Most characters can't follow at speed, and it can leave through cracks and side passages the party can't see.

How Many Driders for Your Party?

One drider is a good fight for four characters at level 5 or 6. Two driders are a Moderate encounter at level 7 (4,600 of the 5,200 budget), and their AC makes them play harder than that. Using the SRD 5.2.1 XP budget (a drider is worth 2,300 XP):

Giant spiders are CR 1 (200 XP each). Under the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines (used by our encounter difficulty calculator), one drider alone is a Medium fight for four level 5 characters (2,300 XP, Medium threshold 2,000). Adding two giant spiders makes it 2,700 XP times 2 for a group of three, 5,400, which is past Deadly (4,400). The 2014 math punishes adding minions much harder than the 2024 budget does.

Pairings. Driders sit naturally alongside drow (CR 1/4 in 2014), giant spiders and the phase spider. A drider leading a group of drow scouts is a good level 5 Underdark patrol.

How Players Beat a Drider

• •Bring sunlight. Sunlight gives the drider disadvantage on attacks (and on ability checks in 2024). The 2024 Daylight spell creates actual sunlight, so it triggers Sunlight Sensitivity. The 2014 Daylight spell creates "bright light" without calling it sunlight, so whether it counts is up to the DM. With disadvantage, three 2024 Forelegs drop from about 23 to about 14 damage per round.
• •Turn Faerie Fire around. AC 19 is the problem. A character with +7 to hit needs a 12 (45%). With advantage from Faerie Fire on the drider, that rises to about 70%. Faerie Fire also stops it from benefiting from the Invisible condition.
• •Burn the webs. Webs from the Web spell are flammable: each 5-foot cube exposed to fire burns away in 1 round. Burning Hands clears a path. Breaking concentration also ends the spell, so hit the drider while it holds Web.
• •Close the distance on a 2014 drider. Its best attacks are the bow. In melee, a ranged attack is made at disadvantage with a hostile creature within 5 feet, so its options drop to the weaker sword-and-bite combo.
• •Watch your Dexterity saves. Faerie Fire and Web both use them. Cluster less and the drider catches fewer characters in each 20-foot cube.
• •Pick the right save to target. Its saves are Intelligence +1 and Charisma +1 in both editions; Strength +3; Dexterity +3 (2014) or +4 (2024); Constitution +4; Wisdom +2 (2014) or +3 (2024). Banishment on its +1 Charisma save fails 65% of the time against DC 15. It's a Monstrosity, so Hold Person doesn't work, and the 2014 drider rolls with advantage against charm effects.
• •Resist poison. Much of the drider's damage is poison: the 2024 Poison Burst is all poison, and the 2014 bow and bite add poison on top. Dwarves resist poison damage in both editions, and the Protection from Poison spell grants the same resistance, which halves a big part of the drider's output.

Drider Encounter Ideas

The ferryman's warning. An Underdark river crossing has a cable ferry operated by a deep gnome who refuses to cross after dark, even though the Underdark is always dark. "After dark" means when the lanterns on the far side go out. A drider snuffs them and waits on the cavern ceiling above the landing, where anyone stepping off the ferry walks under it.

The exile's bargain. A drider approaches the party under a flag of truce. It wants a drow priestess killed, the one who it says made it this way. It will guide them through its territory in return. It might be telling the truth. It might also be leading them into its larder. Run it with its Intelligence 13 and its Elvish and Undercommon: it negotiates, lies and remembers.

The webbed library. A ruined surface library has been overtaken by spiders. The 2024 drider who leads them has webbed the reading hall wall to wall and sits on the ceiling in the middle of it. Fire clears the webs, and also the books the party came for. Sunlight through the broken skylights is the other answer, if the party can clear the vines from the glass.

Recurring villains like the exile are what Loreify's session notes are built for: the app records the session and keeps track of the NPCs and monsters the party has met.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a drider in 5e?

A drider is CR 6 (2,300 XP) in both the 2014 and 2024 rules. It has AC 19 and 123 hit points.

What spells can a drider cast?

The 2014 drider casts Dancing Lights at will and Darkness and Faerie Fire once per day each, with a spell save DC of 13. The 2024 drider casts Darkness, Faerie Fire or Web as a bonus action with a DC of 14, and regains the ability on a 5 or 6 at the start of each of its turns.

Is a drider a drow?

No. A drider is a Large Monstrosity, not a Humanoid, in both editions. It speaks Elvish and Undercommon. Its connection to the drow comes from Monster Manual lore, not the SRD.

Does sunlight hurt a drider?

It doesn't deal damage, but in sunlight the drider has disadvantage on attack rolls in both editions. In 2014 it also has disadvantage on sight-based Perception checks; in 2024 it has disadvantage on all ability checks.

What is the difference between a drider and a giant spider?

A giant spider is a CR 1 beast with 26 hit points and a web attack. A drider is a CR 6 monstrosity with AC 19, 123 hit points, three attacks a turn and spellcasting. Driders often lead giant spiders in the same lair.

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.